Sri Ramakrishna

Mahendranath Gupta, "M"

THE GOSPEL OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA

“SRI SRI RAMAKRISHNA KATHAMRITA”

By Mahendranath Gupta (“M”), His Disciple

Translated from the Bengali by Swami Nikhilananda

Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission

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FOREWORD

by Aldous Huxley

IN THE HISTORY of the arts, genius is a thing of very rare occurrence.

Rarer still, however, are the competent reporters and recorders of that

genius. The world has had many hundreds of admirable poets and

philosophers; but of these hundreds only a very few have had the fortune to

attract a Boswell or an Eckermann.

When we leave the field of art for that of spiritual religion, the scarcity of

competent reporters becomes even more strongly marked. Of the day-to-

day life of the great theocentric saints and contemplatives we know, in the

great majority of cases, nothing whatever. Many, it is true, have recorded

their doctrines in writing, and a few, such as St. Augustine, Suso and St.

Teresa, have left us autobiographies of the greatest value.

But, all doctrinal writing is in some measure formal and impersonal, while

the autobiographer tends to omit what he regards as trifling matters and

suffers from the further disadvantage of being unable to say how he strikes

other people and in what way he affects their lives. Moreover, most saints

have left neither writings nor self-portraits, and for knowledge of their lives,

their characters and their teachings, we are forced to rely upon the records

made by their disciples who, in most cases, have proved themselves

singularly incompetent as reporters and biographers. Hence the special

interest attaching to this enormously detailed account of the daily life and

conversations of Sri Ramakrishna.

"M", as the author modestly styles himself, was peculiarly qualified for his

task. To a reverent love for his master, to a deep and experiential knowledge

of that master's teaching, he added a prodigious memory for the small

happenings of each day and a happy gift for recording them in an

interesting and realistic way. Making good use of his natural gifts and of the

circumstances in which he found himself, "M" produced a book unique, so

far as my knowledge goes, in the literature of hagiography. No other saint

has had so able and indefatigable a Boswell. Never have the small events of

a contemplative's daily life been described with such a wealth of intimate

detail. Never have the casual and unstudied utterances of a great religious

teacher been set down with so minute a fidelity. To Western readers, it is

true, this fidelity and this wealth of detail are sometimes a trifle

disconcerting; for the social, religious and intellectual frames of reference

within which Sri Ramakrishna did his thinking and expressed his feelings

were entirely Indian. But after the first few surprises and bewilderments, we

begin to find something peculiarly stimulating and instructive about the

very strangeness and, to our eyes, the eccentricity of the man revealed to us

in "M's" narrative. What a scholastic philosopher would call the "accidents"

of Ramakrishna's life were intensely Hindu and therefore, so far as we in

the West are concerned, unfamiliar and hard to understand; its "essence",

however, was intensely mystical and therefore universal. To read through

these conversations in which mystical doctrine alternates with an unfamiliar

kind of humour, and where discussions of the oddest aspects of Hindu

mythology give place to the most profound and subtle utterances about the

nature of Ultimate Reality, is in itself a liberal, education in humility,

tolerance and suspense of judgment. We must be grateful to the translator

for his excellent version of a book so curious and delightful as a

biographical document, so precious, at the same time, for what it teaches us

of the life of the spirit.

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PREFACE

by Swāmi Nikhilānanda

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna is the English translation of the Sri Sri

Rāmakrishna Kathāmrita, the conversations of Sri Ramakrishna with his

disciples, devotees, and visitors, recorded by Mahendranāth Gupta, who

wrote the book under the pseudonym of "M." The conversations in Bengali

fill five volumes, the first of which was published in 1897 and the last

shortly after M.'s death in 1932. Sri Ramakrishna Math, Madras, has

published in two volumes an English translation of selected chapters from

the monumental Bengali work. I have consulted these while preparing my

translation.

M., one of the intimate disciples of Sri Ramakrishna, was present during all

the conversations recorded in the main body of the book and noted them

down in his diary.

They therefore have the value of almost stenographic records. In Appendix

A are given several conversations which took place in the absence of M.,

but of which he received a first-hand record from persons concerned. The

conversations will bring before the reader's mind an intimate picture of the

Master's eventful life from March 1882 to April 24, 1886, only a few

months before his passing away. During this period he came in contact

chiefly with English-educated Bengālis; from among them he selected his

disciples and the bearers of his message, and with them he shared his rich

spiritual experiences.

I have made a literal translation, omitting only a few pages of no particular

interest to English-speaking readers. Often literary grace has been sacrificed

for the sake of literal translation. No translation can do full justice to the

original. This difficulty is all the more felt in the present work, whose

contents are of a deep mystical nature and describe the inner experiences of

a great seer. Human language is an altogether inadequate vehicle to express

supersensuous perception. Sri Ramakrishna was almost illiterate. He never

clothed his thoughts in formal language. His words sought to convey his

direct realization of Truth. His conversation was in a village patois. Therein

lies its charm. In order to explain to his listeners an abstruse philosophy, he,

like Christ before him, used with telling effect homely parables and

illustrations, culled from his observation of the daily life around him.

The reader will find mentioned in this work many visions and experiences

that fall outside the ken of physical science and even psychology. With the

development of modern knowledge the border line between the natural and

the supernatural is ever shifting its position. Genuine mystical experiences

are not as suspect now as they were half a century ago. The words of Sri

Ramakrishna have already exerted a tremendous influence in the land of his

birth. Savants of Europe have found in his words the ring of universal truth.

But these words were not the product of intellectual cogitation; they were

rooted in direct experience. Hence, to students of religion, psychology, and

physical science, these experiences of the Master are of immense value for

the understanding of religious phenomena in general. No doubt Sri

Ramakrishna was a Hindu of the Hindus; yet his experiences transcended

the limits of the dogmas and creeds of Hinduism. Mystics of religions other

than Hinduism will find in Sri Ramakrishna's experiences a corroboration

of the experiences of their own prophets and seers. And this is very

important today for the resuscitation of religious values. The sceptical

reader may pass by the supernatural experiences; he will yet find in the

book enough material to provoke his serious thought and solve many of his

spiritual problems.

There are repetitions of teachings and parables in the book. I have kept

them purposely. They have their charm and usefulness, repeated as they

were in different settings. Repetition is unavoidable in a work of this kind.

In the first place, different seekers come to a religious teacher with

questions of more or less identical nature; hence the answers will be of

more or less identical pattern. Besides, religious teachers of all times and

climes have tried, by means of repetition, to hammer truths into the stony

soil of the recalcitrant human mind. Finally, repetition does not seem

tedious if the ideas repeated are dear to a man's heart.

I have thought it necessary to write a rather lengthy Introduction to the

book. In it I have given the biography of the Master, descriptions of people

who came in contact with him, short explanations of several systems of

Indian religious thought intimately connected with Sri Ramakrishna's life,

and other relevant matters which, I hope, will enable the reader better to

understand and appreciate the unusual contents of this book. It is

particularly important that the Western reader, unacquainted with Hindu

religious thought, should first read carefully the introductory chapter, in

order that he may fully enjoy these conversations. Many Indian terms and

names have been retained in the book for want of suitable English

equivalents. Their meaning is given either in the Glossary or in the foot-

notes. The Glossary also gives explanations of a number of expressions

unfamiliar to Western readers. The diacritical marks are explained under

Notes on Pronunciation.

In the Introduction I have drawn much material from the Life of Sri

Ramakrishna, published by the Advaita Ashrama, Māyāvati, India. I have

also consulted the excellent article on Sri Ramakrishna by Swami

Nirvedānanda, in the second volume of the Cultural Heritage of India.

The book contains many songs sung either by the Master or by the

devotees. These form an important feature of the spiritual tradition of

Bengal and were for the most part written by men of mystical experience.

For giving the songs their present form I am grateful to Mr. John Moffitt, Jr.

In the preparation of this manuscript I have received ungrudging help from

several friends. Miss Margaret Woodrow Wilson and Mr.Joseph Campbell

have worked hard in editing my translation. Mrs.Elizabeth Davidson has

typed, more than once, the entire manuscript and rendered other valuable

help. Mr.Aldous Huxley has laid me under a debt of gratitude by writing the

Foreword. I sincerely thank them all.

In the spiritual firmament Sri Ramakrishna is a waxing crescent. Within one

hundred years of his birth and fifty years of his death his message has

spread across land and sea. Romain Rolland has described him as the

fulfilment of the spiritual aspirations of the three hundred millions of

Hindus for the last two thousand years. Mahatma Gandhi has written: "His

life enables us to see God face to face. . . . Ramakrishna was a living

embodiment of godliness." He is being recognized as a compeer of Krishna,

Buddha, and Christ.

The life and teachings of Sri Ramakrishna have redirected the thoughts of

the denationalized Hindus to the spiritual ideals of their forefathers. During

the latter part of the nineteenth century his was the time-honoured role of

the Saviour of the Eternal Religion of the Hindus. His teachings played an

important part in liberalizing the minds of orthodox pundits and hermits.

Even now he is the silent force that is moulding the spiritual destiny of

India. His great disciple, Swami Vivekananda, was the first Hindu

missionary to preach the message of Indian culture to the enlightened minds

of Europe and America. The full consequence of Swami Vivekānandā work

is still in the womb of the future.

May this translation of the first book of its kind in the religious history of

the world, being the record of the direct words of a prophet, help stricken

humanity to come nearer to the Eternal Verity of life and remove dissension

and quarrel from among the different faiths!

May it enable seekers of Truth to grasp the subtle laws of the supersensuous

realm, and unfold before man's restricted vision the spiritual foundation of

the universe, the unity of existence, and the divinity of the soul!

- Swā mi Nikhilānanda

New York

Sri Ramakrishna's Birthday

February 1942

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The Recorder of the Gospel

MAHENDRANĀTH GUPTA

In the life of the great Saviours and Prophets of the world it is often found

that they are accompanied by souls of high spiritual potency who play a

conspicuous part in the furtherance of their Master's mission. They become

so integral a part of the life and work of these great ones that posterity can

think of them only in mutual association. Such is the case with Sri

Ramakrishna and M., whose diary has come to be known to the world as

the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna in English and as Sri Rāmakrishna

Kathāmrita in the original Bengali version.

Sri Mahendra Nath Gupta, familiary known to the readers of the Gospel by

his pen name M., and to the devotees as Master Mahashay, was born on the

14th of July, 1854 as the son of Madhusudan Gupta, an officer of the

Calcutta High Court, and his wife, Swarnamayi Devi. He had a brilliant

scholastic career at Hare School and the Presidency College at Calcutta.

The range of his studies included the best that both occidental and oriental

learning had to offer. English literature, history, economics, western

philosophy and law on the one hand, and Sanskrit literature and grammar,

Darsanas, Puranas, Smritis, Jainism, Buddhism, astrology and Ayurveda on

the other were the subjects in which he attained considerable proficiency.

He was an educationist all his life both in a spiritual and in a secular sense.

After he passed out of College, he took up work as headmaster in a number

of schools in succession Narail High School, City School, Ripon College

School, Metropolitan School, Aryan School, Oriental School, Oriental

Seminary and Model School. The causes of his migration from school to

school were that he could not get on with some of the managements on

grounds of principles and that often his spiritual mood drew him away to

places of pilgrimage for long periods. He worked with some of the most

noted public men of the time like Iswar Chandra Vidyāsāgar and

Surendranath Banerjee. The latter appointed him as a professor in the City

and Ripon Colleges where he taught subjects like English, philosophy,

history and economics. In his later days he took over the Morton School,

and he spent his time in the staircase room of the third floor of it,

administering the school and preaching the message of the Master. He was

much respected in educational circles where he was usually referred to as

Rector Mahashay. A teacher who had worked under him writes thus in

warm appreciation of his teaching methods: "Only when I worked with him

in school could I appreciate what a great educationist he was. He would

come down to the level of his students when teaching, though he himself

was so learned, so talented. Ordinarily teachers confine their instruction to

what is given in books without much thought as to whether the student can

accept it or not. But M., would first of all gauge how much the student

could take in and by what means. He would employ aids to teaching like

maps, pictures and diagrams, so that his students could learn by seeing.

Thirty years ago (from 1953) when the question of imparting education

through the medium of the mother tongue was being discussed, M. had

already employed Bengali as the medium of instruction in the Morton

School." (M The Apostle and the Evangelist by Swami Nityatmananda Part

I. P. 15.)

Imparting secular education was, however, only his profession ; his main

concern was with the spiritual regeneration of man a calling for which

Destiny seems to have chosen him. From his childhood he was deeply

pious, and he used to be moved very much by Sādhus, temples and Durga

Puja celebrations. The piety and eloquence of the great Brahmo leader of

the times, Keshab Chander Sen, elicited a powerful response from the

impressionable mind of Mahendra Nath, as it did in the case of many an

idealistic young man of Calcutta, and prepared him to receive the great

Light that was to dawn on him with the coming of Sri Ramakrishna into his

life.

This epoch-making event of his life came about in a very strange way. M.

belonged to a joint family with several collateral members. Some ten years

after he began his career as an educationist, bitter quarrels broke out among

the members of the family, driving the sensitive M. to despair and utter

despondency. He lost all interest in life and left home one night to go into

the wide world with the idea of ending his life. At dead of night he took rest

in his sister's house at Baranagar, and in the morning, accompanied by a

nephew Siddheswar, he wandered from one garden to another in Calcutta

until Siddheswar brought him to the Temple Garden of Dakshineswar where

Sri Ramakrishna was then living. After spending some time in the beautiful

rose gardens there, he was directed to the room of the Paramahamsa, where

the eventful meeting of the Master and the disciple took place on a blessed

evening (the exact date is not on record) on a Sunday in March 1882. As

regards what took place on the occasion, the reader is referred to the

opening section of the first chapter of the Gospel.

The Master, who divined the mood of desperation in M, his resolve to take

leave of this 'play-field of deception', put new faith and hope into him by

his gracious words of assurance: "God forbid! Why should you take leave

of this world? Do you not feel blessed by discovering your Guru? By His

grace, what is beyond all imagination or dreams can be easily achieved!" At

these words the clouds of despair moved away from the horizon of M.'s

mind, and the sunshine of a new hope revealed to him fresh vistas of

meaning in life. Referring to this phase of his life, M. used to say, "Behold!

where is the resolve to end life, and where, the discovery of God! That is,

sorrow should be looked upon as a friend of man. God is all good." ( Ibid

P.33.)

After this re-settlement, M's life revolved around the Master, though he

continued his professional work as an educationist. During all holidays,

including Sundays, he spent his time at Dakshineswar in the Master's

company, and at times extended his stay to several days.

It did not take much time for M. to become very intimate with the Master,

or for the Master to recognise in this disciple a divinely commissioned

partner in the fulfilment of his spiritual mission. When M. was reading out

the Chaitanya Bhagavata, the Master discovered that he had been, in a

previous birth, a disciple and companion of the great Vaishnava Teacher, Sri

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and the Master even saw him 'with his naked eye'

participating in the ecstatic mass-singing of the Lord's name under the

leadership of that Divine personality. So the Master told M, "You are my

own, of the same substance as the father and the son," indicating thereby

that M. was one of the chosen few and a part and parcel of his Divine

mission.

There was an urge in M. to abandon the household life and become a

Sannyāsin. When he communicated this idea to the Master, he forbade him

saying," Mother has told me that you have to do a little of Her work you

will have to teach Bhagavata, the word of God to humanity. The Mother

keeps a Bhagavata Pandit with a bondage in the world!"

( Ibid P.36.)

An appropriate allusion indeed! Bhagavata, the great scripture that has

given the word of Sri Krishna to mankind, was composed by the Sage

Vyāsa under similar circumstances. When caught up in a mood of

depression like that of M, Vyāsa was advised by the sage Nārada that he

would gain peace of mind only qn composing a work exclusively devoted

to the depiction of the Lord's glorious attributes and His teachings on

Knowledge and Devotion, and the result was that the world got from Vyāsa

the invaluable gift of the Bhagavata Purana depicting the life and teachings

of Sri Krishna.

From the mental depression of the modem Vyāsa, the world has obtained

the Kathāmrita (Bengali Edition) the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna in English.

Sri Ramakrishna was a teacher for both the Orders of mankind, Sannyāsins

and householders. His own life offered an ideal example for both, and he

left behind disciples who followed the highest traditions he had set in

respect of both these ways of life. M., along with Nag Mahashay,

exemplified how a householder can rise to the highest level of sagehood. M.

was married to Nikunja Devi, a distant relative of Keshab Chander Sen,

even when he was reading at College, and he had four children, two sons

and two daughters. The responsibility of the family, no doubt, made him

dependent on his professional income, but the great devotee that he was, he

never compromised with ideals and principles for this reason. Once when

he was working as the headmaster in a school managed by the great

Vidyāsāgar, the results of the school at the public examination happened to

be rather poor, and Vidyāsāgar attributed it to M's preoccupation with the

Master and his consequent failure to attend adequately to the school work.

M. at once resigned his post without any thought of the morrow. Within a

fortnight the family was in poverty, and M. was one day pacing up and

down the verandah of his house, musing how he would feed his children the

next day. Just then a man came with a letter addressed to 'Mahendra Babu',

and on opening it, M. found that it was a letter from his friend Sri Surendra

Nath Banerjee, asking whether he would like to take up a professorship in

the Ripon College. In this way three or four times he gave up the job that

gave him the wherewithal to support the family, either for upholding

principles or for practising spiritual Sadhanas in holy places, without any

consideration of the possible dire worldly consequences; but he was always

able to get over these difficulties somehow, and the interests of his family

never suffered. In spite of his disregard for worldly goods, he was, towards

the latter part of his life, in a fairly flourishing condition as the proprietor of

the Morton School which he developed into a noted educational institution

in the city. The Lord has said in the Bhagavad Gitā that in the case of those

who think of nothing except Him, He Himself would take up all their

material and spiritual responsibilities. M. was an example of the truth of the

Lord's promise.

Though his children received proper attention from him, his real family,

both during the Master's lifetime and after, consisted of saints, devotees,

Sannyāsins and spiritual aspirants. His life exemplifies the Master's

teaching that an ideal householder must be like a good maidservant of a

family, loving and caring properly for the children of the house, but

knowing always that her real home and children are elsewhere. During the

Master's lifetime he spent all his Sundays and other holidays with him and

his devotees, and besides listening to the holy talks and devotional music,

practised meditation both on the Personal and the Impersonal aspects of

God under the direct guidance of the Master. In the pages of the Gospel the

reader gets a picture of M.'s spiritual relationship with the Master how from

a hazy belief in the Impersonal God of the Brahmos, he was step by step

brought to accept both Personality and Impersonality as the two aspects of

the same Non-dual Being, how he was convinced of the manifestation of

that Being as Gods, Goddesses and as Incarnations, and how he was

established in a life that was both of a Jnāni and of a Bhakta. This Jnāni-

Bhakta outlook and way of living became so dominant a feature of his life

that Swami Raghavananda, who was very closely associated with him

during his last six years, remarks: "Among those who lived with M. in latter

days, some felt that he always lived in this constant and conscious union

with God even with open eyes (i.e., even in waking consciousness)."

(Swami Raghavananda's article on M. in Prabuddha Bharata vol. XXXVII.

P. 442.)

Besides undergoing spiritual disciplines at the feet of the Master, M. used to

go to holy places during the Master's lifetime itself and afterwards too as a

part of his Sādhanā.

He was one of the earliest of the disciples to visit Kamarpukur, the

birthplace of the Master, in the latter's lifetime itself; for he wished to

practise contemplation on the Master's early life in its true original setting.

His experience there is described as follows by Swami Nityatmananda: "By

the grace of the Master, he saw the entire Kamarpukur as a holy place

bathed in an effulgent Light. Trees and creepers, beasts and birds and men

all were made of effulgence. So he prostrated to all on the road. He saw a

torn cat, which appeared to him luminous with the Light of Consciousness.

Immediately he fell to the ground and saluted it" (M The Apostle and the

Evangelist by Swami Nityatmananda vol. I. P. 40.) He had similar

experience in Dakshineswar also. At the instance of the Master he also

visited Puri, and in the words of Swami Nityatmananda, "with indomitable

courage, M. embraced the image of Jagannath out of season."

The life of Sādhanā and holy association that he started on at the feet of the

Master, he continued all through his life. He has for this reason been most

appropriately described as a Grihastha-Sannyāsi (householder-Sannyāsin).

Though he was forbidden by the Master to become a Sannyāsin, his

reverence for the Sannyāsa ideal was whole-hearted and was without any

reservation. So after Sri Ramakrishna's passing away, while several of the

Master's householder devotees considered the young Sannyāsin disciples of

the Master as inexperienced and inconsequential, M. stood by them with the

firm faith that the Master's life and message were going to be perpetuated

only through them. Swami Vivekananda wrote from America in a letter to

the inmates of the Math: "When Sri Thākur (Master) left the body, every

one gave us up as a few unripe urchins. But M. and a few others did not

leave us in the lurch. We cannot repay our debt to them." (Swami

Raghavananda's article on M. in Prabuddha Bharata vol. XXX P. 442.)

M. spent his weekends and holidays with the monastic brethren who, after

the Master's demise, had formed themselves into an Order with a Math at

Baranagore, and participated in the intense life of devotion and meditation

that they followed. At other times he would retire to Dakshineswar or some

garden in the city and spend several days in spiritual practice taking simple

self-cooked food. In order to feel that he was one with all mankind he often

used to go out of his home at dead of night, and like a wandering

Sannyāsin, sleep with the waifs on some open verandah or footpath on the

road.

After the Master's demise, M. went on pilgrimage several times. He visited

Banāras, Vrindāvan, Ayodhyā and other places. At Banāras he visited the

famous Trailinga Swāmi and fed him with sweets, and he had long

conversations with Swami Bhaskarananda, one of the noted saintly and

scholarly Sannyāsins of the time. In 1912 he went with the Holy Mother to

Banāras, and spent about a year in the company of Sannyāsins at Banāras,

Vrindāvan, Hardwar, Hrishikesh and Swargashram. But he returned to

Calcutta, as that city offered him the unique opportunity of associating

himself with the places hallowed by the Master in his lifetime. Afterwards

he does not seem to have gone to any far-off place, but stayed on in his

room in the Morton School carrying on his spiritual ministry, speaking on

the Master and his teachings to the large number of people who flocked to

him after having read his famous Kathāmrita known to English readers as

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna.

This brings us to the circumstances that led to the writing and publication of

this monumental work, which has made M. one of the immortals in

hagiographic literature.

While many educated people heard Sri Ramakrishna's talks, it was given to

this illustrious personage alone to leave a graphic and exact account of them

for posterity, with details like date, hour, place, names and particulars about

participants. Humanity owes this great book to the ingrained habit of diary-

keeping with which M. was endowed.

Even as a boy of about thirteen, while he was a student in the 3rd class of

the Hare School, he was in the habit of keeping a diary. "Today on rising,"

he wrote in his diary, "I greeted my father and mother, prostrating on the

ground before them" (Swami Nityatmananda's 'M The Apostle and the

Evangelist' Part I. P 29.) At another place he wrote, "Today, while on my

way to school, I visited, as usual, the temples of Kāli, the Mother at

Tharitharia, and of Mother Sitala, and paid my obeisance to them." About

twenty-five years after, when he met the Great Master in the spring of 1882,

it was the same instinct of a born diary-writer that made him begin his

book, 'unique in the literature of hagiography', with the memorable words:

"When hearing the name of Hari or Rāma once, you shed tears and your

hair stands on end, then you may know for certain that you do not have to

perform devotions such as Sandhya any more."

In addition to this instinct for diary-keeping, M. had great endowments

contributing to success in this line. Writes Swami Nityatmananda who lived

in close association with M., in his book entitled M - The Apostle and

Evangelist: "M.'s prodigious memory combined with his extraordinary

power of imagination completely annihilated the distance of time and place

for him. Even after the lapse of half a century he could always visualise

vividly, scenes from the life of Sri Ramakrishna. Superb too was his power

to portray pictures by words."

Besides the prompting of his inherent instinct, the main inducement for M.

to keep this diary of his experiences at Dakshineswar was his desire to

provide himself with a means for living in holy company at all times. Being

a school teacher, he could be with the Master only on Sundays and other

holidays, and it was on his diary that he depended for 'holy company' on

other days. The devotional scriptures like the Bhagavata say that holy

company is the first and most important means for the generation and

growth of devotion. For, in such company man could hear talks on spiritual

matters and listen to the glorification of Divine attributes, charged with the

fervour and conviction emanating from the hearts of great lovers of God.

Such company is therefore the one certain means through which Sraddha

(Faith), Rati (attachment to God) and Bhakti (loving devotion) are

generated. The diary of his visits to Dakshineswar provided M. with

material for re-living, through reading and contemplation, the holy

company he had had earlier, even on days when he was not able to visit

Dakshineswar. The wealth of details and the vivid description of men and

things in the midst of which the sublime conversations are set, provide

excellent material to re-live those experiences for any one with imaginative

powers. It was observed by M.'s disciples and admirers that in later life also

whenever he was free or alone, he would be pouring over his diary,

transporting himself on the wings of imagination to the glorious days he

spent at the feet of the Master.

During the Master's lifetime M. does not seem to have revealed the contents

of his diary to any one. There is an unconfirmed tradition that when the

Master saw him taking notes, he expressed apprehension at the possibility

of his utilising these to publicise him like Keshab Sen; for the Great Master

was so full of the spirit of renunciation and humility that he disliked being

lionised. It must be for this reason that no one knew about this precious

diary of M. for a decade until he brought out selections from it as a

pamphlet in English in 1897 with the Holy Mother's blessings and

permission. The Holy Mother, being very much pleased to hear parts of the

diary read to her in Bengali, wrote to M.: "When I heard the Kathāmrita,

(Bengali name of the book) I felt as if it was he, the Master, who was saying

all that." ( Ibid Part I. P 37.)

The two pamphlets in English entitled the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

appeared in October and November 1897. They drew the spontaneous

acclamation of Swami Vivekananda, who wrote on 24th November of that

year from Dehra Dun to M.:"Many many thanks for your second leaflet. It

is indeed wonderful. The move is quite original, and never was the life of a

Great Teacher brought before the public untarnished by the writer's mind, as

you are doing. The language also is beyond all praise, so fresh, so pointed,

and withal so plain and easy. I cannot express in adequate terms how I have

enjoyed them. I am really in a transport when I read them. Strange, isn't it?

Our Teacher and Lord was so original, and each one of us will have to be

original or nothing.

I now understand why none of us attempted His life before. It has been

reserved for you, this great work. He is with you evidently." ( Vedānta

Kesari Vol. XIX P. 141. Also given in the first edition of the Gospel

published from Ramakrishna Math, Madras in 1911.)

And Swamiji added a post script to the letter: "Socratic dialogues are Plato

all over you are entirely hidden. Moreover, the dramatic part is infinitely

beautiful. Everybody likes it here or in the West." Indeed, in order to be

unknown, Mahendranath had used the pen-name M., under which the book

has been appearing till now. But so great a book cannot remain obscure for

long, nor can its author remain unrecognised by the large public in these

modern times. M. and his book came to be widely known very soon and to

meet the growing demand, a full-sized book, Vol. I of the Gospel, translated

by the author himself, was published in 1907 by the Brahmavadin Office,

Madras. A second edition of it, revised by the author, was brought out by

the Ramakrishna Math, Madras in December 1911, and subsequently a

second part, containing new chapters from the original Bengali, was

published by the same Math in 1922. The full English translation of the

Gospel by Swami Nikhilananda appeared first in 1942.

In Bengali the book is published in five volumes, the first part having

appeared in 1902

and the others in 1905, 1907, 1910 and 1932 respectively.

It looks as if M. was brought to the world by the Great Master to record his

words and transmit them to posterity. Swami Sivananda, a direct disciple of

the Master and the second President of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission,

says on this topic: "Whenever there was an interesting talk, the Master

would call Master Mahashay if he was not in the room, and then draw his

attention to the holy words spoken. We did not know then why the Master

did so. Now we can realise that this action of the Master had an important

significance, for it was reserved for Master Mahashay to give to the world

at large the sayings of the Master." ( Vedānta Kesari Vol. XIX P 141.)

Thanks to M., we get, unlike in the case of the great teachers of the past, a

faithful record with date, time, exact report of conversations, description of

concerned men and places, references to contemporary events and

personalities and a hundred other details for the last four years of the

Master's life (1882-'86), so that no one can doubt the historicity of the

Master and his teachings at any time in the future.

M. was, in every respect, a true missionary of Sri Ramakrishna right from

his first acquaintance with him in 1882. As a school teacher, it was a

practice with him to direct to the Master such of his students as had a true

spiritual disposition. Though himself prohibited by the Master to take to

monastic life, he encouraged all spiritually inclined young men he came

across in his later life to join the monastic Order. Swami Vijnanananda, a

direct Sannyāsin disciple of the Master and a President of the Ramakrishna

Order, once remarked to M.: "By enquiry, I have come to the conclusion

that eighty percent and more of the Sannyāsins have embraced the monastic

life after reading the Kathāmrita (Bengali name of the book) and coming in

contact with you." ( M

The Apostle and the Evangelist by Swami Nityatmananda Part I, P 37.)

In 1905 he retired from the active life of a Professor and devoted his

remaining twenty-seven years exclusively to the preaching of the life and

message of the Great Master. He bought the Morton Institution from its

original proprietors and shifted it to a commodious four-storeyed house at

50 Amherst Street, where it flourished under his management as one of the

most efficient educational institutions in Calcutta. He generally occupied a

staircase room at the top of it, cooking his own meal which consisted only

of milk and rice without variation, and attended to all his personal needs

himself. His dress also was the simplest possible. It was his conviction that

limitation of personal wants to the minimum is an important aid to holy

living. About one hour in the morning he would spend in inspecting the

classes of the school, and then retire to his staircase room to pour over his

diary and live in the divine atmosphere of the earthly days of the Great

Master, unless devotees and admirers had already gathered in his room

seeking his holy company.

In appearance, M. looked a Vedic Rishi. Tall and stately in bearing, he had a

strong and well-built body, an unusually broad chest, high forehead and

arms extending to the knees. His complexion was fair and his prominent

eyes were always tinged with the expression of the divine love that filled

his heart. Adorned with a silvery beard that flowed luxuriantly down his

chest, and a shining face radiating the serenity and gravity of holiness, M.

was as imposing and majestic as he was handsome and engaging in

appearance. Humorous, sweet-tongued and eloquent when situations

required, this great Maharishi of our age lived only to sing the glory of Sri

Ramakrishna day and night.

Though a very well versed scholar in the Upanishads, Gitā and the

philosophies of the East and the West, all his discussions and teachings

found their culmination in the life and the message of Sri Ramakrishna, in

which he found the real explanation and illustration of all the scriptures.

Both consciously and unconsciously, he was the teacher of the Kathāmrita

the nectarine words of the Great Master.

Though a much-sought-after spiritual guide, an educationist of repute, and a

contemporary and close associate of illustrious personages like Sri

Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda, Keshab Chander Sen and Iswar

Chander Vidyāsāgar, he was always moved by the noble humanity of a

lover of God, which consists in respecting the personalities of all as

receptacles of the Divine Spirit. So he taught without the consciousness of a

teacher, and no bar of superiority stood in the way of his doing the humblest

service to his students and devotees. "He was a commission of love," writes

his close devotee, Swami Raghavananda, "and yet his soft and sweet words

would pierce the stoniest heart, make the worldly-minded weep and repent

and turn Godwards."

( Prabuddha Bharata Vol. XXXVII P 499.)

As time went on and the number of devotees increased, the staircase room

and terrace of the 3rd floor of the Morton Institution became a veritable

Naimisaranya of modern times, resounding during all hours of the day, and

sometimes of night, too, with the word of God coming from the Rishi-like

face of M. addressed to the eager God-seekers sitting around. To the

devotees who helped him in preparing the text of the Gospel, he would

dictate the conversations of the Master in a meditative mood, referring now

and then to his diary. At times in the stillness of midnight he would awaken

a nearby devotee and tell him: "Let us listen to the words of the Master in

the depths of the night as he explains the truth of the Pranava." ( Vedānta

Kesari XIX P. 142.) Swami Raghavananda, an intimate devotee of M.,

writes as follows about these devotional sittings: "In the sweet and warm

months of April and May, sitting under the canopy of heaven on the roof-

garden of 50 Amherst Street, surrounded by shrubs and plants, himself

sitting in their midst like a Rishi of old, the stars and planets in their courses

beckoning us to things infinite and sublime, he would speak to us of the

mysteries of God and His love and of the yearning that would rise in the

human heart to solve the Eternal Riddle, as exemplified in the life of his

Master. The mind, melting under the influence of his soft sweet words of

light, would almost transcend the frontiers of limited existence and dare to

peep into the infinite. He himself would take the influence of the setting and

say,'What a blessed privilege it is to sit in such a setting (pointing to the

starry heavens), in the company of the devotees discoursing on God and His

love!' These unforgettable scenes will long remain imprinted on the minds

of his hearers." (Prabuddha Bharata Vol XXXVII P 497.)

About twenty-seven years of his life he spent in this way in the heart of the

great city of Calcutta, radiating the Master's thoughts and ideals to countless

devotees who flocked to him, and to still larger numbers who read his

Kathāmrita (English Edition : The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna), the last part

of which he had completed before June 1932 and given to the press. And

miraculously, as it were, his end also came immediately after he had

completed his life's mission. About three months earlier he had come to stay

at his home at 13/2 Gurdasprasad Chaudhuary Lane at Thakur Bari, where

the Holy Mother had herself installed the Master and where His regular

worship was being conducted for the previous 40 years. The night of 3rd

June being the Phalahārini Kāli Pooja day, M.

had sent his devotees who used to keep company with him, to attend the

special worship at Belur Math at night. After attending the service at the

home shrine, he went through the proof of the Kathāmrita for an hour.

Suddenly he got a severe attack of neuralgic pain, from which he had been

suffering now and then, of late. Before 6 a.m. in the early hours of 4th June

1932 he passed away, fully conscious and chanting: 'Gurudeva-Ma, Kole

tule na-o (Take me in your arms! O Master! O Mother!!)'

SWĀMI TAPASYĀNANDA

Sri Ramakrishna Math, Madras

March 1974.

--------------------

INTRODUCTION

by Swāmi Nikhilānanda

Sri Ramakrishna, the God-man of modern India, was born at Kāmārpukur.

This village in the Hooghly District preserved during the last century the

idyllic simplicity of the rural areas of Bengāl. Situated far from the railway,

it was untouched by the glamour of the city. It contained rice-fields, tall

palms, royal banyans, a few lakes, and two cremation grounds. South of the

village a stream took its leisurely course. A mango orchard dedicated by a

neighbouring zamindār to the public use was frequented by the boys for

their noonday sports. A highway passed through the village to the great

temple of Jagannāth at Puri, and the villagers, most of whom were farmers

and craftsmen, entertained many passing holy men and pilgrims. The dull

round of the rural life was broken by lively festivals, the observance of

sacred days, religious singing, and other innocent pleasures.

About his parents Sri Ramakrishna once said: "My mother was the

personification of rectitude and gentleness. She did not know much about

the ways of the world; innocent of the art of concealment, she would say

what was in her mind. People loved her for open-heartedness. My father, an

orthodox brāhmin, never accepted gifts from the Śudrās. He spent much of

his time in worship and meditation, and in repeating God's name and

chanting His glories. Whenever in his daily prayers he invoked the Goddess

Gāyatri, his chest flushed and tears rolled down his cheeks. He spent his

leisure hours making garlands for the Family Deity, Raghuvir."

Khudirām Chattopādhyāya and Chandra Devi, the parents of Sri

Ramakrishna, were married in 1799. At that time Khudirām was living in

his ancestral village of Derepore, not far from Kāmārpukur. Their first son,

Rāmkumār, was born in 1805, and their first daughter, Kātyāyani, in 1810.

In 1814 Khudirām was ordered by his landlord to bear false witness in court

against a neighbour. When he refused to do so, the landlord brought a false

case against him and deprived him of his ancestral property. Thus

dispossessed, he arrived, at the invitation of another landlord, in the quiet

village of Kāmārpukur, where he was given a dwelling and about an acre of

fertile land. The crops from this little property were enough to meet his

family's simple needs. Here he lived in simplicity, dignity, and contentment.

Ten years after his coming to Kāmārpukur, Khudirām made a pilgrimage on

foot to Rāmeswar, at the southern extremity of India. Two years later was

born his second son, whom he named Rāmeśwar. Again in 1835, at the age

of sixty, he made a pilgrimage, this time to Gayā. Here, from ancient times,

Hindus have come from the four corners of India to discharge their duties to

their departed ancestors by offering them food and drink at the sacred

footprint of the Lord Vishnu. At this holy place Khudirām had a dream in

which the Lord Vishnu promised to be born as his son. And Chandrā Devi,

too, in front of the Śiva temple at Kāmārpukur, had a vision indicating the

birth of a divine child.

Upon his return the husband found that she had conceived.

It was on February 18, 1836, that the child, to be known afterwards as

Ramakrishna, was born. In memory of the dream at Gayā he was given the

name of Gadādhar, the "Bearer of the Mace", an epithet of Vishnu. Three

years later a little sister was born.

Boyhood

Gadādhar grew up into a healthy and restless boy, full of fun and sweet

mischief. He was intelligent and precocious and endowed with a prodigious

memory. On his father's lap he learnt by heart the names of his ancestors

and the hymns to the gods and goddesses, and at the village school he was

taught to read and write. But his greatest delight was to listen to recitations

of stories from Hindu mythology and the epics. These he would afterwards

recount from memory, to the great joy of the villagers. Painting he enjoyed;

the art of moulding images of the gods and goddesses he learnt from the

potters. But arithmetic was his great aversion.

At the age of six or seven Gadādhar had his first experience of spiritual

ecstasy. One day in June or July, when he was walking along a narrow path

between paddy-fields, eating the puffed rice that he carried in a basket, he

looked up at the sky and saw a beautiful, dark thunder-cloud. As it spread,

rapidly enveloping the whole sky, a flight of snow-white cranes passed in

front of it. The beauty of the contrast overwhelmed the boy. He fell to the

ground, unconscious, and the puffed rice went in all directions. Some

villagers found him and carried him home in their arms. Gadādhar said later

that in that state he had experienced an indescribable joy.

Gadādhar was seven years old when his father died. This incident

profoundly affected him. For the first time the boy realized that life on earth

was impermanent. Unobserved by others, he began to slip into the mango

orchard or into one of the cremation grounds, and he spent hours absorbed

in his own thoughts. He also became more helpful to his mother in the

discharge of her household duties. He gave more attention to reading and

hearing the religious stories recorded in the Purānās. And he became

interested in the wandering monks and pious pilgrims who would stop at

Kāmārpukur on their way to Puri. These holy men, the custodians of India's

spiritual heritage and the living witnesses of the ideal of renunciation of the

world and all-absorbing love of God, entertained the little boy with stories

from the Hindu epics, stories of saints and prophets, and also stories of their

own adventures. He, on his part, fetched their water and fuel and served

them in various ways. Meanwhile, he was observing their meditation and

worship.

At the age of nine, Gadādhar was invested with the Sacred Thread. This

ceremony conferred upon him the privileges of his brāhmin lineage,

including the worship of the Family Deity, Raghuvir, and imposed upon

him the many strict disciplines of a brāhmin's life. During the ceremony of

investiture he shocked his relatives by accepting a meal cooked by his

nurse, a Śudrā woman. His father would never have dreamt of doing such a

thing. But in a playful mood Gadādhar had once promised this woman that

he would eat her food, and now he fulfilled his plighted word. The woman

had piety and religious sincerity, and these were more important to the boy

than the conventions of society.

Gadādhar was now permitted to worship Raghuvir. Thus began his first

training in meditation. He so gave his heart and soul to the worship that the

stone image very soon appeared to him as the living Lord of the Universe.

His tendency to lose himself in contemplation was first noticed at this time.

Behind his boyish light-heartedness was seen a deepening of his spiritual

nature.

About this time, on the Śivarātri night, consecrated to the worship of Śiva, a

dramatic performance was arranged. The principal actor, who was to play

the part of Śiva, suddenly fell ill, and Gadādhar was persuaded to act in his

place. While friends were dressing him for the role of Śiva - smearing his

body with ashes, matting his locks, placing a trident in his hand and a string

of rudrākaśa beads around his neck - the boy appeared to become absent-

minded. He approached the stage with slow and measured step, supported

by his friends. He looked the living image of Śiva. The audience loudly

applauded what it took to be his skill as an actor, but it was soon discovered

that he was really lost in meditation. His countenance was radiant and tears

flowed from his eyes. He was lost to the outer world. The effect of this

scene on the audience was tremendous.

The people felt blessed as by a vision of Śiva Himself. The performance

had to be stopped, and the boy's mood lasted till the following morning.

Gadādhar himself now organized a dramatic company with his young

friends. The stage was set in the mango orchard. The themes were selected

from the stories of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Gadādhar knew by

heart almost all the roles, having heard them from professional actors. His

favourite theme was the Vrindāvan episode of Krishna's life, depicting those

exquisite love-stories of Krishna and the milkmaids and the cowherd boys.

Gadādhar would play the parts of Rādhā or Krishna and would often lose

himself in the character he was portraying. His natural feminine grace

heightened the dramatic effect. The mango orchard would ring with the

loud kirtan of the boys. Lost in song and merry-making, Gadādhar became

indifferent to the routine of school.

In 1849 Rāmkumār, the eldest son, went to Calcutta to improve the

financial condition of the family.

Gadādhar was on the threshold of youth. He had become the pet of the

women of the village. They loved to hear him talk, sing, or recite from the

holy books. They enjoyed his knack of imitating voices. Their woman's

instinct recognized the innate purity and guilelessness of this boy of clear

skin, flowing hair, beaming eyes, smiling face, and inexhaustible fun. The

pious elderly women looked upon him as Gopālā, the Baby Krishna, and

the younger ones saw in him the youthful Krishna of Vrindāvan. He himself

so idealised the love of the gopis for Krishna that he sometimes yearned to

be born as a woman, if he must be born again, in order to be able to love Sri

Krishna with all his heart and soul.

Coming to Calcutta

At the age of sixteen Gadādhar was summoned to Calcutta by his elder

brother Rāmkumār, who wished assistance in his priestly duties. Rāmkumār

had opened a Sanskrit academy to supplement his income, and it was his

intention gradually to turn his younger brother's mind to education.

Gadādhar applied himself heart and soul to his new duty as family priest to

a number of Calcutta families. His worship was very different from that of

the professional priests. He spent hours decorating the images and singing

hymns and devotional songs; he performed with love the other duties of his

office. People were impressed with his ardour. But to his studies he paid

scant attention.

Rāmkumār did not at first oppose the ways of his temperamental brother.

He wanted Gadādhar to become used to the conditions of city life. But one

day he decided to warn the boy about his indifference to the world. After

all, in the near future Gadādhar must, as a householder, earn his livelihood

through the performance of his brāhminical duties; and these required a

thorough knowledge of Hindu law, astrology, and kindred subjects.

He gently admonished Gadādhar and asked him to pay more attention to his

studies. But the boy replied spiritedly: "Brother, what shall I do with a mere

bread-winning education? I would rather acquire that wisdom which will

illumine my heart and give me satisfaction for ever."

Bread-winning Education

The anguish of the inner soul of India found expression through these

passionate words of the young Gadādhar. For what did his unsophisticated

eyes see around him in Calcutta, at that time the metropolis of India and the

centre of modern culture and learning? Greed and lust held sway in the

higher levels of society, and the occasional religious practices were merely

outer forms from which the soul had long ago departed.

Gadādhar had never seen anything like this at Kāmārpukur among the

simple and pious villagers. The sādhus and wandering monks whom he had

served in his boyhood had revealed to him an altogether different India. He

had been impressed by their devotion and purity, their self-control and

renunciation. He had learnt from them and from his own intuition that the

ideal of life as taught by the ancient sages of India was the realization of

God.

When Rāmkumār reprimanded Gadādhar for neglecting a "bread-winning

education", the inner voice of the boy reminded him that the legacy of his

ancestors - the legacy of Rāmā, Krishna, Buddha, Sankara, Rāmānuja,

Chaitanya - was not worldly security but the Knowledge of God. And these

noble sages were the true representatives of Hindu society. Each of them

was seated, as it were, on the crest of the wave that followed each

successive trough in the tumultuous course of Indian national life. All

demonstrated that the life current of India is spirituality. This truth was

revealed to Gadādhar through that inner vision which scans past and future

in one sweep, unobstructed by the barriers of time and space. But he was

unaware of the history of the profound change that had taken place in the

land of his birth during the previous one hundred years.

Hindu society during the eighteenth century had been passing through a

period of decadence. It was the twilight of the Mussalman rule. There were

anarchy and confusion in all spheres. Superstitious practices dominated the

religious life of the people. Rites and rituals passed for the essence of

spirituality. Greedy priests became the custodians of heaven. True

philosophy was supplanted by dogmatic opinions. The pundits took delight

in vain polemics.

In 1757 English traders laid the foundation of British rule in India.

Gradually the Government was systematized and lawlessness suppressed.

The Hindus were much impressed by the military power and political

acumen of the new rulers. In the wake of the merchants came the English

educators, and social reformers, and Christian missionaries - all bearing a

culture completely alien to the Hindu mind. In different parts of the country

educational institutions were set up and Christian churches established.

Hindu young men were offered the heady wine of the Western culture of the

late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and they drank it to the very

dregs.

The first effect of the draught on the educated Hindus was a complete

effacement from their minds of the time-honoured beliefs and traditions of

Hindu society. They came to believe that there was no transcendental Truth.

The world perceived by the senses was all that existed. God and religion

were illusions of the untutored mind. True knowledge could be derived only

from the analysis of nature. So atheism and agnosticism became the fashion

of the day. The youth of India, taught in English schools, took malicious

delight in openly breaking the customs and traditions of their society. They

would do away with the caste-system and remove the discriminatory laws

about food. Social reform, the spread of secular education, widow

remarriage, abolition of early marriage -

they considered these the panacea for the degenerate condition of Hindu

society.

The Christian missionaries gave the finishing touch to the process of

transformation.

They ridiculed as relics of a barbarous age the images and rituals of the

Hindu religion.

They tried to persuade India that the teachings of her saints and seers were

the cause of her downfall, that her Vedas, Purānās, and other scriptures were

filled with superstition.

Christianity, they maintained, had given the white races position and power

in this world and assurance of happiness in the next; therefore Christianity

was the best of all religions. Many intelligent young Hindus became

converted. The man in the street was confused. The majority of the

educated grew materialistic in their mental outlook.

Everyone living near Calcutta or the other strongholds of Western culture,

even those who attempted to cling to the orthodox traditions of Hindu

society, became infected by the new uncertainties and the new beliefs.

But the soul of India was to be resuscitated through a spiritual awakening.

We hear the first call of this renascence in the spirited retort of the young

Gadādhar: "Brother, what shall I do with a mere bread-winning education?"

Rāmkumār could hardly understand the import of his young brother's reply.

He described in bright colours the happy and easy life of scholars in

Calcutta society. But Gadādhar intuitively felt that the scholars, to use one

of his own vivid illustrations, were like so many vultures, soaring high on

the wings of their uninspired intellect, with their eyes fixed on the charnel-

pit of greed and lust. So he stood firm and Rāmkumār had to give way.

Kāli Temple at Dakshineśwar

At that time there lived in Calcutta a rich widow named Rāni Rāsmani,

belonging to the Śudrā caste, and known far and wide not only for her

business ability, courage, and intelligence, but also for her largeness of

heart, piety, and devotion to God. She was assisted in the management of

her vast property by her son-in-law Mathur Mohan.

In 1847 the Rāni purchased twenty acres of land at Dakshineśwar, a village

about four miles north of Calcutta. Here she created a temple garden and

constructed several temples. Her Ishta, or Chosen Ideal, was the Divine

Mother, Kāli.

The temple garden stands directly on the east bank of the Ganges. The

northern section of the land and a portion to the east contain an orchard,

flower gardens, and two small reservoirs. The southern section is paved

with brick and mortar. The visitor arriving by boat ascends the steps of an

imposing bathing-Ghāt, which leads to the Chāndni, a roofed terrace, on

either side of which stand in a row six temples of Śiva. East of the terrace

and the Śiva temples is a large court, paved, rectangular in shape, and

running north and south. Two temples stand in the centre of this court, the

larger one, to the south and facing south, being dedicated to Kāli, and the

smaller one, facing the Ganges, to Radhākānta, that is, Krishna, the Consort

of Rādhā. Nine domes with spires surmount the temple of Kāli, and before

it stands the spacious Natmandir, or music hall, the terrace of which is

supported by stately pillars. At the northwest and southwest corners of the

temple compound are two Nahabats, or music towers, from which music

flows at different times of day, especially at sunup, noon, and sundown,

when the worship is performed in the temples. Three sides of the paved

courtyard -all except the west - are lined with rooms set apart for kitchens,

store-rooms, dining-rooms, and quarters for the temple staff and guests. The

chamber in the northwest angle, just beyond the last of the Śiva temples, is

of special interest to us; for here Sri Ramakrishna was to spend a

considerable part of his life. To the west of this chamber is a semicircular

porch overlooking the river. In front of the porch runs a footpath, north and

south, and beyond the path is a large garden and, below the garden, the

Ganges. The orchard to the north of the buildings contains the Panchavati,

the banyan, and the bel-tree, associated with Sri Ramakrishna's spiritual

practices. Outside and to the north of the temple compound proper is the

Kuthi, or bungalow, used by members of Rāni Rāsmani's family visiting the

garden. And north of the temple garden, separated from it by a high wall, is

a powder-magazine belonging to the British Government.

Śiva

In the twelve Śiva temples are installed the emblems of the Great God of

renunciation in His various aspects, worshipped daily with proper rites.

Śiva requires few articles of worship. White flowers and bel-leaves and a

little Ganges water offered with devotion are enough to satisfy the benign

Deity and win from Him the boon of liberation.

Radhākānta

The temple of Radhākānta, also known as the temple of Vishnu, contains

the images of Rādhā and Krishna, the symbol of union with God through

ecstatic love. The two images stand on a pedestal facing the west. The floor

is paved with marble. From the ceiling of the porch hang chandeliers

protected from dust by coverings of red cloth. Canvas screens shield the

images from the rays of the setting sun. Close to the threshold of the inner

shrine is a small brass cup containing holy water. Devoted visitors

reverently drink a few drops from the vessel.

Kāli

The main temple is dedicated to Kāli, the Divine Mother, here worshipped

as Bhavatārini, the Saviour of the Universe. The floor of this temple also is

paved with marble. The basalt image of the Mother, dressed in gorgeous

gold brocade, stands on a white marble image of the prostrate body of Her

Divine Consort, Śiva, the symbol of the Absolute. On the feet of the

Goddess are, among other ornaments, anklets of gold. Her arms are decked

with jeweled ornaments of gold. She wears necklaces of gold and pearls, a

golden garland of human heads, and a girdle of human arms. She wears a

golden crown, golden ear-rings, and a golden nose-ring with a pearl-drop.

She has four arms. The lower left hand holds a severed human head and the

upper grips a blood-stained sabre.

One right hand offers boons to Her children; the other allays their fear. The

majesty of Her posture can hardly be described. It combines the terror of

destruction with the reassurance of motherly tenderness. For She is the

Cosmic Power, the totality of the universe, a glorious harmony of the pairs

of opposites. She deals out death, as She creates and preserves. She has

three eyes, the third being the symbol of Divine Wisdom; they strike

dismay into the wicked, yet pour out affection for Her devotees.

The whole symbolic world is represented in the temple garden - the Trinity

of the Nature Mother (Kāli), the Absolute (Śiva), and Love (Radhākānta),

the Arch spanning heaven and earth. The terrific Goddess of the Tantra, the

soul-enthralling Flute-Player of the Bhāgavata, and the Self-absorbed

Absolute of the Vedas live together, creating the greatest synthesis of

religions. All aspects of Reality are represented there. But of this divine

household, Kāli is the pivot, the sovereign Mistress. She is Prakriti, the

Procreatrix, Nature, the Destroyer, the Creator. Nay, She is something

greater and deeper still for those who have eyes to see. She is the Universal

Mother, "my Mother" as Ramakrishna would say, the All-powerful, who

reveals Herself to Her children under different aspects and Divine

Incarnations, the Visible God, who leads the elect to the Invisible Reality;

and if it so pleases Her, She takes away the last trace of ego from created

beings and merges it in the consciousness of the Absolute, the

undifferentiated God. Through Her grace "the finite ego loses itself in the

illimitable Ego-Ātman-Brahman".

Rāni Rāsmani spent a fortune for the construction of the temple garden and

another fortune for its dedication ceremony, which took place on May 31,

1855.

Sri Ramakrishna - henceforth we shall call Gadādhar by this familiar name

- came to the temple garden with his elder brother Rāmkumār, who was

appointed priest of the Ka1i temple. Sri Ramakrishna did not at first

approve of Rāmkumār's working for the Śudrā

Rāsmani. The example of their orthodox father was still fresh in Sri

Ramakrishna's mind.

He objected also to the eating of the cooked offerings of the temple, since,

according to orthodox Hindu custom, such food can be offered to the Deity

only in the house of a brāhmin. But the holy atmosphere of the temple

grounds, the solitude of the surrounding wood, the loving care of his

brother, the respect shown him by Rāni Rāsmani and Mathur Bābu, the

living presence of the Goddess Kāli in the temple, and, above all, the

proximity of the sacred Ganges, which Sri Ramakrishna always held in the

highest respect, gradually overcame his disapproval, and he began to feel at

home.

Within a very short time Sri Ramakrishna attracted the notice of Mathur

Bābu, who was impressed by the young man's religious fervour and wanted

him to participate in the worship in the Kāli temple. But Sri Ramakrishna

loved his freedom and was indifferent to any worldly career. The profession

of the priesthood in a temple founded by a rich woman did not appeal to his

mind. Further, he hesitated to take upon himself the responsibility for the

ornaments and jewellery of the temple. Mathur had to wait for a suitable

occasion.

At this time there came to Dakshineśwar a youth of sixteen, destined to play

an important role in Sri Ramakrishna's life. Hriday, a distant nephew of Sri

Ramakrishna, hailed from Sihore, a village not far from Kāmārpukur, and

had been his boyhood friend.

Clever, exceptionally energetic, and endowed with great presence of mind,

he moved, as will be seen later, like a shadow about his uncle and was

always ready to help him, even at the sacrifice of his personal comfort. He

was destined to be a mute witness of many of the spiritual experiences of

Sri Ramakrishna and the caretaker of his body during the stormy days of his

spiritual practice. Hriday came to Dakshineśwar in search of a job, and Sri

Ramakrishna was glad to see him.

Unable to resist the persuasion of Mathur Bābu, Sri Ramakrishna at last

entered the temple service, on condition that Hriday should be asked to

assist him. His first duty was to dress and decorate the image of Kāli.

One day the priest of the Radhākānta temple accidentally dropped the

image of Krishna on the floor, breaking one of its legs. The pundits advised

the Rāni to install a new image, since the worship of an image with a

broken limb was against the scriptural injunctions. But the Rāni was fond of

the image, and she asked Sri Ramakrishna's opinion. In an abstracted mood,

he said: "This solution is ridiculous. If a son-in-law of the Rāni broke his

leg, would she discard him and put another in his place? Wouldn't she rather

arrange for his treatment? Why should she not do the same thing in this

case too?

Let the image be repaired and worshipped as before." It was a simple,

straightforward solution and was accepted by the Rāni. Sri Ramakrishna

himself mended the break. The priest was dismissed for his carelessness,

and at Mathur Bābu's earnest request, Sri Ramakrishna accepted the Office

of priest in the Radhākānta temple.

Sri Ramakrishna as a priest

Born in an orthodox brāhmin family, Sri Ramakrishna knew the formalities

of worship, its rites and rituals. The innumerable gods and goddesses of the

Hindu religion are the human aspects of the indescribable and

incomprehensible Spirit, as conceived by the finite human mind. They

understand and appreciate human love and emotion, help men to realize

their secular and spiritual ideals, and ultimately enable men to attain

liberation from the miseries of phenomenal life. The Source of light,

intelligence, wisdom, and strength is the One alone from whom comes the

fulfilment of desire. Yet, as long as a man is bound by his human

limitations, he cannot but worship God through human forms. He must use

human symbols. Therefore Hinduism asks the devotees to look on God as

the ideal father, the ideal mother, the ideal husband, the ideal son, or the

ideal friend. But the name ultimately leads to the Nameless, the form to the

Formless, the word to the Silence, the emotion to the serene realization of

Peace in Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute. The gods gradually merge

in the one God. But until that realization is achieved, the devotee cannot

dissociate human factors from his worship.

Therefore the Deity is bathed and clothed and decked with ornaments. He is

fed and put to sleep. He is propitiated with hymns, songs, and prayers. And

there are appropriate rites connected with all these functions. For instance,

to secure for himself external purity, the priest bathes himself in holy water

and puts on a holy cloth. He purifies the mind and the sense organs by

appropriate meditations. He fortifies the place of worship against evil forces

by drawing around it circles of fire and water. He awakens the different

spiritual centres of the body and invokes the Supreme Spirit in his heart.

Then he transfers the Supreme Spirit to the image before him and worships

the image, regarding it no longer as clay or stone, but as the embodiment of

Spirit, throbbing with Life and Consciousness. After the worship the

Supreme Spirit is recalled from the image to Its true sanctuary, the heart of

the priest. The real devotee knows the absurdity of worshipping the

Transcendental Reality with material articles - clothing That which

pervades the whole universe and the beyond, putting on a pedestal That

which cannot be limited by space, feeding That which is disembodied and

incorporeal, singing before That whose glory the music of the spheres tries

vainly to proclaim. But through these rites the devotee aspires to go

ultimately beyond rites and rituals, forms and names, words and praise, and

to realize God as the All-pervading Consciousness.

Hindu priests are thoroughly acquainted with the rites of worship, but few

of them are aware of their underlying significance. They move their hands

and limbs mechanically, in obedience to the letter of the scriptures, and

repeat the holy mantras like parrots. But from the very beginning the inner

meaning of these rites was revealed to Sri Ramakrishna. As he sat facing

the image, a strange transformation came over his mind.

While going through the prescribed ceremonies, he would actually find

himself encircled by a wall of fire protecting him and the place of worship

from unspiritual vibrations, or he would feel the rising of the mystic

Kundalini through the different centres of the body.

The glow on his face, his deep absorption, and the intense atmosphere of

the temple impressed everyone who saw him worship the Deity.

Rāmkumār wanted Sri Ramakrishna to learn the intricate rituals of the

worship of Kāli.

To become a priest of Kāli one must undergo a special form of initiation

from a qualified guru, and for Sri Ramakrishna a suitable brāhmin was

found. But no sooner did the brāhmin speak the holy word in his ear than

Sri Ramakrishna, overwhelmed with emotion, uttered a loud cry and

plunged into deep concentration.

Mathur begged Sri Ramakrishna to take charge of the worship in the Kāli

temple. The young priest pleaded his incompetence and his ignorance of the

scriptures. Mathur insisted that devotion and sincerity would more than

compensate for any lack of formal knowledge and make the Divine Mother

manifest Herself through the image. In the end, Sri Ramakrishna had to

yield to Mathur's request. He became the priest of Kāli.

In 1856 Rāmkumār breathed his last. Sri Ramakrishna had already

witnessed more than one death in the family. He had come to realize how

impermanent is life on earth. The more he was convinced of the transitory

nature of worldly things, the more eager he became to realize God, the

Fountain of Immortality.

The First Vision of Kāli

And, indeed, he soon discovered what a strange Goddess he had chosen to

serve. He became gradually enmeshed in the web of Her all-pervading

presence. To the ignorant She is to be sure, the image of destruction: but he

found in Her the benign, all-loving Mother. Her neck is encircled with a

garland of heads, and Her waist with a girdle of human arms and two of Her

hands hold weapons of death, and Her eyes dart a glance of fire; but,

strangely enough, Ramakrishna felt in Her breath the soothing touch of

tender love and saw in Her the Seed of Immortality. She stands on the

bosom of Her Consort, Śiva; it is because She is the Śakti, the Power,

inseparable from the Absolute. She is surrounded by jackals and other

unholy creatures, the denizens of the cremation ground.

But is not the Ultimate Reality above holiness and unholiness? She appears

to be reeling under the spell of wine. But who would create this mad world

unless under the influence of a divine drunkenness? She is the highest

symbol of all the forces of nature, the synthesis of their antinomies, the

Ultimate Divine in the form of woman. She now became to Sri

Ramakrishna the only Reality, and the world became an unsubstantial

shadow. Into Her worship he poured his soul. Before him She stood as the

transparent portal to the shrine of Ineffable Reality.

The worship in the temple intensified Sri Ramakrishna's yearning for a

living vision of the Mother of the Universe. He began to spend in

meditation the time not actually employed in the temple service; and for

this purpose he selected an extremely solitary place. A deep jungle, thick

with underbrush and prickly plants, lay to the north of the temples.

Used at one time as a burial ground, it was shunned by people even during

the day-time for fear of ghosts. There Sri Ramakrishna began to spend the

whole night in meditation, returning to his room only in the morning with

eyes swollen as though from much weeping. While meditating, he would

lay aside his cloth and his brāhminical thread.

Explaining this strange conduct, he once said to Hriday: "Don't you know

that when one thinks of God one should be freed from all ties? From our

very birth we have the eight fetters of hatred, shame, lineage, pride of good

conduct, fear, secretiveness, caste, and grief. The sacred thread reminds me

that I am a brāhmin and therefore superior to all.

When calling on the Mother one has to set aside all such ideas." Hriday

thought his uncle was becoming insane.

As his love for God deepened, he began either to forget or to drop the

formalities of worship. Sitting before the image, he would spend hours

singing the devotional songs of great devotees of the Mother, such as

Kamalākānta and Rāmprasād. Those rhapsodical songs, describing the

direct vision of God, only intensified Sri Ramakrishna's longing. He felt the

pangs of a child separated from its mother. Sometimes, in agony, he would

rub his face against the ground and weep so bitterly that people, thinking he

had lost his earthly mother, would sympathize with him in his grief.

Sometimes, in moments of scepticism, he would cry: "Art Thou true,

Mother, or is it all fiction - mere poetry without any reality? If Thou dost

exist, why do I not see Thee? Is religion a mere fantasy and art Thou only a

figment of man's imagination?" Sometimes he would sit on the prayer

carpet for two hours like an inert object. He began to behave in an abnormal

manner, most of the time unconscious of the world. He almost gave up

food; and sleep left him altogether.

But he did not have to wait very long. He has thus described his first vision

of the Mother: "I felt as if my heart were being squeezed like a wet towel. I

was overpowered with a great restlessness and a fear that it might not be my

lot to realize Her in this life.

I could not bear the separation from Her any longer. Life seemed to be not

worth living.

Suddenly my glance fell on the sword that was kept in the Mother's temple.

I determined to put an end to my life. When I jumped up like a madman and

seized it, suddenly the blessed Mother revealed Herself. The buildings with

their different parts, the temple, and everything else vanished from my

sight, leaving no trace whatsoever, and in their stead I saw a limitless,

infinite, effulgent Ocean of Consciousness. As far as the eye could see, the

shining billows were madly rushing at me from all sides with a terrific

noise, to swallow me up! I was panting for breath. I was caught in the rush

and collapsed, unconscious. What was happening in the outside world I did

not know; but within me there was a steady flow of undiluted bliss,

altogether new, and I felt the presence of the Divine Mother." On his lips

when he regained consciousness of the world was the word "Mother".

God-Intoxicated State

Yet this was only a foretaste of the intense experiences to come. The first

glimpse of the Divine Mother made him the more eager for Her

uninterrupted vision. He wanted to see Her both in meditation and with eyes

open. But the Mother began to play a teasing game of hide-and-seek with

him, intensifying both his joy and his suffering. Weeping bitterly during the

moments of separation from Her, he would pass into a trance and then find

Her standing before him, smiling, talking, consoling, bidding him be of

good cheer, and instructing him. During this period of spiritual practice he

had many uncommon experiences. When he sat to meditate, he would hear

strange clicking sounds in the joints of his legs, as if someone were locking

them up, one after the other, to keep him motionless; and at the conclusion

of his meditation he would again hear the same sounds, this time unlocking

them and leaving him free to move about. He would see flashes like a

swarm of fire-flies floating before his eyes, or a sea of deep mist around

him, with luminous waves of molten silver. Again, from a sea of translucent

mist he would behold the Mother rising, first Her feet, then Her waist, body,

face, and head, finally Her whole person; he would feel Her breath and hear

Her voice. Worshipping in the temple, sometimes he would become exalted,

sometimes he would remain motionless as stone, sometimes he would

almost collapse from excessive emotion. Many of his actions, contrary to all

tradition, seemed sacrilegious to the people. He would take a flower and

touch it to his own head, body, and feet, and then offer it to the Goddess.

Or, like a drunkard, he would reel to the throne of the Mother, touch Her

chin by way of showing his affection for Her, and sing, talk, joke, laugh,

and dance. Or he would take a morsel of food from the plate and hold it to

Her mouth, begging Her to eat it, and would not be satisfied till he was

convinced that She had really eaten. After the Mother had been put to sleep

at night, from his own room he would hear Her ascending to the upper

storey of the temple with the light steps of a happy girl, Her anklets

jingling. Then he would discover Her standing with flowing hair, Her black

form silhouetted against the sky of the night looking at the Ganges or at the

distant lights of Calcutta.

Naturally the temple officials took him for an insane person. His worldly

well-wishers brought him to skilled physicians; but no medicine could cure

his malady. Many a time he doubted his sanity himself. For he had been

sailing across an uncharted sea, with no earthly guide to direct him. His

only haven of security was the Divine Mother Herself. To Her he would

pray: "I do not know what these things are. I am ignorant of mantras and the

scriptures. Teach me, Mother, how to realize Thee. Who else can help me?

Art Thou not my only refuge and guide?" And the sustaining presence of

the Mother never failed him in his distress or doubt. Even those who

criticized his conduct were greatly impressed with his purity, guilelessness,

truthfulness, integrity, and holiness. They felt an uplifting influence in his

presence.

It is said that Samādhi, or trance, no more than opens the portal of the

spiritual realm.

Sri Ramakrishna felt an unquenchable desire to enjoy God in various ways.

For his meditation he built a place in the northern wooded section of the

temple garden. With Hriday's help he planted there five sacred trees. The

spot, known as the Panchavati, became the scene of many of his visions.

As his spiritual mood deepened he more and more felt himself to be a child

of the Divine Mother. He learnt to surrender himself completely to Her will

and let Her direct him.

"O Mother," he would constantly pray, "I have taken refuge in Thee. Teach

me what to do and what to say. Thy will is paramount everywhere and is for

the good of Thy children. Merge my will in Thy will and make me Thy

instrument."

His visions became deeper and more intimate. He no longer had to meditate

to behold the Divine Mother. Even while retaining consciousness of the

outer world, he would see Her as tangibly as the temples, the trees, the

river, and the men around him.

On a certain occasion Mathur Bābu stealthily entered the temple to watch

the worship.

He was profoundly moved by the young priest's devotion and sincerity. He

realized that Sri Ramakrishna had transformed the stone image into the

living Goddess.

Sri Ramakrishna one day fed a cat with the food that was to be offered to

Kāli. This was too much for the manager of the temple garden, who

considered himself responsible for the proper conduct of the worship. He

reported Sri Ramakrishna's insane behaviour to Mathur Bābu.

Sri Ramakrishna has described the incident: "The Divine Mother revealed

to me in the Kāli temple that it was She who had become everything. She

showed me that everything was full of Consciousness. The image was

Consciousness, the altar was Consciousness, the water-vessels were

Consciousness, the door-sill was Consciousness, the marble floor was

Consciousness - all was Consciousness. I found everything inside the room

soaked, as it were, in Bliss - the Bliss of God. I saw a wicked man in front

of the Kāli temple; but in him also I saw the power of the Divine Mother

vibrating. That was why I fed a cat with the food that was to be offered to

the Divine Mother. I clearly perceived that all this was the Divine Mother -

even the cat. The manager of the temple garden wrote to Mathur Bābu

saying that I was feeding the cat with the offering intended for the Divine

Mother.

But Mathur Bābu had insight into the state of my mind. He wrote back to

the manager: 'Let him do whatever he likes. You must not say anything to

him.' "

One of the painful ailments from which Sri Ramakrishna suffered at this

time was a burning sensation in his body, and he was cured by a strange

vision. During worship in the temple, following the scriptural injunctions,

he would imagine the presence of the "sinner" in himself and the

destruction of this "sinner". One day he was meditating in the Panchavati,

when he saw come out of him a red-eyed man of black complexion, reeling

like a drunkard. Soon there emerged from him another person, of serene

countenance, wearing the ochre cloth of a sannyāsi and carrying in his hand

a trident. The second person attacked the first and killed him with the

trident. Thereafter Sri Ramakrishna was free of his pain.

About this time he began to worship God by assuming the attitude of a

servant toward his master. He imitated the mood of Hanuman, the monkey

chieftain of the Ramayana, the ideal servant of Rāmā and traditional model

for this self-effacing form of devotion.

When he meditated on Hanuman his movements and his way of life began

to resemble those of a monkey. His eyes became restless. He lived on fruits

and roots. With his cloth tied around his waist, a portion of it hanging in the

form of a tail, he jumped from place to place instead of walking. And after a

short while he was blessed with a vision of Sitā, the divine consort of

Rāmā, who entered his body and disappeared there with the words, "I

bequeath to you my smile."

Mathur had faith in the sincerity of Sri Ramakrishna's spiritual zeal, but

began now to doubt his sanity. He had watched him jumping about like a

monkey. One day, when Rāni Rāsmani was listening to Sri Ramakrishna's

singing in the temple, the young priest abruptly turned and slapped her.

Apparently listening to his song, she had actually been thinking of a

lawsuit. She accepted the punishment as though the Divine Mother Herself

had imposed it; but Mathur was distressed. He begged Sri Ramakrishna to

keep his feelings under control and to heed the conventions of society. God

Himself, he argued, follows laws. God never permitted, for instance,

flowers of two colours to grow on the same stalk. The following day Sri

Ramakrishna presented Mathur Bābu with two hibiscus flowers growing on

the same stalk, one red and one white.

Mathur and Rāni Rāsmani began to ascribe the mental ailment of Sri

Ramakrishna in part, at least, to his observance of rigid continence.

Thinking that a natural life would relax the tension of his nerves, they

engineered a plan with two women of ill fame. But as soon as the women

entered his room, Sri Ramakrishna beheld in them the manifestation of the

Divine Mother of the Universe and went into Samādhi uttering Her name.

Haladhāri

In 1858 there came to Dakshineśwar a cousin of Sri Ramakrishna,

Haladhāri by name, who was to remain there about eight years. On account

of Sri Ramakrishna's indifferent health, Mathur appointed this man to the

office of priest in the Kāli temple. He was a complex character, versed in

the letter of the scriptures, but hardly aware of their spirit.

He loved to participate in hair-splitting theological discussions and, by the

measure of his own erudition, he proceeded to gauge Sri Ramakrishna. An

orthodox brāhmin, he thoroughly disapproved of his cousin's unorthodox

actions, but he was not unimpressed by Sri Ramakrishna's purity of life,

ecstatic love of God, and yearning for realization.

One day Haladhāri upset Sri Ramakrishna with the statement that God is

incomprehensible to the human mind. Sri Ramakrishna has described the

great moment of doubt when he wondered whether his visions had really

misled him: "With sobs I prayed to the Mother, 'Canst Thou have the heart

to deceive me like this because I am a fool?' A stream of tears flowed from

my eyes. Shortly afterwards I saw a volume of mist rising from the floor

and filling the space before me. In the midst of it there appeared a face with

flowing beard, calm, highly expressive, and fair. Fixing its gaze steadily

upon me, it said solemnly, 'Remain in Bhāva-mukha, on the threshold of

relative consciousness.' This it repeated three times and then it gently

disappeared in the mist, which itself dissolved. This vision reassured me."

A garbled report of Sri Ramakrishna's failing health, indifference to worldly

life, and various abnormal activities reached Kāmārpukur and filled the

heart of his poor mother with anguish. At her repeated request he returned

to his village for a change of air. But his boyhood friends did not interest

him any more. A divine fever was consuming him.

He spent a great part of the day and night in one of the cremation grounds,

in meditation. The place reminded him of the impermanence of the human

body, of human hopes and achievements. It also reminded him of Kāli, the

Goddess of destruction.

Marriage and After

But in a few months his health showed improvement, and he recovered to

some extent his natural buoyancy of spirit. His happy mother was

encouraged to think it might be a good time to arrange his marriage. The

boy was now twenty-three years old. A wife would bring him back to earth.

And she was delighted when her son welcomed her suggestion. Perhaps he

saw in it the finger of God.

Saradāmani, a little girl of five, lived in the neighbouring village called

Jayrāmbāti. Even at this age she had been praying to God to make her

character as stainless and fragrant as the white tuberose. Looking at the full

moon, she would say: "O God, there are dark spots even on the moon. But

make my character spotless." It was she who was selected as the bride for

Sri Ramakrishna.

The marriage ceremony was duly performed. Such early marriage in India

is in the nature of a betrothal, the marriage being consummated when the

girl attains puberty.

But in this case the marriage remained for ever unconsummated. Sri

Ramakrishna lived at Kāmārpukur about a year and a half and then returned

to Dakshineśwar.

Hardly had he crossed the threshold of the Kāli temple when he found

himself again in the whirlwind. His madness reappeared tenfold. The same

meditation and prayer, the same ecstatic moods, the same burning sensation,

the same weeping, the same sleeplessness, the same indifference to the

body and the outside world, the same divine delirium. He subjected himself

to fresh disciplines in order to eradicate greed and lust, the two great

impediments to spiritual progress. With a rupee in one hand and some earth

in the other, he would reflect on the comparative value of these two for the

realization of God, and finding them equally worthless he would toss them,

with equal indifference, into the Ganges. Women he regarded as the

manifestations of the Divine Mother. Never even in a dream did he feel the

impulses of lust. And to root out of his mind the idea of caste superiority, he

cleaned a pariah's house with his long and neglected hair. When he would

sit in meditation, birds would perch on his head and peck in his hair for

grains of food. Snakes would crawl over his body, and neither would he

aware of the other. Sleep left him altogether. Day and night, visions flitted

before him.

He saw the sannyāsi who had previously killed the "sinner" in him again

coming out of his body, threatening him with the trident, and ordering him

to concentrate on God. Or the same sannyāsi would visit distant places,

following a luminous path, and bring him reports of what was happening

there. Sri Ramakrishna used to say later that in the case of an advanced

devotee the mind itself becomes the guru, living and moving like an

embodied being.

Rāni Rāsmani, the foundress of the temple garden, passed away in 1861.

After her death her son-in-law Mathur became the sole executor of the

estate. He placed himself and his resources at the disposal of Sri

Ramakrishna and began to look after his physical comfort. Sri Ramakrishna

later spoke of him as one of his five "suppliers of stores"

appointed by the Divine Mother. Whenever a desire arose in his mind,

Mathur fulfilled it without hesitation.

The Brāhmani

There came to Dakshineśwar at this time a brāhmin woman who was to

play an important part in Sri Ramakrishna's spiritual unfoldment. Born in

East Bengāl, she was an adept in the Tāntrik and Vaishnava methods of

worship. She was slightly over fifty years of age, handsome, and garbed in

the orange robe of a nun. Her sole possessions were a few books and two

pieces of wearing-cloth.

Sri Ramakrishna welcomed the visitor with great respect, described to her

his experiences and visions, and told her of people's belief that these were

symptoms of madness. She listened to him attentively and said: "My son,

everyone in this world is mad. Some are mad for money, some for creature

comforts, some for name and fame; and you are mad for God." She assured

him that he was passing through the almost unknown spiritual experience

described in the scriptures as Mahā–bhāva, the most exalted rapture of

divine love. She told him that this extreme exaltation had been described as

manifesting itself through nineteen physical symptoms, including the

shedding of tears, a tremor of the body, horripilation, perspiration, and a

burning sensation. The Bhakti scriptures, she declared, had recorded only

two instances of the experience, namely, those of Sri Rādhā and Sri

Chaitanya.

Very soon a tender relationship sprang up between Sri Ramakrishna and the

Brāhmani, she looking upon him as the Baby Krishna, and he upon her as

mother. Day after day, she watched his ecstasy during the kirtan and

meditation, his Samādhi, his mad yearning; and she recognized in him a

power to transmit spirituality to others. She came to the conclusion that

such things were not possible for an ordinary devotee, not even for a highly

developed soul. Only an Incarnation of God was capable of such spiritual

manifestations. She proclaimed openly that Sri Ramakrishna, like Sri

Chaitanya, was an Incarnation of God.

When Sri Ramakrishna told Mathur what the Brāhmani had said about him,

Mathur shook his head in doubt. He was reluctant to accept him as an

Incarnation of God, an Avatar comparable to Rāmā, Krishna, Buddha, and

Chaitanya, though he admitted Sri Ramakrishna's extraordinary spirituality.

Whereupon the Brāhmani asked Mathur to arrange a conference of scholars

who should discuss the matter with her. He agreed to the proposal and the

meeting was arranged. It was to be held in the Natmandir in front of the

Kāli temple.

Two famous pundits of the time were invited: Vaishnavcharan, the leader of

the Vaishnava society, and Gauri. The first to arrive was Vaishnavcharan,

with a distinguished company of scholars and devotees. The Brāhmani, like

a proud mother, proclaimed her view before him and supported it with

quotations from the scriptures. As the pundits discussed the deep

theological question, Sri Ramakrishna, perfectly indifferent to everything

happening around him, sat in their midst like a child, immersed in his own

thoughts, sometimes smiling, sometimes chewing a pinch of spices from a

pouch, or again saying to Vaishnavcharan with a nudge: "Look here.

Sometimes I feel like this, too." Presently Vaishnavcharan arose to declare

himself in total agreement with the view of the Brāhmani. He declared that

Sri Ramakrishna had undoubtedly experienced Mahā-bhāva and that this

was the certain sign of the rare manifestation of God in a man. The people

assembled there, especially the officers of the temple garden, were struck

dumb. Sri Ramakrishna said to Mathur, like a boy: "Just fancy, he too says

so! Well, I am glad to learn that, after all, it is not a disease."

When, a few days later, Pundit Gauri arrived, another meeting was held,

and he agreed with the view of the Brāhmani and Vaishnavcharan. To Sri

Ramakrishna's remark that Vaishnavcharan had declared him to be an

Avatār, Gauri replied: "Is that all he has to say about you? Then he has said

very little. I am fully convinced that you are that Mine of Spiritual Power,

only a small fraction of which descends on earth, from time to time, in the

form of an Incarnation."

"Ah!" said Sri Ramakrishna with a smile, "You seem to have quite outbid

Vaishnavcharan in this matter. What have you found in me that makes you

entertain such an idea?"

Gauri said: "I feel it in my heart and I have the scriptures on my side. I am

ready to prove it to anyone who challenges me."

"Well," Sri Ramakrishna said, "it is you who say so; but, believe me, I know

nothing about it."

Thus, the insane priest was, by verdict of the great scholars of the day,

proclaimed a Divine Incarnation. His visions were not the result of an over

heated brain; they had precedent in spiritual history. And how did the

proclamation affect Sri Ramakrishna himself? He remained the simple child

of the Mother that he had been since the first day of his life. Years later,

when two of his householder disciples openly spoke of him as a Divine

Incarnation and the matter was reported to him, he said with a touch of

sarcasm: "Do they think they will enhance my glory that way? One of them

is an actor on the stage and the other a physician. What do they know about

Incarnations? Why years ago pundits like Gauri and Vaishnavcharan

declared me to be an Avatar. They were great scholars and knew what they

said. But that did not make any change in my mind."

Sri Ramakrishna was a learner all his life. He often used to quote a proverb

to his disciples: "Friend, the more I live the more I learn." When the

excitement created by the Brāhmani's declaration was over, he set himself

to the task of practising spiritual disciplines according to the traditional

methods laid down in the Tantra and Vaishnava scriptures. Hitherto he had

pursued his spiritual ideal according to the promptings of his own mind and

heart. Now he accepted the Brāhmani as his guru and set foot on the

traditional highways.

Tantra

According to the Tantra, the Ultimate Reality is Chit, or Consciousness,

which is identical with Sat, or Being, and with Ānanda, or Bliss. This

Ultimate Reality, Satchidānanda, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute, is

identical with the Reality preached in the Vedas.

And man is identical with this Reality; but under the influence of Māyā, or

illusion, he has forgotten his true nature. He takes to be real a merely

apparent world of subject and object, and this error is the cause of his

bondage and suffering. The goal of spiritual discipline is the rediscovery of

his true identity with the divine Reality.

For the achievement of this goal the Vedānta prescribes an austere negative

method of discrimination and renunciation, which can be followed by only

a few individuals endowed with sharp intelligence and unshakeable will-

power. But Tantra takes into consideration the natural weakness of human

beings, their lower appetites, and their love for the concrete. It combines

philosophy with rituals, meditation with ceremonies, renunciation with

enjoyment. The underlying purpose is gradually to train the aspirant to

meditate on his identity with the Ultimate.

The average man wishes to enjoy the material objects of the world. Tantra

bids him enjoy these, but at the same time, discover in them the presence of

God. Mystical rites are prescribed by which, slowly, the sense objects

become spiritualized and sense attraction is transformed into a love of God.

So the very "bonds" of man are turned into "releasers". The very poison that

kills is transmuted into the elixir of life. Outward renunciation is not

necessary. Thus, the aim of Tantra is to sublimate Bhoga, or enjoyment, into

Yoga, or union with Consciousness. For, according to this philosophy, the

world with all its manifestations is nothing but the sport of Śiva and Śakti,

the Absolute and Its inscrutable Power.

The disciplines of Tantra are graded to suit aspirants of all degrees.

Exercises are prescribed for people with "animal", "heroic", and "divine"

outlooks. Certain of the rites require the presence of members of the

opposite sex. Here the aspirant learns to look on woman as the embodiment

of the Goddess Kāli, the Mother of the Universe. The very basis of Tantra is

the Motherhood of God and the glorification of woman. Every part of a

woman's body is to be regarded as incarnate Divinity. But the rites are

extremely dangerous. The help of a qualified guru is absolutely necessary.

An unwary devotee may lose his foothold and fall into a pit of depravity.

According to the Tantra, Śakti is the active creative force in the universe.

Śiva, the Absolute, is a more or less passive principle. Further, Śakti is as

inseparable from Śiva as fire's power to burn is from fire itself. Śakti, the

Creative Power, contains in Its womb the universe, and therefore is the

Divine Mother. All women are Her symbols. Kāli is one of Her several

forms. The meditation on Kāli, the Creative Power, is the central discipline

of the Tantra. While meditating, the aspirant at first regards himself as one

with the Absolute and then thinks that out of that Impersonal Consciousness

emerge two entities, namely, his own self and the living form of the

Goddess. He then projects the Goddess into the tangible image before him

and worships it as the Divine Mother.

Sri Ramakrishna set himself to the task of practising the disciplines of

Tantra; and at the bidding of the Divine Mother Herself he accepted the

Brāhmani as his guru. He performed profound and delicate ceremonies in

the Panchavati and under the bel-tree at the northern extremity of the

temple compound. He practised all the disciplines of the sixty-four principal

Tantra books, and it took him never more than three days to achieve the

result promised in any one of them. After the observance of a few

preliminary rites, he would be overwhelmed with a strange divine fervour

and would go into Samādhi, where his mind would dwell in exaltation. Evil

ceased to exist for him. The word "carnal"

lost its meaning. The whole world and everything in it appeared as the Lila,

the sport, of Śiva and Śakti. He beheld everywhere manifest the power and

beauty of the Mother, the whole world, animate and inanimate, appeared to

him as pervaded with Chit, Consciousness, and with Ānanda, Bliss.

He saw in a vision the Ultimate Cause of the universe as a huge luminous

triangle giving birth every moment to an infinite number of worlds. He

heard the Anāhata Śabda, the great sound Om, of which the innumerable

sounds of the universe are only so many echoes. He acquired the eight

supernatural powers of Yoga, which make a man almost omnipotent, and

these he spurned as of no value whatsoever to the Spirit. He had a vision of

the divine Māyā, the inscrutable Power of God, by which the universe is

created and sustained, and into which it is finally absorbed. In this vision he

saw a woman of exquisite beauty, about to become a mother, emerging from

the Ganges and slowly approaching the Panchavati. Presently she gave birth

to a child and began to nurse it tenderly. A moment later she assumed a

terrible aspect, seized the child with her grim jaws and crushed it.

Swallowing it, she re-entered the waters of the Ganges.

But the most remarkable experience during this period was the awakening

of the Kundalini Śakti, the "Serpent Power". He actually saw the Power, at

first lying asleep at the bottom of the spinal column, then waking up and

ascending along the mystic Sushumna canal and through its six centres, or

lotuses, to the Sahasrāra, the thousand-petalled lotus in the top of the head.

He further saw that as the Kundalini went upward the different lotuses

bloomed. And this phenomenon was accompanied by visions and trances.

Later on he described to his disciples and devotees the various movements

of the Kundalini: the fishlike, birdlike, monkey like, and so on. The

awakening of the Kundalini is the beginning of spiritual consciousness, and

its union with Śiva in the Sahasrāra, ending in Samādhi, is the

consummation of the Tāntrik disciplines.

About this time it was revealed to him that in a short while many devotees

would seek his guidance.

Vaishnava Disciplines

After completing the Tāntrik sādhana Sri Ramakrishna followed the

Brāhmani in the disciplines of Vaishnavism. The Vaishnavas are

worshippers of Vishnu, the "All-pervading", the Supreme God, who is also

known as Hari and Nārāyana. Of Vishnu's various Incarnations the two with

the largest number of followers are Rāmā and Krishna.

Vaishnavism is exclusively a religion of bhakti. Bhakti is intense love of

God, attachment to Him alone; it is of the nature of bliss and bestows upon

the lover immortality and liberation. God, according to Vaishnavism, cannot

be realized through logic or reason; and, without bhakti, all penances,

austerities, and rites are futile. Man cannot realize God by self-exertion

alone. For the vision of God His grace is absolutely necessary, and this

grace is felt by the pure of heart. The mind is to be purified through bhakti.

The pure mind then remains for ever immersed in the ecstasy of God-

vision. It is the cultivation of this divine love that is the chief concern of the

Vaishnava religion.

There are three kinds of formal devotion: tāmasic, rājasic, and sāttvic. If a

person, while showing devotion to God, is actuated by malevolence,

arrogance, jealousy, or anger, then his devotion is tāmasic, since it is

influenced by tamas, the quality of inertia. If he worships God from a desire

for fame or wealth, or from any other worldly ambition, then his devotion is

rājasic, since it is influenced by rajas, the quality of activity. But if a person

loves God without any thought of material gain, if he performs his duties to

please God alone and maintains toward all created beings the attitude of

friendship, then his devotion is called sāttvic, since it is influenced by

sattva, the quality of harmony. But the highest devotion transcends the three

gunās, or qualities, being a spontaneous, uninterrupted inclination of the

mind toward God, the Inner Soul of all beings; and it wells up in the heart

of a true devotee as soon as he hears the name of God or mention of God's

attributes. A devotee possessed of this love would not accept the happiness

of heaven if it were offered him. His one desire is to love God under all

conditions - in pleasure and pain, life and death, honour and dishonour,

prosperity and adversity.

There are two stages of bhakti. The first is known as Vaidhi–Bhakti, or love

of God qualified by scriptural injunctions. For the devotees of this stage are

prescribed regular and methodical worship, hymns, prayers, the repetition

of God's name, and the chanting of His glories. This lower bhakti in course

of time matures into Parā–Bhakti, or supreme devotion, known also as

Prema, the most intense form of divine love. Divine love is an end in itself.

It exists potentially in all human hearts, but in the case of bound creatures it

is misdirected to earthly objects.

To develop the devotee's love for God, Vaishnavism humanises God. God is

to be regarded as the devotee's Parent, Master, Friend, Child, Husband, or

Sweetheart, each succeeding relationship representing an intensification of

love. These Bhāvās, or attitudes toward God, are known as Śānta, Dāsya,

Sakhya, Vātsalya, and Madhur. The rishis of the Vedās, Hanumān, the

cowherd boys of Vrindāvan, Rāmā's mother Kausalya, and Rādhika,

Krishna's sweetheart, exhibited, respectively, the most perfect examples of

these forms. In the ascending scale the glories of God are gradually

forgotten and the devotee realizes more and more the intimacy of divine

communion. Finally he regards himself as the mistress of his Beloved, and

no artificial barrier remains to separate him from his Ideal. No social or

moral obligation can bind to the earth his soaring spirit. He experiences

perfect union with the Godhead. Unlike the Vedantist, who strives to

transcend all varieties of the subject-object relationship, a devotee of the

Vaishnava path wishes to retain both his own individuality and the

personality of God. To him God is not an intangible Absolute, but the

Purushottama, the Supreme Person.

While practising the discipline of the Madhur Bhāva, the male devotee

often regards himself as a woman, in order to develop the most intense form

of love for Sri Krishna, the only Purusha, or man, in the universe. This

assumption of the attitude of the opposite sex has a deep psychological

significance. It is a matter of common experience that an idea may be

cultivated to such an intense degree that every idea alien to it is driven from

the mind. This peculiarity of the mind may he utilised for the subjugation of

the lower desires and the development of the spiritual nature. Now, the idea

which is the basis of all desires and passions in a man is the conviction of

his indissoluble association with a male body. If he can inoculate himself

thoroughly with the idea that he is a woman, he can get rid of the desires

peculiar to his male body. Again, the idea that he is a woman may in turn be

made to give way to another higher idea, namely, that he is neither man nor

woman, but the Impersonal Spirit. The Impersonal Spirit alone can enjoy

real communion with the Impersonal God. Hence the highest realization of

the Vaishnava draws close to the transcendental experience of the Vedantist.

A beautiful expression of the Vaishnava worship of God through love is to

be found in the Vrindāvan episode of the Bhāgavata. The gopis, or

milkmaids, of Vrindāvan regarded the six-year-old Krishna as their

Beloved. They sought no personal gain or happiness from this love. They

surrendered to Krishna their bodies, minds, and souls. Of all the gopis,

Rādhika, or Rādhā, because of her intense love for Him, was the closest to

Krishna. She manifested Mahā–bhāva and was united with her Beloved.

This union represents, through sensuous language, a supersensuous

experience.

Sri Chaitanya, also known as Gaurānga, Gorā, or Nimāi, born in Bengāl in

1485 and regarded as an Incarnation of God, is a great prophet of the

Vaishnava religion.

Chaitanya declared the chanting of God's name to be the most efficacious

spiritual discipline for the Kali–Yuga.

Sri Ramakrishna, as the monkey Hanumān, had already worshipped God as

his Master.

Through his devotion to Kāli he had worshipped God as his Mother. He was

now to take up the other relationships prescribed by the Vaishnava

scriptures.

Ramlālā

About the year 1864 there came to Dakshineśwar a wandering Vaishnava

monk, Jatādhāri, whose Ideal Deity was Rāmā. He always carried with him

a small metal image of the Deity, which he called by the endearing name of

Ramlālā, the Boy Rāmā. Toward this little image he displayed the tender

affection of Kausalya for her divine Son, Rāmā.

As a result of lifelong spiritual practice he had actually found in the metal

image the presence of his Ideal. Ramlālā was no longer for him a metal

image, but the living God.

He devoted himself to nursing Rāmā, feeding Rāmā, playing with Rāmā,

taking Rāmā for a walk, and bathing Rāmā. And he found that the image

responded to his love.

Sri Ramakrishna, much impressed with his devotion, requested Jatādhāri to

spend a few days at Dakshineśwar. Soon Ramlālā became the favourite

companion of Sri Ramakrishna too. Later on he described to the devotees

how the little image would dance gracefully before him, jump on his back,

insist on being taken in his arms, run to the fields in the sun, pluck flowers

from the bushes, and play pranks like a naughty boy.

A very sweet relationship sprang up between him and Ramlālā, for whom

he felt the love of a mother.

One day Jatādhāri requested Sri Ramakrishna to keep the image and bade

him adieu with tearful eyes. He declared that Ramlālā had fulfilled his

innermost prayer and that he now had no more need of formal worship. A

few days later Sri Ramakrishna was blessed through Ramlālā with a vision

of Rāmachandra, whereby he realized that the Rāmā of the Ramayana, the

son of Daśaratha, pervades the whole universe as Spirit and Consciousness;

that He is its Creator, Sustainer, and Destroyer; that, in still another aspect,

He is the transcendental Brahman, without form, attribute, or name.

While worshipping Ramlālā as the Divine Child, Sri Ramakrishna's heart

became filled with motherly tenderness, and he began to regard himself as a

woman. His speech and gestures changed. He began to move freely with the

ladies of Mathur's family, who now looked upon him as one of their own

sex. During this time he worshipped the Divine Mother as Her companion

or handmaid.

In Communion with the Divine Beloved

Sri Ramakrishna now devoted himself to scaling the most inaccessible and

dizzy heights of dualistic worship, namely, the complete union with Sri

Krishna as the Beloved of the heart. He regarded himself as one of the gopis

of Vrindāvan, mad with longing for her divine Sweetheart. At his request

Mathur provided him with woman's dress and jewellery. In this love pursuit,

food and drink were forgotten. Day and night he wept bitterly. The yearning

turned into a mad frenzy; for the divine Krishna began to play with him the

old tricks He had played with the gopis. He would tease and taunt, now and

then revealing Himself, but always keeping at a distance. Sri Ramakrishna's

anguish brought on a return of the old physical symptoms: the burning

sensation, an oozing of blood through the pores, a loosening of the joints,

and the stopping of physiological functions.

The Vaishnava scriptures advise one to propitiate Rādhā and obtain her

grace in order to realize Sri Krishna. So the tortured devotee now turned his

prayer to her. Within a short time he enjoyed her blessed vision. He saw and

felt the figure of Rādhā disappearing into his own body.

He said later on: "It is impossible to describe the heavenly beauty and

sweetness of Rādhā. Her very appearance showed that she had completely

forgotten herself in her passionate attachment to Krishna. Her complexion

was a light yellow."

Now one with Rādhā, he manifested the great ecstatic love, the Mahā–

bhāva which had found in her its fullest expression. Later Sri Ramakrishna

said: "The manifestation in the same individual of the nineteen different

kinds of emotion for God is called, in the books on bhakti, Mahā–bhāva. An

ordinary man takes a whole lifetime to express even a single one of these.

But in this body [meaning himself] there has been a complete manifestation

of all nineteen."

The love of Rādhā is the precursor of the resplendent vision of Sri Krishna,

and Sri Ramakrishna soon experienced that vision. The enchanting form of

Krishna appeared to him and merged in his person. He became Krishna; he

totally forgot his own individuality and the world; he saw Krishna in

himself and in the universe. Thus he attained to the fulfilment of the

worship of the Personal God. He drank from the fountain of Immortal Bliss.

The agony of his heart vanished forever. He realized Amrita, Immortality,

beyond the shadow of death.

One day, listening to a recitation of the Bhāgavata on the verandah of the

Radhākānta temple he fell into a divine mood and saw the enchanting form

of Krishna. He perceived the luminous rays issuing from Krishna's Lotus

Feet in the form of a stout rope, which touched first the Bhāgavata and then

his own chest, connecting all three - God, the scripture, and the devotee.

"After this vision," he used to say, "I came to realize that Bhagavān–

Bhakta–and–Bhāgavata -- God–Devotee–and–Scripture -- are in reality,

one and the same."

Vedānta

The Brāhmani was the enthusiastic teacher and astonished beholder of Sri

Ramakrishna in his spiritual progress. She became proud of the

achievements of her unique pupil. But the pupil himself was not permitted

to rest; his destiny beckoned him forward. His Divine Mother would allow

him no respite till he had left behind the entire realm of duality with its

visions, experiences, and ecstatic dreams. But for the new ascent the old

tender guides would not suffice. The Brāhmani, on whom he had depended

for three years saw her son escape from her to follow the command of a

teacher with masculine strength, a sterner mien, a gnarled physique, and a

virile voice. The new guru was a wandering monk, the sturdy Totāpuri,

whom Sri Ramakrishna learnt to address affectionately as Nangta, the

"Naked One", because of his total renunciation of all earthly objects and

attachments, including even a piece of wearing-cloth.

Totāpuri was the bearer of a philosophy new to Sri Ramakrishna, the non-

dualistic Vedānta philosophy, whose conclusions Totāpuri had experienced

in his own life. This ancient Hindu system designates the Ultimate Reality

as Brahman, also described as Satchidānanda, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss

Absolute. Brahman is the only Real Existence.

In It there is no time, no space, no causality, no multiplicity. But through

Māyā, Its inscrutable Power, time, space, and causality are created and the

One appears to break into the many. The eternal Spirit appears as a

manifold of individuals endowed with form and subject to the conditions of

time. The Immortal becomes a victim of birth and death.

The Changeless undergoes change. The sinless Pure Soul, hypnotised by Its

own Māyā, experiences the joys of heaven and the pains of hell. But these

experiences based on the duality of the subject-object relationship are

unreal. Even the vision of a Personal God is, ultimately speaking, as

illusory as the experience of any other object. Man attains his liberation,

therefore, by piercing the veil of Māyā and rediscovering his total identity

with Brahman. Knowing himself to be one with the Universal Spirit, he

realizes ineffable Peace. Only then does he go beyond the fiction of birth

and death; only then does he become immortal. And this is the ultimate goal

of all religions - to dehypnotize the soul now hypnotized by its own

ignorance.

The path of the Vedāntic discipline is the path of negation, "Neti", in which,

by stern determination, all that is unreal is both negated and renounced. It is

the path of jnāna, knowledge, the direct method of realizing the Absolute.

After the negation of everything relative, including the discriminating ego

itself, the aspirant merges in the One without a Second, in the bliss of

nirvikalpa Samādhi, where subject and object are alike dissolved.

The soul goes beyond the realm of thought. The domain of duality is

transcended. Māyā

is left behind with all its changes and modifications. The Real Man towers

above the delusions of creation, preservation, and destruction. An avalanche

of indescribable Bliss sweeps away all relative ideas of pain and pleasure,

good and evil. There shines in the heart the glory of the Eternal Brahman,

Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute. Knower, knowledge, and known are

dissolved in the Ocean of one eternal Consciousness; love, lover, and

beloved merge in the unbounded Sea of supreme Felicity; birth, growth, and

death vanish in infinite Existence. All doubts and misgivings are quelled for

ever; the oscillations of the mind are stopped; the momentum of past

actions is exhausted.

Breaking down the ridge-pole of the tabernacle in which the soul has made

its abode for untold ages, stilling the body, calming the mind, drowning the

ego, the sweet joy of Brahman wells up in that superconscious state. Space

disappears into nothingness, time is swallowed in eternity, and causation

becomes a dream of the past. Only Existence is.

Ah! Who can describe what the soul then feels in its communion with the

Self?

Even when man descends from this dizzy height, he is devoid of ideas of

"I" and "mine"; he looks on the body as a mere shadow, an outer sheath

encasing the soul. He does not dwell on the past, takes no thought for the

future, and looks with indifference on the present. He surveys everything in

the world with an eye of equality; he is no longer touched by the infinite

variety of phenomena; he no longer reacts to pleasure and pain.

He remains unmoved whether he - that is to say, his body - is worshipped

by the good or tormented by the wicked; for he realizes that it is the one

Brahman that manifests Itself through everything. The impact of such an

experience devastates the body and mind. Consciousness becomes blasted,

as it were, with an excess of Light. In the Vedānta books it is said that after

the experience of nirvikalpa Samādhi the body drops off like a dry leaf.

Only those who are born with a special mission for the world can return

from this height to the valleys of normal life. They live and move in the

world for the welfare of mankind. They are invested with a supreme

spiritual power. A divine glory shines through them.

Totāpuri

Totāpuri arrived at the Dakshineśwar temple garden toward the end of 1864.

Perhaps born in the Punjab, he was the head of a monastery in that province

of India and claimed leadership of seven hundred sannyāsis. Trained from

early youth in the disciplines of the Advaita Vedānta, he looked upon the

world as an illusion. The gods and goddesses of the dualistic worship were

to him mere fantasies of the deluded mind.

Prayers, ceremonies, rites, and rituals had nothing to do with true religion,

and about these he was utterly indifferent. Exercising self-exertion and

unshakable will-power, he had liberated himself from attachment to the

sense-objects of the relative universe. For forty years he had practised

austere discipline on the bank of the sacred Narmada and had finally

realized his identity with the Absolute. Thenceforward he roamed in the

world as an unfettered soul, a lion free from the cage. Clad in a loincloth, he

spent his days under the canopy of the sky alike in storm and sunshine,

feeding his body on the slender pittance of alms. He had been visiting the

estuary of the Ganges. On his return journey along the bank of the sacred

river, led by the inscrutable Divine Will, he stopped at Dakshineśwar.

Totāpuri, discovering at once that Sri Ramakrishna was prepared to be a

student of Vedānta, asked to initiate him into its mysteries. With the

permission of the Divine Mother, Sri Ramakrishna agreed to the proposal.

But Totāpuri explained that only a sannyāsi could receive the teaching of

Vedānta. Sri Ramakrishna agreed to renounce the world, but with the

stipulation that the ceremony of his initiation into the monastic order be

performed in secret, to spare the feelings of his old mother, who had been

living with him at Dakshineśwar.

On the appointed day, in the small hours of the morning, a fire was lighted

in the Panchavati. Totāpuri and Sri Ramakrishna sat before it. The flame

played on their faces.

"Ramakrishna was a small brown man with a short beard and beautiful

eyes, long dark eyes, full of light, obliquely set and slightly veiled, never

very wide open, but seeing half-closed a great distance both outwardly and

inwardly. His mouth was open over his white teeth in a bewitching smile, at

once affectionate and mischievous. Of medium height, he was thin to

emaciation and extremely delicate. His temperament was high-strung, for

he was supersensitive to all the winds of joy and sorrow, both moral and

physical. He was indeed a living reflection of all that happened before the

mirror of his eyes, a two-sided mirror, turned both out and in." Facing him,

the other rose like a rock. He was very tall and robust, a sturdy and tough

oak. His constitution and mind were of iron. He was the strong leader of

men.

In the burning flame before him Sri Ramakrishna performed the rituals of

destroying his attachment to relatives, friends, body, mind, sense-organs,

ego, and the world. The leaping flame swallowed it all, making the initiate

free and pure. The sacred thread and the tuft of hair were consigned to the

fire, completing his severance from caste, sex, and society. Last of all he

burnt in that fire, with all that is holy as his witness, his desire for

enjoyment here and hereafter. He uttered the sacred mantras giving

assurance of safety and fearlessness to all beings, who were only

manifestations of his own Self. The rites completed, the disciple received

from the guru the loincloth and ochre robe, the emblems of his new life.

The teacher and the disciple repaired to the meditation room near by.

Totāpuri began to impart to Sri Ramakrishna the great truths of Vedānta.

"Brahman", he said, "is the only Reality, ever pure, ever illumined, ever

free, beyond the limits of time, space, and causation. Though apparently

divided by names and forms through the inscrutable power of Māyā, that

enchantress who makes the impossible possible, Brahman is really One and

undivided. When a seeker merges in the beatitude of Samādhi, he does not

perceive time and space or name and form, the offspring of Māyā.

Whatever is within the domain of Māyā is unreal. Give it up. Destroy the

prison-house of name and form and rush out of it with the strength of a lion.

Dive deep in search of the Self and realize It through Samādhi. You will

find the world of name and form vanishing into void, and the puny ego

dissolving in Brahman-Consciousness. You will realize your identity with

Brahman, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute." Quoting the Upanishad,

Totāpuri said "That knowledge is shallow by which one sees or hears or

knows another. What is shallow is worthless and can never give real

felicity. But the Knowledge by which one does not see another or hear

another or know another, which is beyond duality, is great, and through

such Knowledge one attains the Infinite Bliss. How can the mind and senses

grasp That which shines in the heart of all as the Eternal Subject?"

Totāpuri asked the disciple to withdraw his mind from all objects of relative

world, including the gods and goddesses, and to concentrate on the

Absolute. But the task was not easy even for Sri Ramakrishna. He found it

impossible to take his mind beyond Kāli, the Divine Mother of the

Universe. "After the initiation", Sri Ramakrishna once said, describing the

event, "Nangta began to teach me the various conclusions of the Advaita

Vedānta and asked me to withdraw the mind completely from all objects

and dive deep into the Ātman. But in spite of all my attempts I could not

altogether cross the realm of name and form and bring my mind to the

unconditioned state. I had no difficulty in taking the mind from all the

objects of the world. But the radiant and too familiar figure of the Blissful

Mother, the Embodiment of the essence of Pure Consciousness, appeared

before me as a living reality. Her bewitching smile prevented me from

passing into the Great Beyond. Again and again I tried, but She stood in my

way every time. In despair I said to Nangta: 'It is hopeless. I cannot raise

my mind to the unconditioned state and come face to face with Ātman.' He

grew excited and sharply said: 'What? You can't do it?

But you have to.' He cast his eyes around. Finding a piece of glass he took it

up and stuck it between my eyebrows. 'Concentrate the mind on this point!'

he thundered. Then with stern determination I again sat to meditate. As

soon as the gracious form of the Divine Mother appeared before me, I used

my discrimination as a sword and with it clove Her in two. The last barrier

fell. My spirit at once soared beyond the relative plane and I lost myself in

Samādhi."

Sri Ramakrishna remained completely absorbed in Samādhi for three days.

"Is it really true?" Totāpuri cried out in astonishment. "Is it possible that he

has attained in a single day what it took me forty years of strenuous practice

to achieve? Great God! It is nothing short of a miracle!" With the help of

Totāpuri, Sri Ramakrishna's mind finally came down to the relative Plane.

Totāpuri, a monk of the most orthodox type, never stayed at a place more

than three days. But he remained at Dakshineśwar eleven months. He too

had something to learn.

Totāpuri had no idea of the struggles of ordinary men in the toils of passion

and desire.

Having maintained all through life the guilelessness of a child, he laughed

at the idea of a man's being led astray by the senses. He was convinced that

the world, was Māyā and had only to be denounced to vanish for ever. A

born non-dualist, he had no faith in a Personal God. He did not believe in

the terrible aspect of Kāli, much less in Her benign aspect. Music and the

chanting of God's holy name were to him only so much nonsense.

He ridiculed the spending of emotion on the worship of a Personal God.

Kāli and Māyā

Sri Ramakrishna, on the other hand, though fully aware, like his guru, that

the world is an illusory appearance, instead of slighting Māyā, like an

orthodox monist, acknowledged its power in the relative life. He was all

love and reverence for Māyā, perceiving in it a mysterious and majestic

expression of Divinity. To him Māyā itself was God, for everything was

God. It was one of the faces of Brahman. What he had realized on the

heights of the transcendental plane, he also found here below, everywhere

about him, under the mysterious garb of names and forms. And this garb

was a perfectly transparent sheath, through which he recognized the glory

of the Divine Immanence.

Māyā, the mighty weaver of the garb, is none other than Kāli, the Divine

Mother. She is the primordial Divine Energy, Śakti, and She can no more be

distinguished from the Supreme Brahman than can the power of burning be

distinguished from fire. She projects the world and again withdraws it. She

spins it as the spider spins its web. She is the Mother of the Universe,

identical with the Brahman of Vedānta, and with the Ātman of Yoga. As

eternal Lawgiver, She makes and unmakes laws; it is by Her imperious will

that karma yields its fruit. She ensnares men with illusion and again releases

them from bondage with a look of Her benign eyes. She is the supreme

Mistress of the cosmic play, and all objects, animate and inanimate, dance

by Her will. Even those who realize the Absolute in nirvikalpa Samādhi are

under Her jurisdiction as long as they still live on the relative plane.

Thus, after Nirvikalpa Samādhi, Sri Ramakrishna realized Māyā in an

altogether new role. The binding aspect of Kāli vanished from before his

vision. She no longer obscured his understanding. The world became the

glorious manifestation of the Divine Mother.

Māyā became Brahman. The Transcendental Itself broke through the

Immanent. Sri Ramakrishna discovered that Māyā operates in the relative

world in two ways, and he termed these "Avidyā–Māyā" and "Vidyā–

Māyā". Avidyā–Māyā represents the dark forces of creation: sensuous

desires, evil passions, greed, lust, cruelty, and so on. It sustains the world

system on the lower planes. It is responsible for the round of man's birth

and death. It must be fought and vanquished. But Vidyā–Māyā is the higher

force of creation: the spiritual virtues, the enlightening qualities, kindness,

purity, love, devotion.

Vidyā–Māyā elevates man to the higher planes of consciousness. With the

help of Vidyā– Māyā the devotee rids himself of Avidyā–Māyā; he then

becomes Māyātita, free of Māyā.

The two aspects of Māyā are the two forces of creation, the two powers of

Kāli; and She stands beyond them both. She is like the effulgent sun,

bringing into existence and shining through and standing behind the clouds

of different colours and shapes, conjuring up wonderful forms in the blue

autumn heaven.

The Divine Mother asked Sri Ramakrishna not to be lost in the featureless

Absolute but to remain in Bhāva–mukha, on the threshold of relative

consciousness, the border line between the Absolute and the Relative. He

was to keep himself at the "sixth centre" of Tantra, from which he could see

not only the glory of the seventh, but also the divine manifestations of the

Kundalini in the lower centres. He gently oscillated back and forth across

the dividing line. Ecstatic devotion to the Divine Mother alternated with

serene absorption in the Ocean of Absolute Unity. He thus bridged the gulf

between the Personal and the Impersonal, the immanent and the

transcendent aspects of Reality.

This is a unique experience in the recorded spiritual history of the world.

Totāpuri's Lesson

From Sri Ramakrishna Totāpuri had to learn the significance of Kāli, the

Great Fact of the relative world, and of Māyā, Her indescribable Power.

One day, when guru and disciple were engaged in an animated discussion

about Vedānta, a servant of the temple garden came there and took a coal

from the sacred fire that had been lighted by the great ascetic. He wanted it

to light his tobacco. Totāpuri flew into a rage and was about to beat the

man. Sri Ramakrishna rocked with laughter.

"What a shame!" he cried. "You are explaining to me the reality of Brahman

and the illusoriness of the world; yet now you have so far forgotten yourself

as to be about to beat a man in a fit of passion. The power of Māyā is

indeed inscrutable!" Totāpuri was embarrassed.

About this time Totāpuri was suddenly laid up with a severe attack of

dysentery. On account of this miserable illness he found it impossible to

meditate. One night the pain became excruciating. He could no longer

concentrate on Brahman. The body stood in the way. He became incensed

with its demands. A free soul, he did not at all care for the body. So he

determined to drown it in the Ganges. Thereupon he walked into the river.

But, lo! He walks to the other bank. Is there not enough water in the

Ganges? Standing dumbfounded on the other bank he looks back across the

water. The trees, the temples, the houses, are silhouetted against the sky.

Suddenly, in one dazzling moment, he sees on all sides the presence of the

Divine Mother. She is in everything; She is everything.

She is in the water; She is on land. She is the body; She is the mind. She is

pain; She is comfort. She is knowledge; She is ignorance. She is life; She is

death. She is everything that one sees, hears, or imagines. She turns "yea"

into "nay", and "nay" into "yea".

Without Her grace no embodied being can go beyond Her realm. Man has

no free will. He is not even free to die. Yet, again, beyond the body and

mind She resides in Her Transcendental Absolute aspect. She is the

Brahman that Totāpuri had been worshipping all his life.

Totāpuri returned to Dakshineśwar and spent the remaining hours of the

night meditating on the Divine Mother. In the morning he went to the Kāli

temple with Sri Ramakrishna and prostrated himself before the image of the

Mother. He now realized why he had spent eleven months at Dakshineśwar.

Bidding farewell to the disciple, he continued on his way, enlightened.

Sri Ramakrishna later described the significance of Totāpuri's lessons:

"When I think of the Supreme Being as inactive - neither creating nor

preserving nor destroying -, I call Him Brahman or Purusha, the Impersonal

God. When I think of Him as active - creating, preserving, and destroying -,

I call Him Śakti or Māyā or Prakriti, the Personal God. But the distinction

between them does not mean a difference. The Personal and the Impersonal

are the same thing, like milk and its whiteness, the diamond and its lustre,

the snake and its wriggling motion. It is impossible to conceive of the one

without the other. The Divine Mother and Brahman are one."

After the departure of Totāpuri, Sri Ramakrishna remained for six months in

a state of absolute identity with Brahman. "For six months at a stretch", he

said, "I remained in that state from which ordinary men can never return;

generally the body falls off, after three weeks, like a sere leaf. I was not

conscious of day and night. Flies would enter my mouth and nostrils just as

they do a dead body's, but I did not feel them. My hair became matted with

dust."

His body would not have survived but for the kindly attention of a monk

who happened to be at Dakshineśwar at that time and who somehow

realized that for the good of humanity Sri Ramakrishna's body must be

preserved. He tried various means, even physical violence, to recall the

fleeing soul to the prison-house of the body, and during the resultant

fleeting moments of consciousness he would push a few morsels of food

down Sri Ramakrishna's throat. Presently Sri Ramakrishna received the

command of the Divine Mother to remain on the threshold of relative

consciousness. Soon thereafter he was afflicted with a serious attack of

dysentery. Day and night the pain tortured him, and his mind gradually

came down to the physical plane.

Company of Holy Men and Devotees

From now on Sri Ramakrishna began to seek the company of devotees and

holy men. He had gone through the storm and stress of spiritual disciplines

and visions. Now he realized an inner calmness and appeared to others as a

normal person. But he could not bear the company of worldly people or

listen to their talk. Fortunately the holy atmosphere of Dakshineśwar and

the liberality of Mathur attracted monks and holy men from all parts of the

country. Sādhus of all denominations - monists and dualists, Vaishnavas and

Vedāntists, Śāktās and worshippers of Rāmā - flocked there in ever

increasing numbers. Ascetics and visionaries came to seek Sri

Ramakrishna's advice.

Vaishnavas had come during the period of his Vaishnava sādhana, and

Tāntriks when he practised the disciplines of Tantra. Vedāntists began to

arrive after the departure of Totāpuri. In the room of Sri Ramakrishna, who

was then in bed with dysentery, the Vedāntists engaged in scriptural

discussions, and, forgetting his own physical suffering, he solved their

doubts by referring directly to his own experiences. Many of the visitors

were genuine spiritual souls, the unseen pillars of Hinduism, and their

spiritual lives were quickened in no small measure by the sage of

Dakshineśwar. Sri Ramakrishna in turn learnt from them anecdotes

concerning the ways and the conduct of holy men, which he subsequently

narrated to his devotees and disciples. At his request Mathur provided him

with large stores of foodstuffs, clothes, and so forth, for distribution among

the wandering monks.

Sri Ramakrishna had not read books, yet he possessed an encyclopaedic

knowledge of religions and religious philosophies. This he acquired from

his contacts with innumerable holy men and scholars. He had a unique

power of assimilation; through meditation he made this knowledge a part of

his being. Once, when he was asked by a disciple about the source of his

seemingly inexhaustible knowledge, he replied: "I have not read; but I have

heard the learned. I have made a garland of their knowledge, wearing it

round my neck, and I have given it as an offering at the feet of the Mother."

Sri Ramakrishna used to say that when the flower blooms the bees come to

it for honey of their own accord. Now many souls began to visit

Dakshineśwar to satisfy their spiritual hunger. He, the devotee and aspirant,

became the Master. Gauri, the great scholar who had been one of the first to

proclaim Sri Ramakrishna an Incarnation of God, paid the Master a visit in

1870 and with the Master's blessings renounced the world. Nārāyan Śāstri,

another great pundit, who had mastered the six systems of Hindu

philosophy and had been offered a lucrative post by the Maharaja of Jaipur,

met the Master and recognized in him one who had realized in life those

ideals which he himself had encountered merely in books. Sri Ramakrishna

initiated Nārāyan Śastri, at his earnest request, into the life of sannyās.

Pundit Padmalochan, the court pundit of the Maharaja of Burdwan, well

known for his scholarship in both the Vedānta and the Nyāya systems of

philosophy, accepted the Master as an Incarnation of God. Krishnakishore,

a Vedantist scholar, became devoted to the Master. And there arrived

Viśwanāth Upādhyāya, who was to become a favourite devotee; Sri

Ramakrishna always addressed him as "Captain". He was a high officer of

the King of Nepal and had received the title of Colonel in recognition of his

merit. A scholar of the Gita, the Bhāgavata, and the Vedānta philosophy, he

daily performed the worship of his Chosen Deity with great devotion. "I

have read the Vedas and the other scriptures", he said. "I have also met a

good many monks and devotees in different places. But it is in Sri

Ramakrishna's presence that my spiritual yearnings have been fulfilled. To

me he seems to be the embodiment of the truths of the scriptures."

The Knowledge of Brahman in nirvikalpa Samādhi had convinced Sri

Ramakrishna that the gods of the different religions are but so many

readings of the Absolute, and that the Ultimate Reality could never be

expressed by human tongue. He understood that all religions lead their

devotees by differing paths to one and the same goal. Now he became eager

to explore some of the alien religions; for with him understanding meant

actual experience.

Islām

Toward the end of 1866 he began to practise the disciplines of Islām. Under

the direction of his Mussalman guru he abandoned himself to his new

sādhana. He dressed as a Mussalman and repeated the name of Allah.

His prayers took the form of the Islamic devotions. He forgot the Hindu

gods and goddesses - even Kāli - and gave up visiting the temples. He took

up his residence outside the temple precincts. After three days he saw the

vision of a radiant figure, perhaps Mohammed. This figure gently

approached him and finally lost himself in Sri Ramakrishna. Thus he

realized the Mussalman God. Thence he passed into communion with

Brahman. The mighty river of Islam also led him back to the Ocean of the

Absolute.

Christianity

Eight years later, some time in November 1874, Sri Ramakrishna was

seized with an irresistible desire to learn the truth of the Christian religion.

He began to listen to readings from the Bible, by Śambhu Charan Mallick, a

gentleman of Calcutta and a devotee of the Master. Sri Ramakrishna

became fascinated by the life and teachings of Jesus. One day he was seated

in the parlour of Jadu Mallick's garden house at Dakshineśwar, when his

eyes became fixed on a painting of the Madonna and Child.

Intently watching it, he became gradually overwhelmed with divine

emotion. The figures in the picture took on life, and the rays of light

emanating from them entered his soul.

The effect of this experience was stronger than that of the vision of

Mohammed. In dismay he cried out, "O Mother! What are You doing to

me?" And, breaking through the barriers of creed and religion, he entered a

new realm of ecstasy. Christ possessed his soul. For three days he did not

set foot in the Kāli temple. On the fourth day, in the afternoon, as he was

walking in the Panchavati, he saw coming toward him a person with

beautiful large eyes, serene countenance, and fair skin. As the two faced

each other, a voice rang out in the depths of Sri Ramakrishna's soul:

"Behold the Christ who shed His heart's blood for the redemption of the

world, who suffered a sea of anguish for love of men. It is He, the Master

Yogi, who is in eternal union with God. It is Jesus, Love Incarnate." The

Son of Man embraced the Son of the Divine Mother and merged in him.

Sri Ramakrishna realized his identity with Christ, as he had already realized

his identity with Kāli, Rāmā, Hanuman, Rādhā, Krishna, Brahman, and

Mohammed. The Master went into Samādhi and communed with the

Brahman with attributes. Thus he experienced the truth that Christianity,

too, was a path leading to God-Consciousness. Till the last moment of his

life he believed that Christ was an Incarnation of God. But Christ, for him,

was not the only Incarnation; there were others - Buddha, for instance, and

Krishna.

Attitude toward Different Religions

Sri Ramakrishna accepted the divinity of Buddha and used to point out the

similarity of his teachings to those of the Upanishads. He also showed great

respect for the Tirthankarās, who founded Jainism, and for the ten Gurus of

Sikhism. But he did not speak of them as Divine Incarnations. He was heard

to say that the Gurus of Sikhism were the reincarnations of King Janaka of

ancient India. He kept in his room at Dakshineśwar a small statue of

Tirthankara Mahāvira and a picture of Christ, before which incense was

burnt morning and evening.

Without being formally initiated into their doctrines, Sri Ramakrishna thus

realized the ideals of religions other than Hinduism. He did not need to

follow any doctrine. All barriers were removed by his overwhelming love

of God. So he became a Master who could speak with authority regarding

the ideas and ideals of the various religions of the world. "I have practised",

said he, "all religions - Hinduism, Islam, Christianity - and I have also

followed the paths of the different Hindu sects. I have found that it is the

same God toward whom all are directing their steps, though along different

paths. You must try all beliefs and traverse all the different ways once.

Wherever I look, I see men quarrelling in the name of religion - Hindus,

Mohammedans, Brahmos, Vaishnavās, and the rest. But they never reflect

that He who is called Krishna is also called Śiva, and bears the name of the

Primal Energy, Jesus, and Allah as well - the same Rāmā with a thousand

names. A lake has several G hāts. At one, the Hindus take water in pitchers

and call it 'Jal' ; at another the Mussalmans take water in leather bags and

call it 'pāni' . At a third the Christians call it 'water' . Can we imagine that it

is not 'jal', but only 'pāni' or 'water'? How ridiculous! The substance is One

under different names, and everyone is seeking the same substance; only

climate, temperament, and name create differences.

Let each man follow his own path. If he sincerely and ardently wishes to

know God, peace be unto him! He will surely realize Him."

In 1867, Sri Ramakrishna returned to Kāmārpukur to recuperate from the

effect of his austerities. The peaceful countryside, the simple and artless

companions of his boyhood, and the pure air did him much good. The

villagers were happy to get back their playful, frank, witty, kind-hearted,

and truthful Gadādhar, though they did not fail to notice the great change

that had come over him during his years in Calcutta. His wife, Sāradā Devi,

now fourteen years old, soon arrived at Kāmārpukur. Her spiritual

development was much beyond her age and she was able to understand

immediately her husband's state of mind. She became eager to learn from

him about God and to live with him as his attendant. The Master accepted

her cheerfully both as his disciple and as his spiritual companion. Referring

to the experiences of these few days, she once said: "I used to feel always as

if a pitcher full of bliss were placed in my heart. The joy was

indescribable."

Pilgrimage

On January 27, 1868, Mathur Bābu with a party of some one hundred and

twenty-five persons set out on a pilgrimage to the sacred places of northern

India. At Vaidyanāth in Behar, when the Master saw the inhabitants of a

village reduced by poverty and starvation to mere skeletons, he requested

his rich patron to feed the people and give each a piece of cloth. Mathur

demurred at the added expense. The Master declared bitterly that he would

not go on to Banāras, but would live with the poor and share their miseries.

He actually left Mathur and sat down with the villagers.

Whereupon Mathur had to yield. On another occasion, two years later, Sri

Ramakrishna showed a similar sentiment for the poor and needy. He

accompanied Mathur on a tour to one of the latter's estates at the time of the

collection of rents. For two years the harvests had failed and the tenants

were in a state of extreme poverty. The Master asked Mathur to remit their

rents, distribute help to them, and in addition give the hungry people a

sumptuous feast. When Mathur grumbled, the Master said: "You are only

the steward of the Divine Mother. They are the Mother's tenants. You must

spend the Mother's money. When they are suffering, how can you refuse to

help them? You must help them." Again Mathur had to give in. Sri

Ramakrishna's sympathy for the poor sprang from his perception of God in

all created beings. His sentiment was not that of the humanist or

philanthropist. To him the service of man was the same as the worship of

God.

The party entered holy Banāras by boat along the Ganges. When Sri

Ramakrishna's eyes fell on this city of Śiva, where had accumulated for

ages the devotion and piety of countless worshippers, he saw it to be made

of gold, as the scriptures declare. He was visibly moved. During his stay in

the city he treated every particle of its earth with utmost respect. At the

Manikarnikā Ghāt, the great cremation ground of the city, he actually saw

Śiva, with ash-covered body and tawny matted hair, serenely approaching

each funeral pyre and breathing into the ears of the corpses the mantra of

liberation; and then the Divine Mother removing from the dead their bonds.

Thus he realized the significance of the scriptural statement that anyone

dying in Banāras attains salvation through the grace of Śiva. He paid a visit

to Trailanga Swāmi, the celebrated monk, whom he later declared to be a

real paramahamsa, a veritable image of Śiva.

Sri Ramakrishna visited Allahābad, at the confluence of the Ganges and the

Jamuna, and then proceeded to Vrindāvan and Mathura, hallowed by the

legends, songs, and dramas about Krishna and the gopis. Here he had

numerous visions and his heart overflowed with divine emotion. He wept

and said: "O Krishna! Everything here is as it was in the olden days. You

alone are absent." He visited the great woman saint Gangāmāyi, regarded

by Vaishnava devotees as the reincarnation of an intimate attendant of

Rādhā.

She was sixty years old and had frequent trances. She spoke of Sri

Ramakrishna as an incarnation of Rādhā. With great difficulty he was

persuaded to leave her.

On the return journey Mathur wanted to visit Gayā, but Sri Ramakrishna

declined to go.

He recalled his father's vision at Gayā before his own birth and felt that in

the temple of Vishnu he would become permanently absorbed in God.

Mathur, honouring the Master's wish, returned with his party to Calcutta.

From Vrindāvan the Master had brought a handful of dust. Part of this he

scattered in the Panchavati; the rest he buried in the little hut where he had

practised meditation.

"Now this place", he said, "is as sacred as Vrindāvan."

In 1870 the Master went on a pilgrimage to Nadia, the birthplace of Sri

Chaitanya. As the boat by which he travelled approached the sand-bank

close to Nadia, Sri Ramakrishna had a vision of the "two brothers", Sri

Chaitanya and his companion Nityānanda, "bright as molten gold" and with

haloes, rushing to greet him with uplifted hands. "There they come! There

they come!" he cried. They entered his body and he went into a deep trance.

Relation with His Wife

In 1872, Sāradā Devi paid her first visit to her husband at Dakshineśwar.

Four years earlier she had seen him at Kāmārpukur and had tasted the bliss

of his divine company.

Since then she had become even more gentle, tender, introspective, serious,

and unselfish. She had heard many rumours about her husband's insanity.

People had shown her pity in her misfortune. The more she thought, the

more she felt that her duty was to be with him, giving him, in whatever

measure she could, a wife's devoted service. She was now eighteen years

old. Accompanied by her father, she arrived at Dakshineśwar, having come

on foot the distance of eighty miles. She had had an attack of fever on the

way. When she arrived at the temple garden the Master said sorrowfully:

"Ah! You have come too late. My Mathur is no longer here to look after

you." Mathur had passed away the previous year.

The Master took up the duty of instructing his young wife, and this included

everything from housekeeping to the Knowledge of Brahman. He taught her

how to trim a lamp, how to behave toward people according to their

differing temperaments, and how to conduct herself before visitors. He

instructed her in the mysteries of spiritual life -

prayer, meditation, japa, deep contemplation, and Samādhi. The first lesson

that Sāradā

Devi received was: "God is everybody's Beloved, just as the moon is dear to

every child.

Everyone has the same right to pray to Him. Out of His grace He reveals

Himself to all who call upon Him. You too will see Him if you but pray to

Him."

Totāpuri, coming to know of the Master's marriage, had once remarked:

"What does it matter? He alone is firmly established in the Knowledge of

Brahman who can adhere to his spirit of discrimination and renunciation

even while living with his wife. He alone has attained the supreme

illumination who can look on man and woman alike as Brahman. A man

with the idea of sex may be a good aspirant, but he is still far from the

goal." Sri Ramakrishna and his wife lived together at Dakshineśwar, but

their minds always soared above the worldly plane. A few months after

Sāradā Devi's arrival Sri Ramakrishna arranged, on an auspicious day, a

special worship of Kāli, the Divine Mother. Instead of an image of the

Deity, he placed on the seat the living image, Sāradā Devi herself. The

worshipper and the worshipped went into deep Samādhi and in the

transcendental plane their souls were united. After several hours Sri

Ramakrishna came down again to the relative plane, sang a hymn to the

Great Goddess, and surrendered, at the feet of the living image, himself, his

rosary, and the fruit of his lifelong sādhana. This is known in Tantra as the

Shodasi Puja, the "Adoration of Woman". Sri Ramakrishna realized the

significance of the great statement of the Upanishad: "O Lord, Thou art the

woman, Thou art the man; Thou art the boy, Thou art the girl; Thou art the

old, tottering on their crutches. Thou pervadest the universe in its multiple

forms."

By his marriage Sri Ramakrishna admitted the great value of marriage in

man's spiritual evolution, and by adhering to his monastic vows he

demonstrated the imperative necessity of self-control, purity, and

continence, in the realization of God. By his unique spiritual relationship

with his wife he proved that husband and wife can live together as spiritual

companions. Thus his life is a synthesis of the ways of life of the

householder and the monk.

The "Ego" of the Master

In the nirvikalpa Samādhi Sri Ramakrishna had realized that Brahman alone

is real and the world illusory. By keeping his mind six months on the plane

of the non-dual Brahman, he had attained to the state of the Vijnani, the

Knower of Truth in a special and very rich sense, who sees Brahman not

only in himself and in the transcendental Absolute, but in everything of the

world. In this state of Vijnāna, sometimes, bereft of body-consciousness, he

would regard himself as one with Brahman; sometimes, conscious of the

dual world, he would regard himself as God's devotee, servant, or child.

In order to enable the Master to work for the welfare of humanity, the

Divine Mother had kept in him a trace of ego, which he described -

according to his mood - as the "ego of Knowledge", the "ego of Devotion",

the "ego of a child", or the "ego of a servant". In any case this ego of the

Master, consumed by the fire of the Knowledge of Brahman, was an

appearance only, like a burnt string. He often referred to this ego as the

"ripe ego" in contrast with the ego of the bound soul, which he described as

the "unripe" or "green"

ego. The ego of the bound soul identifies itself with the body, relatives,

possessions, and the world; but the "ripe ego", illumined by Divine

Knowledge, knows the body, relatives, possessions, and the world to be

unreal and establishes a relationship of love with God alone. Through this

"ripe ego" Sri Ramakrishna dealt with the world and his wife. One day,

while stroking his feet, Sāradā Devi asked the Master, "What do you think

of me?"

Quick came the answer: "The Mother who is worshipped in the temple is

the mother who has given birth to my body and is now living in the

Nahabat, and it is She again who is stroking my feet at this moment. Indeed,

I always look on you as the personification of the Blissful Mother Kāli."

Sāradā Devi, in the company of her husband, had rare spiritual experiences.

She said: "I have no words to describe my wonderful exaltation of spirit as I

watched him in his different moods. Under the influence of divine emotion

he would sometimes talk on abstruse subjects, sometimes laugh, sometimes

weep, and sometimes become perfectly motionless in Samādhi. This would

continue throughout the night. There was such an extraordinary divine

presence in him that now and then I would shake with fear and wonder how

the night would pass. Months went by in this way. Then one day he

discovered that I had to keep awake the whole night lest, during my sleep,

he should go into Samādhi - for it might happen at any moment -, and so he

asked me to sleep in the Nahabat."

Summary of the Master's Spiritual Experiences

We have now come to the end of Sri Ramakrishna's sādhana, the period of

his spiritual discipline. As a result of his supersensuous experiences he

reached certain conclusions regarding himself and spirituality in general.

His conclusions about himself may be summarised as follows:

First, he was an Incarnation of God, a specially commissioned person,

whose spiritual experiences were for the benefit of humanity. Whereas it

takes an ordinary man a whole life's struggle to realize one or two phases of

God, he had in a few years realized God in all His phases.

Second, he knew that he had always been a free soul, that the various

disciplines through which he had passed were really not necessary for his

own liberation but were solely for the benefit of others. Thus the terms

liberation and bondage were not applicable to him. As long as there are

beings who consider themselves bound, God must come down to earth as an

Incarnation to free them from bondage, just as a magistrate must visit any

part of his district in which there is trouble.

Third, he came to foresee the time of his death. His words with respect to

this matter were literally fulfilled.

About spirituality in general the following were his conclusions : First,

he was firmly convinced that all religions are true, that every doctrinal

system represents a path to God. He had followed all the main paths and all

had led him to the same goal. He was the first religious prophet recorded in

history to preach the harmony of religions.

Second, the three great systems of thought known as Dualism, Qualified

Non-dualism, and Absolute Non-dualism - Dvaita, Visishtādvaita, and

Advaita - he perceived to represent three stages in man's progress toward

the Ultimate Reality. They were not contradictory but complementary and

suited to different temperaments. For the ordinary man with strong

attachment to the senses, a dualistic form of religion, prescribing a certain

amount of material support, such as music and other symbols, is useful. A

man of God-realization transcends the idea of worldly duties, but the

ordinary mortal must perform his duties, striving to be unattached and to

surrender the results to God. The mind can comprehend and describe the

range of thought and experience up to the Viśiśtādvaita, and no further. The

Advaita, the last word in spiritual experience, is something to be felt in

Samādhi, for it transcends mind and speech. From the highest standpoint,

the Absolute and Its manifestation are equally real - the Lord's Name, His

Abode, and the Lord Himself are of the same spiritual Essence. Everything

is Spirit, the difference being only in form.

Third, Sri Ramakrishna realized the wish of the Divine Mother that through

him She should found a new Order, consisting of those who would uphold

the universal doctrines illustrated in his life.

Fourth, his spiritual insight told him that those who were having their last

birth on the mortal plane of existence and those who had sincerely called on

the Lord even once in their lives must come to him.

During this period Sri Ramakrishna suffered several bereavements. The first

was the death of a nephew named, Akshay. After the young man's death Sri

Ramakrishna said: "Akshay died before my very eyes. But it did not affect

me in the least. I stood by and watched a man die. It was like a sword being

drawn from its scabbard. I enjoyed the scene, and laughed and sang and

danced over it. They removed the body and cremated it. But the next day as

I stood there (pointing to the southeast verandah of his room), I felt a

racking pain for the loss of Akshay, as if somebody were squeezing my

heart like a wet towel. I wondered at it and thought that the Mother was

teaching me a lesson. I was not much concerned even with my own body -

much less with a relative. But if such was my pain at the loss of a nephew,

how much more must be the grief of the householders at the loss of their

near and dear ones!" In 1871 Mathur died, and some five years later

Śambhu Mallick - who, after Mathur's passing away, had taken care of the

Master's comfort. In 1873 died his elder brother Rāmeśwar, and in 1876, his

beloved mother.

These bereavements left their imprint on the tender human heart of Sri

Ramakrishna albeit he had realized the immortality of the soul and the

illusoriness of birth and death.

In March 1875, about a year before the death of his mother, the Master met

Keshab Chandra Sen. The meeting was a momentous event for both Sri

Ramakrishna and Keshab. Here the Master for the first time came into

actual contact with a worthy representative of modern India.

Brāhmo Samāj

Keshab was the leader of the Brāhmo Samāj, one of the two great

movements that, during the latter part of the nineteenth century, played an

important part in shaping the course of the renascence of India. The founder

of the Brāhmo movement had been the great Rājā Rāmmohan Roy (1774-

1833). Though born in an orthodox brāhmin family, Rāmmohan Roy had

shown great sympathy for Islam and Christianity. He had gone to Tibet in

search of the Buddhist mysteries. He had extracted from Christianity its

ethical system, but had rejected the divinity of Christ as he had denied the

Hindu Incarnations.

The religion of Islam influenced him, to a great extent, in the formulation of

his monotheistic doctrines. But he always went back to the Vedas for his

spiritual inspiration. The Brāhmo Samāj, which he founded in 1828, was

dedicated to the "worship and adoration of the Eternal, the Unsearchable,

the Immutable Being, who is the Author and Preserver of the Universe".

The Samāj was open to all without distinction of colour, creed, caste,

nation, or religion.

The real organizer of the Samāj was Devendranāth Tāgore (1817-1905), the

father of the poet Rabindranāth. His physical and spiritual beauty,

aristocratic aloofness, penetrating intellect, and poetic sensibility made him

the foremost leader of the educated Bengālis. These addressed him by the

respectful epithet of Maharshi, the "Great Seer". The Maharshi was a

Sanskrit scholar and, unlike Rājā Rāmmohan Roy, drew his inspiration

entirely from the Upanishads. He was an implacable enemy of image

worship and also fought to stop the infiltration of Christian ideas into the

Samāj. He gave the movement its faith and ritual. Under his influence the

Brāhmo Samāj professed One Self-existent Supreme Being who had created

the universe out of nothing, the God of Truth, Infinite Wisdom, Goodness,

and Power, the Eternal and Omnipotent, the One without a Second. Man

should love Him and do His will, believe in Him and worship Him, and

thus merit salvation in the world to come.

By far the ablest leader of the Brāhmo movement was Keshab Chandra Sen

(1838-1884). Unlike Rājā Rāmmohan Roy and Devendranāth Tāgore,

Keshab was born of a middle-class Bengāli family and had been brought up

in an English school. He did not know Sanskrit and very soon broke away

from the popular Hindu religion. Even at an early age he came under the

spell of Christ and professed to have experienced the special favour of John

the Baptist, Christ, and St. Paul. When he strove to introduce Christ to the

Brāhmo Samāj, a rupture became inevitable with Devendranāth. In 1868

Keshab broke with the older leader and founded the Brāhmo Samāj of

India, Devendra retaining leadership of the first Brāhmo Samāj, now called

the Ādi Samāj.

Keshab possessed a complex nature. When passing through a great moral

crisis, he spent much of his time in solitude and felt that he heard the voice

of God. When a devotional form of worship was introduced into the

Brāhmo Samāj, he spent hours in singing kirtan with his followers. He

visited England in 1870 and impressed the English people with his musical

voice, his simple English, and his spiritual fervour. He was entertained by

Queen Victoria. Returning to India, he founded centres of the Brāhmo

Samāj in various parts of the country. Not unlike a professor of comparative

religion in a European university, he began to discover, about the time of his

first contact with Sri Ramakrishna, the harmony of religions. He became

sympathetic toward the Hindu gods and goddesses, explaining them in a

liberal fashion. Further, he believed that he was called by God to dictate to

the world God's newly revealed law, the New Dispensation, the

Navavidhān.

In 1878 a schism divided Keshab's Samāj. Some of his influential followers

accused him of infringing the Brāhmo principles by marrying his daughter

to a wealthy man before she had attained the marriageable age approved by

the Samāj. This group seceded and established the Sādhāran Brāhmo

Samāj, Keshab remaining the leader of the Navavidhān. Keshab now began

to be drawn more and more toward the Christ ideal, though under the

influence of Sri Ramakrishna his devotion to the Divine Mother also

deepened. His mental oscillation between Christ and the Divine Mother of

Hinduism found no position of rest. In Bengāl and some other parts of India

the Brāhmo movement took the form of Unitarian Christianity, scoffed at

Hindu rituals, and preached a crusade against image worship. Influenced by

Western culture, it declared the supremacy of reason, advocated the ideals

of the French Revolution, abolished the caste-system among, its own

members, stood for the emancipation of women, agitate for the abolition of

early marriage, sanctioned the remarriage of widows, and encouraged

various educational and social-reform movements. The immediate effect of

the Brāhmo movement in Bengāl was the checking of the proselytising

activities of the Christian missionaries. It also raised Indian culture in the

estimation of its English masters. But it was an intellectual and eclectic

religious ferment born of the necessity of the time. Unlike Hinduism, it was

not founded on the deep inner experiences of sages and prophets. Its

influence was confined to a comparatively few educated men and women of

the country, and the vast masses of the Hindus remained outside it. It

sounded monotonously only one of the notes in the rich gamut of the

Eternal Religion of the Hindus.

Ārya Samāj

The other movement playing an important part in the nineteenth-century

religious revival of India was the Ārya Samāj. The Brāhmo Samāj,

essentially a movement of compromise with European culture, tacitly

admitted the superiority of the West. But the founder of the Ārya Samāj was

a pugnacious Hindu sannyāsi who accepted the challenge of Islam and

Christianity and was resolved to combat all foreign influence in India.

Swāmi Dayānanda (1824-1883) launched this movement in Bombay in

1875, and soon its influence was felt throughout western India. The Swāmi

was a great scholar of the Vedas, which he explained as being strictly

monotheistic. He preached against the worship of images and re-established

the ancient Vedic sacrificial rites. According to him the Vedas were the

ultimate authority on religion, and he accepted every word of them as

literally true. The Ārya Samāj became a bulwark against the encroachments

of Islam and Christianity, and its orthodox flavour appealed to many Hindu

minds. It also assumed leadership in many movements of social reform. The

caste-system became a target of its attack. Women it liberated from many of

their social disabilities. The cause of education received from it a great

impetus. It started agitation against early marriage and advocated the

remarriage of Hindu widows. Its influence was strongest in the Punjab, the

battle-ground of the Hindu and Islamic cultures. A new fighting attitude

was introduced into the slumbering Hindu society. Unlike the Brāhmo

Samāj, the influence of the Ārya Samāj was not confined to the

intellectuals. It was a force that spread to the masses. It was a dogmatic

movement intolerant of those disagreed with its views, and it emphasized

only one way, the Ārya Samāj way, to the realization of Truth. Sri

Ramakrishna met Swāmi Dayānanda when the latter visited Bengāl.

Keshab Chandra Sen

Keshab Chandra Sen and Sri Ramakrishna met for the first time in the

garden house of Jaygopāl Sen at Belgharia, a few miles from Dakshineśwar,

where the great Brāhmo leader was staying with some of his disciples. In

many respects the two were poles apart, though an irresistible inner

attraction was to make them intimate friends. The Master had realized God

as Pure Spirit and Consciousness, but he believed in the various forms of

God as well. Keshab, on the other hand, regarded image worship as idolatry

and gave allegorical explanations of the Hindu deities. Keshab was an

orator and a writer of books and magazine articles; Sri Ramakrishna had a

horror of lecturing and hardly knew how to write his own name. Keshab's

fame spread far and wide, even reaching the distant shores of England; the

Master still led a secluded life in the village of Dakshineśwar. Keshab

emphasized social reforms for India's regeneration; to Sri Ramakrishna

God-realization was the only goal of life. Keshab considered himself a

disciple of Christ and accepted in a diluted form the Christian sacraments

and Trinity; Sri Ramakrishna was the simple child of Kāli, the Divine

Mother, though he too, in a different way, acknowledged Christ's divinity.

Keshab was a householder and took a real interest in the welfare of his

children, whereas Sri Ramakrishna was a paramahamsa and completely

indifferent to the life of the world. Yet, as their acquaintance ripened into

friendship, Sri Ramakrishna and Keshab held each other in great love and

respect. Years later, at the news of Keshab's death, the Master felt as if half

his body had become paralysed. Keshab's concepts of the harmony of

religions and the Motherhood of God were deepened and enriched by his

contact with Sri Ramakrishna.

Sri Ramakrishna, dressed in a red-bordered dhoti, one end of which was

carelessly thrown over his left shoulder, came to Jaygopal's garden house

accompanied by Hriday.

No one took notice of the unostentatious visitor. Finally the Master said to

Keshab, "People tell me you have seen God; so I have come to hear from

you about God." A magnificent conversation followed. The Master sang a

thrilling song about Kāli and forthwith went into Samādhi. When Hriday

uttered the sacred "Om" in his ears, he gradually came back to

consciousness of the world, his face still radiating a divine brilliance.

Keshab and his followers were amazed. The contrast between Sri

Ramakrishna and the Brāhmo devotees was very interesting. There sat this

small man, thin and extremely delicate. His eyes were illumined with an

inner light. Good humour gleamed in his eyes and lurked in the corners of

his mouth. His speech was Bengāli of a homely kind with a slight,

delightful stammer, and his words held men enthralled by their wealth of

spiritual experience, their inexhaustible store of simile and metaphor, their

power of observation, their bright and subtle humour, their wonderful

catholicity, their ceaseless flow of wisdom. And around him now were the

sophisticated men of Bengāl, the best products of Western education, with

Keshab, the idol of young Bengāl, as their leader.

Keshab's sincerity was enough for Sri Ramakrishna. Henceforth the two

saw each other frequently, either at Dakshineśwar or at the temple of the

Brāhmo Samāj. Whenever the Master was in the temple at the time of

divine service, Keshab would request him to speak to the congregation. And

Keshab would visit the saint, in his turn, with offerings of flowers and

fruits.

Other Brāhmo Leaders

Gradually other Brāhmo leaders began to feel Sri Ramakrishna's influence.

But they were by no means uncritical admirers of the Master. They

particularly disapproved of his ascetic renunciation and condemnation of,

"woman and gold".7 They measured him according to their own ideals of

the householder's life. Some could not understand his Samādhi and

described it as a nervous malady. Yet they could not resist his magnetic

personality.

Among the Brāhmo leaders who knew the Master closely were Pratāp

Chandra Mazumdār, Vijay Krishna Goswāmi, Trailokyanāth Sannyāl and

Śivanāth Śastri.

Śivanāth, one day, was greatly impressed by the Master's utter simplicity

and abhorrence of praise. He was seated with Sri Ramakrishna in the latter's

room when several rich men of Calcutta arrived. The Master left the room

for a few minutes. In the mean time Hriday, his nephew, began to describe

his Samādhi to the visitors. The last few words caught the Master's ear as he

entered the room. He said to Hriday: "What a mean-spirited fellow you

must be to extol me thus before these rich men! You have seen their costly

apparel and their gold watches and chains, and your object is to get from

them as much money as you can. What do I care about what they think of

me? (Turning to the gentlemen) No, my friends, what he has told you about

me is not true. It was not love of God that made me absorbed in God and

indifferent to external life. I became positively insane for some time. The

sādhus who frequented this temple told me to practise many things. I tried

to follow them, and the consequence was that my austerities drove me to

insanity." This is a quotation from one of Śivanāth's books. He took the

Master's words literally and failed to see their real import.

Śivanāth vehemently criticized the Master for his other-worldly attitude

toward his wife.

He writes: "Ramakrishna was practically separated from his wife, who lived

in her village home. One day when I was complaining to some friends

about the virtual widowhood of his wife, he drew me to one side and

whispered in my ear: 'Why do you complain? It is no longer possible; it is

all dead and gone.' Another day as I was inveighing against this part of his

teaching, and also declaring that our program of work in the Brāhmo Samāj

includes women, that ours is a social and domestic religion, and that we

want to give education and social liberty to women, the saint became very

much excited, as was his way when anything against his settled conviction

was asserted - a trait we so much liked in him - and exclaimed, 'Go, thou

fool, go and perish in the pit that your women will dig for you.' Then he

glared at me and said: 'What does a gardener do with a young plant?

Does he not surround it with a fence, to protect it from goats and cattle?

And when the young plant has grown up into a tree and it can no longer be

injured by cattle, does he not remove the fence and let the tree grow freely?'

I replied, 'Yes, that is the custom with gardeners.' Then he remarked, 'Do the

same in your spiritual life; become strong, be full-grown; then you may

seek them.' To which I replied, 'I don't agree with you in thinking that

women's work is like that of cattle, destructive; they are our associates and

helpers in our spiritual struggles and social progress' - a view with which he

could not agree, and he marked his dissent by shaking his head. Then

referring to the lateness of the hour he jocularly remarked, 'It is time for you

to depart; take care, do not be late; otherwise your woman will not admit

you into her room.' This evoked hearty laughter."

Pratāp Chandra Mazumdār, the right-hand man of Keshab and an

accomplished Brāhmo preacher in Europe and America, bitterly criticized

Sri Ramakrishna's use of uncultured language and also his austere attitude

toward his wife. But he could not escape the spell of the Master's

personality. In the course of an article about Sri Ramakrishna, Pratāp wrote

in the "Theistic Quarterly Review": "What is there in common between him

and me? I, a Europeanized, civilized, self-centered, semi-sceptical, so-

called educated reasoner, and he, a poor, illiterate, unpolished, half-

idolatrous, friendless Hindu devotee?

Why should I sit long hours to attend to him, I, who have listened to

Disraeli and Fawcett, Stanley and Max Muller, and a whole host of

European scholars and divines? …

And it is not I only, but dozens like me, who do the same. … He worships

Śiva, he worships Kāli, he worships Rāmā, he worships Krishna, and is a

confirmed advocate of Vedāntic doctrines. … He is an idolater, yet is a

faithful and most devoted Meditator on the perfections of the One Formless,

Absolute, Infinite Deity. … His religion is ecstasy, his worship means

transcendental insight, his whole nature burns day and night with a

permanent fire and fever of a strange faith and feeling. … So long as he is

spared to us, gladly shall we sit at his feet to learn from him the sublime

precepts of purity, unworldliness, spirituality, and inebriation in the love of

God. … He, by his childlike bhakti, by his strong conceptions of an ever-

ready Motherhood, helped to unfold it [God as our Mother] in our minds

wonderfully. … By associating with him we learnt to realize better the

divine attributes as scattered over the three hundred and thirty millions of

deities of mythological India, the gods of the Purānās."

The Brāhmo leaders received much inspiration from their contact with Sri

Ramakrishna.

It broadened their religious views and kindled in their hearts the yearning

for God-realization; it made them understand and appreciate the rituals and

symbols of Hindu religion, convinced them of the manifestation of God in

diverse forms, and deepened their thoughts about the harmony of religions.

The Master, too, was impressed by the sincerity of many of the, Brāhmo

devotees. He told them about his own realizations and explained to them the

essence of his teachings, such as the necessity of renunciation, sincerity in

the pursuit of one's own course of discipline, faith in God, the performance

of one's duties without thought of results, and discrimination between the

Real and the unreal.

This contact with the educated and progressive Bengālis opened Sri

Ramakrishna's eyes to a new realm of thought. Born and brought up in a

simple village, without any formal education, and taught by the orthodox

holy men of India in religious life, he had had no opportunity to study the

influence of modernism on the thoughts and lives of the Hindus.

He could not properly estimate the result of the impact of Western

education on Indian culture. He was a Hindu of the Hindus, renunciation

being to him the only means to the realization of God in life. From the

Brahmos he learnt that the new generation of India made a compromise

between God and the world. Educated young men were influenced more by

the Western philosophers than by their own prophets. But Sri Ramakrishna

was not dismayed, for he saw in this, too, the hand of God. And though he

expounded to the Brahmos all his ideas about God and austere religious

disciplines, yet he bade them accept from his teachings only as much as

suited their tastes and temperaments.

The Master's Yearning for His Own Devotees

Contact with the Brahmos increased Sri Ramakrishna's longing to encounter

aspirants who would be able to follow his teachings in their purest form.

"There was no limit", he once declared, "to the longing I felt at that time.

During the day-time I somehow managed to control it. The secular talk of

the worldly-minded was galling to me, and I would look wistfully to the

day when my own beloved companions would come. I hoped to find solace

in conversing with them and relating to them my own realizations. Every

little incident would remind me of them, and thoughts of them wholly

engrossed me. I was already arranging in my mind what I should say to one

and give to another, and so on. But when the day would come to a close I

would not be able to curb my feelings. The thought that another day had

gone by, and they had not come, oppressed me. When, during the evening

service, the temples rang with the sound of bells and conchshells, I would

climb to the roof of the Kuthi in the garden and, writhing in anguish of

heart, cry at the top of my voice: 'Come, my children! Oh, where are you? I

cannot bear to live without you.' A mother never longed so intensely for the

sight of her child, nor a friend for his companions, nor a lover for his

sweetheart, as I longed for them. Oh, it was indescribable! Shortly after this

period of yearning the devotees began to come."

In the year 1879 occasional writings about Sri Ramakrishna by the

Brahmos, in the Brāhmo magazines, began to attract his future disciples

from the educated middle-class Bengālis, and they continued to come till

1884. But others, too, came, feeling the subtle power of his attraction. They

were an ever shifting crowd of people of all castes and creeds: Hindus and

Brahmos, Vaishnavas and Śāktās, the educated with university degrees and

the illiterate, old and young, maharajas and beggars, journalists and artists,

pundits and devotees, philosophers and the worldly-minded, jnānis and

yogis, men of action and men of faith, virtuous women and prostitutes,

office-holders and vagabonds, philanthropists and self-seekers, dramatists

and drunkards, builders-up and pullers-down. He gave to them all, without

stint, from his illimitable store of realization. No one went away empty-

handed. He taught them the lofty knowledge of the Vedānta and the soul-

melting love of the Purānā. Twenty hours out of twenty-four he would

speak without rest or respite. He gave to all his sympathy and

enlightenment, and he touched them with that strange power of the soul

which could not but melt even the most hardened. And people understood

him according to their powers of comprehension.

The Master's Method of Teaching

But he remained as ever the willing instrument in the hand of God, the child

of the Divine Mother, totally untouched by the idea of being a teacher. He

used to say that three ideas - that he was a guru, a father, and a master -

pricked his flesh like thorns.

Yet he was an extraordinary teacher. He stirred his disciples' hearts more by

a subtle influence than by actions or words. He never claimed to be the

founder of a religion or the organizer of a sect. Yet he was a religious

dynamo. He was the verifier of all religions and creeds. He was like an

expert gardener, who prepares the soil and removes the weeds, knowing that

the plants will grow because of the inherent power of the seeds, producing

each its appropriate flowers and fruits. He never thrust his ideas on

anybody.

He understood people's limitations and worked on the principle that what is

good for one may be bad for another. He had the unusual power of knowing

the devotees' minds, even their inmost souls, at the first sight. He accepted

disciples with the full knowledge of their past tendencies and future

possibilities. The life of evil did not frighten him, nor did religious

squeamishness raise anybody in his estimation. He saw in everything the

unerring finger of the Divine Mother. Even the light that leads astray was to

him the light from God.

To those who became his intimate disciples the Master was a friend,

companion, and playmate. Even the chores of religious discipline would be

lightened in his presence. The devotees would be so inebriated with pure

joy in his company that they would have no time to ask themselves whether

he was an Incarnation, a perfect soul, or a yogi. His very presence was a

great teaching; words were superfluous. In later years his disciples

remarked that while they were with him they would regard him as a

comrade, but afterwards would tremble to think of their frivolities in the

presence of such a great person. They had convincing proof that the Master

could, by his mere wish, kindle in their hearts the love of God and give

them His vision.

Through all this fun and frolic, this merriment and frivolity, he always kept

before them the shining ideal of God-Consciousness and the path of

renunciation. He prescribed ascents steep or graded according to the powers

of the climber. He permitted no compromise with the basic principles of

purity. An aspirant had to keep his body, mind, senses, and soul unspotted;

had to have a sincere love for God and an ever mounting spirit of yearning.

The rest would be done by the Mother.

His disciples were of two kinds: the householders, and the young men,

some of whom were later to become monks. There was also a small group

of women devotees.

House Holder Devotees

For the householders Sri Ramakrishna did not prescribe the hard path of

total renunciation. He wanted them to discharge their obligations to their

families. Their renunciation was to be mental. Spiritual life could not he

acquired by flying away from responsibilities. A married couple should live

like brother and sister after the birth of one or two children, devoting their

time to spiritual talk and contemplation. He encouraged the householders,

saying that their life was, in a way, easier than that of the monk, since it was

more advantageous to fight the enemy from inside a fortress than in an open

field. He insisted, however, on their repairing into solitude every now and

then to strengthen their devotion and faith in God through prayer, japa, and

meditation. He prescribed for them the companionship of sādhus. He asked

them to perform their worldly duties with one hand, while holding to God

with the other, and to pray to God to make their duties fewer and fewer so

that in the end they might cling to Him with both hands. He would

discourage in both the householders and the celibate youths any

lukewarmness in their spiritual struggles. He would not ask them to follow

indiscriminately the ideal of non-resistance, which ultimately makes a

coward of the unwary.

Future Monks

But to the young men destined to be monks he pointed out the steep path of

renunciation, both external and internal. They must take the vow of absolute

continence and eschew all thought of greed and lust. By the practice of

continence, aspirants develop a subtle nerve through which they understand

the deeper mysteries of God. For them self-control is final, imperative, and

absolute. The sannyāsis are teachers of men, and their lives should be

totally free from blemish. They must not even look at a picture which may

awaken their animal passions. The Master selected his future monks from

young men untouched by "woman and gold" and plastic enough to be cast

in his spiritual mould. When teaching them the path of renunciation and

discrimination, he would not allow the householders to be any where near

them.

Rām and Manomohan

The first two householder devotees to come to Dakshineśwar were Rām

Chandra Dutta and Manomohan Mitra. A medical practitioner and chemist,

Rām was sceptical about God and religion and never enjoyed peace of soul.

He wanted tangible proof of God's existence. The Master said to him: "God

really exists. You don't see the stars in the day-time, but that doesn't mean

that the stars do not exist. There is butter in milk. But can anybody see it by

merely looking at the milk? To get butter you must churn milk in a quiet

and cool place. You cannot realize God by a mere wish; you must go

through some mental disciplines." By degrees the Master awakened Rām's

spirituality and the latter became one of his foremost lay disciples. It was

Rām who introduced Narendranāth to Sri Ramakrishna. Narendra was a

relative of Rām.

Manomohan at first met with considerable opposition from his wife and

other relatives, who resented his visits to Dakshineśwar. But in the end the

unselfish love of the Master triumphed over worldly affection. It was

Manomohan who brought Rākhāl to the Master.

Surendra

Suresh Mitra, a beloved disciple whom the Master often addressed as

Surendra, had received an English education and held an important post in

an English firm. Like many other educated young men of the time, he

prided himself on his atheism and led a Bohemian life. He was addicted to

drinking. He cherished an exaggerated notion about man's free will. A

victim of mental depression, he was brought to Sri Ramakrishna by

Rāmchandra Dutta. When he heard the Master asking a disciple to practise

the virtue of self-surrender to God, he was impressed. But though he tried

thenceforth to do so, he was unable to give up his old associates and his

drinking. One day the Master said in his presence, "Well, when a man goes

to an undesirable place, why doesn't he take the Divine Mother with him?"

And to Surendra himself Sri Ramakrishna said: "Why should you drink

wine as wine? Offer it to Kāli, and then take it as Her Prasād, as

consecrated drink. But see that you don't, become intoxicated; you must not

reel and your thoughts must not wander. At first you will feel ordinary

excitement, but soon you will experience spiritual exaltation." Gradually

Surendra's entire life was changed. The Master designated him as one of

those commissioned by the Divine Mother to defray a great part of his

expenses. Surendra's purse was always open for the Master's comfort.

Kedār

Kedarnāth Chatterji was endowed with a spiritual temperament and had

tried various paths of religion, some not very commendable. When he met

the Master at Dakshineśwar he understood the true meaning of religion. It is

said that the Master, weary of instructing devotees who were coming to him

in great numbers for guidance, once prayed to the Goddess Kāli: "Mother, I

am tired of speaking to people. Please give power to Kedār, Girish, Rām,

Vijay, and Mahendra to give them the preliminary instruction, so that just a

little teaching from me will be enough." He was aware, however, of Kedār's

lingering attachment to worldly things and often warned him about it.

Harish

Harish, a young man in affluent circumstances, renounced his family and

took shelter with the Master, who loved him for his sincerity, singleness of

purpose, and quiet nature.

He spent his leisure time in prayer and meditation, turning a deaf ear to the

entreaties and threats of his relatives. Referring to his undisturbed peace of

mind, the Master would say: "Real men are dead to the world though,

living. Look at Harish. He is an example."

When one day the Master asked him to be a little kind to his wife, Harish

said: "You must excuse me on this point. This is not the place to show

kindness. If I try to be sympathetic to her, there is a possibility of my

forgetting the ideal and becoming entangled in the world."

Bhavanāth

Bhavanāth Chatterji visited the Master while he was still in his teens. His

parents and relatives regarded Sri Ramakrishna as an insane person and

tried their utmost to prevent him from becoming intimate with the Master.

But the young boy was very stubborn and often spent nights at

Dakshineśwar. He was greatly attached to Narendra, and the Master

encouraged their friendship. The very sight of him often awakened Sri

Ramakrishna's spiritual emotion.

Balarām Bose

Balarām Bose came of a wealthy Vaishnava family. From his youth he had

shown a deep religious temperament and had devoted his time to

meditation, prayer, and the study of the Vaishnava scriptures. He was very

much impressed by Sri Ramakrishna even at their first meeting. He asked

Sri Ramakrishna whether God really existed and, if so, whether a man

could realize Him. The Master said: "God reveals Himself to the devotee

who thinks of Him as his nearest and dearest. Because you do not draw

response by praying to Him once, you must not conclude that He does not

exist. Pray to God, thinking of Him as dearer than your very self. He is

much attached to His devotees. He comes to a man even before He is

sought. There is none more intimate and affectionate than God."

Balarām had never before heard God spoken of in such forceful words;

every one of the words seemed true to him. Under the Master's influence he

outgrew the conventions of the Vaishnava worship and became one of the

most beloved of the disciples. It was at his home that the Master slept

whenever he spent a night in Calcutta.

Mahendra or M.

Mahendranāth Gupta, known as "M.", arrived at Dakshineśwar in February

1882. He belonged to the Brāhmo Samāj and was headmaster of the

Vidyāsāgar High School at Śyāmbazār, Calcutta. At the very first sight the

Master recognized him as one of his "marked" disciples. Mahendra

recorded in his diary Sri Ramakrishna's conversations with his devotees.

These are the first directly recorded words, in the spiritual history of the

world, of a man recognized as belonging in the class of Buddha and Christ.

The present volume is a translation of this diary. Mahendra was

instrumental, through his personal contacts, in spreading the Master's

message among many young and aspiring souls.

Nāg Mahāshay

Durgācharan Nāg, also known as Nāg Mahāshay, was the ideal householder

among the lay disciples of Sri Ramakrishna. He was the embodiment of the

Master's ideal of life in the world, unstained by worldliness. In spite of his

intense desire to become a sannyāsi, Sri Ramakrishna asked him to live in

the world in the spirit of a monk, and the disciple truly carried out this

injunction. He was born of a poor family and even during his boyhood often

sacrificed everything to lessen the sufferings of the needy. He had married

at an early age and after his wife's death had married a second time to obey

his father's command. But he once said to his wife: "Love on the physical

level never lasts.

He is indeed blessed who can give his love to God with his whole heart.

Even a little attachment to the body endures for several births. So do not be

attached to this cage of bone and flesh. Take shelter at the feet of the

Mother and think of Her alone. Thus your life here and hereafter will he

ennobled." The Master spoke of him as a "blazing light".

He received every word of Sri Ramakrishna in dead earnest. One day he

heard the Master saying that it was difficult for doctors, lawyers, and

brokers to make much progress in spirituality. Of doctors he said, "If the

mind clings to the tiny drops of medicine, how can it conceive of the

Infinite?" That was the end of Durgācharan's medical practice and he threw

his chest of medicines into the Ganges. Sri Ramakrishna assured him that

he would not lack simple food and clothing. He bade him serve holy men.

On being asked where he would find real holy men, the Master said that the

sādhus themselves would seek his company. No sannyāsi could have lived a

more austere life than Durgācharan.

Girish Ghosh

Girish Chandra Ghosh was a born rebel against God, a sceptic, a Bohemian,

a drunkard.

He was the greatest Bengāli dramatist of his time, the father of the modern

Bengāli stage. Like other young men he had imbibed all the vices of the

West. He had plunged into a life of dissipation and had become convinced

that religion was only a fraud.

Materialistic philosophy he justified as enabling one to get at least a little

fun out of life.

But a series of reverses shocked him and he became eager to solve the

riddle of life. He had heard people say that in spiritual life the help of a guru

was imperative and that the guru was to be regarded as God Himself. But

Girish was too well acquainted with human nature to see perfection in a

man. His first meeting with Sri Ramakrishna did not impress him at all. He

returned home feeling as if he had seen a freak at a circus; for the Master, in

a semi-conscious mood, had inquired whether it was evening, though the

lamps were burning in the room. But their paths often crossed, and Girish

could not avoid further encounters. The Master attended a performance in

Girish's Star Theatre. On this occasion, too, Girish found nothing

impressive about him. One day, however, Girish happened to see the Master

dancing and singing with the devotees. He felt the contagion and wanted to

join them, but restrained himself for fear of ridicule. Another day Sri

Ramakrishna was about to give him spiritual instruction, when Girish said:

"I don't want to listen to instructions. I have myself written many

instructions. They are of no use to me. Please help me in a more tangible

way if you can." This pleased the Master and he asked Girish to cultivate

faith.

As time passed, Girish began to learn that the guru is the one who silently

unfolds the disciple's inner life. He became a steadfast devotee of the

Master.

He often loaded the Master with insults, drank in his presence, and took

liberties which astounded the other devotees. But the Master knew that at

heart Girish was tender, faithful, and sincere. He would not allow Girish to

give up the theatre. And when a devotee asked him to tell Girish to give up

drinking, he sternly replied: "That is none of your business. He who has

taken charge of him will look after him. Girish is a devotee of heroic type. I

tell you, drinking will not affect him." The Master knew that mere words

could not induce a man to break deep-rooted habits, but that the silent

influence of love worked miracles. Therefore he never asked him to give up

alcohol, with the result that Girish himself eventually broke the habit. Sri

Ramakrishna had strengthened Girish's resolution by allowing him to feel

that he was absolutely free.

One day Girish felt depressed because he was unable to submit to any

routine of spiritual discipline. In an exalted mood the Master said to him:

"All right, give me your power of attorney. Henceforth I assume

responsibility for you. You need not do anything." Girish heaved a sigh of

relief. He felt happy to think that Sri Ramakrishna had assumed his spiritual

responsibilities. But poor Girish could not then realize that he also, on his

part, had to give up his freedom and make of himself a puppet in Sri

Ramakrishna's hands. The Master began to discipline him according to this

new attitude.

One day Girish said about a trifling matter, "Yes, I shall do this." "No, no!"

the Master corrected him. "You must not speak in that egotistic manner. You

should say, 'God willing, I shall do it'." Girish understood. Thenceforth he

tried to give up all idea of personal responsibility and surrender himself to

the Divine Will. His mind began to dwell constantly on Sri Ramakrishna.

This unconscious meditation in time chastened his turbulent spirit.

The householder devotees generally visited Sri Ramakrishna on Sunday

afternoons and other holidays. Thus a brotherhood was gradually formed,

and the Master encouraged their fraternal feeling. Now and then he would

accept an invitation to a devotee's home, where other devotees would also

be invited. Kirtan would be arranged and they would spend hours in dance

and devotional music. The Master would go into trances or open his heart in

religious discourses and in the narration of his own spiritual experiences.

Many people who could not go to Dakshineśwar participated in these

meetings and felt blessed. Such an occasion would be concluded with a

sumptuous feast.

But it was in the company of his younger devotees, pure souls yet unstained

by the touch of worldliness, that Sri Ramakrishna took greatest joy. Among

the young men who later embraced the householder's life were Nārāyan,

Paltu, the younger Naren, Tejchandra and Purna. These visited the Master

sometimes against strong opposition from home.

Purna

Purna was a lad of thirteen, whom Sri Ramakrishna described as an

Iśvarakoti, a soul born with special spiritual qualities. The Master said that

Purna was the last of the group of brilliant devotees who, as he once had

seen in a trance, would come to him for spiritual illumination. Purna said to

Sri Ramakrishna during their second meeting, "You are God Himself

incarnated in flesh and blood." Such words coming from a mere youngster

proved of what stuff the boy was made.

Mahimācharan and Pratāp Hazra

Mahimācharan and Pratāp Hazra were two devotees outstanding for their

pretentiousness and idiosyncrasies. But the Master showed them his

unfailing love and kindness, though he was aware of their shortcomings.

Mahimācharan Chakravarty had met the Master long before the arrival of

the other disciples. He had had the intention of leading a spiritual life, but a

strong desire to acquire name and fame was his weakness.

He claimed to have been initiated by Totāpuri and used to say that he had

been following the path of knowledge according to his guru's instructions.

He possessed a large library of English and Sanskrit books. But though he

pretended to have read them, most of the leaves were uncut. The Master

knew all his limitations, yet enjoyed listening to him recite from the Vedas

and other scriptures. He would always exhort Mahimā to meditate on the

meaning of the scriptural texts and to practise spiritual discipline.

Pratāp Hazra, a middle-aged man, hailed from a village near Kāmārpukur.

He was not altogether unresponsive to religious feelings. On a moment's

impulse he had left his home, aged mother, wife, and children, and had

found shelter in the temple garden at Dakshineśwar, where he intended to

lead a spiritual life. He loved to argue, and the Master often pointed him out

as an example of barren argumentation. He was hypercritical of others and

cherished an exaggerated notion of his own spiritual advancement. He was

mischievous and often tried to upset the minds of the Master's young

disciples, criticizing them for their happy and joyous life and asking them to

devote their time to meditation. The Master teasingly compared Hazra to

Jatila and Kutila, the two women who always created obstructions in

Krishna's sport with the gopis, and said that Hazra lived at Dakshineśwar to

"thicken the plot" by adding complications.

Some noted Men

Sri Ramakrishna also became acquainted with a number of people whose

scholarship or wealth entitled them everywhere to respect. He had met, a

few years before, Devendranāth Tāgore, famous all over Bengāl for his

wealth, scholarship, saintly character, and social position. But the Master

found him disappointing; for, whereas Sri Ramakrishna expected of a saint

complete renunciation of the world, Devendranāth combined with his

saintliness a life of enjoyment. Sri Ramakrishna met the great poet Michael

Madhusudan, who had embraced Christianity "for the sake of his

stomach". To him the Master could not impart instruction, for the Divine

Mother "pressed his tongue".

In addition he met Mahārāja Jatindra Mohan Tāgore, a titled aristocrat

of Bengāl; Kristodās Pāl, the editor, social reformer, and patriot; Iswar

Chandra Vidyāsāgar, the noted philanthropist and educator; Pundit

Śaśadhar, a great champion of Hindu orthodoxy; Aświni Kumār Dutta, a

headmaster, moralist, and leader of Indian Nationalism; and Bankim

Chatterji, a deputy magistrate, novelist, and essayist, and one of the

fashioners of modern Bengāli prose. Sri Ramakrishna was not the man to be

dazzled by outward show, glory, or eloquence. A pundit without

discrimination he regarded as a mere straw. He would search people's hearts

for the light of God, and if that was missing, he would have nothing to do

with them.

Kristodās Pāl

The Europeanized Kristodās Pāl did not approve of the Master's emphasis

on renunciation and said: "Sir, this cant of renunciation has almost ruined

the country. It is for this reason that the Indians are a subject nation today.

Doing good to others, bringing education to the door of the ignorant, and

above all, improving the material conditions of the country - these should

be our duty now. The cry of religion and renunciation would, on the

contrary, only weaken us. You should advise the young men of Bengāl to

resort only to such acts as will uplift the country." Sri Ramakrishna gave

him a searching look and found no divine light within. "You man of poor

understanding!"

Sri Ramakrishna said sharply. "You dare to slight in these terms

renunciation and piety, which our scriptures describe as the greatest of all

virtues! After reading two pages of English you think you have come to

know the world! You appear to think you are omniscient. Well, have you

seen those tiny crabs that are born in the Ganges just when the rains set in?

In this big universe you are even less significant than one of those small

creatures. How dare you talk of helping the world? The Lord will look to

that. You haven't the power in you to do it." After a pause the Master

continued: "Can you explain to me how you can work for others? I know

what you mean by helping them. To feed a number of persons, to treat them

when they are sick, to construct a road or dig a well - Isn't that all? These

are good deeds, no doubt, but how trifling in comparison with the vastness

of the universe! How far can a man advance in this line? How many people

can you save from famine? Malaria has ruined a whole province; what

could you do to stop its onslaught? God alone looks after the world. Let a

man first realize Him. Let a man get the authority from God and be

endowed with His power; then, and then alone, may he think of doing good

to others. A man should first be purged of all egotism. Then alone will the

Blissful Mother ask him to work for the world." Sri Ramakrishna mistrusted

philanthropy that presumed to pose as charity. He warned people against it.

He saw in most acts of philanthropy nothing but egotism, vanity, a desire

for glory, a barren excitement to kill the boredom of life, or an attempt to

soothe a guilty conscience. True charity, he taught, is the result of love of

God - service to man in a spirit of worship.

Monastic Disciples

The disciples whom the Master trained for monastic life were the following:

1. Narendranāth Dutta (Swāmi Vivekānanda)

2. Nitya Niranjan Sen (Swāmi Niranjanānanda)

3. Rākhāl Chandra Ghosh (Swāmi Brahmānanda)

4. Kāliprasād Chandra (Swāmi Abhedānanda)

5. Gopāl Chandra Ghosh (Swāmi Advaitānanda)

6. Harināth Chattopādhyāya (Swāmi Turiyānanda) 7. Bāburām Ghosh

(Swāmi Premānanda)

8. Sāradā Prasanna (Swāmi Trigunātitānanda)

9. Tāraknāth Ghoshāl (Swāmi Shivānanda)

10. Gangādhar Ghatak (Swāmi Akhandānanda)

11. Jogindranāth Choudhury (Swāmi Yogānanda)

12. Subodh Ghosh (Swāmi Subodhānanda) 13. Śashibhushan Chakravarty

(Swāmi Rāmakrishnānanda) 14. Śaratchandra Chakravarty (Swāmi

Sāradānanda)

15. Hariprasanna Chatterji (Swāmi Vijnānānanda)

16. Lātu (Swāmi Adhhutānanda)

Lātu

The first of these young men to come to the Master was Lātu. Born of

obscure parents, in Behar, he came to Calcutta in search of work and was

engaged by Rāmchandra Dutta as house-boy. Learning of the saintly Sri

Ramakrishna, he visited the Master at Dakshineśwar and was deeply

touched by his cordiality. When he was about to leave, the Master asked

him to take some money and return home in a boat or carriage. But Lātu

declared he had a few pennies and jingled the coins in his pocket. Sri

Ramakrishna later requested Rām to allow Lātu to stay with him

permanently. Under Sri Ramakrishna's guidance Lātu made great progress

in meditation and was blessed with ecstatic visions, but all the efforts of the

Master to give him a smattering of education failed. Lātu was very fond of

kirtan and other devotional songs but remained all his life illiterate.

Rākhāl

Even before Rākhāl's coming to Dakshineśwar, the Master had had visions

of him as his spiritual son and as a playmate of Krishna at Vrindāvan.

Rākhāl was born of wealthy parents. During his childhood he developed

wonderful spiritual traits and used to play at worshipping gods and

goddesses. In his teens he was married to a sister of Manomohan Mitra,

from whom he first heard of the Master. His father objected to his

association with Sri Ramakrishna but afterwards was reassured to find that

many celebrated people were visitors at Dakshineśwar. The relationship

between the Master and this beloved disciple was that of mother and child.

Sri Ramakrishna allowed Rākhāl many liberties denied to others. But he

would not hesitate to chastise the boy for improper actions. At one time

Rākhāl felt a childlike jealousy because he found that other boys were

receiving the Master's affection. He soon got over it and realized his guru as

the Guru of the whole universe. The Master was worried to hear of his

marriage, but was relieved to find that his wife was a spiritual soul who

would not be a hindrance to his progress.

The Elder Gopāl

Gopāl Chandra Ghosh came to Dakshineśwar at a rather advanced age and

was called the elder Gopāl. He had lost his wife, and the Master assuaged

his grief. Soon he renounced the world and devoted himself fully to

meditation and prayer. Some years later Gopāl gave the Master the ochre

cloths with which the latter initiated several of his disciples into monastic

life.

Narendra

To spread his message to the four corners of the earth Sri Ramakrishna

needed a strong instrument. With his frail body and delicate limbs he could

not make great journeys across wide spaces. And such an instrument was

found in Narendranāth Dutta, his beloved Naren, later known to the world

as Swāmi Vivekānanda. Even before meeting Narendranāth, the Master had

seen him in a vision as a sage, immersed in the meditation of the Absolute,

who at Sri Ramakrishna's request had agreed to take human birth to assist

him in his work.

Narendra was born in Calcutta on January 12, 1863, of an aristocratic

Kāyastha family.

His mother was steeped in the great Hindu epics, and his father, a

distinguished attorney of the Calcutta High Court, was an agnostic about

religion, a friend of the poor, and a mocker at social conventions. Even in

his boyhood and youth Narendra possessed great physical courage and

presence of mind, a vivid imagination, deep power of thought, keen

intelligence, an extraordinary memory, a love of truth, a passion for purity, a

spirit of independence, and a tender heart. An expert musician, he also

acquired proficiency in physics, astronomy, mathematics, philosophy,

history, and literature. He grew up into an extremely handsome young man.

Even as a child he practised meditation and showed great power of

concentration. Though free and passionate in word and action, he took the

vow of austere religious chastity and never allowed the fire of purity to be

extinguished by the slightest defilement of body or soul.

As he read in college the rationalistic Western philosophers of the

nineteenth century, his boyhood faith in God and religion was unsettled. He

would not accept religion on mere faith; he wanted demonstration of God.

But very soon his passionate nature discovered that mere Universal Reason

was cold and bloodless. His emotional nature, dissatisfied with a mere

abstraction, required a concrete support to help him in the hours of

temptation. He wanted an external power, a guru, who by embodying

perfection in the flesh would still the commotion of his soul. Attracted by

the magnetic personality of Keshab, he joined the Brāhmo Samāj and

became a singer in its choir. But in the Samāj he did not find the guru who

could say that he had seen God.

In a state of mental conflict and torture of soul, Narendra came to Sri

Ramakrishna at Dakshineśwar. He was then eighteen years of age and had

been in college two years. He entered the Master's room accompanied by

some light-hearted friends. At Sri Ramakrishna's request he sang a few

songs, pouring his whole soul into them, and the Master went into Samādhi.

A few minutes later Sri Ramakrishna suddenly left his seat, took Narendra

by the hand, and led him to the screened verandah north of his room.

They were alone. Addressing Narendra most tenderly, as if he were a friend

of long acquaintance, the Master said: "Ah! You have come very late. Why

have you been so unkind as to make me wait all these days? My ears are

tired of hearing the futile words of worldly men. Oh, how I have longed to

pour my spirit into the heart of someone fitted to receive my message!" He

talked thus, sobbing all the time. Then, standing before Narendra with

folded hands, he addressed him as Nārāyana, born on earth to remove the

misery of humanity. Grasping Narendra's hand, he asked him to come

again, alone, and very soon. Narendra was startled. "What is this I have

come to see?" he said to himself. "He must be stark mad. Why, I am the son

of Viswanāth Dutta. How dare he speak this way to me?"

When they returned to the room and Narendra heard the Master speaking to

others, he was surprised to find in his words an inner logic, a striking

sincerity, and a convincing proof of his spiritual nature. In answer to

Narendra's question, "Sir, have you seen God?" the Master said: "Yes, I

have seen God. I have seen Him more tangibly than I see you. I have talked

to Him more intimately than I am talking to you." Continuing, the Master

said: "But, my child, who wants to see God? People shed jugs of tears for

money, wife, and children. But if they would weep for God for only one day

they would surely see Him." Narendra was amazed. These words he could

not doubt. This was the first time he had ever heard a man saying that he

had seen God. But he could not reconcile these words of the Master with

the scene that had taken place on the verandah only a few minutes before.

He concluded that Sri Ramakrishna was a monomaniac, and returned home

rather puzzled in mind.

During his second visit, about a month later, suddenly, at the touch of the

Master, Narendra felt overwhelmed and saw the walls of the room and

everything around him whirling and vanishing. "What are you doing to

me?" he cried in terror. "I have my father and mother at home." He saw his

own ego and the whole universe almost swallowed in a nameless void. With

a laugh the Master easily restored him. Narendra thought he might have

been hypnotized, but he could not understand how a monomaniac could

cast a spell over the mind of a strong person like himself. He returned home

more confused than ever, resolved to be henceforth on his guard before this

strange man.

But during his third visit Narendra fared no better. This time, at the Master's

touch, he lost consciousness entirely. While he was still in that state, Sri

Ramakrishna questioned him concerning his spiritual antecedents and

whereabouts, his mission in this world, and the duration of his mortal life.

The answers confirmed what the Master himself had known and inferred.

Among other things, he came to know that Narendra was a sage who had

already attained perfection, and that the day he learnt his real nature he

would give up his body in yoga, by an act of will.

A few more meetings completely removed from Narendra's mind the last

traces of the notion that Sri Ramakrishna might be a monomaniac or wily

hypnotist. His integrity, purity, renunciation, and unselfishness were beyond

question. But Narendra could not accept a man, an imperfect mortal, as his

guru. As a member of the Brāhmo Samāj, he could not believe that a human

intermediary was necessary between man and God.

Moreover, he openly laughed at Sri Ramakrishna's visions as hallucinations.

Yet in the secret chamber of his heart he bore a great love for the Master.

Sri Ramakrishna was grateful to the Divine Mother for sending him one

who doubted his own realizations. Often he asked Narendra to test him as

the money-changers test their coins. He laughed at Narendra's biting

criticism of his spiritual experiences and Samādhi.

When at times Narendra's sharp words distressed him, the Divine Mother

Herself would console him, saying: "Why do you listen to him? In a few

days he will believe your every word." He could hardly bear Narendra's

absences. Often he would weep bitterly for the sight of him. Sometimes

Narendra would find the Master's love embarrassing; and one day he

sharply scolded him, warning him that such infatuation would soon draw

him down to the level of its object. The Master was distressed and prayed to

the Divine Mother. Then he said to Narendra: "You rogue, I won't listen to

you any more. Mother says that I love you because I see God in you, and

the day I no longer see God in you I shall not be able to bear even the sight

of you."

The Master wanted to train Narendra in the teachings of the non-dualistic

Vedānta philosophy. But Narendra, because of his Brāhmo upbringing,

considered it wholly blasphemous to look on man as one with his Creator.

One day at the temple garden he laughingly said to a friend: "How silly!

This jug is God! This cup is God! Whatever we see is God! And we too are

God! Nothing could be more absurd." Sri Ramakrishna came out of his

room and gently touched him. Spellbound, he immediately perceived that

everything in the world was indeed God. A new universe opened around

him. Returning home in a dazed state, he found there too that the food, the

plate, the eater himself, the people around him, were all God. When he

walked in the street, he saw that the cabs, the horses, the streams of people,

the buildings, were all Brahman. He could hardly go about his day's

business. His parents became anxious about him and thought him ill. And

when the intensity of the experience abated a little, he saw the world as a

dream.

Walking in the public square, he would strike his head against the iron

railings to know whether they were real. It took him a number of days to

recover his normal self. He had a foretaste of the great experiences yet to

come and realized that the words of the Vedānta were true.

At the beginning of 1884 Narendra's father suddenly died of heart-failure,

leaving the family in a state of utmost poverty. There were six or seven

mouths to feed at home.

Creditors were knocking at the door. Relatives who had accepted his

father's unstinted kindness now became enemies, some even bringing suit to

deprive Narendra of his ancestral home. Actually starving and barefoot,

Narendra searched for a job, but without success. He began to doubt

whether anywhere in the world there was such a thing as unselfish

sympathy. Two rich women made evil proposals to him and promised to put

an end to his distress; but he refused them with contempt.

Narendra began to talk of his doubt of the very existence of God. His

friends thought he had become an atheist and piously circulated gossip

adducing unmentionable motives for his unbelief. His moral character was

maligned. Even some of the Master's disciples partly believed the gossip,

and Narendra told these to their faces that only a coward believed in God

through fear of suffering or hell. But he was distressed to think that Sri

Ramakrishna, too, might believe these false reports. His pride revolted. He

said to himself: "What does it matter? If a man's good name rests on such

slender foundations, I don't care." But later on he was amazed to learn that

the Master had never lost faith in him. To a disciple who complained about

Narendra's degradation, Sri Ramakrishna replied: "Hush, you fool! The

Mother has told me it can never be so. I won't look at you if you speak that

way again."

The moment came when Narendra's distress reached its climax. He had

gone the whole day without food. As he was returning home in the evening

he could hardly lift his tired limbs. He sat down in front of a house in sheer

exhaustion, too weak even to think. His mind began to wander. Then,

suddenly, a divine power lifted the veil over his soul. He found the solution

of the problem of the coexistence of divine justice and misery, the presence

of suffering in the creation of a blissful Providence. He felt bodily

refreshed, his soul was bathed in peace, and he slept serenely.

Narendra now realized that he had a spiritual mission to fulfil. He resolved

to renounce the world, as his grandfather had renounced it, and he came to

Sri Ramakrishna for his blessing. But even before he had opened his mouth,

the Master knew what was in his mind and wept bitterly at the thought of

separation. "I know you cannot lead a worldly life," he said, "but for my

sake live in the world as long as I live."

One day, soon after, Narendra requested Sri Ramakrishna to pray to the

Divine Mother to remove his poverty. Sri Ramakrishna bade him pray to

Her himself, for She would certainly listen to his prayer. Narendra entered

the shrine of Kāli. As he stood before the image of the Mother, he beheld

Her as a living Goddess, ready to give wisdom and liberation. Unable to ask

Her for petty worldly things, he prayed only for knowledge and

renunciation, love and liberation. The Master rebuked him for his failure to

ask the Divine Mother to remove his poverty and sent him back to the

temple. But Narendra, standing in Her presence, again forgot the purpose of

his coming. Thrice he went to the temple at the bidding of the Master, and

thrice he returned, having forgotten in Her presence why he had come. He

was wondering about it when it suddenly flashed in his mind that this was

all the work of Sri Ramakrishna; so now he asked the Master himself to

remove his poverty, and was assured that his family would not lack simple

food and clothing.

This was a very rich and significant experience for Narendra. It taught him

that Śakti, the Divine Power, cannot be ignored in the world and that in the

relative plane the need of worshipping a Personal God is imperative. Sri

Ramakrishna was overjoyed with the conversion. The next day, sitting

almost on Narendra's lap, he said to a devotee, pointing first to himself, then

to Narendra: "I see I am this, and again that. Really I feel no difference. A

stick floating in the Ganges seems to divide the water; but in reality the

water is one. Do you see my point? Well, whatever is, is the Mother - isn't

that so?" In later years Narendra would say: "Sri Ramakrishna was the only

person who, from the time he met me, believed in me uniformly throughout.

Even my mother and brothers did not. It was his unwavering trust and love

for me that bound me to him for ever. He alone knew how to love. Worldly

people only make a show of love for selfish ends."

Tārak

Others destined to be monastic disciples of Sri Ramakrishna came to

Dakshineśwar.

Tāraknāth Ghoshāl had felt from his boyhood the noble desire to realize

God. Keshab and the Brāhmo Samāj had attracted him but proved

inadequate. In 1882 he first met the Master at Rāmchandra's house and was

astonished to hear him talk about Samādhi, a subject which always

fascinated his mind. And that evening he actually saw a manifestation of

that superconscious state in the Master. Tārak became a frequent visitor at

Dakshineśwar and received the Master's grace in abundance. The young

boy often felt ecstatic fervour in meditation. He also wept profusely while

meditating on God.

Sri Ramakrishna said to him: "God favours those who can weep for Him.

Tears shed for God wash away the sins of former births."

Bāburām

Bāburām Ghosh came to Dakshineśwar accompanied by Rākhāl, his

classmate. The Master, as was often his custom, examined the boy's

physiognomy and was satisfied about his latent spirituality. At the age of

eight Bāburām had thought of leading a life of renunciation, in the company

of a monk, in a hut shut out from the public view by a thick wall of trees.

The very sight of the Panchavati awakened in his heart that dream of

boyhood. Bāburām was tender in body and soul. The Master used to say

that he was pure to his very bones. One day Hazra in his usual mischievous

fashion advised Bāburām and some of the other young boys to ask Sri

Ramakrishna for some spiritual powers and not waste their life in mere

gaiety and merriment. The Master, scenting mischief, called Bāburām to his

side, and said: "What can you ask of me? Isn't everything that I have

already yours? Yes, everything I have earned in the shape of realizations is

for the sake of you all. So get rid of the idea of begging, which alienates by

creating a distance.

Rather realize your kinship with me and gain the key to all the treasures."

Niranjan

Nitya Niranjan Sen was a disciple of heroic type. He came to the Master

when he was eighteen years old. He was a medium for a group of

spiritualists. During his first visit the Master said to him: "My boy, if you

think always of ghosts you will become a ghost, and if you think of God

you will become God. Now, which do you prefer?" Niranjan severed all

connections with the spiritualists. During his second visit the Master

embraced him and said warmly: "Niranjan, my boy, the days are flitting

away. When will you realize God? This life will be in vain if you do not

realize Him. When will You devote your mind wholly to God?" Niranjan

was surprised to see the Master's great anxiety for his spiritual welfare. He

was a young man endowed with unusual spiritual parts. He felt disdain for

worldly pleasures and was totally guileless, like a child. But he had a

violent temper. One day, as he was coming in a country boat to

Dakshineśwar, some of his fellow passengers began to speak ill of the

Master. Finding his protest futile, Niranjan began to rock the boat,

threatening to sink it in midstream. That silenced the offenders. When he

reported the incident to the Master, he was rebuked for his inability to curb

his anger.

Jogindra

Jogindranāth, on the other hand, was gentle to a fault. One day, under

circumstances very like those that had evoked Niranjan's anger, he curbed

his temper and held his peace instead of threatening Sri Ramakrishna's

abusers. The Master, learning of his conduct, scolded him roundly. Thus to

each the fault of the other was recommended as a virtue. The guru was

striving to develop, in the first instance, composure, and in the second,

mettle. The secret of his training was to build up, by a tactful recognition of

the requirements of each given case, the character of the devotee.

Jogindranāth came of an aristocratic brāhmin family of Dakshineśwar. His

father and relatives shared the popular mistrust of Sri Ramakrishna's sanity.

At a very early age the boy developed religious tendencies, spending two or

three hours daily in meditation, and his meeting with Sri Ramakrishna

deepened his desire for the realization of God. He had a perfect horror of

marriage. But at the earnest request of his mother he had had to yield, and

he now believed that his spiritual future was doomed. So he kept himself

away from the Master.

Sri Ramakrishna employed a ruse to bring Jogindra to him. As soon as the

disciple entered the room, the Master rushed forward to meet the young

man. Catching hold of the disciple's hand, he said: "What if you have

married, Haven't I too married? What is there to be afraid of in that?"

Touching his own chest he said: "If this [meaning himself]

is propitious, then even a hundred thousand marriages cannot injure you. It

you desire to lead a householder's life, then bring your wife here one day,

and I shall see that she becomes a real companion in your spiritual progress.

But if you want to lead a monastic life, then I shall eat up your attachment

to the world." Jogin was dumbfounded at these words. He received new

strength, and his spirit of renunciation was re-established.

Śashi and Śarat

Śashi and Śarat were two cousins who came from a pious brāhmin family of

Calcutta. At an early age they had joined the Brāhmo Samāj and had come

under the influence of Keshab Sen. The Master said to them at their first

meeting: "If bricks and tiles are burnt after the trade-mark has been stamped

on them, they retain the mark for ever.

Similarly, man should be stamped with God before entering the world. Then

he will not become attached to worldliness." Fully aware of the future

course of their life, he asked them not to marry. The Master asked Śashi

whether he believed in God with form or in God without form. Śashi

replied that he was not even sure about the existence of God; so he could

not speak one way or the other. This frank answer very much pleased the

Master.

Śarat's soul longed for the all-embracing realization of the Godhead. When

the Master inquired whether there was any particular form of God he

wished to see, the boy replied that he would like to see God in all the living

beings of the world. "But", the Master demurred, "that is the last word in

realization. One cannot have it at the very outset."

Śarat stated calmly: "I won't be satisfied with anything short of that. I shall

trudge on along the path till I attain that blessed state." Sri Ramakrishna

was very much pleased.

Harināth

Harināth had led the austere life of a brahmachāri even from his early

boyhood -bathing in the Ganges every day, cooking his own meals, waking

before sunrise, and reciting the Gita from memory before leaving bed. He

found in the Master the embodiment of the Vedānta scriptures. Aspiring to

be a follower of the ascetic Śankara, he cherished a great hatred for women.

One day he said to the Master that he could not allow even small girls to

come near him. The Master scolded him and said: "You are talking like a

fool. Why should you hate women? They are the manifestations of the

Divine Mother. Regard them as your own mother and you will never feel

their evil influence. The more you hate them, the more you will fall into

their snares." Hari said later that these words completely changed his

attitude toward women.

The Master knew Hari's passion for Vedānta. But he did not wish any of his

disciples to become a dry ascetic or a mere bookworm. So he asked Hari to

practise Vedānta in life by giving up the unreal and following the Real. "But

it is not so easy", Sri Ramakrishna said, "to realize the illusoriness of the

world. Study alone does not help one very much.

The grace of God is required. Mere personal effort is futile. A man is a tiny

creature after all, with very limited powers. But he can achieve the

impossible if he prays to God for His grace." Whereupon the Master sang a

song in praise of grace. Hari was profoundly moved and shed tears. Later in

life Hari achieved a wonderful synthesis of the ideals of the Personal God

and the Impersonal Truth.

Gangādhar

Gangādhar, Harināth's friend, also led the life of a strict brahmachari,

eating vegetarian food cooked by his own hands and devoting himself to the

study of the scriptures. He met the Master in 1884 and soon became a

member of his inner circle. The Master praised his ascetic habit and

attributed it to the spiritual disciplines of his past life.

Gangādhar became a close companion of Narendra.

Hariprasanna

Hariprasanna, a college student, visited the Master in the company of his

friends Śashi and Śarat. Sri Ramakrishna showed him great favour by

initiating him into spiritual life.

As long as he lived, Hariprasanna remembered and observed the following

drastic advice of the Master: "Even if a woman is pure as gold and rolls on

the ground for love of God, it is dangerous for a monk ever to look at her."

Kāli

Kāliprasād visited the Master toward the end of 1883. Given to the practice

of meditation and the study of the scriptures, Kāli was particularly

interested in yoga. Feeling the need of a guru in spiritual life, he came to the

Master and was accepted as a disciple. The young boy possessed a rational

mind and often felt sceptical about the Personal God.

The Master said to him: "Your doubts will soon disappear. Others, too, have

passed through such a state of mind. Look at Naren. He now weeps at the

names of Rādhā and Krishna." Kāli began to see visions of gods and

goddesses. Very soon these disappeared and in meditation he experienced

vastness, infinity, and the other attributes of the Impersonal Brahman.

Subodh

Subodh visited the Master in 1885. At the very first meeting Sri

Ramakrishna said to him: "You will succeed. Mother says so. Those whom

She sends here will certainly attain spirituality." During the second meeting

the Master wrote something on Subodh's tongue, stroked his body from the

navel to the throat, and said, "Awake, Mother!

Awake." He asked the boy to meditate. At once Subodh's latent spirituality

was awakened. He felt a current rushing along the spinal column to the

brain. Joy filled his soul.

Sāradā and Tulasi

Two more young men, Sāradā Prasanna and Tulasi, complete the small band

of the Master's disciples later to embrace the life of the wandering monk.

With the exception of the elder Gopāl, all of them were in their teens or

slightly over. They came from middle-class Bengāli families, and most of

them were students in school or college. Their parents and relatives had

envisaged for them bright worldly careers. They came to Sri Ramakrishna

with pure bodies, vigorous minds, and uncontaminated souls. All were born

with unusual spiritual attributes. Sri Ramakrishna accepted them, even at

first sight, as his children, relatives, friends, and companions. His magic

touch unfolded them. And later each according to his measure reflected the

life of the Master, becoming a torch-bearer of his message across land and

sea.

Woman Devotees

With his woman devotees Sri Ramakrishna established a very sweet

relationship. He himself embodied the tender traits of a woman; he had

dwelt on the highest plane of Truth, where there is not even the slightest

trace of sex; and his innate purity evoked only the noblest emotion in men

and women alike. His woman devotees often said: "We seldom looked on

Sri Ramakrishna as a member of the male sex. We regarded him as one of

us. We never felt any constraint before him, He was our best confidant."

They loved him as their child, their friend, and their teacher. In spiritual

discipline he advised them to renounce lust and greed and especially

warned them not to fall into the snares of men.

Gopāl Mā

Unsurpassed among the woman devotees of the Master in the richness of

her devotion and spiritual experiences was Aghoramani Devi, an orthodox

brāhmin woman. Widowed at an early age, she had dedicated herself

completely to spiritual pursuits. Gopālā, the Baby Krishna, was her Ideal

Deity, whom she worshipped following the Vātsalya attitude of the

Vaishnava religion, regarding Him as her own child. Through Him she

satisfied her unassuaged maternal love, cooking for Him, feeding Him,

bathing Him, and putting Him to bed. This sweet intimacy with Gopālā won

her the sobriquet of Gopāl Mā, or Gopālā's Mother. For forty years she had

lived on the bank of the Ganges in a small bare room, her only companions

being a threadbare copy of the Ramayana and a bag containing her rosary.

At the age of sixty, in 1884, she visited Sri Ramakrishna at Dakshineśwar.

During the second visit, as soon as the Master saw her, he said: "Oh, you

have come!

Give me something to eat." With great hesitation she gave him some

ordinary sweets that she had purchased for him on the way. The Master ate

them with relish and asked her to bring him simple curries or sweets

prepared by her own hands. Gopāl Mā thought him a queer kind of monk,

for, instead of talking of God, he always asked for food. She did not want to

visit him again, but an irresistible attraction brought her back to the temple

garden. She carried with her some simple curries that she had cooked

herself.

One early morning at three o'clock, about a year later, Gopāl Mā was about

to finish her daily devotions, when she was startled to find Sri Ramakrishna

sitting on her left, with his right hand clenched, like the hand of the image

of Gopālā. She was amazed and caught hold of the hand, whereupon the

figure vanished and in its place appeared the real Gopālā, her Ideal Deity.

She cried aloud with joy. Gopālā begged her for butter. She pleaded her

poverty and gave Him some dry coconut candies. Gopālā sat on her lap,

snatched away her rosary, jumped on her shoulders, and moved all about

the room. As soon as the day broke she hastened to Dakshineśwar like an

insane woman. Of course Gopālā accompanied her, resting His head on her

shoulder. She clearly saw His tiny ruddy feet hanging over her breast. She

entered Sri Ramakrishna's room. The Master had fallen into Samādhi. Like

a child, he sat on her lap, and she began to feed him with butter, cream, and

other delicacies. After some time he regained consciousness and returned to

his bed. But the mind of Gopālā's Mother was still roaming in another

plane.

She was steeped in bliss. She saw Gopālā frequently entering the Master's

body and again coming out of it. When she returned to her hut, still in a

dazed condition, Gopālā

accompanied her.

She spent about two months in uninterrupted communion with God, the

Baby Gopālā

never leaving her for a moment. Then the intensity of her vision was

lessened; had it not been, her body would have perished. The Master spoke

highly of her exalted spiritual condition and said that such vision of God

was a rare thing for ordinary mortals. The fun-loving Master one day

confronted the critical Narendranāth with this simple-minded woman. No

two could have presented a more striking contrast. The Master knew of

Narendra's lofty contempt for all visions, and he asked the old lady to

narrate her experiences to Narendra. With great hesitation she told him her

story. Now and then she interrupted her maternal chatter to ask Narendra:

"My son, I am a poor ignorant woman. I don't understand anything. You are

so learned. Now tell me if these visions of Gopālā are true." As Narendra

listened to the story he was profoundly moved. He said, "Yes, mother, they

are quite true." Behind his cynicism Narendra, too, possessed a heart full of

love and tenderness.

The March of Events

In 1882 Hriday was, dismissed from service in the Ka1i temple, for an act

of indiscretion, and was ordered by the authorities never again to enter the

garden. In a way the hand of the Divine Mother may be seen even in this.

Having taken care of Sri Ramakrishna during the stormy days of his

spiritual discipline, Hriday had come naturally to consider himself the sole

guardian of his uncle. None could approach the Master without his

knowledge. And he would be extremely jealous if Sri Ramakrishna paid

attention to anyone else. Hriday's removal made it possible for the real

devotees of the Master to approach him freely and live with him in the

temple garden.

During the weekends the householders, enjoying a respite from their office

duties, visited the Master. The meetings on Sunday afternoons were of the

nature of little festivals. Refreshments were often served. Professional

musicians now and then sang devotional songs. The Master and the

devotees sang and danced, Sri Ramakrishna frequently going into ecstatic

moods. The happy memory of such a Sunday would linger long in the

minds of the devotees. Those whom the Master wanted for special

instruction he would ask to visit him on Tuesdays and Saturdays. These

days were particularly auspicious for the worship of Kāli.

The young disciples destined to be monks, Sri Ramakrishna invited on

week-days, when the householders were not present. The training of the

householders and of the future monks had to proceed along entirely

different lines. Since M. generally visited the Master on weekends, the

Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna does not contain much mention of the future

monastic disciples.

Finally, there was a handful of fortunate disciples, householders as well as

youngsters, who were privileged to spend nights with the Master in his

room. They would see him get up early in the morning and walk up and

down the room, singing in his sweet voice and tenderly communing with

the Mother.

Injury to the Master's Arm

One day, in January 1884, the Master was going toward the pine-grove

when he went into a trance. He was alone. There was no one to support him

or guide his footsteps. He fell to the ground and dislocated a bone in his left

arm. This accident had a significant influence on his mind, the natural

inclination of which was to soar above the consciousness of the body. The

acute pain in the arm forced his mind to dwell on the body and on the world

outside. But he saw even in this a divine purpose; for, with his mind

compelled to dwell on the physical plane, he realized more than ever that he

was an instrument in the hand of the Divine Mother, who had a mission to

fulfil through his human body and mind. He also distinctly found that in the

phenomenal world God manifests Himself, in an inscrutable way, through

diverse human beings, both good and evil. Thus he would speak of God in

the guise of the wicked, God in the guise of the pious, God in the guise of

the hypocrite, God in the guise of the lewd. He began to take a special

delight in watching the divine play in the relative world. Sometimes the

sweet human relationship with God would appear to him more appealing

than the all-effacing Knowledge of Brahman. Many a time he would pray:

"Mother, don't make me unconscious through the Knowledge of Brahman.

Don't give me Brahmajnāna, Mother.

Am I not Your child, and naturally timid? I must have my Mother. A

million salutations to the Knowledge of Brahman! Give it to those who

want it." Again he prayed: "O Mother, let me remain in contact with men!

Don't make me a dried-up ascetic. I want to enjoy Your sport in the world."

He was able to taste this very rich divine experience and enjoy the love of

God and the company of His devotees because his mind, on account of the

injury to his arm, was forced to come down to the consciousness of the

body. Again, he would make fun of people who proclaimed him as a Divine

Incarnation, by pointing to his broken arm. He would say, "Have you ever

heard of God breaking His arm?" It took the arm about five months to heal.

Beginning of His Illness

In April 1885 the Master's throat became inflamed. Prolonged conversation

or absorption in Samādhi, making the blood flow into the throat, would

aggravate the pain. Yet when the annual Vaishnava festival was celebrated

at Pānihāti, Sri Ramakrishna attended it against the doctor's advice. With a

group of disciples he spent himself in music, dance, and ecstasy. The illness

took a turn for the worse and was diagnosed as "clergyman's sore throat".

The patient was cautioned against conversation and ecstasies. Though he

followed the physician's directions regarding medicine and diet, he could

neither control his trances nor withhold from seekers the solace of his

advice. Sometimes, like a sulky child, he would complain to the Mother

about the crowds, who gave him no rest day or night. He was overheard to

say to Her: "Why do You bring here all these worthless people, who are like

milk diluted with five times its own quantity of water? My eyes are almost

destroyed with blowing the fire to dry up the water. My health is gone. It is

beyond my strength. Do it Yourself, if You want it done. This (pointing to

his own body) is but a perforated drum, and if you go on beating it day in

and day out, how long will it last?"

But his large heart never turned anyone away. He said, "Let me be

condemned to be born over and over again, even in the form of a dog, if I

can be of help to a single soul."

And he bore the pain, singing cheerfully, "Let the body be preoccupied with

illness, but, O mind, dwell for ever in God's Bliss!"

One night he had a haemorrhage of the throat. The doctor now diagnosed

the illness as cancer. Narendra was the first to break this heart-rending news

to the disciples. Within three days the Master was removed to Calcutta for

better treatment. At Balarām's house he remained a week until a suitable

place could be found at Śyāmpukur, in the northern section of Calcutta.

During this week he dedicated himself practically without respite to the

instruction of those beloved devotees who had been unable to visit him

oftener at Dakshineśwar. Discourses incessantly flowed from his tongue,

and he often went into Samādhi. Dr. Mahendra Sarkār, the celebrated

homeopath of Calcutta, was invited to undertake his treatment.

Śyāmpukur

In the beginning of September 1885 Sri Ramakrishna was moved to

Śyāmpukur. Here Narendra organized the young disciples to attend the

Master day and night. At first they concealed the Master's illness from their

guardians; but when it became more serious they remained with him almost

constantly, sweeping aside the objections of their relatives and devoting

themselves whole-heartedly to the nursing of their beloved guru.

These young men, under the watchful eyes of the Master and the leadership

of Narendra, became the Antaranga Bhaktās, the devotees of Sri

Ramakrishna's inner circle. They were privileged to witness many

manifestations of the Master's divine powers. Narendra received

instructions regarding the propagation of his message after his death.

The Holy Mother - so Sāradā Devi had come to be affectionately known by

Sri Ramakrishna's devotees - was brought from Dakshineśwar to look after

the general cooking and to prepare the special diet of the patient. The

dwelling space being extremely limited, she had to adapt herself to cramped

conditions. At three o'clock in the morning she would finish her bath in the

Ganges and then enter a small covered place on the roof, where she spent

the whole day cooking and praying. After eleven at night, when the visitors

went away, she would come down to her small bedroom on the first floor to

enjoy a few hours' sleep. Thus she spent three months, working hard,

sleeping little, and praying constantly for the Master's recovery.

At Śyāmpukur the devotees led an intense life. Their attendance on the

Master was in itself a form of spiritual discipline. His mind was constantly

soaring to an exalted plane of consciousness. Now and then they would

catch the contagion of his spiritual fervour.

They sought to divine the meaning of this illness of the Master, whom most

of them had accepted as an Incarnation of God. One group, headed by

Girish with his robust optimism and great power of imagination, believed

that the illness was a mere pretext to serve a deeper purpose. The Master

had willed his illness in order to bring the devotees together and promote

solidarity among them. As soon as this purpose was served, he would

himself get rid of the disease. A second group thought that the Divine

Mother, in whose hand the Master was an instrument, had brought about

this illness to serve Her own mysterious ends. But the young rationalists,

led by Narendra, refused to ascribe a supernatural cause to a natural

phenomenon. They believed that the Master's body, a material thing, was

subject, like all other material things, to physical laws. Growth,

development, decay, and death were laws of nature to which the Master's

body could not but respond. But though holding differing views, they all

believed that it was to him alone that they must look for the attainment of

their spiritual goal.

In spite of the physician's efforts and the prayers and nursing of the

devotees, the illness rapidly progressed. The pain sometimes appeared to be

unbearable. The Master lived only on liquid food, and his frail body was

becoming a mere skeleton. Yet his face always radiated joy, and he

continued to welcome the visitors pouring in to receive his blessing.

When certain zealous devotees tried to keep the visitors away, they were

told by Girish, "You cannot succeed in it; he has been born for this very

purpose - to sacrifice himself for the redemption of others."

The more the body was devastated by illness, the more it became the

habitation of the Divine Spirit. Through its transparency the gods and

goddesses began to shine with ever increasing luminosity. On the day of the

Kāli Puja the devotees clearly saw in him the manifestation of the Divine

Mother.

It was noticed at this time that some of the devotees were making an

unbridled display of their emotions. A number of them, particularly among

the householders, began to cultivate, though at first unconsciously, the art of

shedding tears, shaking the body, contorting the face, and going into

trances, attempting thereby to imitate the Master.

They began openly to declare Sri Ramakrishna a Divine Incarnation and to

regard themselves as his chosen people, who could neglect religious

disciplines with impunity.

Narendra's penetrating eye soon sized up the situation. He found out that

some of these external manifestations were being carefully practised at

home, while some were the outcome of malnutrition, mental weakness, or

nervous debility. He mercilessly exposed the devotees who were pretending

to have visions, and asked all to develop a healthy religious spirit. Narendra

sang inspiring songs for the younger devotees, read with them the Imitation

of Christ and the Gita, and held before them the positive ideals of

spirituality.

Last Days at Cossipore

When Sri Ramakrishna's illness showed signs of aggravation, the devotees,

following the advice of Dr. Sarkār, rented a spacious garden house at

Cossipore, in the northern suburbs of Calcutta. The Master was removed to

this place on December 11, 1885.

It was at Cossipore that the curtain fell on the varied activities of the

Master's life on the physical plane. His soul lingered in the body eight

months more. It was the period of his great Passion, a constant crucifixion

of the body and the triumphant revelation of the Soul. Here one sees the

humanity and divinity of the Master passing and repassing across a thin

border line. Every minute of those eight months was suffused with touching

tenderness of heart and breath-taking elevation of spirit. Every word he

uttered was full of pathos and sublimity.

It took the group only a few days to become adjusted to the new

environment. The Holy Mother, assisted by Sri Ramakrishna's niece,

Lakshmi Devi, and a few woman devotees, took charge of the cooking for

the Master and his attendants. Surendra willingly bore the major portion of

the expenses, other householders contributing according to their means.

Twelve disciples were constant attendants of the Master: Narendra, Rākhāl,

Bāburām, Niranjan, Jogin, Lātu, Tārak, the elder Gopāl, Kāli, Śashi, Śarat,

and the younger Gopāl. Sāradā, Harish, Hari, Gangādhar, and Tulasi visited

the Master from time to time and practised sādhana at home. Narendra,

preparing for his law examination, brought his books to the garden house in

order to continue his studies during the infrequent spare moments. He

encouraged his brother disciples to intensify their meditation, scriptural

studies, and other spiritual disciplines. They all forgot their relatives and

their worldly duties.

Among the attendants Śashi was the embodiment of service. He did not

practise meditation, japa, or any of the other disciplines followed by his

brother devotees. He was convinced that service to the guru was the only

religion for him. He forgot food and rest and was ever ready at the Master's

bedside.

Pundit Śaśadhar one day suggested to the Master that the latter could

remove the illness by concentrating his mind on the throat, the scriptures

having declared that yogis had power to cure themselves in that way. The

Master rebuked the pundit. "For a scholar like you to make such a

proposal!" he said. "How can I withdraw the mind from the Lotus Feet of

God and turn it to this worthless cage of flesh and blood?" "For our sake at

least", begged Narendra and the other disciples. "But", replied Sri

Ramakrishna, "do you think I enjoy this suffering? I wish to recover, but

that depends on the Mother."

NARENDRA:

"Then

please

pray

Her.

She

must

listen

you."

MASTER: "But I cannot pray for my body."

NARENDRA: "You must do it, for our sake at least."

MASTER: "Very well, I shall try."

A few hours later the Master said to Narendra: "I said to Her: 'Mother, I

cannot swallow food because of my pain. Make it possible for me to eat a

little.' She pointed you all out to me and said: 'What? You are eating enough

through all these mouths. Isn't that so?' I was ashamed and could not utter

another word." This dashed all the hopes of the devotees for the Master's

recovery.

"I shall make the whole thing public before I go", the Master had said some

time before.

On January 1, 1886, he felt better and came down to the garden for a little

stroll. It was about three o'clock in the afternoon. Some thirty lay disciples

were in the hall or sitting about under the trees. Sri Ramakrishna said to

Girish, "Well, Girish, what have you seen in me, that you proclaim me

before everybody as an Incarnation of God?" Girish was not the man to be

taken by surprise. He knelt before the Master and said with folded hands,

"What can an insignificant person like myself say about the One whose

glory even sages like Vyāsa and Vālmiki could not adequately measure?"

The Master was profoundly moved. He said: "What more shall I say? I

bless you all. Be illumined!" He fell into a spiritual mood. Hearing these

words the devotees, one and all, became overwhelmed with emotion. They

rushed to him and fell at his feet. He touched them all, and each received an

appropriate benediction. Each of them, at the touch of the Master,

experienced ineffable bliss. Some laughed, some wept, some sat down to

meditate, some began to pray. Some saw light, some had visions of their

Chosen Ideals, and some felt within their bodies the rush of spiritual power.

Narendra, consumed with a terrific fever for realization, complained to the

Master that all the others had attained peace and that he alone was

dissatisfied. The Master asked what he wanted. Narendra begged for

Samādhi, so that he might altogether forget the world for three or four days

at a time. "You are a fool", the Master rebuked him. "There is a state even

higher than that. Isn't it you who sing, 'All that exists art Thou'? First of all

settle your family affairs and then come to me. You will experience a state

even higher than Samādhi."

The Master did not hide the fact that he wished to make Narendra his

spiritual heir.

Narendra was to continue the work after Sri Ramakrishna's passing. Sri

Ramakrishna said to him: "I leave these young men in your charge. See that

they develop their spirituality and do not return home." One day he asked

the boys, in preparation for a monastic life, to beg their food from door to

door without thought of caste. They hailed the Master's order and went out

with begging-bowls. A few days later he gave the ochre cloth of the

sannyāsi to each of them, including Girish, who was now second to none in

his spirit of renunciation. Thus the Master himself laid the foundation of the

future Ramakrishna Order of monks.

Sri Ramakrishna was sinking day by day. His diet was reduced to a

minimum and he found it almost impossible to swallow. He whispered to

M.: "I am bearing all this cheerfully, for otherwise you would be weeping.

If you all say that it is better that the body should go rather than suffer this

torture, I am willing." The next morning he said to his depressed disciples

seated near the bed: "Do you know what I see? I see that God alone has

become everything. Men and animals are only frameworks covered with

skin, and it is He who is moving through their heads and limbs. I see that it

is God Himself who has become the block, the executioner, and the victim

for the sacrifice." He fainted with emotion. Regaining partial consciousness,

he said: "Now I have no pain. I am very well." Looking at Lātu he said:

"There sits Lātu resting his head on the palm of his hand.

To me it is the Lord who is seated in that posture."

The words were tender and touching. Like a mother he caressed Narendra

and Rākhāl, gently stroking their faces. He said in a half whisper to M.,

"Had this body been allowed to last a little longer, many more souls would

have been illumined." He paused a moment and then said: "But Mother has

ordained otherwise. She will take me away lest, finding me guileless and

foolish, people should take advantage of me and persuade me to bestow on

them the rare gifts of spirituality." A few minutes later he touched his chest

and said: "Here are two beings. One is She and the other is Her devotee. It

is the latter who broke his arm, and it is he again who is now ill. Do you

understand me?" After a pause he added: "Alas! To whom shall I tell all

this? Who will understand me?" "Pain", he consoled them again, "is

unavoidable as long as there is a body. The Lord takes on the body for the

sake of His devotees."

Yet one is not sure whether the Master's soul actually was tortured by this

agonizing disease. At least during his moments of spiritual exaltation -

which became almost constant during the closing days of his life on earth -

he lost all consciousness of the body, of illness and suffering. One of his

attendants said later on: "While Sri Ramakrishna lay sick he never actually

suffered pain. He would often say: 'O mind!

Forget the body, forget the sickness, and remain merged in Bliss.' No, he did

not really suffer. At times, he would be in a state when the thrill of joy was

clearly manifested in his body. Even when he could not speak he would let

us know in some way that there was no suffering, and this fact was clearly

evident to all who watched him. People who did not understand him

thought that his suffering was very great. What spiritual joy he transmitted

to us at that time! Could such a thing have been possible if he had been

suffering physically? It was during this period that he taught us again these

truths.

'Brahman is always unattached. The three gunās are in It, but It is

unaffected by them, just as the wind carries odour yet remains odourless.'

'Brahman is Infinite Being, In finite Wisdom, Infinite Bliss. In It there exist

no delusion, no misery, no disease, no death, no growth, no decay.' 'The

Transcendental Being and the being within are one and the same. There is

one indivisible Absolute Existence.' "

The Holy Mother secretly went to a Śiva temple across the Ganges to

intercede with the Deity for the Master's recovery. In a revelation she was

told to prepare herself for the inevitable end.

One day when Narendra was on the ground floor, meditating, the Master

was lying awake in his bed upstairs. In the depths of his meditation

Narendra felt as though a lamp were burning at the back of his head.

Suddenly he lost consciousness. It was the yearned-for, all-effacing

experience of nirvikalpa Samādhi, when the embodied soul realizes its unity

with the Absolute. After a very long time he regained partial consciousness

but was unable to find his body. He could see only his head. "Where is my

body?" he cried. The elder Gopāl entered the room and said, "Why, it is

here, Naren!"

But Narendra could not find it. Gopāl, frightened, ran upstairs to the Master.

Sri Ramakrishna only said: "Let him stay that way for a time. He has

worried me long enough."

After another long period Narendra regained full consciousness. Bathed in

peace, he went to the Master, who said: "Now the Mother has shown you

everything. But this revelation will remain under lock and key, and I shall

keep the key. When you have accomplished the Mother's work you will find

the treasure again."

Some days later, Narendra being alone with the Master, Sri Ramakrishna

looked at him and went into Samādhi. Narendra felt the penetration of a

subtle force and lost all outer consciousness. Regaining presently the

normal mood, he found the Master weeping.

Sri Ramakrishna said to him: "Today I have given you my all and I am now

only a poor fakir, possessing nothing. By this power you will do immense

good in the world, and not until it is accomplished will you return."

Henceforth the Master lived in the disciple.

Doubt, however, dies hard. After one or two days Narendra said to himself,

"If in the midst of this racking physical pain he declares his Godhead, then

only shall I accept him as an Incarnation of God." He was alone by the

bedside of the Master. It was a passing thought, but the Master smiled.

Gathering his remaining strength, he distinctly said, "He who was Rāmā

and Krishna is now, in this body, Ramakrishna - but not in your Vedāntic

sense." Narendra was stricken with shame.

Mahā–samādhi

Sunday, August 15, 1886. The Master's pulse became irregular. The

devotees stood by the bedside. Toward dusk Sri Ramakrishna had difficulty

in breathing. A short time afterwards he complained of hunger. A little

liquid food was put into his mouth; some of it he swallowed, and the rest

ran over his chin. Two attendants began to fan him. All at once he went into

Samādhi of a rather unusual type. The body became stiff. Śaśi burst into

tears. But after midnight the Master revived. He was now very hungry and

helped himself to a bowl of porridge. He said he was strong again. He sat

up against five or six pillows, which were supported by the body of Śashi,

who was fanning him. Narendra took his feet on his lap and began to rub

them. Again and again, the Master repeated to him, "Take care of these

boys." Then, he asked to lie down. Three times in ringing tones he cried the

name of Kāli, his life's Beloved, and lay back. At two minutes past one

there was a low sound in his throat and he fell a little to one side. A thrill

passed over his body. His hair stood on end. His eyes became fixed on the

tip of his nose. His face was lighted with a smile. The final ecstasy began. It

was Mahā–samādhi, total absorption, from which his mind never returned.

Narendra, unable to bear it, ran downstairs.

Dr. Sarkār arrived the following noon and pronounced that life had departed

not more than half an hour before. At five o'clock the Master's body was

brought downstairs, laid on a cot, dressed in ochre clothes, and decorated

with sandal-past and flowers. A procession was formed. The passers-by

wept as the body was taken to the cremation ground at the Bārānagore Ghāt

on the Ganges.

While the devotees were returning to the garden house, carrying the urn

with the sacred ashes, a calm resignation came to their souls and they cried,

"Victory unto the Guru!"

The Holy Mother was weeping in her room, not for her husband, but

because she felt that Mother Kāli had left her. As she was about to put off

the marks of a Hindu widow, in a moment of revelation she heard the words

of faith "I have only passed from one room to another."

------------------------

Chapter 1

MASTER AND DISCIPLE

February 1882

M.'s first visit to the Master

IT WAS ON A SUNDAY in spring, a few days after Sri Ramakrishna's

birthday, that M.

met him the first time. Sri Ramakrishna lived at the Kailibari, the temple

garden of Mother Kali, on the bank of the Ganges at Dakshineswar.

M., being at leisure on Sundays, had gone with his friend Sidhu to visit

several gardens at Baranagore. As they were walking in Prasanna Bannerji's

garden, Sidhu said: "There is a charming place on the bank of the Ganges

where a paramahamsa lives. Should you like to go there?" M. assented and

they started immediately for the Dakshineswar temple garden. They arrived

at the main gate at dusk and went straight to Sri Ramakrishna's room. And

there they found him seated on a wooden couch, facing the east. With a

smile on his face he was talking of God. The room was full of people, all

seated on the floor, drinking in his words in deep silence.

M. stood there speechless and looked on. It was as if he were standing

where all the holy places met and as if Sukadeva himself were speaking the

word of God, or as if Sri Chaitanya were singing the name and glories of

the Lord in Puri with Ramananda, Swarup, and the other devotees.

Formalities and essentials of religion

Sri Ramakrishna said: "When, hearing the name of Hari or Rāma once, you

shed tears and your hair stands on end, then you may know for certain that

you do not have to perform such devotions as the sandhya any more. Then

only will you have a right to renounce rituals; or rather, rituals will drop

away of themselves. Then it will be enough if you repeat only the name of

Rāma or Hari, or even simply Om." Continuing, he said, "The sandhya

merges in the Gayatri, and the Gayatri merges in Om."

M. looked around him with wonder and said to himself: "What a beautiful

place! What a charming man! How beautiful his words are! I have no wish

to move from this spot."

After a few minutes he thought, "Let me see the place first; then I'll come

back here and sit down."

As he left the room with Sidhu, he heard the sweet music of the evening

service arising in the temple from gong, bell, drum, and cymbal. He could

hear music from the nahabat, too, at the south end of the garden. The

sounds travelled over the Ganges, floating away and losing themselves in

the distance. A soft spring wind was blowing, laden with the fragrance of

flowers; the moon had just appeared. It was as if nature and man together

were preparing for the evening worship. M. and Sidhu visited the twelve

Siva temples, the Radhakanta temple, and the temple of Bhavatarini. And as

watched the services before the images his heart was filled with joy.

On the way back to Sri Ramakrishna's room the two friends talked. Sidhu

told M. that the temple garden had been founded by Rani Rasmani. He said

that God was worshipped there daily as Kali, Krishna, and Siva, and that

within the gates sadhus and beggars were fed. When they reached Sri

Ramakrishna's door again, they found it shut, and Brinde, the Maid,

standing outside. M., who had been trained in English manners and would

not enter a room without permission, asked her, "Is the holy man in?"

Brinde replied, "Yes he's in the room."

M: "How long has he lived here?"

BRINDE: "Oh, he has been here a long time."

M: "Does he read many books?"

BRINDE: "Books? Oh, dear no! They're all on his tongue."

M. had just finished his studies in college. It amazed him to hear that Sri

Ramakrishna read no books.

M: "Perhaps it is time for his evening worship. May we go into the room?

Will you tell him we are anxious to see him?"

BRINDE: "Go right in, children. Go in and sit down."

Entering the room, they found Sri Ramakrishna alone, seated on the

wooden couch.

Incense had just been burnt and all the doors were shut. As he entered, M.

with folded hands saluted the Master. Then, at the Master's bidding, he and

Sidhu sat on the floor.

Sri Ramakrishna asked them: "Where do you live? What is your

occupation? Why have you come to Baranagore?" M. answered the

questions, but he noticed that now and then the Master seemed to become

absent-minded. Later he learnt that this mood is called bhava, ecstasy. It is

like the state of the angler who has been sitting with his rod: the fish comes

and swallows the bait, and the float begins to tremble; the angler is on the

alert; he grips the rod and watches the float steadily and eagerly; he will not

speak to anyone. Such was the state of Sri Ramakrishna's mind. Later M.

heard, and himself noticed, that Sri Ramakrishna would often go into this

mood after dusk, sometimes becoming totally unconscious of the outer

world.

M: "Perhaps you want to perform your evening worship. In that case may

we take our leave?"

SRI RAMAKRISHNA (still in ecstasy): "No-evening worship? No, it is not

exactly that."

After a little conversation M. saluted the Master and took his leave. "Come

again", Sri Ramakrishna said.

On his way home M. began to wonder: "Who is this serene-looking man

who is drawing me back to him? Is it possible for a man to be great without

being a scholar? How wonderful it is! I should like to see him again. He

himself said, 'Come again.' I shall go tomorrow or the day after."

Second visit

M.'s second visit to Sri Ramakrishna took place on the southeast verandah

at eight o'clock in the morning. The Master was about to be shaved, the

barber having just arrived. As the cold season still lingered he had put on a

moleskin shawl bordered with red. Seeing M., the Master said: "So you

have come. That's good. Sit down here." He was smiling. He stammered a

little when he spoke.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA (to M.): "Where do you live?"

M: "In Calcutta, sir."

SRI RAMAKRISHNA: "Where are you staying here?"

M: "I am at Baranagore at my older sister's-Ishan Kaviraj's house."

SRI RAMAKRISHNA: "Oh, at Ishan's? Well, how is Keshab now? He was

very ill."

M: "Indeed, I have heard so too, but I believe he is well now."

Master's love for Keshab

SRI RAMAKRISHNA: "I made a vow to worship the Mother with green

coconut and sugar on Keshab's recovery. Sometimes, in the early hours of

the morning, I would wake up and cry before Her: 'Mother, please make

Keshab well again. If Keshab doesn't live, whom shall I talk with when I go

to Calcutta?' And so it was that I resolved to offer Her the green coconut

and sugar.

"Tell me, do you know of a certain Mr. Cook who has come to Calcutta? Is

it true that he is giving lectures? Once Keshab took me on a steamer, and

this Mr. Cook, too was in the party."

M: "Yes, sir, I have heard something like that; but I have never been to his

lectures. I don't know much about him."

Sri Ramakrishna on M.'s marriage

SRI RAMAKRISHNA: "Pratap's brother came here. He stayed a few days.

He had nothing to do and said he wanted to live here. I came to know that

he had left his wife and children with his father-in-law. He has a whole

brood of them! So I took him to task. Just fancy! He is the father of so

many children! Will people from the neighbourhood feed them and bring

them up? He isn't even ashamed that someone else is feeding his wife and

children, and that they have been left at his father-in-law's house. I scolded

him very hard and asked him to look for a job. Then he was willing to leave

here.

"Are you married?"

M: "Yes, sir."

SRI RAMAKRISHNA (with a shudder): "Oh, Ramlal! Alas, he is married!"

Like one guilty of a terrible offence, M. sat motionless, his eyes fixed on

the ground. He thought, "Is it such a wicked thing to get married?"

The Master continued, "Have you any children?"

M. this time could hear the beating of his own heart. He whispered in a

trembling voice, "Yes, sir, I have children."

Very sadly Sri Ramakrishna said, "Ah me! He even has children!"

Thus rebuked M. sat speechless. His pride had received a blow. After a few

minutes Sri Ramakrishna looked at him kindly and said affectionately: "You

see, you have certain good signs. I know them by looking at a person's

forehead, his eyes, and so on. Tell me, now, what kind of person is your

wife? Has she spiritual attributes, or is she under the power of avidya?"

M: "She is all right. But I am afraid she is ignorant."

MASTER (with evident displeasure): "And you are a man of knowledge!"

M. had yet to learn the distinction between knowledge and ignorance. Up to

this time his conception had been that one got knowledge from books and

schools. Later on he gave up this false conception. He was taught that to

know God is knowledge, and not to know Him, ignorance. When Sri

Ramakrishna exclaimed, "And you are a man of knowledge!", M.'s ego was

again badly shocked.

God with and without form

MASTER: "Well, do you believe in God with form or without form?"

M., rather surprised, said to himself: "How can one believe in God without

form when one believes in God with form? And if one believes in God

without form, how can one believe that God has a form? Can these two

contradictory ideas be true at the same time? Can a white liquid like milk be

black?"

M: "Sir, I like to think of God as formless."

MASTER: "Very good. It is enough to have faith in either aspect. You

believe in God without form; that is quite all right. But never for a moment

think that this alone is true and all else false. Remember that God with form

is just as true as God without form.

But hold fast to your own conviction."

The assertion that both are equally true amazed M.; he had never learnt this

from his books. Thus his ego received a third blow; but since it was not yet

completely crushed, he came forward to argue with the Master a little more.

God and the clay image

M: "Sir, suppose one believes in God with form. Certainly He is not the

clay image!"

MASTER (interrupting): "But why clay? It is an image of Spirit."

M. could not quite understand the significance of this "image of Spirit".

"But, sir," he said to the Master, "one should explain to those who worship

the clay image that it is not God, and that, while worshipping it, they should

have God in view and not the clay image. One should not worship clay."

God the only real teacher

MASTER (sharply): "That's the one hobby of you Calcutta people - giving

lectures and bringing others to the light! Nobody ever stops to consider how

to get the light himself.

Who are you to teach others?

"He who is the Lord of the Universe will teach everyone. He alone teaches

us, who has created this universe; who has made the sun and moon, men

and beasts, and all other beings; who has provided means for their

sustenance; who has given children parents and endowed them with love to

bring them up. The Lord has done so many things - will He not show

people the way to worship Him? If they need teaching, then He will be the

Teacher. He is our Inner Guide.

"Suppose there is an error in worshipping the clay image; doesn't God know

that through it He alone is being invoked? He will he pleased with that very

worship. Why should you get a headache over it? You had better try for

knowledge and devotion yourself."

This time M. felt that his ego was completely crushed. He now said to

himself: "Yes, he has spoken the truth. What need is there for me to teach

others? Have I known God?

Do I really love Him? 'I haven't room enough for myself in my bed, and I

am inviting my friend to share it with me!' I know nothing about God, yet I

am trying to teach others.

What a shame! How foolish I am! This is not mathematics or history or

literature, that one can teach it to others. No, this is the deep mystery of

God. What he says appeals to me."

This was M.'s first argument with the Master, and happily his last.

MASTER: "You were talking of worshipping the clay image. Even if the

image is made of clay, there is need for that sort of worship. God Himself

has provided different forms of worship. He who is the Lord of the

Universe has arranged all these forms to suit different men in different

stages of knowledge.

"The mother cooks different dishes to suit the stomachs of her different

children.

Suppose she has five children. If there is a fish to cook, she prepares

various dishes from it - pilau, pickled fish, fried fish, and so on - to suit

their different tastes and powers of digestion.

"Do you understand me?"

Need of holy company & Meditation in solitude M. (humbly): "Yes, sir.

How, sir, may we fix our minds on God?"

MASTER: "Repeat God's name and sing His glories, and keep holy

company; and now and then visit God's devotees and holy men. The mind

cannot dwell on God if it is immersed day and night in worldliness, in

worldly duties and responsibilities; it is most necessary to go into solitude

now and then and think of God. To fix the mind on God is very difficult, in

the beginning, unless one practises meditation in solitude. When a tree is

young it should be fenced all around; otherwise it may be destroyed by

cattle.

"To meditate, you should withdraw within yourself or retire to a secluded

corner or to the forest. And you should always discriminate between the

Real and the unreal. God alone is real, the Eternal Substance; all else is

unreal, that is, impermanent. By discriminating thus, one should shake off

impermanent objects from the mind."

God and worldly duties

M. (humbly):"How ought we to live in the world?"

MASTER: "Do all your duties, but keep your mind on God. Live with all -

with wife and children, father and mother - and serve them. Treat them as if

they were very dear to you, but know in your heart of hearts that they do not

belong to you.

"A maidservant in the house of a rich man performs all the household

duties, but her thoughts are fixed on her own home in her native village.

She brings up her Master's children as if they were her own. She even

speaks of them as 'my Rāma' or 'my Hari'.

But in her own mind she knows very well that they do not belong to her at

all.

"The tortoise moves about in the water. But can you guess where her

thoughts are?

There on the bank, where her eggs are lying. Do all your duties in the

world, but keep your mind on God.

"If you enter the world without first cultivating love for God, you will be

entangled more and more. You will be overwhelmed with its danger, its

grief, its sorrows. And the more you think of worldly things, the more you

will be attached to them.

"First rub your hands with oil and then break open the jackfruit; otherwise

they will be smeared with its sticky milk. First secure the oil of divine love,

and then set your hands to the duties of the world.

"But one must go into solitude to attain this divine love. To get butter from

milk you must let it set into curd in a secluded spot; if it is too much

disturbed, milk won't turn into curd. Next, you must put aside all other

duties, sit in a quiet spot, and churn the curd. Only then do you get butter.

"Further, by meditating on God in solitude the mind acquires knowledge,

dispassion, and devotion. But the very same mind goes downward if it

dwells in the world. In the world there is only one thought: 'woman and

gold'.2

"The world is water and the mind milk. If you pour milk into water they

become one; you cannot find the pure milk any more. But turn the milk into

curd and churn it into butter. Then, when that butter is placed in water, it

will float. So, practise spiritual discipline in solitude and obtain the butter of

knowledge and love. Even if you keep that butter in the water of the world

the two will not mix. The butter will float.

Practice of discrimination

"Together with this, you must practise discrimination.

'Woman and gold' is

impermanent. God is the only Eternal Substance. What does a man get with

money?

Food, clothes, and a dwelling-place - nothing more. You cannot realize God

with its help. Therefore money can never be the goal of life. That is the

process of discrimination. Do you understand?"

M: "Yes, sir. I recently read a Sanskrit play called Prabodha Chandrodaya.

It deals with discrimination."

MASTER: "Yes, discrimination about objects. Consider - what is there in

money or in a beautiful body? Discriminate and you will find that even the

body of a beautiful woman consists of bones, flesh, fat, and other

disagreeable things. Why should a man give up God and direct his attention

to such things? Why should a man forget God for their sake?"

How to see God

M: "Is it possible to see God?"

MASTER: "Yes, certainly. Living in solitude now and then, repeating God's

name and singing His glories, and discriminating between the Real and the

unreal - these are the means to employ to see Him."

Longing and yearning

M: "Under what conditions does one see God?"

MASTER: "Cry to the Lord with an intensely yearning heart and you will

certainly see Him. People shed a whole jug of tears for wife and children.

They swim in tears for money. But who weeps for God? Cry to Him with a

real cry."

The Master sang:

Cry to your Mother Syama , with a real cry, O mind!

And how can She hold Herself from you?

How can Syama stay away?

How can your Mother Kali hold Herself away?

O mind, if you are in earnest, bring Her an offering Of bel-leaves and

hibiscus flowers;

Lay at Her feet your offering

And with it mingle the fragrant sandal-paste of Love.

Continuing, he said: "Longing is like the rosy dawn. After the dawn out

comes the sun.

Longing is followed by the vision of God.

"God reveals Himself to a devotee who feels drawn to Him by the

combined force of these three attractions: the attraction of worldly

possessions for the worldly man, the child's attraction for its mother, and the

husband's attraction for the chaste wife. If one feels drawn to Him by the

combined force of these three attractions, then through it one can attain

Him.

"The point is, to love God even as the mother loves her child, the chaste

wife her husband, and the worldly man his wealth. Add together these three

forces of love, these three powers of attraction, and give it all to God. Then

you will certainly see Him.

"It is necessary to pray to Him with a longing heart. The kitten knows only

how to call its mother, crying, 'Mew, mew!' It remains satisfied wherever its

mother puts it. And the mother cat puts the kitten sometimes in the kitchen,

sometimes on the floor, and sometimes on the bed. When it suffers it cries

only, 'Mew, mew!' That's all it knows.

But as soon as the mother hears this cry, wherever she may be; she comes to

the kitten."

Third visit

It was Sunday afternoon when M. came on his third visit to the Master. He

had been profoundly impressed by his first two visits to this wonderful man.

He had been thinking of the Master constantly, and of the utterly simple

way he explained the deep truths of the spiritual life. Never before had he

met such a man.

Sri Ramakrishna was sitting on the small couch. The room was filled with

devotees,3

who had taken advantage of the holiday to come to see the Master. M. had

not yet become acquainted with any of them; so he took his seat in a corner.

The Master smiled as he talked with the devotees.

Narendra

He addressed his words particularly to a young man of nineteen, named

Narendranath, who was a college student and frequented the Sadharan

Brahmo Samaj. His eyes were bright, his words were full of spirit, and he

had the look of a lover of God.

How the spiritually minded should look upon the worldly M. guessed

that the conversation was about worldly men, who look down on those who

aspire to spiritual things. The Master was talking about the great number of

such people in the world, and about how to deal with them.

MASTER (to Narendra): "How do you feel about it? Worldly people say all

kinds of things about the spiritually minded. But look here! When an

elephant moves along the street, any number of curs and other small

animals may bark and cry after it; but the elephant doesn't even look back at

them. If people speak ill of you, what will you think of them?"

NARENDRA: "I shall think that dogs are barking at me."

God in every being

MASTER (Smiling): "Oh, no! You mustn't go that far, my child!

(Laughter). God dwells in all beings. But you may be intimate only with

good people; you must keep away from the evil-minded. God is even in the

tiger; but you cannot embrace the tiger on that account. (Laughter). You

may say, 'Why run away from a tiger, which is also a manifestation of God?'

The answer to that is: 'Those who tell you to run away are also

manifestations of God - and why shouldn't you listen to them?'

Parable of the "elephant God"

"Let me tell you a story. In a forest there lived a holy man who had many

disciples.

One day he taught them to see God in all beings and, knowing this, to bow

low before them all. A disciple went to the forest to gather wood for the

sacrificial fire. Suddenly he heard an outcry: 'Get out of the way! A mad

elephant is coming!' All but the disciple of the holy man took to their heels.

He reasoned that the elephant was also God in another form. Then why

should he run away from it? He stood still, bowed before the animal, and

began to sing its praises. The mahut of the elephant was shouting: 'Run

away! Run away!' But the disciple didn't move. The animal seized him with

its trunk, cast him to one side, and went on its way. Hurt and bruised, the

disciple lay unconscious on the ground. Hearing what had happened, his

teacher and his brother disciples came to him and carried him to the

hermitage. With the help of some medicine he soon regained consciousness.

Someone asked him, 'You knew the elephant was coming - why didn't you

leave the place?' 'But', he said, 'our teacher has told us that God Himself has

taken all these forms, of animals as well as men. Therefore, thinking it was

only the elephant God that was coming, I didn't run away.' At this the

teacher said: 'Yes, my child, it is true that the elephant God was coming; but

the mahut God forbade you to stay there. Since all are manifestations of

God, why didn't you trust the mahut's words? You should have heeded the

words of the mahut God.' (Laughter) "It is said in the scriptures that water is

a form of God. But some water is fit to be used for worship, some water for

washing the face, and some only for washing plates or dirty linen. This last

sort cannot be used for drinking or for a holy purpose. In like manner, God

undoubtedly dwells in the hearts of all - holy and unholy, righteous and

unrighteous; but a man should not have dealings with the unholy, the

wicked, the impure. He must not be intimate with them. With some of them

he may exchange words, but with others he shouldn't go even that far. He

should keep aloof from such people."

How to deal with the wicked

A DEVOTEE: "Sir, if a wicked man is about to do harm, or actually does

so, should we keep quiet then?"

MASTER: "A man living in society should make a show of tamas to protect

himself from evil-minded people. But he should not harm anybody in

anticipation of harm likely to be done him.

Parable of the snake

"Listen to a story. Some cowherd boys used to tend their cows in a meadow

where a terrible poisonous snake lived. Everyone was on the alert for fear

of it. One day a brahmachari was going along the meadow. The boys ran to

him and said: 'Revered sir, please don't go that way. A venomous snake

lives over there.' 'What of it, my good children?' said the brahmachari. 'I am

not afraid of the snake. I know some mantras.'

So saying, he continued on his way along the meadow. But the cowherd

boys, being afraid, did not accompany him. In the mean time the snake

moved swiftly toward him with upraised hood. As soon as it came near, he

recited a mantra, and the snake lay at his feet like an earthworm. The

brahmachari said: 'Look here. Why do you go about doing harm? Come, I

will give you a holy word. By repeating it you will learn to love God.

Ultimately you will realize Him and so get rid of your violent nature.'

Saying this, he taught the snake a holy word and initiated him into spiritual

life. The snake bowed before the teacher and said, 'Revered sir, how shall I

practise spiritual discipline?'

'Repeat that sacred word', said the teacher, 'and do no harm to anybody'. As

he was about to depart, the brahmachari said, 'I shall see you again.'

"Some days passed and the cowherd boys noticed that the snake would not

bite. They threw stones at it. Still it showed no anger; it behaved as if it

were an earthworm. One day one of the boys came close to it, caught it by

the tail, and, whirling it round and round, dashed it again and again on the

ground and threw it away. The snake vomited blood and became

unconscious. It was stunned. It could not move. So, thinking it dead, the

boys went their way.

"Late at night the snake regained consciousness. Slowly and with great

difficulty it dragged itself into its hole; its bones were broken and it could

scarcely move. Many days passed. The snake became a mere skeleton

covered with a skin. Now and then, at night, it would come out in search of

food. For fear of the boys it would not leave its hole during the day-time.

Since receiving the sacred word from the teacher, it had given up doing

harm to others. It maintained its life on dirt, leaves, or the fruit that dropped

from the trees.

"About a year later the brahmachari came that way again and asked after the

snake.

The cowherd boys told him that it was dead. But he couldn't believe them.

He knew that the snake would not die before attaining the fruit of the holy

word with which it had been initiated. He found his way to the place and,

searching here and there, called it by the name he had given it. Hearing the

teacher's voice, it came out of its hole and bowed before him with great

reverence. 'How are you?' asked the brahmachari. 'I am well, sir', replied the

snake. 'But', the teacher asked, 'why are you so thin?' The snake replied:

'Revered sir, you ordered me not to harm any body. So I have been living

only on leaves and fruit. Perhaps that has made me thinner.'

"The snake had developed the quality of sattva; it could not be angry with

anyone. It had totally forgotten that the cowherd boys had almost killed it.

"The brahmachari said: 'It can't be mere want of food that has reduced you

to this state. There must be some other reason. Think a little.' Then the

snake remembered that the boys had dashed it against the ground. It said:

'Yes, revered sir, now I remember. The boys one day dashed me violently

against the ground. They are ignorant, after all. They didn't realize what a

great change had come over my mind.

How could they know I wouldn't bite or harm anyone?' The brahmachari

exclaimed: 'What a shame! You are such a fool! You don't know how to

protect yourself. I asked you not to bite, but I didn't forbid you to hiss. Why

didn't you scare them by hissing?'

"So you must hiss at wicked people. You must frighten them lest they

should do you harm. But never inject your venom into them. One must not

injure others.

"In this creation of God there is a variety of things: men, animals, trees,

plants. Among the animals some are good, some bad. There are ferocious

animals like the tiger. Some trees bear fruit sweet as nectar, and others bear

fruit that is poisonous. Likewise, among human beings, there are the good

and the wicked, the holy and the unholy.

There are some who are devoted to God, and others who are attached to the

world.

Four classes of men

"Men may be divided into four classes: those bound by the fetters of the

world, the seekers after liberation, the liberated, and the ever-free.

"Among the ever-free we may count sages like Narada. They live in the

world for the good of others, to teach men spiritual truth.

"Those in bondage are sunk in worldliness and forgetful of God. Not even

by mistake do they think of God.

"The seekers after liberation want to free themselves from attachment to the

world.

Some of them succeed and others do not.

"The liberated souls, such as the sadhus and mahatmas, are not entangled in

the world, in 'woman and gold'. Their minds are free from worldliness.

Besides, they always meditate on the Lotus Feet of God.

"Suppose a net has been cast into a lake to catch fish. Some fish are so

clever that they are never caught in the net. They are like the ever-free. But

most of the fish are entangled in the net. Some of them try to free

themselves from it, and they are like those who seek liberation. But not all

the fish that struggle succeed. A very few do jump out of the net, making a

big splash in the water. Then the fishermen shout, 'Look!

There goes a big one!' But most of the fish caught in the net cannot escape,

nor do they make any effort to get out. On the contrary, they burrow into the

mud with the net in their mouths and lie there quietly, thinking, 'We need

not fear any more; we are quite safe here.' But the poor things do not know

that the fishermen will drag them out with the net. These are like the men

bound to the world.

"The bound souls are tied to the world by the fetters of 'woman and gold'.

They are bound hand and foot. Thinking that 'woman and gold' will make

them happy and give them security, they do not realize that it will lead them

to annihilation. When a man thus bound to the world is about to die, his

wife asks, 'You are about to go; but what have you done for me?' Again,

such is his attachment to the things of the world that, when he sees the lamp

burning brightly, he says: 'Dim the light. Too much oil is being used.' And

he is on his death-bed!

"The bound souls never think of God. If they get any leisure they indulge in

idle gossip and foolish talk, or they engage in fruitless work. If you ask one

of them the reason, he answers, 'Oh, I cannot keep still; so I am making a

hedge.' When time hangs heavy on their hands they perhaps start playing

cards."

There was deep silence in the room.

Redeeming power of faith

A DEVOTEE: "Sir, is there no help, then, for such a worldly person?"

MASTER: "Certainly there is. From time to time he should live in the

company of holy men, and from time to time go into solitude to meditate on

God. Furthermore, he should practise discrimination and pray to God, 'Give

me faith and devotion.' Once a person has faith he has achieved everything.

There is nothing greater than faith.

(To Kedar) "You must have heard about the tremendous power of faith. It is

said in the purana that Rāma, who was God Himself - the embodiment of

Absolute Brahman - had to build a bridge to cross the sea to Ceylon. But

Hanuman, trusting in Rama's name, cleared the sea in one jump and reached

the other side. He had no need of a bridge.

(All laugh)

"Once a man was about to cross the sea. Bibhishana wrote Rama's name on

a leaf, tied it in a corner of the man's wearing-cloth, and said to him: 'Don't

be afraid. Have faith and walk on the water. But look here - the moment you

lose faith you will be drowned.'

The man was walking easily on the water. Suddenly he had an intense

desire to see what was tied in his cloth. He opened it and found only a leaf

with the name of Rāma written on it. 'What is this?' he thought. 'Just the

name of Rāma!' As soon as doubt entered his mind he sank under the water.

"If a man has faith in God, then even if he has committed the most heinous

sins -

such as killing a cow, a brahmin, or a woman - he will certainly be saved

through his faith. Let him only say to God, 'O Lord, I Will not repeat such

an action', and he need not be afraid of anything."

When he had said this, the Master sang:

If only I can pass away repeating Durga's name, How canst Thou then, O

Blessed One,

Withhold from me deliverance,

Wretched though I may be?

1 may have stolen a drink of wine, or killed a child unborn, Or slain a

woman or a cow,

Or even caused a brahmin's death;

But, though it all be true,

Nothing of this can make me feel the least uneasiness; For through the

power of Thy sweet name

My wretched soul may still aspire

Even to Brahmanhood.

Parable of the homa bird

Pointing to Narendra, the Master said: "You all see this boy. He behaves

that way here.

A naughty boy seems very gentle when with his father. But he is quite

another person when he plays in the chandni. Narendra and people of his

type belong to the class of the ever-free. They are never entangled in the

world. When they grow a little older they feel the awakening of inner

consciousness and go directly toward God. They come to the world only to

teach others. They never care for anything of the world. They are never

attached to 'woman and gold'.

"The Vedas speak of the homa bird. It lives high up in the sky and there it

lays its egg.

As soon as the egg is laid it begins to fall; but it is so high up that it

continues to fall for many days. As it falls it hatches, and the chick falls. As

the chick falls its eyes open; it grows wings. As soon as its eyes open, it

realizes that it is falling and will be dashed to pieces on touching the earth.

Then it at once shoots up toward the mother bird high in the sky."

At this point Narendra left the room. Kedar, Prankrishna, M., and many

others remained.

Master praises Narendra

MASTER: "You see, Narendra excels in singing, playing on instruments,

study, and everything. The other day he had a discussion with Kedar and

tore his arguments to shreds. (All laugh.)

(To M.) "Is there any book in English on reasoning?"

M: "Yes, sir, there is. It is called Logic."

MASTER: "Tell me what it says."

M. was a little embarrassed. He said: "One part of the book deals with

deduction from the general to the particular. For example: All men are

mortal. Scholars are men.

Therefore scholars are mortal. Another part deals with the method of

reasoning from the particular to the general. For example: This crow is

black. That crow is black. The crows we see everywhere are black.

Therefore all crows are black. But there may be a fallacy in a conclusion

arrived at in this way; for on inquiry one may find a white crow in some

country. There is another illustration: If there is rain, there is, or has been, a

cloud. Therefore rain comes from a cloud. Still another example: This man

has thirty-two teeth. That man has thirty-two teeth. All the men we see have

thirty-two teeth.

Therefore men have thirty-two teeth. English logic deals with such

inductions and deductions."

Sri Ramakrishna barely heard these words. While listening he became

absent-minded.

So the conversation did not proceed far.

When the meeting broke up, the devotees sauntered in the temple garden.

M. went in the direction of the Panchavati. It was about five o'clock in the

afternoon. After a while he returned to the Master's room. There, on the

small north verandah, he witnessed an amazing sight.

Sri Ramakrishna was standing still, surrounded by a few devotees, and

Narendra was singing. M. had never heard anyone except the Master sing

so sweetly. When he looked at Sri Ramakrishna he was struck with wonder;

for the Master stood motionless, with eyes transfixed. He seemed not even

to breathe. A devotee told M. that the Master was in samadhi. M. had never

before seen or heard of such a thing. Silent with wonder, he thought: "Is it

possible for a man to be so oblivious of the outer world in the

consciousness of God? How deep his faith and devotion must be to bring

about such a state!"

Narendra was singing:

Meditate, O my mind, on the Lord Hari, The Stainless One, Pure Spirit

through and through.

How peerless is the Light that in Him shines!

How soul-bewitching is His wondrous form!

How dear is He to all His devotees!

Ever more beauteous in fresh-blossoming love

That shames the splendour of a million moons,

Like lightning gleams the glory of His form,

Raising erect the hair for very joy.

The Master shuddered when this last line was sung. His hair stood on end,

and tears of joy streamed down his cheeks. Now and then his lips parted in

a smile. Was he seeing the peerless beauty of God, "that shames the

splendour of a million moons"? Was this the vision of God, the Essence of

Spirit? How much austerity and discipline, how much faith and devotion,

must be necessary for such a vision!

The song went on:

Worship His feet in the lotus of your heart;

With mind serene and eyes made radiant

With heavenly love, behold that matchless sight.

Again that bewitching smile. The body motionless as before, the eyes half

Shut, as if beholding a strange inner vision.

The song drew to a close. Narendra sang the last lines: Caught in the spell

of His love's ecstasy,

Immerse yourself for evermore, O mind"

In Him who is Pure Knowledge and Pure Bliss.

The sight of the samadhi, and the divine bliss he had witnessed, left an

indelible impression on M.'s mind. He returned home deeply moved. Now

and then he could hear within himself the echo of those soul-intoxicating

lines: Immerse yourself for evermore, O mind,

In Him who is Pure Knowledge and Pure Bliss.

Fourth visit

The next day, too, was a holiday for M. He arrived at Dakshineswar at three

o'clock in the afternoon. Sri Ramakrishna was in his room; Narendra,

Bhavanath, and a few other devotees were sitting on a mat spread on the

floor. They were all young men of nineteen or twenty. Seated on the small

couch, Sri Ramakrishna was talking with them and smiling.

No sooner had M. entered the room than the Master laughed aloud and said

to the boys, "There! He has come again." They all joined in the laughter. M.

bowed low before him and took a seat. Before this he had saluted the

Master with folded hands, like one with an English education. But that day

he learnt to fall down at his feet in orthodox Hindu fashion.

The peacock and the opium

Presently the Master explained the cause of his laughter to the devotees, He

said: "A man once fed a peacock with a pill of opium at four o'clock in the

afternoon. The next day, exactly at that time, the peacock came back. It had

felt the intoxication of the drug and returned just in time to have another

dose."(All laugh.) M. thought this a very apt illustration. Even at home he

had been unable to banish the thought of Sri Ramakrishna for a moment.

His mind was constantly at Dakshineswar and he had counted the minutes

until he should go again.

In the mean time the Master was having great fun with the boys, treating

them as if they were his most intimate friends. Peals of side-splitting

laughter filled the room, as if it were a mart of joy. The whole thing was a

revelation to M. He thought: "Didn't I see him only yesterday intoxicated

with God? Wasn't he swimming then in the Ocean of Divine Love - a sight I

had never seen before? And today the same person is behaving like an

ordinary man! Wasn't it he who scolded me on the first day of my coming

here?

Didn't he admonish me, saying, 'And you are a man of knowledge!'? Wasn't

it he who said to me that God with form is as true as God without form?

Didn't he tell me that God alone is real and all else illusory? Wasn't it he

who advised me to live in the world unattached, like a maidservant in a rich

man's house?"

Sri Ramakrishna was having great fun with the young devotees; now and

then he glanced at M. He noticed that M. sat in silence. The Master said to

Ramlal: "You see, he is a little advanced in years, and therefore somewhat

serious. He sits quiet while the youngsters are making merry." M. was then

about twenty-eight years old.

Hanuman's devotion to Rāma

The conversation drifted to Hanuman, whose picture hung on the wall in the

Master's room.

Sri Ramakrishna said: "Just imagine Hanuman's state of mind. He didn't

care for money, honour, creature comforts, or anything else. He longed only

for God. When he was running away with the heavenly weapon that had

been secreted in the crystal pillar, Mandodari began to tempt him with

various fruits so that he might come down and drop the weapon.5 But he

couldn't be tricked so easily. In reply to her persuasions he sang this song:

Am I in need of fruit?

I have the Fruit that makes this life

Fruitful indeed. Within my heart

The Tree of Rāma grows,

Bearing salvation for its fruit.

Under the Wish-fulfilling Tree

Of Rāma do I sit at ease,

Plucking whatever fruit I will.

But if you speak of fruit -

No beggar, I, for common fruit.

Behold, I go,

Leaving a bitter fruit for you."

As Sri Ramakrishna was singing the song he went into samadhi. Again the

half-closed eyes and motionless body that one sees in his photograph. Just a

minute before, the devotees had been making merry in his company. Now

all eyes were riveted on him.

Thus for the second time M. saw the Master in samadhi.

After a long time the Master came back to ordinary consciousness. His face

lighted up with a smile, and his body relaxed; his senses began to function

in a normal way. He shed tears of joy as he repeated the holy name of

Rāma. M. wondered whether this very saint was the person who a few

minutes earlier had been behaving like a child of five.

The Master said to Narendra and M., "I should like to hear you speak and

argue in English." They both laughed. But they continued to talk in their

mother tongue. It was impossible for M. to argue any more before the

Master. Though Ramakrishna insisted, they did not talk in English.

At five o'clock in the afternoon all the devotees except Narendra and M.

took leave of the Master. As M. was walking in the temple garden, he

suddenly came upon the Master talking to Narendra on the bank of the

goose-pond. Sri Ramakrishna said to Narendra: "Look here. Come a little

more often. You are a newcomer. On first acquaintance people visit each

other quite often, as is the case with a lover and his sweetheart.

(Narendra and M. laugh.) So please come, won't you?"

Narendra, a member of the Brahmo Samaj, was very particular about his

promises. He said with a smile, "Yes, sir, I shall try."

As they were returning to the Master's room, Sri Ramakrishna said to M.:

"When peasants go to market to buy bullocks for their ploughs, they can

easily tell the good from the bad by touching their tails. On being touched

there, some meekly lie down on the ground. The peasants recognize that

these are without mettle and so reject them.

They select only those bullocks that frisk about and show spirit when their

tails are touched. Narendra is like a bullock of this latter class. He is full of

spirit within."

The Master smiled as he said this, and continued: "There are some people

who have no grit whatever. They are like flattened rice soaked in milk - soft

and mushy. No inner strength!"

It was dusk. The Master was meditating on God. He said to M.: "Go and

talk to Narendra. Then tell me what you think of him."

Evening worship was over in the temples. M. met Narendra on the bank of

the Ganges and they began to converse. Narendra told M. about his

studying in college, his being a member of the Brahmo Samaj, and so on.

It was now late in the evening and time for M.'s departure; but he felt

reluctant to go and instead went in search of Sri Ramakrishna. He had been

fascinated by the Master's singing and wanted to hear more. At last he

found the Master pacing alone in the natmandir in front of the Kali temple.

A lamp was burning in the temple on either side of the image of the Divine

Mother. The single lamp in the spacious natmandir blended light and

darkness into a kind of mystic twilight, in which the figure of the Master

could be dimly seen.

M. had been enchanted by the Master's sweet music. With some hesitation

he asked him whether there would be any more singing that evening. "No,

not tonight", said Sri Ramakrishna after a little reflection. Then, as if

remembering something, he added: "But I'm going soon to Balarām Bose's

house in Calcutta. Come there and you'll hear me sing." M. agreed to go.

MASTER. "Do you know Balarām Bose?"

M: "No, sir. I don't."

MASTER: "He lives in Bosepara."

M: "Well, sir, I shall find him."

As Sri Ramakrishna walked up and down the hall with M., he said to him:

"Let me ask you something. What do you think of me?"

M. remained silent. Again Sri Ramakrishna asked: "What do you think of

me? How many annas of knowledge of God have I?"

M: "I don't understand what you mean by 'annas'. But of this I am sure: I

have never before seen such knowledge, ecstatic love, faith in God,

renunciation, and catholicity anywhere."

The Master laughed.

M. bowed low before him and took his leave. He had gone as far as the

main gate of the temple garden when he suddenly remembered something

and came back to Sri Ramakrishna, who was still in the natmandir. In the

dim light the Master, all alone, was pacing the hall, rejoicing in the Self as

the lion lives and roams alone in the forest.

In silent wonder M. surveyed that great soul.

MASTER (to M.): "What makes you come back?"

M: "Perhaps the house you asked me to go to belongs to a rich man. They

may not let me in. I think I had better not go. I would rather meet you here."

MASTER: "Oh, no! Why should you think that? Just mention my name.

Say that you want to see me; then someone will take you to me."

M. nodded his assent and, after saluting the Master, took his leave.

--------------------

Chapter 2

IN THE COMPANY OF DEVOTEES

March 11, 1882

Master at Balaram's house

ABOUT EIGHT O'CLOCK in the morning Sri Ramakrishna went as

planned to Balaram Bose's house in Calcutta. It was the day of the

Dolayatra. Ram, Manomohan, Rakhal, Nityagopal, and other devotees were

with him. M., too, came, as bidden by the Master.

Devotees in trance

The devotees and the Master sang and danced in a state of divine fervour.

Several of them were in an ecstatic mood. Nityagopal's chest glowed with

the upsurge of emotion, and Rakhal lay on the floor in ecstasy, completely

unconscious of the world. The Master put his hand on Rakhal's chest and

said: "Peace. Be quiet." This was Rakhal's first experience of ecstasy. He

lived with his father in Calcutta and now and then visited the Master at

Dakshineswar. About this time he had studied a short while in Vidyasagar's

school at Syampukur.

When the music was over, the devotees sat down for their meal. Balaram

stood there humbly, like a servant. Nobody would have taken him for the

master of the house. M.

was still a stranger to the devotees, having met only Narendra at

Dakshineswar.

A few days later M. visited the Master at Dakshineswar. It was between

four and five o'clock in the afternoon. The Master and he were sitting on the

steps of the Śiva temples. Looking at the temple of Radhakanta, across the

courtyard, the Master went into an ecstatic mood.

Since his nephew Hriday's dismissal from the temple, Sri Ramakrishna had

been living without an attendant. On account of his frequent spiritual moods

he could hardly take care of himself. The lack of an attendant caused him

great inconvenience.

Bigotry condemned

Sri Ramakrishna was talking to Kāli, the Divine Mother of the Universe. He

said: "Mother, everyone says, 'My watch alone is right.' The Christians, the

Brahmos, the Hindus, the Mussalmans, all say, 'My religion alone is true.'

But, Mother, the fact is that nobody's watch is right. Who can truly

understand Thee? But if a man prays to Thee with a yearning heart, he can

reach Thee, through Thy grace, by any path. Mother, show me some time

how the Christians pray to Thee in their churches. But Mother, what will

people say if I go in? Suppose they make a fuss! Suppose they don't allow

me to enter the Kāli temple again! Well then, show me the Christian

worship from the door of the church."

The mind's inability to comprehend God

Another day the Master was seated on the small couch in his room, with his

usual beaming countenance. M. arrived with Kalikrishna, who did not know

where his friend M.

was taking him. He had only been told: "If you want to see a grog-shop,

then come with me. You will see a huge jar of wine there." M. related this

to Sri Ramakrishna, who laughed about it. The Master said: "The bliss of

worship and communion with God is the true wine, the wine of ecstatic

love. The goal of human life is to love God, Bhakti is the one essential

thing. To know God through jnāna and reasoning is extremely difficult."

Then the Master sang:

Who is there that can understand what Mother Kāli is?

Even the six darsanas are powerless to reveal Her....

The Master said, again: "The one goal of life is to cultivate love for God,

the love that the milkmaids, the milkmen, and the cowherd boys of

Vrindāvan felt for Krishna. When Krishna went away to Mathura, the

cowherds roamed about weeping bitterly because of their separation from

Him."

Saying this the Master sang, with his eyes turned upward: Just now I saw a

youthful cowherd

With a young calf in his arms;

There he stood, by one hand holding

The branch of a young tree.

"Where are You, Brother Kanai?" he cried; But "Kanai" scarcely could he

utter; "Ka" was as much as he could say.

He cried, "Where are You, Brother?"

And his eyes were filled with tears.

When M. heard this song of the Master's, laden with love, his eyes were

moist with tears.

April 2, 1882

Master's visit to Keshab

Sri Ramakrishna was sitting in the drawing-room of Keshab Chandra Sen's

house in Calcutta; it was five o'clock in the afternoon. When Keshab was

told of his arrival, he came to the drawing-room dressed to go out, for he

was about to call on a sick friend.

Now he cancelled his plan. The Master said to him: "You have so many

things to attend to. Besides, you have to edit a newspaper. You have no time

to come to Dakshineswar; so I have come to see you. When I heard of your

illness I vowed green coconut and sugar to the Divine Mother for your

recovery. I said to Her, 'Mother, if something happens to Keshab, with

whom shall I talk in Calcutta?' "

Sri Ramakrishna spoke to Pratap and the other Brahmo devotees. M. was

seated near by. Pointing to him, the Master said to Keshab: "Will you please

ask him why he doesn't come to Dakshineswar any more? He repeatedly

tells me he is not attached to his wife and children." M. had been paying

visits to the Master for about a month; his absence for a time from

Dakshineswar called forth this remark. Sri Ramakrishna had asked M. to

write to him, if his coming were delayed.

Pundit Samadhyayi was present. The Brahmo devotees introduced him to

Sri Ramakrishna as a scholar well versed in the Vedas and the other

scriptures. The Master said, "Yes, I can see inside him through his eyes, as

one can see the objects in a room through the glass door."

Trailokya sang. Suddenly the Master stood up and went into samādhi,

repeating the Mother's name. Coming down a little to the plane of sense

consciousness, he danced and sang:

I drink no ordinary wine, but Wine of Everlasting Bliss, As I repeat my

Mother Kāli's name;

It so intoxicates my mind that people take me to be drunk!

First my guru gives molasses for the making of the Wine; My longing is the

ferment to transform it.

Knowledge, the maker of the Wine, prepares it for me then; And when it is

done, my mind imbibes it from the bottle of the mantra,

Taking the Mother's name to make it pure.

Drink of this Wine, says Ramprasad, and the four fruits of life are yours.

The Master looked at Keshab tenderly, as if Keshab were his very own. He

seemed to fear that Keshab might belong to someone else, that is to say, that

he might become a worldly person. Looking at him, the Master sang again:

We are afraid to speak, and yet we are afraid to keep still; Our minds, O

Radha, half believe that we are about to lose you!

We tell you the secret that we know -

The secret whereby we ourselves, and others, with our help, Have passed

through many a time of peril;

Now it all depends on you.

Quoting the last part of the song, he said to Keshab: "That is to say,

renounce everything and call on God. He alone is real; all else is illusory.

Without the realization of God everything is futile. This is the great secret."

The Master sat down again and began to converse with the devotees. For a

while he listened to a piano recital, enjoying it like a child. Then he was

taken to the inner apartments, where he was served with refreshments and

the ladies saluted him.

As the Master was leaving Keshab's house, the Brahmo devotees

accompanied him respectfully to his carriage.

Sunday, April 9, 1882

Sri Ramakrishna was seated with his devotees in the drawing-room of

Prankrishna Mukherji's house in Calcutta; it was between one and two

o'clock in the afternoon. Since Colonel Viswanath4 lived in that

neighbourhood, the Master intended to visit him before going to see Keshab

at the Lily Cottage. A number of neighbours and other friends of

Prankrishna had been invited to meet Sri Ramakrishna. They were all eager

to hear his words.

God and His glory & Dangers of worldly life MASTER: "God and His

glory. This universe is His glory. People see His glory and forget

everything. They do not seek God, whose glory is this world. All seek to

enjoy 'woman and gold'. But there is too much misery and worry in that.

This world is like the whirlpool of the Viśālākśi. Once a boat gets into it

there is no hope of its rescue. Again, the world is like a thorny bush: you

have hardly freed yourself from one set of thorns before you find yourself

entangled in another. Once you enter a labyrinth you find it very difficult to

get out. Living in the world, a man becomes seared, as it were."

A DEVOTEE: "Then what is the way, sir?"

Prayer and holy company & Earnest longing

MASTER: "Prayer and the company of holy men. You cannot get rid of an

ailment without the help of a physician. But it is not enough to be in the

company of religious people only for a day. You should constantly seek it,

for the disease has become chronic. Again, you can't understand the pulse

rightly unless you live with a physician. Moving with him constantly, you

learn to distinguish between the pulse of phlegm and the pulse of bile."

DEVOTEE: "What is the good of holy company?"

MASTER: "It begets yearning for God. It begets love of God. Nothing

whatsoever is achieved in spiritual life without yearning. By constant living

in the company of holy men, the soul becomes restless for God. This

yearning is like the state of mind of a man who has someone ill in the

family. His mind is in a state of perpetual restlessness, thinking how the

sick person may be cured. Or again, one should feel a yearning for God like

the yearning of a man who has lost his job and is wandering from one office

to another in search of work. If he is rejected at a certain place which has no

vacancy, he goes there again the next day and inquires, 'Is there an vacancy

today?'

"There is another way: earnestly praying to God. God is our very own. We

should say to Him: 'O God, what is Thy nature? Reveal Thyself to me.

Thou must show Thyself to me; for why else hast Thou created me?' Some

Sikh devotees once said to me, 'God is full of compassion.' I said: 'But why

should we call Him compassionate? He is our Creator.

What is there to be wondered at if He is kind to us? Parents bring up their

children. Do you call that an act of kindness? They must act that way.'

Therefore we should force our demands on God. He is our Father and

Mother, isn't He? If the son demands his patrimony and gives up food and

drink in order to enforce his demand, then the parents hand his share over to

him three years before the legal time. Or when the child demands some pice

from his mother, and says over and over again: 'Mother, give me a couple of

pice. I beg you on my knees!' - then the mother, seeing his earnestness, and

unable to bear it any more, tosses the money to him.

"There is another benefit from holy company. It helps one cultivate

discrimination between the Real and the unreal. God alone is the Real, that

is to say, the Eternal Substance, and the world is unreal, that is to say,

transitory. As soon as a man finds his mind wandering away to the unreal,

he should apply discrimination. The moment an elephant stretches out its

trunk to eat a plantain-tree in a neighbour's garden, it gets a blow from the

iron goad of the driver."

Explanation of evil

A NEIGHBOUR: "Why does a man have sinful tendencies?"

MASTER: "In God's creation there are all sorts of things. He has created

bad men as well as good men. It is He who gives us good tendencies, and it

is He again who gives us evil tendencies."

NEIGHBOUR: "In that case we aren't responsible for our sinful actions, are

we?"

MASTER: "Sin begets its own result. This is God's law. Won't you burn our

tongue if you chew a chilli? In his youth Mathur6 led a rather fast life; so he

suffered from various diseases before his death.

"One may not realize this in youth. I have looked into the hearth in the

kitchen of the Kāli temple when logs are being burnt. At first the wet wood

burns rather well. It doesn't seem then that it contains much moisture. But

when the wood is sufficiently burnt, all the moisture runs back to one end.

At last water squirts from the fuel and puts out the fire.

"So one should be careful about anger, passion, and greed. Take, for

instance, the case of Hanuman. In a fit of anger he burnt Ceylon. At last he

remembered that Sita was living in the aśoka grove. Then he began to

tremble lest the fire should injure her."

NEIGHHBOUR: "Why has God created wicked people?"

MASTER: "That is His will, His play. In His maya there exists avidyā as

well as vidyā.

Darkness is needed too. It reveals all the more the glory of light. There is no

doubt that anger, lust, and greed are evils. Why, then, has God created

them? In order to create saints. A man becomes a saint by conquering the

senses. Is there anything impossible for a man who has subdued his

passions? He can even realize God, through His grace.

Again, see how His whole play of creation is perpetuated through lust.

"Wicked people are needed too. At one time the tenants of an estate became

unruly. The landlord had to send Golak Choudhury, who was a ruffian. He

was such a harsh administrator that the tenants trembled at the very mention

of his name.

"There is need of everything. Once Sita said to her Husband: 'Rama, it

would be grand if every house in Ayhodhya were a mansion! I find many

houses old and dilapidated.' 'But, my dear,' said Rama, 'if all the houses

were beautiful ones, what would the masons do?'

(Laughter.) God has created all kinds of things. He has created good trees,

and poisonous plants and weeds as well. Among the animals there are good,

bad, and all kinds of creatures - tigers, lions, snakes, and so on."

Washing away the heart's impurities with tears NEIGHTBOUR: "Sir, is

it ever possible to realize God while leading the life of a householder?"

MASTER: "Certainly. But as I said just now, one must live in holy

company and pray unceasingly. One should weep for God. When the

impurities of the mind are thus washed away, one realizes God. The mind is

like a needle covered with mud, and God is like a magnet. The needle

cannot be united with the magnet unless it is free from mud. Tears wash

away the mud, which is nothing but lust, anger, greed, and other evil

tendencies, and the inclination to worldly enjoyments as well. As soon as

the mud is washed away, the magnet attracts the needle, that is to say, man

realizes God. Only the pure in heart see God. A fever patient has an excess

of the watery element in his system. What can quinine do for him unless

that is removed?

"Why shouldn't one realize God while living in the world? But, as I said,

one must live in holy company, pray to God, weeping for His grace, and

now and then go into solitude.

Unless the plants on a footpath are protected at first by fences, they are

destroyed by cattle."

Need of a guru

NEIGHBOUR: "Then householders, too, will have the vision of God, won't

they?"

MASTER: "Everybody will surely be liberated. But one should follow the

instructions of the guru; if one follows a devious path, one will suffer in

trying to retrace one's steps. It takes a long time to achieve liberation. A

man may fail to obtain it in this life. Perhaps he will realize God only after

many births. Sages like Janaka performed worldly duties. They performed

them, bearing God in their minds, as a dancing-girl dances, keeping jars or

trays on her head. Haven't you seen how the women in northwest India

walk, talking and laughing while carrying water-pitchers on their beads?"

NEIGHBOUR: "You just referred to the instructions of the guru. How shall

we find him?"

MASTER: "Anyone and everyone cannot be a guru. A huge timber floats

on the water and can carry animals as well. But a piece of worthless wood

sinks, if a man sits on it, and drowns him. Therefore in every age God

incarnates Himself as the guru, to teach humanity. Satchidananda alone is

the guru.

"What is knowledge? And what is the nature of this ego? 'God alone is the

Doer, and none else' - that is knowledge. I am not the doer; I am a mere

instrument in His hand.

Therefore I say: 'O Mother, Thou art the Operator and I am the machine.

Thou art the Indweller and I am the house. Thou art the Driver and I am the

carriage. I move as Thou movest me. I do as Thou makest me do. I speak as

Thou makest me speak. Not I, not I, but Thou, but Thou.' "

From Prankrishna's house the Master went to Colonel Viswanath's and from

there to the Lily Cottage.

--------------------

Chapter 3

VISIT TO VIDYASAGAR

August 5, 1882

PUNDIT ISWAR CHANDRA VIDYASAGAR was born in the village of

Beersingh, not far from Kamarpukur, Sri Ramakrishna's birthplace. He was

known as a great scholar, educator, writer, and philanthropist. One of the

creators of modern Bengali, he was also well versed in Sanskrit grammar

and poetry. His generosity made his name a household word with his

countrymen, most of his income being given in charity to widows, orphans,

indigent students, and other needy people. Nor was his compassion limited

to human beings: he stopped drinking milk for years so that the calves

should not be deprived of it, and he would not drive in a carriage for fear of

causing discomfort to the horses. He was a man of indomitable spirit, which

he showed when he gave up the lucrative position of principal of the

Sanskrit College of Calcutta because of a disagreement with the authorities.

His affection for his mother was especially deep. One day, in the absence of

a ferryboat, he swam a raging river at the risk of his life to fulfil her wish

that he should be present at his brother's wedding. His whole life was one of

utter simplicity. The title Vidyasagar, meaning "Ocean of Learning", was

given him in recognition of his vast erudition.

Master's visit to the scholar

Sri Ramakrishna had long wanted to visit Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar.

Learning from M.

that he was a teacher at Vidyasagar's school, the Master asked: "Can you

take me to Vidyasagar? I should like very much to see him." M. told Iswar

Chandra of Sri Ramakrishna's wish, and the pundit gladly agreed that M.

should bring the Master, some Saturday afternoon at four o'clock. He only

asked M. what kind of paramahamsa the Master was, saying, "Does he wear

an ochre cloth?" M. answered: "No, sir. He is an unusual person. He wears a

red-bordered cloth and polished slippers. He lives in a room in Rani

Rasmani's temple garden. In his room there is a couch with a mattress and

mosquito net. He has no outer indication of holiness. But he doesn't know

anything except God. Day and night he thinks of God alone."

On the afternoon of August 5 the Master left Dakshineswar in a hackney

carriage, accompanied by Bhavanath, M., and Hazra. Vidyasagar lived in

Badurbagan, in central Calcutta, about six miles from Dakshineswar. On the

way Sri Ramakrishna talked with his companions; but as the carriage

neared Vidyasagar's house his mood suddenly changed. He was

overpowered with divine ecstasy. Not noticing this, M. pointed out the

garden house where Raja Rammohan Roy had lived. The Master was

annoyed and said, "I don't care about such things now." He was going into

an ecstatic state.

The carriage stopped in front of. Vidyasagar's house. The Master alighted,

supported by M., who then led the way. In the courtyard were many

flowering plants. As the Master walked to the house he said to M., like a

child, pointing to his shirt-button: "My shirt is unbuttoned. Will that offend

Vidyasagar?" "Oh, no!" said M. "Don't be anxious about it.

Nothing about you will be offensive. You don't have to button your shirt."

He accepted the assurance simply, like a child.

Vidyasagar was about sixty-two years old, sixteen or seventeen years older

than the Master. He lived in a two-storey house built in the English fashion,

with lawns on all sides and surrounded by a high wall. After climbing the

stairs to the second floor, Sri Ramakrishna and his devotees entered a room

at the far end of which Vidyasagar was seated facing them, with a table in

front of him. To the right of the table was a bench.

Some friends of their host occupied chairs on the other two sides.

Vidyasagar rose to receive the Master. Sri Ramakrishna stood in front of the

bench, with one hand resting on the table. He gazed at Vidyasagar, as if they

had known each other before, and smiled in an ecstatic mood. In that mood

he remained standing a few minutes. Now and then, to bring his mind back

to normal consciousness, he said, "I shall have a drink of water."

In the mean time the young members of the household and a few friends

and relatives of Vidyasagar had gathered around. Sri Ramakrishna, still in

an ecstatic mood, sat on the bench. A young man, seventeen or eighteen

years old, who had come to Vidyasagar to seek financial help for his

education, was seated there. The Master sat down at a little distance from

the boy, saying in an abstracted mood: "Mother, this boy is very much

attached to the world. He belongs to Thy realm of ignorance."

Vidyasagar told someone to bring water and asked M. whether the Master

would like some sweetmeats also. Since M. did not object, Vidyasagar

himself went eagerly to the inner apartments and brought the sweets. They

were placed before the Master.

Bhavanath and Hazra also received their share. When they were offered to

M., Vidyasagar said: "Oh, he is like one of the family. We needn't worry

about him."

Referring to a young devotee, the Master said to Vidyasagar: "He is a nice

young man and is sound at the core. He is like the river Phalgu. The surface

is covered with sand; but if you dig a little you will find water flowing

underneath."

After taking some of the sweets, the Master, with a smile, began to speak to

Vidyasagar. Meanwhile the room had become filled with people; some were

standing and others were seated.

MASTER: "Ah! Today, at last, I have come to the ocean. Up till now I have

seen only canals, marshes, or a river at the most. But today I am face to face

with the sagar, the ocean."(All laugh.)

VIDYASAGAR (smiling): "Then please take home some salt water."

(Laughter.) MASTER: "Oh, no! Why salt water? You aren't the ocean of

ignorance. You are the ocean of vidyā, knowledge. You are the ocean of

condensed milk." (All laugh.) VIDYASAGAR: "Well, you may put it that

way."

The pundit became silent. Sri Ramakrishna said: "Your activities are

inspired by sattva.

Though they are rajasic, they are influenced by sattva. Compassion springs

from sattva. Though work for the good of others belongs to rajas, yet this

rajas has sattva for its basis, and is not harmful. Suka and other sages

cherished compassion in their minds to give people religious instruction, to

teach them about God. You are distributing food and learning. That is good

too. If these activities are done in a selfless spirit they lead to God. But most

people work for fame or to acquire merit. Their activities are not selfless.

Besides, you are already a siddha."

VIDYASAGAR: "How is that, sir?"

MASTER (laughing): "When potatoes and other vegetables are well

cooked, they become soft and tender. And you possess such a tender nature!

You are so compassionate!"

(Laughter.)

VIDYASAGAR (laughing): "But when the paste of kalai pulse is boiled it

becomes all the harder."

Uninspired scholarship condemned

MASTER: "But you don't belong to that class. Mere pundits are like

diseased fruit that becomes hard and will not ripen at all. Such fruit has

neither the freshness of green fruit nor the flavour of ripe. Vultures soar

very high in the sky, but their eyes are fixed on rotten carrion on the ground.

The book-learned are reputed to be wise, but they are attached to 'woman

and gold'. Like the vultures, they are in search of carrion. They are attached

to the world of ignorance. Compassion, love of God, and renunciation are

the glories of true knowledge."

Vidyasagar listened to these words in silence. The others, too, gazed at the

Master and were attentive to every word he said.

Vidyasagar was very reticent about giving religious instruction to others. He

had studied Hindu philosophy. Once, when M. had asked him his opinion of

it, Vidyasagar had said, "I think the philosophers have failed to explain

what was in their minds." But in his daily life he followed all the rituals of

Hindu religion and wore the sacred thread of a brahmin.

About God he had once declared: "It is indeed impossible to know Him.

What, then, should be our duty? It seems to me that we should live in such a

way that, if others followed our example, this very earth would be heaven.

Everyone should try to do good to the world."

The world of duality & Transcendental nature of Brahman Sri

Ramakrishna's conversation now turned to the Knowledge of Brahman.

MASTER: "Brahman is beyond vidyā and avidyā, knowledge and

ignorance. It is beyond maya, the illusion of duality.

"The world consists of the illusory duality of knowledge and ignorance. It

contains knowledge and devotion, and also attachment to 'Woman and

gold'; righteousness and unrighteousness; good and evil. But Brahman is

unattached to these. Good and evil apply to the jiva, the individual soul, as

do righteousness and unrighteousness; but Brahman is not at all affected by

them.

"One man may read the Bhagavata by the light of a lamp, and another may

commit a forgery by that very light; but the lamp is unaffected. The sun

sheds its light on the wicked as well as on the virtuous.

"You may ask, 'How, then, can one explain misery and sin and

unhappiness?' The answer is that these apply only to the jiva. Brahman is

unaffected by them. There is poison in a snake; but though others may die if

bitten by it, the snake itself is not affected by the poison.

Brahman cannot be expressed in words

"What Brahman is cannot he described. All things in the world - the Vedas,

the Puranas, the Tantras, the six systems of philosophy - have been defiled,

like food that has been touched by the tongue, for they have been read or

uttered by the tongue. Only one thing has not been defiled in this way, and

that is Brahman. No one has ever been able to say what Brahman is."

VIDYASAGAR (to his friends): "Oh! That is a remarkable statement. I

have learnt something new today."

MASTER: "A man had two sons. The father sent them to a preceptor to

learn the Knowledge of Brahman. After a few years they returned from

their preceptor's house and bowed low before their father. Wanting to

measure the depth of their knowledge of Brahman, he first questioned the

older of the two boys. 'My child,' he said, 'You have studied all the

scriptures. Now tell me, what is the nature of Brahman?' The boy began to

explain Brahman by reciting various texts from the Vedas. The father did

not say anything. Then he asked the younger son the same question. But the

boy remained silent and stood with eyes cast down. No word escaped his

lips. The father was pleased and said to him: 'My child, you have

understood a little of Brahman. What It is cannot be expressed in words.'

Parable of ant and sugar hill

"Men often think they have understood Brahman fully. Once an ant went to

a hill of sugar. One grain filled its stomach. Taking another grain in its

mouth it started homeward. On its way it thought, 'Next time I shall carry

home the whole hill.' That is the way shallow minds think. They don't know

that Brahman is beyond one's words and thought. However great a man may

be, how much can he know of Brahman? Sukadeva and sages like him may

have been big ants; but even they could carry at the utmost eight or ten

grains of sugar!

"As for what has been said in the Vedas and the Puranas, do you know what

it is like?

Suppose a man has seen the ocean, and somebody asks him, 'Well, what is

the ocean like?' The first man opens his mouth as wide as he can and says:

'What a sight! What tremendous waves and sounds!' The description of

Brahman in the sacred books is like that. It is said in the Vedas that

Brahman is of the nature of Bliss - It is Satchidananda.

"Suka and other sages stood on the shore of this Ocean of Brahman and saw

and touched the water. According to one school of thought they never

plunged into it.

Those who do, cannot come back to the world again.

Parable of salt doll

"In samādhi one attains the Knowledge of Brahman - one realizes Brahman.

In that state reasoning stops altogether, and man becomes mute. He has no

power to describe the nature of Brahman.

"Once a salt doll went to measure the depth of the ocean. (All laugh.) It

wanted to tell others how deep the water was. But this it could never do, for

no sooner did it get into the water than it melted. Now who was there to

report the ocean's depth?"

A DEVOTEE: "Suppose a man has obtained the Knowledge of Brahman in

samādhi.

Doesn't he speak any more?"

MASTER: "Sankaracharya retained the 'ego of Knowledge' in order to

teach others. After the vision of Brahman a man becomes silent. He reasons

about It as long as he has not realized It. If you heat butter in a pan on the

stove, it makes a sizzling sound as long as the water it contains has not

dried up. But when no trace of water is left the clarified butter makes no

sound. If you put an uncooked cake of flour in that butter it sizzles again.

But after the cake is cooked all sound stops. Just so, a man established in

samādhi comes down to the relative plane of consciousness in order to

teach others, and then he talks about God.

"The bee buzzes as long as it is not sitting on a flower. It becomes silent

when it begins to sip the honey. But sometimes, intoxicated with the honey,

it buzzes again.

"An empty pitcher makes a gurgling sound when it is dipped in water.

When it fills up it becomes silent. (All laugh.) But if the water is poured

from it into another pitcher, then you will hear the sound again. (Laughter.)

Rishis of ancient India

"The rishis of old attained the Knowledge of Brahman. One cannot have

this so long as there is the slightest trace of worldliness. How hard the rishis

laboured! Early in the morning they would go away from the hermitage,

and would spend the whole day in solitude, meditating on Brahman. At

night they would return to the hermitage and eat a little fruit or roots. They

kept their minds aloof from the objects of sight, hearing, touch, and other

things of a worldly nature. Only thus did they realize Brahman as their own

inner consciousness.

"But in the Kaliyuga, man, being totally dependent on food for life, cannot

altogether shake off the idea that he is the body. In this state of mind it is

not proper for him to say, 'I am He.' When a man does all sorts of worldly

things, he should not say, 'I am Brahman.' Those who cannot give up

attachment to worldly things, and who find no means to shake off the

feeling of 'I', should rather cherish the idea 'I am God's servant; I am His

devotee.' One can also realize God by following the path of devotion.

Jnani and Vijnāni

"The jnani gives up his identification with worldly things, discriminating,

'Not this, not this'. Only then can he realize Brahman. It is like reaching the

roof of a house by leaving the steps behind, one by one. But the vijnāni,

who is more intimately acquainted with Brahman, realizes something more.

He realizes that the steps are made of the same materials as the roof: bricks,

lime, and brick-dust. That which is realized intuitively as Brahman, through

the eliminating process of 'Not this, not this', is then found to have become

the universe and all its living beings. The vijnāni sees that the Reality which

is nirguna, without attributes, is also saguna, with attributes.

"A man cannot live on the roof a long time. He comes down again. Those

who realize Brahman in samādhi come down also and find that it is

Brahman that has become the universe and its living beings. In the musical

scale there are the notes sa, re ga, ma, pa, dha, and ni; but one cannot keep

one's voice on 'ni' a long time. The ego does not vanish altogether. The man

coming down from samādhi perceives that it is Brahman that has become

the ego, the universe, and all living beings. This is known as vijnāna.

Path of love is easy

"The path of knowledge leads to Truth, as does the path that combines

knowledge and love. The path of love, too, leads to this goal. The way of

love is as true as the way of knowledge. All paths ultimately lead to the

same Truth. But as long as God keeps the feeling of ego in us, it is easier to

follow the path of love.

"The vijnāni sees that Brahman is immovable and actionless, like Mount

Sumeru. This universe consists of the three gunas - sattva, rajas, and tamas.

They are in Brahman.

But Brahman is unattached.

God's supernatural powers

"The vijnāni further sees that what is Brahman is the Bhagavan, the

Personal God. He who is beyond the three gunas is the Bhagavan, with His

six supernatural powers.

Living beings, the universe, mind, intelligence, love, renunciation,

knowledge - all these are the manifestations of His power. (With a laugh) If

an aristocrat has neither house nor property, or if he has been forced to sell

them, one doesn't call him an aristocrat any more. (All laugh.) God is

endowed with the six supernatural powers. If He were not who would obey

Him? (All laugh.)

Different manifestations of God's power

"Just see how picturesque this universe is! How many things there are! The

sun, moon, and stars; and how many varieties of living beings! - big and

small, good and bad, strong and weak - some endowed with more power

some with less."

VIDYASAGAR: "Has He endowed some with more power and others with

less?"

MASTER: "As the All-pervading Spirit He exists in all beings, even in the

ant. But the manifestations of His Power are different in different beings;

otherwise, how can one person put ten to flight, while another can't face

even one? And why do all people respect you? Have you grown a pair

horns? (Laughter.) You have more compassion and learning. Therefore

people honour you and come to pay you their respects. Don't you agree with

me?"

Vidyasagar smiled.

The Master continued: "There is nothing in mere scholarship. The object of

study is to find means of knowing God and realizing Him. A holy man had

a book. When asked what it contained, he opened it and showed that on all

the pages were written the words 'Om Rama', and nothing else.

"What is the significance of the Gita? It is what you find by repeating the

word ten times. It is then reversed into 'tagi', which means a person who has

renounced everything for God. And the lesson of. the Gita is: 'O man,

renounce everything and seek God alone.' Whether a man is a monk or a

householder, he has to shake off all attachment from his mind.

"Chaitanyadeva set out on a pilgrimage to southern India. One day he saw a

man reading the Gita. Another man, seated at a distance, was listening and

weeping. His eyes were swimming in tears. Chaitanyadeva asked him, 'Do

you understand all this?'

The man said, 'No, revered sir, I don't understand a word of the text.' 'Then

why are you crying?' asked Chaitanya. The devotee said: 'I see Arjuna's

chariot before me. I see Lord Krishna and Arjuna seated in front of it,

talking. I see this and I weep.'

"Why does a vijnāni keep an attitude of love toward God? The answer is

that 'I-consciousness' persists. It disappears in the state of samādhi, no

doubt, but it comes back. In the case of ordinary people the 'I' never

disappears. You may cut down the Aśwattha tree, but the next day sprouts

shoot up. (All laugh.) Ego causes our sufferings

"Even after the attainment of Knowledge this 'I-consciousness' comes up,

nobody knows from where. You dream of a tiger. Then you awake; but your

heart keeps on palpitating! All our suffering is due to this 'I'. The cow cries,

'Hamba!', which means 'I'.

That is why it suffers so much. It is yoked to the plough and made to work

in rain and sun. Then it may be killed by the butcher. From its hide shoes

are made, and also drums, which are mercilessly, beaten. (Laughter.) Still it

does not escape suffering. At last strings are made out of its entrails for the

bows used in carding cotton. Then it no longer says, 'Hamba! Hamba!', 'I!

I!' but 'Tuhu! Tuhu!', 'Thou! Thou!'. Only then are its troubles over. O Lord,

I am the servant; Thou art the Master. I am the child; Thou art the Mother.

"Once Rama asked Hanuman, 'How do you look on Me?' And Hanuman

replied: 'O Rama, as long as I have the feeling of "I", I see that Thou art the

whole and I am a part; Thou art the Master and I am Thy servant. But when,

O Rama, I have the knowledge of Truth, then I realize that Thou art I and I

am Thou.'

"The relationship of master and servant is the proper one. Since this 'I' must

remain, let the rascal be God's servant.

Evil of "I" and "mine"

"'I' and 'mine' - these constitute ignorance. 'My house', 'my wealth', 'my

learning', 'my possessions' - the attitude that prompts one to say such things

comes of ignorance. On the contrary, the attitude born of Knowledge is: 'O

God, Thou art the Master, and all these things belong to Thee. House,

family, children, attendants, friends, are Thine.'

"One should constantly remember death. Nothing will survive death. We

are born into this world to perform certain duties, like the people who come

from the countryside to Calcutta on business. If a visitor goes to a rich

man's garden, the superintendent says to him, 'This is our garden', 'This is

our lake', and so forth. But if the Superintendent is dismissed for some

misdeed, he can't carry away even his mango-wood chest. He sends it

secretly by the gate-keeper. (Laughter.)

"God laughs on two occasions. He laughs when the physician says to the

patient's mother, 'Don't be afraid, mother; I shall certainly cure your boy.'

God laughs, saying to Himself, 'I am going to take his life, and this man

says he will save it!' The physician thinks he is the master, forgetting that

God is the Master. God laughs again when two brothers divide their land

with a string, saying to each other, 'This side is mine and that side is your'.

He laughs and says to Himself, 'The whole universe belongs to Me, but they

say they own this portion or that portion.'

"Can one know God through reasoning? Be His servant, surrender yourself

to Him, and then pray to Him.

(To Vidyasagar, with a smile) "Well, what is your attitude?"

VIDYASAGAR (smiling): "Some day I shall confide it to you."(All laugh)

MASTER (laughing): "God cannot be realized through mere scholarly

reasoning."

Intoxicated with divine love, the Master sang:

Who is there that can understand what Mother Kāli is?

Even the six darsanas are powerless to reveal Her.

It is She, the scriptures say, that is the Inner Self Of the yogi, who in Self

discovers all his joy; She that, of Her own sweet will, inhabits every living

thing.

The macrocosm and microcosm rest in the Mother's womb; Now do you see

how vast it is? In the Muladhara The yogi meditates on Her, and in the

Sahasrara: Who but Śiva has beheld Her as She really is?

Within the lotus wilderness She sports beside Her Mate, the Swan.

When man aspires to understand Her, Ramprasad must smile; To think of

knowing Her, he says, is quite as laughable As to imagine one can swim

across the boundless sea.

But while my mind has understood, alas! my heart has not; Though but a

dwarf, it still would strive to make a captive of the moon.

Continuing, the Master said: "Did you notice?

The macrocosm and microcosm rest in the Mother's womb; Now do you see

how vast it is?

Again, the poet says:

Even the six darsanas are powerless to reveal Her.

She cannot be realized by means of mere scholarship.

Power of faith

"One must have faith and love. Let me tell you how powerful faith is. A

man was about to cross the sea from Ceylon to India. Bibhishana said to

him: 'Tie this thing in a corner of your wearing-cloth, and you will cross the

sea safely. You will be able to walk on the water. But be sure not to examine

it, or you will sink.' The man was walking easily on the water of the sea -

such is the strength of faith - when, having gone part of the way, he thought,

'What is this wonderful thing Bibhishana has given me, that I can walk even

on the water?' He untied the knot and found only a leaf with the name of

Rama written on it. 'Oh, just this!' he thought, and instantly he sank.

"There is a popular saying that Hanuman jumped over the sea through his

faith in Rama's name, but Rama himself had to build a bridge.

"If a man has faith in God, then He need not be afraid though he may have

committed sin - nay, the vilest sin."

Then Sri Ramakrishna sang a song glorifying the Power of faith: If only I

can pass away repeating Durga's name, How canst Thou then, O Blessed

One,

Withhold from me deliverance, Wretched though I may be?

The Master continued: "Faith and devotion. One realizes God easily

through devotion.

He is grasped through ecstasy of love."

With these words the Master sang again:

How are you trying, O my mind, to know the nature of God?

You are groping like a madman locked in a dark room.

He is grasped through ecstatic love; how can you fathom Him without it?

Only through affirmation, never negation, can you know Him; Neither

through Veda nor through Tantra nor the six darsanas.

It is in love's elixir only that He delights, O mind; He dwells in the body's

inmost depths, in Everlasting Joy.

And, for that love, the mighty yogis practise yoga from age to age;

When love awakes, the Lord, like a magnet, draws to Him the soul.

He it is, says Ramprasad, that I approach as Mother; But must I give away

the secret, here in the marketplace?

From the hints I have given, O mind, guess what that Being is!

While singing, the Master went into samādhi. He was seated on the bench,

facing west, the palms of his hands joined together, his body erect and

motionless. Everyone watched him expectantly. Vidyasagar, too, was

speechless and could not take his eyes from the Master.

Brahman and Śakti are identical

After a time Sri Ramakrishna showed signs of regaining the normal state.

He drew a deep breath and said with a smile: "The means of realizing God

are ecstasy of love and devotion - that is, one must love God. He who is

Brahman is addressed as the Mother.

He it is, says Ramprasad, that I approach as Mother; But must I give away

the secret, here in the marketplace?

From the hints I have given, O mind, guess what that Being is!

"Ramprasad asks the mind only to guess the nature of God. He wishes it to

understand that what is called Brahman in the Vedas is addressed by Him as

the Mother. He who is attributeless also has attributes. He who is Brahman

is also Śakti. When thought of as inactive, He is called Brahman, and when

thought of as the Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer, He is called the

Primordial Energy, Kāli.

"Brahman and Śakti are identical, like fire and its power to bum. When we

talk of fire we automatically mean also its power to burn. Again, the fire's

power to burn implies the fire itself. If you accept the one you must accept

the other.

"Brahman alone is addressed as the Mother. This is because a mother is an

object of great love. One is able to realize God just through love. Ecstasy of

feeling, devotion, love, and faith - these are the means. Listen to a song:

As is a man's meditation, so is his feeling of love; As is a man's feeling of

love, so is his gain; And faith is the root of all.

If in the Nectar Lake of Mother Ka1i's feet

My mind remains immersed,

Of little use are worship, oblations, or sacrifice.

Growth of divine love lessens worldly duties

"What is needed is absorption in God - loving Him intensely. The 'Nectar

Lake' is the Lake of Immortality. A man sinking in It does not die, but

becomes immortal. Some people believe that by thinking of God too much

the mind becomes deranged; but that is not true. God is the Lake of Nectar,

the Ocean of Immortality. He is called the 'Immortal' in the Vedas. Sinking

in It, one does not die, but verily transcends death.

Of little use are worship, oblations, or sacrifice.

If a man comes to love God, he need not trouble himself much about these

activities.

One needs a fan only as long as there is no breeze. The fan may be laid

aside if the southern breeze blows. Then what need is there of a fan?

(To Vidyasagar) "The activities that you are engaged in are good. It is very

good if you can perform them in a selfless spirit, renouncing egotism,

giving up the idea that you are the doer. Through such action one develops

love and devotion to God, and ultimately realizes Him.

"The more you come to love God, the less you will be inclined to perform

action. When the daughter-in-law is with child, her mother-in-law gives her

less work to do. As time goes by she is given less and less work. When the

time of delivery nears, she is not allowed to do any work at all, lest it

should hurt the child or cause difficulty at the time of birth.

"By these philanthropic activities you are really doing good to yourself. If

you can do them disinterestedly, your mind will become pure and you will

develop love of God. As soon as you have that love you will realize Him.

"Man cannot really help the world. God alone does that - He who has

created the sun and the moon, who has put love for their children in parents'

hearts, endowed noble souls with compassion, and holy men and devotees

with divine love. The man who works for others, without any selfish

motive, really does good to himself.

"There is gold buried in your heart, but you are not yet aware of it. It is

covered with a thin layer of clay. Once you are aware of it, all these

activities of yours will lessen. After the birth of her child, the daughter-in-

law in the family busies herself with it alone.

Everything she does is only for the child. Her mother-in-law doesn't let her

do any household duties.

Parable of the wood-cutter

"Go forward. A wood-cutter once entered a forest to gather wood. A

brahmachari said to him, 'Go forward.' He obeyed the injunction and

discovered some sandalwood trees.

After a few days he reflected, 'The holy man asked me to go forward. He

didn't tell me to stop here.' So he went forward and found a silver-mine.

After a few days he went still farther and discovered a gold-mine, and next,

mines of diamonds and precious stones.

With these he became immensely rich.

"Through selfless work, love of God grows in the heart. Then, through His

grace one realizes Him in course of time. God can be seen. One can talk to

him as I am talking to you."

In silent wonder they all sat listening to the Master's words. It seemed to

them that the Goddess of Wisdom Herself, seated on Sri Ramakrishna's

tongue was addressing these words not merely to Vidyasagar, but to all

humanity for its good.

It was nearly nine o'clock in the evening. The Master was about to leave.

Master (to Vidyasagar, with a smile): "The words I have spoken are really

superfluous.

You know all this; you simply aren't conscious of it. There are countless

gems in the coffers of Varuna. But he himself isn't aware of them."

VIDYASAGAR (with a smile): "You may say as you like."

MASTER (smiling): "Oh yes. There are many wealthy people who don't

know the names of all their servants, and are even unaware of many of the

precious things in their houses."(All laugh.)

Everybody was delighted with the Master's conversation. Again addressing

Vidyasagar, he said with a smile: "Please visit the temple garden some time

- I mean the garden of Rasmani. It's a charming place."

VIDYASAGAR: "Oh, of course I shall go. You have so kindly come here to

see me, and shall I not return your visit?"

MASTER: "Visit me? Oh, never think of such a thing!"

VIDYASAGAR: "Why, sir? Why do you say that? May I ask you to

explain?"

MASTER (smiling): "You see, we are like small fishing-boats. (All smile.)

We can ply in small canals and shallow waters and also in big rivers. But

you are a ship. You may run aground on the way!" (All laugh.)

Vidyasagar remained silent. Sri Ramakrishna said with a laugh, "But even a

ship can go there at this season."

VIDYASAGR (smiling): "Yes, this is the monsoon season." (All laugh.) M.

said to himself: "This is indeed the monsoon season of newly awakened

love. At such times one doesn't care for prestige or formalities."

Sri Ramakrishna then took leave of Vidyasagar, who with his friends

escorted the Master to the main gate, leading the way with a lighted candle

in his hand. Before leaving the room, the Master prayed for the family's

welfare, going into an ecstatic mood as he did so.

As soon as the Master and the devotees reached the gate, they saw an

unexpected sight and stood still. In front of them was a bearded gentleman

of fair complexion, aged about thirty-six. He wore his clothes like a

Bengali, but on his head was a white turban tied after the fashion of the

Sikhs. No sooner did he see the Master than he fell prostrate before him,

turban and all.

When he stood up the Master said: "Who is this? Balaram? Why so late in

the evening?"

BALARAM: "I have been waiting here a long time, sir."

MASTER: "Why didn't you come in?"

BALARAM: "All were listening to you. I didn't like to disturb you." The

Master got into the carriage with his companions.

VIDYASAGAR (to M., softly): "Shall I pay the carriage hire?"

M: "Oh, don't bother, please. It is taken care of."

Vidyasagar and his friends bowed to Sri Ramakrishna, and the carriage

started for Dakshineswar. But the little group, with the venerable

Vidyasagar at their head holding the lighted candle, stood at the gate and

gazed after the Master until he was out of sight.

--------------------

Chapter 4

ADVICE TO HOUSEHOLDERS

August 13, 1882

THE MASTER WAS CONVERSING with Kedār and some other devotees

in his room in the temple garden. Kedār was a government official and had

spent several years at Dāccā, in East Bengal, where he had become a friend

of Vijay Goswami. The two would spend a great part of their time together,

talking about Sri Ramakrishna and his spiritual experiences. Kedār had

once been a member of the Brahmo Samaj. He followed the path of bhakti.

Spiritual talk always brought tears to his eyes.

It was five o'clock in the afternoon. Kedār was very happy that day, having

arranged a religious festival for Sri Ramakrishna. A singer had been hired

by Ram, and the whole day passed in joy.

Secret of divine communion

The Master explained to the devotees the secret of communion with God.

MASTER: "With the realization of Satchidananda one goes into samādhi.

Then duties drop away. Suppose I have been talking about the ostad and he

arrives. What need is there of talking about him then? How long does the

bee buzz around? So long as it isn't sitting on a flower. But it will not do for

the sadhaka to renounce duties. He should perform his duties, such as

worship, japa, meditation, prayer, and pilgrimage.

"If you see someone engaged in reasoning even after he has realized God,

you may liken him to a bee, which also buzzes a little even while sipping

honey from a flower."

The Master was highly pleased with the ostad's music. He said to the

musician, "There is a special manifestation of God's power in a man who

has any outstanding gift, such as proficiency in music."

MUSICIAN: "Sir, what is the way to realize God?"

MASTER: "Bhakti is the one essential thing. To be sure, God exists in all

beings. Who, then, is a devotee? He whose mind dwells on God. But this is

not possible as long as one has egotism and vanity. The water of God's

grace cannot collect on the high mound of egotism. It runs down. I am a

mere machine.

Master's respect for other faiths

(To Kedār and the other devotees) "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.

Many names of one God

"You may say that there are many errors and superstitions in another

religion. I should reply: Suppose there are. Every religion has errors.

Everyone thinks that his watch alone gives the correct time. It is enough to

have yearning for God. It is enough to love Him and feel attracted to Him:

Don't you know that God is the Inner Guide? He sees the longing of our

heart and the yearning of our soul. Suppose a man has several sons. The

older boys address him distinctly as 'Baba' or 'Papa', but the babies can at

best call him 'Ba' or 'Pa'. Now, will the father be angry with those who

address him in this indistinct way? The father knows that they too are

calling him, only they cannot pronounce his name well. All children are the

same to the father. Likewise, the devotees call on God alone, though by

different names. They call on one Person only. God is one, but His names

are many."

Thursday, August 24, 1882.

Sri Ramakrishna was talking to Hazra on the long northeast verandah of his

room, when M. arrived. He saluted the Master reverently.

Spiritual disciplines necessary at the beginning MASTER: "I should like

to visit Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar a few times more. The painter first draws

the general outlines and then puts in the details and colours at his leisure.

The moulder first makes the image out of clay, then plasters it, then gives it

a coat of whitewash, and last of all paints it with a brush. All these steps

must be taken successively. Vidyasagar is fully ready, but his inner stuff is

covered with a thin layer.

He is now engaged in doing good works; but he doesn't know what is

within himself.

Gold is hidden within him. God dwells within us. If one knows that, one

feels like giving up all activities and praying to God with a yearning soul."

So the Master talked with M. - now standing, now pacing up and down the

long verandah.

MASTER: "A little spiritual discipline is necessary in order to know what

lies within."

M: "Is it necessary to practise discipline all through life?"

MASTER: "No. But one must be up and doing in the beginning. After that

one need not work hard. The helmsman stands up and clutches the rudder

firmly as long as the boat is passing through waves, storms, high wind, or

around the curves of a river; but he relaxes after steering through them. As

soon as the boat passes the curves and the helmsman feels a favourable

wind, he sits comfortably and just touches the rudder.

Next he prepares to unfurl the sail and gets ready for a smoke. Likewise, the

aspirant enjoys peace and calm after passing the waves and storms of

'woman and gold'.

"Woman and gold" is the obstruction to yoga "Some are born with the

characteristics of the yogi; but they too should be careful. It is 'woman and

gold' alone that is the obstacle; it makes them deviate from the path of yoga

and drags them into worldliness. Perhaps they have some desire for

enjoyment.

After fulfilling their desire, they again direct their minds to God and thus

recover their former state of mind, fit for the practise of yoga.

"Have you ever seen the spring trap for fish, called the 'satka-kal'?"

M: "No, sir, I haven't seen it."

MASTER: "They use it in our part of the country. One end of a bamboo

pole is fastened in the ground, and the other is bent over with a catch. From

this end a line with a hook hangs over the water, with bait tied to the hook.

When the fish swallows the bait, suddenly the bamboo jumps up and

regains its upright position.

"Again, take a pair of scales for example. If a weight is placed on one side,

the lower needle moves away from the upper one. The lower needle is the

mind, and the upper one, God. The meeting of the two is yoga.

"Unless the mind becomes steady there cannot be yoga. It is the wind of

worldliness that always disturbs the mind, which may be likened to a candle

flame. If that flame doesn't move at all, then one is said to have attained

yoga.

"'Woman and gold' alone is the obstacle to yoga. Always analyse what you

see. What is there in the body of a woman? Only such things as blood,

flesh, fat, entrails, and the like. Why should one love such a body?

"Sometimes I used to assume a rajasic mood in order to practise

renunciation. Once I had the desire to put on a gold-embroidered robe, wear

a ring on my finger, and smoke a hubble-bubble with a long pipe. Mathur

Babu procured all these things for me. I wore the gold-embroidered robe

and said to myself after a while, 'Mind! This is what is called a gold-

embroidered robe.' Then I took it off and threw it away. I couldn't stand the

robe any more. Again I said to myself, 'Mind! This is called a shawl, and

this a ring, and this, smoking a hubble-bubble with a long pipe.' I threw

those things away once for all, and the desire to enjoy them never arose in

my mind again."

It was almost dusk. The Master and M. stood talking alone near the door on

the southeast verandah.

MASTER (to M.): "The mind of the yogi is always fixed on God, always

absorbed in the Self. You can recognize such a man by merely looking at

him. His eyes are wide open, with an aimless look, like the eyes of the

mother bird hatching her eggs. Her entire mind is fixed on the eggs, and

there is a vacant look in her eyes. Can you show me such a picture?"

M: "I shall try to get one."

As evening came on, the temples were lighted up. Sri Ramakrishna was

seated on his small couch, meditating on the Divine Mother. Then he

chanted the names of God.

Incense was burnt in the room, where an oil lamp had been lighted. Sounds

of conch-shells and gongs came floating on the air as the evening worship

began in the temple of Kāli. The light of the moon flooded all the quarters.

The Master again spoke to M.

God and worldly duties

MASTER: "Perform your duties in an unselfish spirit. The work that

Vidyasagar is engaged in is very good. Always try to perform your duties

without desiring any result."

M: "Yes, sir. But may I know if one can realize God while performing one's

duties? Can 'Rama' and 'desire' coexist? The other day I read in a Hindi

couplet: 'Where Rama is, there desire cannot be; where desire is, there

Rama cannot be.' "

MASTER: "All, without exception, perform work. Even to chant the name

and glories of God is work, as is the meditation of the non-dualist on 'I am

He'. Breathing is also an activity. There is no way of renouncing work

altogether. So do your work, but surrender the result to God."

God and worldly duties

M: "Sir, may I make an effort to earn more money?"

MASTER: "It is permissible to do so to maintain a religious family. You

may try to increase your income, but in an honest way. The goal of life is

not the earning of money, but the service of God. Money is not harmful if it

is devoted to the service of God."

M: "How long should a man feel obliged to do his duty toward his wife and

children?"

MASTER: "As long as they feel pinched for food and clothing. But one

need not take the responsibility of a son when he is able to support himself.

When the young fledgling learns to pick its own food, its mother pecks it if

it comes to her for food."

M: "How long must one do one's duty?"

MASTER: "The blossom drops off when the fruit appears. One doesn't have

to do one's duty after the attainment of God, nor does one feel like doing it

then.

"If a drunkard takes too much liquor he cannot retain consciousness. If he

takes only two or three glasses, he can go on with his work. As you advance

nearer and nearer to God, He will reduce your activities little by little. Have

no fear.

"Finish the few duties you have at hand, and then you will have peace.

When the mistress of the house goes to bathe after finishing her cooking

and other household duties, she won't come back, however you may shout

after her."

Different groups of devotees

M: "Sir, what is the meaning of the realization of God? What do you mean

by God-vision? How does one attain it?"

MASTER: "According to the Vaishnavas the aspirants and the seers of God

may be divided into different groups. These are the pravartaka, the sadhaka,

the siddha, and the siddha of the siddha. He who has just set foot on the

path may be called a pravartaka. He may be called a sadhaka who has for

some time been practising spiritual disciplines, such as worship, japa,

meditation, and the chanting of God's name and glories. He may be called a

siddha who has known from his inner experience that God exists. An

analogy is given in the Vedanta to explain this. The master of the house is

asleep in a dark room. Someone is groping in the darkness to find him. He

touches the couch and says, 'No, it is not he.' He touches the window and

says, 'No, it is not he.' He touches the door and says, 'No, it is not he.' This

is known in the Vedanta as the process of 'Neti, neti', 'Not this, not this'. At

last his hand touches the master's body and he exclaims, 'Here he is!' In

other words, he is now conscious of the 'existence' of the master. He has

found him, but he doesn't yet know him intimately.

"There is another type, known as the siddha of the siddha, the 'supremely

perfect'. It is quite a different thing when one talks to the master intimately,

when one knows God very intimately through love and devotion. A siddha

has undoubtedly attained God, but the 'supremely perfect' has known God

very intimately.

Different moods of aspirants

"But in order to realize God, one must assume one of these attitudes: Śānta,

Dāsya, sakhya, Vātsalya, or Madhur.

"Śānta, the serene attitude. The rishis of olden times had this attitude toward

God.

They did not desire any worldly enjoyment. It is like the single-minded

devotion of a wife to her husband. She knows that her husband is the

embodiment of beauty and love, a veritable Madan.

"Dāsya, the attitude of a servant toward his master. Hanuman had this

attitude toward Rama. He felt the strength of a lion when he worked for

Rama. A wife feels this mood also. She serves her husband with all her

heart and soul. A mother also has a little of this attitude, as Yaśoda had

toward Krishna.

"Sakhya, the attitude of friendship. Friends say to one another, 'Come here

and sit near me.' Sridāmā and other friends sometimes fed Krishna with

fruit, part of which they had already eaten, and sometimes climbed on His

shoulders.

"Vātsalya, the attitude of a mother toward her child. This was Yaśoda's

attitude toward Krishna. The wife, too, has a little of this. She feeds her

husband with her very life-blood, as it were. The mother feels happy only

when the child has eaten to his heart's content. Yaśoda would roam about

with butter in her hand, in order to feed Krishna.

"Madhur, the attitude of a woman toward her paramour. Radha had this

attitude toward Krishna. The wife also feels it for her husband. This attitude

includes all the other four."

M: "When one sees God does one see Him with these eyes?"

MASTER: "God cannot be seen with these physical eyes. In the course of

spiritual discipline one gets a 'love body', endowed with 'love eyes', 'love

ears', and so on. One sees God with those 'love eyes'. One hears the voice of

God with those 'love ears'. One even gets a sexual organ made of love."

At these words M. burst out laughing. The Master continued, unannoyed,

"With this 'love body' the soul communes with God."

M. again became serious.

Seeing God everywhere

MASTER: "But this is not possible without intense love of God. One sees

nothing but God everywhere when one loves Him with great intensity. It is

like a person with jaundice, who sees everything yellow. Then one feels, 'I

am verily He'.

"A drunkard, deeply intoxicated, says, 'Verily I am Kāli!' The gopis,

intoxicated with love, exclaimed, 'Verily I am Krishna!'

"One who thinks of God, day and night, beholds Him everywhere. It is like

a man's seeing flames on all sides after he has gazed fixedly at one flame

for some time."

"But that isn't the real flame", flashed through M.'s mind.

Sri Ramakrishna, who could read a man's inmost thought, said: "One

doesn't lose consciousness by thinking of Him who is all Spirit, all

Consciousness. Shivanath once remarked that too much thinking about God

confounds the brain. Thereupon I said to him, 'How can one become

unconscious by thinking of Consciousness?' "

M: "Yes, sir, I realize that. It isn't like thinking of an unreal object. How can

a man lose his intelligence if he always fixes his mind on Him whose very

nature is eternal Intelligence?"

MASTER (with pleasure): "It is through God's grace that you understand

that. The doubts of the mind will not disappear without His grace. Doubts

do not disappear without Self-realization.

"But one need not fear anything if one has received the grace of God. It is

rather easy for a child to stumble if he holds his father's hand; but there can

be no such fear if the father holds the child's hand. A man does not have to

suffer any more if God, in His grace, removes his doubts and reveals

Himself to him. But this grace descends upon him only after he has prayed

to God with intense yearning of heart and practised spiritual discipline. The

mother feels compassion for her child when she sees him running about

breathlessly. She has been hiding herself; now she appears before the child."

"But why should God make us run about?" thought M

Immediately Sri Ramakrishna said: "It is His will that we should run about

a little. Then it is great fun. God has created the world in play, as it were.

This is called Mahamaya, the Great Illusion. Therefore one must take

refuge in the Divine Mother, the Cosmic Power Itself. It is She who has

bound us with the shackles of illusion. The realization of God is possible

only when those shackles are severed."

Worship of the Divine Mother

The Master continued: "One must propitiate the Divine Mother, the Primal

Energy, in order to obtain God's grace. God Himself is Mahamaya, who

deludes the world with Her illusion and conjures up the magic of creation,

preservation, and destruction. She has spread this veil of ignorance before

our eyes. We can go into the inner chamber only when She lets us pass

through the door. Living outside, we see only outer objects, but not that

Eternal Being, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute. Therefore it is stated

in the purna that deities like Brahma praised Mahamaya for the destruction

of the demons Madhu and Kaitabha.

"Śakti alone is the root of the universe. That Primal Energy has two aspects:

vidyā and avidyā. Avidyā deludes. Avidyā conjures up 'woman and gold',

which casts the spell.

Vidyā begets devotion, kindness, wisdom, and love, which lead one to God.

This avidyā

must be propitiated, and that is the purpose of the rites of Śakti worship.

"The devotee assumes various attitudes toward Śakti in order to propitiate

Her: the attitude of a handmaid, a 'hero', or a child. A hero's attitude is to

please Her even as a man pleases a woman through intercourse.

"The worship of Śakti is extremely difficult. It is no joke. I passed two

years as the handmaid and companion of the Divine Mother. But my natural

attitude has always been that of a child toward its mother. I regard the

breasts of any woman as those of my own mother.

Master's attitude toward women

"Women are, all of them, the veritable images of Śakti. In northwest India

the bride holds a knife in her hand at the time of marriage; in Bengal, a nut-

cutter. The meaning is that the bridegroom, with the help of the bride, who

is the embodiment of the Divine Power, will sever the bondage of illusion.

This is the 'heroic' attitude. I never worshipped the Divine Mother that way.

My attitude toward Her is that of a child toward its mother.

"The bride is the very embodiment of Śakti. Haven't you noticed, at the

marriage ceremony, how the groom sits behind like an idiot? But the bride -

she is so bold!

His love for Narendra

"After attaining God one forgets His external splendour; the glories of His

creation. One doesn't think of God's glories after one has seen Him. The

devotee, once immersed in God's Bliss, doesn't calculate any more about

outer things. When I see Narendra, I don't need to ask him: 'What's your

name? Where do you live?' Where is the time for such questions? Once a

man asked Hanuman which day of the fortnight it was. 'Brother,' said

Hanuman, 'I don't know anything of the day of the week, or the fortnight, or

the position of the stars. I think of Rama alone.' "

October 16, 1882

It was Monday, a few days before the Durga Puja, the festival of the Divine

Mother. Sri Ramakrishna was in a very happy state of mind, for Narendra

was with him. Narendra had brought two or three young members of the

Brahmo Samaj to the temple garden.

Besides these, Rakhal, Ramlal, Hazra, and M. were with the Master.

Narendra had his midday meal with Sri Ramakrishna. Afterwards a

temporary bed was made on the floor of the Master's room so that the

disciples might rest awhile. A mat was spread, over which was placed a

quilt covered with a white sheet. A few cushions and pillows completed the

simple bed. Like a child, the Master sat near Narendranath on the bed. He

talked with the devotees in great delight. With a radiant smile lighting his

face, and his eyes fixed on Narendra, he was giving them various spiritual

teachings, interspersing these with incidents from his own life.

MASTER: "After I had experienced samādhi, my mind craved intensely to

hear only about God. I would always search for places where they were

reciting or explaining the sacred books, such as the Bhagavata, the

Mahabharata, and the Adhyātma Rāmāyana. I used to go to Krishnakishore

to hear him read the Adhyātma Rāmāyana.

Krishnakishore's faith

"What tremendous faith Krishnakishore had! Once, while at Vrindāvan, he

felt thirsty and went to a well. Near it he saw a man standing. On being

asked to draw a little water for him, the man said: 'I belong to a low caste,

sir. You are a brahmin. How can I draw water for you?' Krishnakishore said:

'Take the name of Śiva. By repeating His holy name you will make yourself

pure.' The low-caste man did as he was told, and Krishnakishore, orthodox

brahmin that he was, drank that water. What tremendous faith!

"Once a holy man came to the bank of the Ganges and lived near the

bathing-ghat at Ariadaha, not far from Dakshineswar. We thought of paying

him a visit. I said to Haladhāri: 'Krishnakishore and I are going to see a holy

man. Will you come with us?'

Haladhāri replied, 'What is the use of seeing a mere human body, which is

no better than a cage of clay?' Haladhāri was a student of the Gita and

Vedanta philosophy, and therefore referred to the holy man as a mere 'cage

of clay'. I repeated this to Krishnakishore. With great anger he said: 'How

impudent of Haladhāri to make such a remark! How can he ridicule as a

"cage of clay" the body of a man who constantly thinks of God, who

meditates on Rama, and has renounced all for the sake of the Lord? Doesn't

he know that such a man is the embodiment of Spirit?' He was so upset by

Haladhāri's remarks that he would turn his face away from him whenever

he met him in the temple garden, and stopped speaking to him.

"Once Krishnakishore asked me, 'Why have you cast off the sacred thread?'

In those days of God-vision I felt as if I were passing through the great

storm of Āświn, and everything had blown away from me. No trace of my

old self was left. I lost all consciousness of the world. I could hardly keep

my cloth on my body, not to speak of the sacred thread! I said to

Krishnakishore, 'Ah, you will understand if you ever happen to be as

intoxicated with God as I was.'

"And it actually came to pass. He too passed through a God-intoxicated

state, when he would repeat only the word 'Om' and shut himself up alone

in his room. His relatives thought he was actually mad, and called in a

physician. Ram Kaviraj of Natagore came to see him. Krishnakishore said

to the physician, 'Cure me, sir, of my malady, if you please, but not of my

Om.' (All laugh.)

"One day I went to see him and found him in a pensive mood. When I

asked him about it, he said: 'The tax-collector was here. He threatened to

dispose of my brass pots, my cups, and my few utensils, if I didn't pay the

tax; so I am worried.' I said: 'But why should you worry about it? Let him

take away your pots and pans. Let him arrest your body even. How will that

affect you? For your nature is that of Kha!' (Narendra and the others laugh.)

He used to say to me that he was the Spirit, all-pervading as the sky. He had

got that idea from the Adhyātma Rāmāyana. I used to tease him now and

then, addressing him as 'Kha'. Therefore I said to him that day, with a smile:

'You are Kha.

Taxes cannot move you!'

Master's outspokenness

"In that state of God-intoxication I used to speak out my mind to all. I was

no respecter of persons. Even to men of position I was not afraid to speak

the truth.

"One day Jatindra came to the garden of Jadu Mallick. I was there too. I

asked him: 'What is the duty of man? Isn't it our duty to think of God?'

Jatindra replied: 'We are worldly people. How is it possible for us to achieve

liberation? Even King Yudhisthira had to have a vision of hell.' This made

me very angry. I said to him: 'What sort of man are you? Of all the incidents

of Yudhisthira's life, you remember only his seeing hell. You don't

remember his truthfulness, his forbearance, his patience, his discrimination,

his dispassion, his devotion to God.' I was about to say many more things,

when Hriday stopped my mouth. After a little while Jatindra left the place,

saying he had some other business to attend to.

"Many days later I went with Captain to see Rājā Sourindra Tagore. As

soon as I met him, I said, 'I can't address you as "Rājā", or by any such title,

for I should be telling a lie.' He talked to me a few minutes, but even so our

conversation was interrupted by the frequent visits of Europeans and others.

A man of rajasic temperament, Sourindra was naturally busy with many

things. Jatindra his eldest brother, had been told of my coming, but he sent

word that he had a pain in his throat and couldn't go out.

"One day, in that state of divine intoxication, I went to the bathing-ghat on

the Ganges at Baranagore. There I saw Jaya Mukherji repeating the name of

God; but his mind was on something else. I went up and slapped him twice

on the cheeks.

"At one time Rani Rasmani was staying in the temple garden. She came to

the shrine of the Divine Mother, as she frequently did when I worshipped

Kāli, and asked me to sing a song or two. On this occasion, while I was

singing, I noticed she was sorting the flowers for worship absent-mindedly.

At once I slapped her on the cheeks. She became quite embarrassed and sat

there with folded hands.

"Alarmed at this state of mind myself, I said to my cousin Haladhāri: 'Just

see my nature! How can I get rid of it?' After praying to the Divine Mother

for some time with great yearning, I was able to shake off this habit.

His anguish at worldly talk

"When one gets into such a state of mind, one doesn't enjoy any

conversation but that about God. I used to weep when I heard people talk

about worldly matters. When I accompanied Mathur Babu on a pilgrimage,

we spent a few days in Benares at Raja Babu's house. One day I was seated

in the drawing-room with Mathur Babu, Raja Babu, and others. Hearing

them talk about various worldly things, such as their business losses and so

forth, I wept bitterly and said to the Divine Mother: 'Mother, where have

You brought me? I was much better off in the temple garden at

Dakshineswar. Here I am in a place where I must bear about "woman and

gold". But at Dakshineswar I could avoid it.' "

The Master asked the devotees, especially Narendra, to rest awhile, and he

himself lay down on the smaller couch.

His ecstasy in Kirtan

Late in the afternoon Narendra sang. Rakhal, Lātu, M., Hazra, and Priya,

Narendra's Brahmo friend, were present. The singing was accompanied by

the drum: Meditate, O my mind, on the Lord Hari,

The Stainless One, Pure Spirit through and through.

How peerless is the light that in Him shines!

How soul-bewitching is His wondrous form!

How dear is He to all His devotees!

After this song Narendra sang:

Oh, when will dawn for me that day of blessedness When He who is all

Good, all Beauty, and all Truth, Will light the inmost shrine of my heart?

When shall I sink at last, ever beholding Him, Into that Ocean of Delight?

Lord, as Infinite Wisdom Thou shalt enter my soul, And my unquiet mind,

made speechless by Thy sight, Will find a haven at Thy feet.

In my heart's firmament, O Lord, Thou wilt arise As Blissful Immortality;

And as, when the chakora beholds the rising moon, It sports about for very

joy,

So, too, shall I be filled with heavenly happiness When Thou appearest unto

me.

Thou One without a Second, all Peace, the King of Kings!

At Thy beloved feet I shall renounce my life

And so at last shall gain life's goal;

1 shall enjoy the bliss of heaven while yet on earth!

Where else is a boon so rare bestowed?

Then shall I see Thy glory, pure and untouched by stain; As darkness flees

from 1ight, so will my darkest sins Desert me at Thy dawn's approach.

Kindle in me, O Lord, the blazing fire of faith To be the pole-star of my life;

O Succour of the weak, fulfil my one desire!

Then shall I bathe both day and night

In the boundless bliss of Thy Love, and utterly forget Myself, O Lord,

attaining Thee.

Narendra sang again:

With beaming face chant the sweet name of God

Till in your heart the nectar overflows.

Drink of it ceaselessly and share it with all!

If ever your heart runs dry, parched by the flames Of worldly desire, chant

the sweet name of God, And heavenly love will moisten your arid soul.

Be sure, O mind, you never forget to chant

His holy name: when danger stares in your face, Call on Him, your Father

Compassionate;

With His name's thunder, snap the fetters of sin!

Come, let us fulfil our hearts' desires

By drinking deep of Everlasting Joy,

Made one with Him in Love's pure ecstasy.

Now Narendra and the devotees began to sing kirtan, accompanied by the

drum and cymbals. They moved round and round the Master as they sang:

Immerse yourself for evermore, O mind,

In Him who is Pure Knowledge and Pure Bliss.

Next they sang:

Oh, when will dawn for me that day of blessedness When He who is all

Good, all Beauty, and all Truth Will light the inmost shrine of my heart?

At last Narendra himself was playing on the drums, and he sang with the

Master, full of joy:

With beaming face chant the sweet name of God

When the music was over, Sri Ramakrishna held Narendra in his arms a

long time and said, "You have made us so happy today!" The flood-gate of

the Master's heart was open so wide, that night, that he could hardly contain

himself for joy. It was eight o'clock in the evening. Intoxicated with divine

love, he paced the long verandah north of his room. Now and then he could

be heard talking to the Divine Mother. Suddenly he said in an excited voice,

"What can you do to me?" Was the Master hinting that maya was helpless

before him, since he had the Divine Mother for his support?

Narendra, M., and Priya were going to spend the night at the temple garden.

This pleased the Master highly, especially since Narendra would be with

him. The Holy Mother, who was living in the nahabat, had prepared the

supper. Surendra bore the greater part of the Master's expenses. The meal

was ready, and the plates were set out on the southeast verandah of the

Masters room.

Near the east door of his room Narendra and the other devotees were

gossiping.

NARENDRA: "How do you find the young men nowadays?"

M: "They are not bad; but they don't receive any religious instructions".

NARENDRA: "But from my experience I feel they are going to the dogs.

They smoke cigarettes, indulge in frivolous talk, enjoy foppishness, play

truant, and do everything of that sort. I have even seen them visiting

questionable places."

M: "I didn't notice such things during our student days."

NARENDRA: "Perhaps you didn't mix with the students intimately. I have

even seen them talking with people of immoral character. Perhaps they are

on terms of intimacy with them."

M: "It is strange indeed."

NARENDRA: "I know that many of them form bad habits. It would be

proper if the guardians of the boys, and the authorities, kept their eyes on

these matters."

They Were talking thus when Sri Ramakrishna came to them and asked

with a smile, "Well, what are you talking about?"

NARENDRA: "I have been asking M. about the boys in the schools. The

conduct of students nowadays isn't all that it should be."

The Master became grave and said to M. rather seriously: "This kind of

conversation is not good. It isn't desirable to indulge in any talk but talk of

God. You are their senior, and you are intelligent. You should not have

encouraged them to talk about such matters."

Narendra was then about nineteen years old, and M. about twenty-eight.

Thus admonished, M. felt embarrassed, and the others also fell silent.

While the devotees were enjoying their meal, Sri Ramakrishna stood by and

watched them with intense delight. That night the Master's joy was very

great.

After supper the devotees rested on the mat spread on the floor of the

Master's room.

They began to talk with him. It was indeed a mart of joy. The Master asked

Narendra to sing the song beginning with the line: "In Wisdom's firmament

the moon of Love is rising full."

Narendra sang, and other devotees played the drums and cymbals: In

Wisdom's firmament the moon of Love is rising full, And Love's flood-tide,

in surging waves, is flowing everywhere.

O Lord, how full of bliss Thou art! Victory unto Thee!

On every side shine devotees, like stars around the moon; Their Friend, the

Lord All-merciful, joyously plays with them.

Behold! the gates of paradise today are open wide.

The soft spring wind of the New Day raises fresh waves of joy; Gently it

carries to the earth the fragrance of God's Love, Till all the yogis, drunk

with bliss, are lost in ecstasy.

Upon the sea of the world unfolds the lotus of the New Day, And there the

Mother sits enshrined in blissful majesty.

See how the bees are mad with joy, sipping the nectar there!

Behold the Mother's radiant face, which so enchants the heart And

captivates the universe! About Her Lotus Feet Bands of ecstatic holy men

are dancing in delight.

What matchless loveliness is Hers! What infinite content Pervades the heart

when She appears! O brothers, says Premdas,

I humbly beg you, one and all, to sing the Mother's praise!

Sri Ramakrishna sang and danced, and the devotees danced around him.

A devotee's dream

When the song was over, the Master walked up and down the northeast

verandah, where Hazra was seated with M. The Master sat down there. He

asked a devotee, "Do you ever have dreams?"

DEVOTEE: "Yes, sir. The other day I dreamt a strange dream. I saw the

whole world enveloped in water. There was water on all sides. A few boats

were visible, but suddenly huge waves appeared and sank them. I was about

to board a ship with a few others, when we saw a brahmin walking over that

expanse of water. I asked him, 'How can you walk over the deep?' The

brahmin said with a smile: 'Oh, there is no difficulty about that. There is a

bridge under the water.' I said to him, 'Where are you going?' 'To

Bhawanipur, the city of the Divine Mother', he replied. 'Wait a little', I cried.

'I shall accompany you.' "

MASTER: "Oh. I am thrilled to hear the story!"

DEVOTEE: "The brahmin said: 'I am in a hurry. It will take you some time

to get out of the boat. Good-bye. Remember this path and come after me.

MASTER: "Oh, my hair is standing on end! Please be initiated by a guru as

soon as possible."

Shortly before midnight Narendra and the other devotees lay down on a bed

made on the floor of the Master's room.

At dawn some of the devotees were up. They saw the Master, naked as a

child, pacing up and down the room, repeating the names of the various

gods and goddesses. His voice was sweet as nectar. Now he would look at

the Ganges, now stop in front of the pictures hanging on the wall and bow

down before them, chanting all the while the holy names in his sweet voice.

He chanted: "Veda, Purana, Tantra; Gita, Gayatri; Bhagavata, Bhakta,

Bhagavan." Referring to the Gita, he repeated many times, "Tagi, tagi, tagi."

Now and then he would say: "O Mother, Thou art verily Brahman, and

Thou art verily Śakti. Thou art Purusha and Thou art Prakriti. Thou art

Virat. Thou art the Absolute, and Thou dost manifest Thyself as the

Relative. Thou art verily the twenty-four cosmic principles."

In the mean time the morning service had begun in the temples of Kāli and

Radhakanta.

Sounds of conchshells and cymbals were carried on the air. The devotees

came outside the room and saw the priests and servants gathering flowers in

the garden for the divine service in the temples. From the nahabat floated

the sweet melody of musical instruments, befitting the morning hours.

Narendra and the other devotees finished their morning duties and came to

the Master.

With a sweet smile on his lips Sri Ramakrishna was standing on the

northeast verandah, close to his own room.

NARENDRA: "We noticed several sannyasis belonging to the sect of

Nanak in the Panchavati."

MASTER: "Yes, they arrived here yesterday. (To Narendra) I'd like to see

you all sitting together on the mat."

As they sat there the Master looked at them with evident delight. He then

began to talk with them. Narendra asked about spiritual discipline.

MASTER: "Bhakti, love of God, is the essence of all spiritual discipline.

Through love one acquires renunciation and discrimination naturally."

Disciplines of Tantra

NARENDRA: "Isn't it true that the Tantra prescribes spiritual discipline in

the company of woman?"

MASTER: "That is not desirable. It is a very difficult path and often causes

the aspirant's downfall. There are three such kinds of discipline. One may

regard woman as one's mistress or look on oneself as her handmaid or as

her child. I look on woman as my mother. To look on oneself as her

handmaid is also good; but it is extremely difficult to practise spiritual

discipline looking on woman as one's mistress. To regard oneself as her

child is a very pure attitude."

The sannyasis belonging to the sect of Nanak entered the room and greeted

the Master, saying, "Namo Narayanaya." Sri Ramakrishna asked them to sit

down.

All is possible with God

MASTFR: "Nothing is impossible for God. Nobody can describe His nature

in words.

Everything is possible for Him. There lived at a certain place two yogis

who were practising spiritual discipline. The sage Narada was passing that

way one day. Realizing who he was, one of the yogis said: 'You have just

come from God Himself. What is He doing now?' Narada replied, 'Why, I

saw Him making camels and elephants pass and repass through the eye of a

needle.' At this the yogi said: 'Is that anything to wonder at?

Everything is possible for God.' But the other yogi said: 'What? Making

elephants pass through the eye of a needle - is that ever possible? You have

never been to the Lord's dwelling-place.' "

At nine o'clock in the morning, while the Master was still sitting in his

room, Manomohan arrived from Konnagar with some members of his

family.

In answer to Sri

Ramakrishna's kind inquiries, Manomohan explained that he was taking

them to Calcutta. The Master said: "Today is the first day of the Bengali

month, an inauspicious day for undertaking a journey. I hope everything

will be well with you." With a smile he began to talk of other matters.

When Narendra and his friends had finished bathing in the Ganges, the

Master said to them earnestly: "Go to the Panchavati and meditate there

under the banyan-tree. Shall I give you something to sit on?"

Discrimination and dispassion

About half past ten Narendra and his Brahmo friends were meditating in the

Panchavati.

After a while Sri Ramakrishna came to them. M., too, was present.

The Master said to the Brahmo devotees: "In meditation one must be

absorbed in God.

By merely floating on the surface of the water, can you reach the gems

lying at the bottom of the sea?"

Then he sang:

Taking the name of Kāli, dive deep down,

O mind, Into the heart's fathomless depths,

Where many a precious gem lies hid.

But never believe the bed of the ocean bare of gems If in the first few dives

you fail;

With firm resolve and self-control

Dive deep and make your way to Mother Kāli's realm.

Down in the ocean depths of heavenly Wisdom lie The wondrous pearls of

Peace, O mind;

And you yourself can gather them,

If you but have pure love and follow the scriptures' rule.

Within those ocean depths, as well,

Six alligators, lurk - lust, anger, and the rest -

Swimming about in search of prey.

Smear yourself with the turmeric of discrimination; The very smell of it will

shield you from their jaws.

Upon the ocean bed lie strewn

Unnumbered pearls and precious gems;

Plunge in, says Ramprasad, and gather up handfuls there!

Narendra and his friends came down from their seats on the raised platform

of the Panchavati and stood near the Master. He returned to his room with

them. The Master continued: "When you plunge in the water of the ocean,

you may be attacked by alligators. But they won't touch you if your body is

smeared with turmeric. There are no doubt six alligators - lust, anger,

avarice, and so on - within you, in the 'heart's fathomless depths'. But

protect yourself with the turmeric of discrimination and renunciation, and

they won't touch you.

Futility of mere lecturing

"What can you achieve by mere lecturing and scholarship without

discrimination and dispassion? God alone is real, and all else is unreal. God

alone is substance, and all else is nonentity. That is discrimination.

"First of all set up God in the shrine of your heart, and then deliver lectures

as much as you like. How will the mere repetition of 'Brahma' profit you if

you are not imbued with discrimination and dispassion? It is the empty

sound of a conchshell.

"There lived in a village a young man named Padmalochan. People used to

call him 'Podo', for short. In this village there was a temple in a very

dilapidated condition. It contained no image of God. Aśwattha and other

plants sprang up on the ruins of its walls. Bats lived inside, and the floor

was covered with dust and the droppings of the bats. The people of the

village had stopped visiting the temple. One day after dusk the villagers

heard the sound of a conchshell from the direction of the temple. They

thought perhaps someone had installed an image in the shrine and was

performing the evening worship. One of them softly opened the door and

saw Padmalochan standing in a corner, blowing the conch. No image had

been set up. The temple hadn't been swept or washed. And filth and dirt lay

everywhere. Then he shouted to Podo: You have set up no image here,

Within the shrine, O fool!

Blowing the conch, you simply make

Confusion worse confounded.

Day and night eleven bats

Scream there incessantly.

Purification of mind

"There is no use in merely making a noise if you want to establish the Deity

in the shrine of your heart, if you want to realize God. First of all purify the

mind. In the pure heart God takes His seat. One cannot bring the holy image

into the temple if the droppings of bats are all around. The eleven bats are

our eleven organs: five of action, five of perception, and the mind.

"First of all invoke the Deity, and then give lectures to your heart's content.

First of all dive deep. Plunge to the bottom and gather up the gems. Then

you may do other things. But nobody wants to plunge. People are without

spiritual discipline and prayer, without renunciation and dispassion. They

learn a few words and immediately start to deliver lectures. It is difficult to

teach others. Only if a man gets a command from God, after realizing Him,

is he entitled to teach."

Thus conversing, the Master came to the west end of the verandah. M stood

by his side. Sri Ramakrishna had repeated again and again that God cannot

be realized without discrimination and renunciation. This made M.

extremely worried. He had married and was then a young man of twenty-

eight, educated in college in the Western way. Having a sense of duty, he

asked himself, "Do discrimination and dispassion mean giving up 'woman

and gold'?" He was really at a loss to know what to do.

M. (to the Master): "What should one do if one's wife says: 'You are

neglecting me. I shall commit suicide?' "

MASTER (in a serious tone): "Give up such a wife if she proves an obstacle

in the way of spiritual life. Let her commit suicide or anything else she

likes. The wife that hampers her husband's spiritual life is an ungodly wife."

Immersed in deep thought, M. stood leaning against the wall. Narendra and

the other devotees remained silent a few minutes. The Master exchanged

several words with them; then, suddenly going to M., he whispered in his

ear: "But if a man has sincere love for God, then all come under his control

- the king, wicked persons, and his wife.

Sincere love of God on the husband's part may eventually help the wife to

lead a spiritual life. If the husband is good, then through the grace of God

the wife may also follow his example."

This had a most soothing effect on M.'s worried mind. All the while he had

been thinking: "Let her commit suicide. What can I do?"

M. (to the Master): "This world is a terrible place indeed."

MASTER (to the devotees): "That is the reason Chaitanya said to his

companion Nityananda, 'Listen, brother, there is no hope of salvation for the

worldly-minded.' "

On another occasion the Master had said to M. privately: "Yes, there is no

hope for a worldly man if he is not sincerely devoted to God. But he has

nothing to fear if he remains in the world after realizing God. Nor need a

man have any fear whatever of the world if he attains sincere devotion by

practising spiritual discipline now and then in solitude. Chaitanya had

several householders among his devotees, but they were householders in

name only, for they lived unattached to the world."

It was noon. The worship was over, and food offerings had been made in

the temple.

The doors of the temple were shut. Sri Ramakrishna sat down for his meal,

and Narendra and the other devotees partook of the food offerings from the

temple.

Sunday, October 22, 1882

It was the day of Vijaya, the last day of the celebration of the worship of

Durga, when the clay image is immersed in the water of a lake or river.

About nine o'clock in the morning M. was seated on the floor of the

Master's room at Dakshineswar, near Sri Ramakrishna, who was reclining

on the small couch. Rakhal was then living with the Master, and Narendra

and Bhavanath visited him frequently.

Baburam had seen him only once or twice.

MASTER: "Did you have any holiday during the Durga Puja?"

M: "Yes, sir. I went to Keshab's house every day for the first three days of

the worship."

MASTER: "Is that so?"

M: "I heard there a very interesting interpretation of the Durga Puja."

MASTER: "Please tell me all about it."

M: "Keshab Sen held daily morning prayers in his house, lasting till ten or

eleven.

During these prayers he gave the inner meaning of the Durga Puja. He said

that if anyone could realize the Divine Mother, that is to say, could install

Mother Durga in the shrine of his heart, then Lakshmi, Sarasvati, Kartika,

and Ganesa would come there of themselves. Lakshmi means wealth,

Sarasvati knowledge, Kartika strength, and Ganesa success. By realizing

the Divine Mother within one's heart, one gets all these without any effort

whatever."

Sri Ramakrishna listened to the description, questioning M. now and then

about the prayers conducted by Keshab. At last he said to M.: "Don't go

hither and thither. Come here alone. Those who belong to the inner circle of

my devotees will come only here.

Boys like Narendra, Bhavanath, and Rakhal are my very intimate disciples.

They are not to be thought lightly of. Feed them one day. What do you think

of Narendra?"

M: "I think very highly of him, sir."

Narendra's many virtues

MASTER: "Haven't you observed his many virtues? He is not only well

versed in music, vocal and instrumental, but he is also very learned.

Besides, he has controlled his passions and declares he will lead a celibate

life. He has been devoted to God since his very boyhood.

Meditation on God with form

"How are you getting along with your meditation nowadays? What aspect

of God appeals to your mind - with form or without form?"

M: "Sir, now I can't fix my mind on God with form. On the other hand, I

can't concentrate steadily on God without form."

MASTER: "Now you see that the mind cannot be fixed, all of a sudden, on

the formless aspect of God. It is wise to think of God with form during the

primary stages."

M: "Do you mean to suggest that one should meditate on clay images?"

MASTER: "Why clay? These images are the embodiments of

Consciousness."

M: "Even so, one must think of hands, feet, and the other parts of body. But

again, I realize that the mind cannot be concentrated unless one meditates,

in the beginning, on God with form. You have told me so. Well, God can

easily assume different forms. May one meditate on the form of one's own

mother?"

MASTER: "Yes, the mother should be adored. She is indeed an

embodiment of Brahman."

M. sat in silence. After a few minutes he asked the Master: "What does one

feel while thinking of God without form? Isn't it possible to describe it?"

After some reflection, the Master said, "Do you know what it is like?" He

remained silent a moment and then said a few words to M. about one's

experiences at the time of the vision of God with and without form.

MASTER: "You see, one must practise spiritual discipline to understand

this correctly.

Suppose, there are treasures in a room. If you want to see them and lay hold

of them, you must take the trouble to get the key and unlock the door. After

that you must take the treasures out. But suppose the room is locked, and

standing outside the door you say to yourself: 'Here I have opened the door.

Now I have broken the lock of the chest.

Now I have taken out the treasure.' Such brooding near the door will not

enable you to achieve anything. You must practise discipline.

Brahman and Divine Incarnations

"The jnanis think of God without form. They don't accept the Divine

Incarnation.

Praising Sri Krishna, Arjuna said, 'Thou art Brahman Absolute.' Sri Krishna

replied, 'Follow Me, and you will know whether or not I am Brahman

Absolute.' So saying, Sri Krishna led Arjuna to a certain place and asked

him what he saw there. 'I see a huge tree,' said Arjuna, 'and on it I notice

fruits hanging like clusters of blackberries.' Then Krishna said to Arjuna,

'Come nearer and you will find that these are not clusters of blackberries,

but clusters of innumerable Krishnas like Me, hanging from the tree.' In

other words, Divine Incarnations without number appear and disappear on

the tree of the Absolute Brahman.

"Kavirdas was strongly inclined to the formless God. At the mention of

Krishna's name he would say: 'Why should I worship Him? The gopis

would clap their hands while He performed a monkey dance.' (With a

smile) But I accept God with form when I am in the company of people

who believe in that ideal, and I also agree with those who believe in the

formless God."

M. (smiling): "You are as infinite as He of whom we have been talking.

Truly, no one can fathom your depth."

MASTER (smiling): "Ah! I see you have found it out. Let me tell you one

thing. One should follow various paths. One should practise each creed for

a time. In a game of satrancha a piece can't reach the centre square until it

completes the circle; but once in the square it can't be overtaken by any

other piece."

M: "That is true, sir."

MASTER: "There are two classes of. yogis: the bahudakas and the

kutichakas. The bahudakas roam about visiting various holy places and

have not yet found peace of mind. But the kutichakas, having visited all the

sacred places, have quieted their minds. Feeling serene and peaceful, they

settle down in one place and no longer move about. In that one place they

are happy; they don't feel the need of going to any sacred place. If one of

them ever visits a place of pilgrimage, it is only for the purpose of new

inspiration.

"I had to practise each religion for a time - Hinduism, Islam, Christianity.

Furthermore, I followed the paths of the Saktas, Vaishnavas, and Vedantists.

I realized that there is only one God toward whom all are travelling; but the

paths are different.

"While visiting the holy places, I would sometimes suffer great agony. Once

I went with Mathur to Raja Babu's drawing-room in Benares. I found that

they talked there only of worldly matters - money, real estate, and the like.

At this I burst into tears. I said to the Divine Mother, weeping: 'Mother!

Where hast Thou brought me? I was much better off at Dakshineswar.' In

Allahabad I noticed the same things that I saw elsewhere - the same ponds,

the same grass, the same trees, the same tamarind-leaves.

Master's ecstasy at Vrindāvan

"But one undoubtedly finds inspiration in a holy place. I accompanied

Mathur Babu to Vrindāvan. Hriday and the ladies of Mathur's family were

in our party. No sooner did I see the Kaliyadaman Ghat than a divine

emotion surged up within me. I was completely overwhelmed. Hriday used

to bathe me there as if I were a small child.

"In the dusk I would walk on the bank of the Jamuna when the cattle

returned along the sandy banks from their pastures. At the very sight of

those cows the thought of Krishna would flash in my mind. I would run

along like a madman, crying: 'Oh, where is Krishna? Where is my Krishna?'

"I went to Syamakunda and Radhakunda in a palanquin and got out to visit

the holy Mount Govardhan. At the very sight of the mount I was

overpowered with divine emotion and ran to the top. I lost all consciousness

of the world around me. The residents of the place helped me to come

down. On my way to the sacred pools of Syamakunda and Radhakunda,

when I saw the meadows, the trees, the shrubs, the birds, and the deer, I was

overcome with ecstasy. My clothes became wet with tears. I said: 'O

Krishna! Everything here is as it was in the olden days. You alone are

absent.'

Seated inside the palanquin I lost all power of speech. Hriday followed the

palanquin.

He had warned the bearers to be careful about me.

"Gangamayi became very fond of me in Vrindāvan. She was an old woman

who lived all alone in a hut near the Nidhuvan. Referring to my spiritual

condition and ecstasy, she said, 'He is the very embodiment of Radha.' She

addressed me as 'Dulali'. When with her, I used to forget my food and drink,

my bath, and all thought of going home. On some days Hriday used to bring

food from home and feed me. Gangamayi also would serve me with food

prepared by her own hands.

"Gangamayi used to experience trances. At such times a great crowd would

come to see her. One day, in a state of ecstasy, she climbed on Hriday's

shoulders.

"I didn't want to leave her and return to Calcutta. Everything was arranged

for me to stay with her. I was to eat double-boiled rice, and we were to have

our beds on either side of the cottage. All the arrangements had been made,

when Hriday said: 'You have such a weak stomach. Who will look after

you?' 'Why,' said Gangamayi, 'I shall look after him. I'll nurse him.' As

Hriday dragged me by one hand and she by the other, I remembered my

mother, who was then living alone here in the nahabat of temple garden. I

found it impossible to stay away from her, and said to Gangamayi, 'No, I

must go.' I loved the atmosphere of Vrindāvan."

About eleven o'clock the Master took his meal, the offerings from temple of

Kāli. After taking his noonday rest he resumed his conversation with the

devotees. Every now and then he uttered the holy word "Om" or repeated

the sacred names of the deities.

After sunset the evening worship was performed in the temples. Since it

was the day of Vijaya, the devotees first saluted the Divine Mother and then

took the dust of the Master's feet.

Tuesday, October 24,1882

It was three or four o'clock in the afternoon. The Master was standing near

the shelf where the food was kept, when Balaram and M. arrived from

Calcutta and saluted him.

Sri Ramakrishna said to them with a smile: "I was going to take some

sweets from the shelf, but no sooner did I put my hand on them than a lizard

dropped on my body. At once I removed my hand. (All laugh.)

"Oh, yes! One should observe all these things. You see, Rakhal is ill, and

my limbs ache too. Do you know what's the matter? This morning as I was

leaving my bed I saw a certain person, whom I took for Rakhal. (All laugh.)

Oh, yes! Physical features should be studied. The other day Narendra

brought one of his friends, a man with only one good eye, though the other

eye was not totally blind. I said to myself, 'What is this trouble that

Narendra has brought with him?'

"A certain person comes here, but I can't eat any food that he brings. He

works in an office at a salary of twenty rupees and earns another twenty by

writing false bills. I can't utter a word in his presence, because he tells lies.

Sometimes he stays here two or three days without going to his office. Can

you guess his purpose? It is that I should recommend him to someone for a

job somewhere else.

"Balaram comes from a family of devout Vaishnavas. His father, now an old

man, is a pious devotee. He has a tuft of hair on his head, a rosary of tulsi

beads round his neck, and a string of beads in his hand. He devotes his time

to the repetition of God's name.

He owns much property in Orissa and has built temples to Radha-Krishna

in Kothar, Vrindāvan, and other places, establishing free guesthouses as

well.

(To Balaram) "A certain person came here the other day. I understand he is

the slave of that black hag of a wife. Why is it that people do not see God?

It is because of the barrier of 'woman and gold'. How impudent he was to

say to you the other day, 'A paramahamsa came to my father, who fed him

with chicken curry!'

"In my present of my mind I can eat a little fish soup if it has been offered

to the Divine Mother beforehand. I can't eat any meat, even if it is offered to

the Divine Mother; but I taste it with the end of my finger lest She should

be angry. (Laughter.) "Well, can you explain this state of my mind? Once I

was going from Burdwan to Kamarpukur in a bullock-cart, when a great

storm arose. Some people gathered near the cart. My companions said they

were robbers. So I began to repeat the names of God, calling sometimes on

Kāli, sometimes on Rama, sometimes on Hanuman. What do you think of

that?"

Was the Master hinting that God is one but is addressed differently by

different sects?

MASTER (to Balaram): "Maya is nothing but 'woman and gold'. A man

living in its midst gradually loses his spiritual alertness. He thinks all is well

with him. The scavenger carries a tub of night-soil on his head, and in

course of time loses his repulsion to it.

One gradually acquires love of God through the practice of chanting God's

name and glories. (To M.) One should not be ashamed of chanting God's

holy name. As the saying goes, 'One does not succeed so long as one has

these three: shame, hatred, and fear.'

"At Kamarpukur they sing kirtan very well. The devotional music is sung to

the accompaniment of drums.

(To Balaram) "Have you installed any image at Vrindāvan?"

BALARAM: "Yes, sir. We have a grove where Krishna is worshipped."

--------------------

Chapter 5

THE MASTER AND KESHAB

October 27, 1882

Master's boat trip with Keshab

IT WAS FRIDAY, the day of the Lakshmi Puja. Keshab Chandra Sen had

arranged a boat trip on the Ganges for Sri Ramakrishna.

About four o'clock in the afternoon the steamboat with Keshab and his

Brahmo followers cast anchor in the Ganges alongside the Kāli temple at

Dakshineswar. The passengers saw in front of them the bathing-ghat and

the chandni. To their left, in the temple compound, stood six temples of

Śiva, and to their right another group of six Śiva temples. The white steeple

of the Kāli temple, the tree-tops of the Panchavati, and the silhouette of

pine-trees stood high against the blue autumn sky. The gardens between the

two nahabats were filled with fragrant flowers, and along the bank of the

Ganges were rows of flowering plants. The blue sky was reflected in the

brown water of the river, the sacred Ganges, associated with the most

ancient traditions of Aryan civilization. The outer world appeared soft and

serene, and the hearts of the Brahmo devotees were filled with peace.

Master in samādhi

Sri Ramakrishna was in his room talking with Vijay and Haralal. Some

disciples of Keshab entered. Bowing before the Master, they said to him:

"Sir, the steamer has arrived. Keshab Babu has asked us to take you there."

A small boat was to carry the Master to the steamer. No sooner did he get

into the boat than he lost outer consciousness in samādhi. Vijay was with

him.

M. was among the passengers. As the boat came alongside the steamer, all

rushed to the railing to have a view of Sri Ramakrishna. Keshab became

anxious to get him safely on board. With great difficulty the Master was

brought back to consciousness of the world and taken to a cabin in the

steamer. Still in an abstracted mood, he walked mechanically, leaning on a

devotee for support. Keshab and the others bowed before him, but he was

not aware of them. Inside the cabin there were a few chairs and a table. He

was made to sit on one of the chairs, Keshab and Vijay occupying two

others.

Some devotees were also seated, most of them on the floor, while many

others had to stand outside. They peered eagerly through the door and

windows. Sri Ramakrishna again went into deep samādhi and became

totally unconscious of the outer world.

As the air in the room was stuffy because of the crowd of people, Keshab

opened the windows. He was embarrassed to meet Vijay, since they had

differed in certain principles of the Brāhrno Samaj and Vijay had separated

himself from Keshab's organization, joining another society.

The Brahmo devotees looked wistfully at the Master. Gradually he came

back to sense consciousness; but the divine intoxication still lingered. He

said to himself in a whisper: "Mother, why have You brought me here?

They are hedged around and not free. Can I free them?" Did the Master find

that the people assembled there were locked within the prison walls of the

world? Did their helplessness make the Master address these words to the

Divine Mother?

God dwells in devotee's heart

Sri Ramakrishna was gradually becoming conscious of the outside world.

Nilmadhav of Ghazipur and a Brahmo devotee were talking about Pavhari

Baba. Another Brahmo devotee said to the Master: "Sir, these gentlemen

visited Pavhari Baba. He lives in Ghazipur. He is a holy man like yourself."

The Master could hardly talk; he only smiled.

The devotee continued, "Sir, Pavhari Baba keeps your photograph in his

room." Pointing to his body the Master said with a smile, "Just a pillow-

case."

The Master continued: "But you should remember that the heart of the

devotee is the abode of God. He dwells, no doubt, in all beings, but He

especially manifests Himself in the heart of the devotee. A landlord may at

one time or another visit all parts of his estate, but people say he is

generally to be found in a particular drawing-room. The heart of the devotee

is the drawing-room of God.

Attitude of jnānis and bhaktās

"He who is called Brahman by the jnanis is known as Ātman by the yogis

and as Bhagavan by the bhaktas. The same brahmin is called priest, when

worshipping in the temple, and cook, when preparing a meal in the kitchen.

The jnani sticking to the path of knowledge, always reasons about the

Reality, saying, 'Not this, not this'. Brahman is neither 'this' nor 'that'; It is

neither the universe nor its living beings. Reasoning in this way, the mind

becomes steady. Then it disappears and the aspirant goes into samādhi.

This is the knowledge of Brahman. It is the unwavering conviction of the

jnani that Brahman alone is real and the world illusory. All these names and

forms are illusory, like a dream. What Brahman is cannot be described. One

cannot even say that Brahman is a Person. This is the opinion of the jnanis,

the followers of Vedanta philosophy.

"But the bhaktas accept all the states of consciousness. They take the

waking state to be real also. They don't think the world to be illusory, like a

dream. They say that the universe is a manifestation of God's power and

glory. God has created all these - sky, stars, moon, sun, mountains, ocean,

men, animals. They constitute His glory. He is within us, in our hearts.

Again, He is outside. The most advanced devotees say that He Himself has

become all this - the twenty-four cosmic principles, the universe, and all

living beings. The devotee of God wants to eat sugar, not to become sugar.

(All laugh.)

"Do you know how a lover of God feels? His attitude is: 'O God, Thou are

the Master, and I am Thy servant. Thou art the Mother, and I am Thy child.'

Or again: 'Thou art my Father and Mother. Thou art the Whole, and I am a

part.' He doesn't like to say, 'I am Brahman.'

Attitude of yogis

"The yogi seeks to realize the Paramatman, the Supreme Soul. His ideal is

the union of the embodied soul and the Supreme Soul. He withdraws his

mind from sense-objects and tries to concentrate it on the Paramatman.

Therefore, during the first stage of his spiritual discipline, he retires into

solitude and with undivided attention practises meditation in a fixed

posture.

"But the Reality is one and the same. The difference is only in name. He

who is Brahman is verily Ātman, and again, He is the Bhagavan. He is

Brahman to the followers of the path of knowledge, Paramatman to the

yogis, and Bhagavan to the lovers of God."

The steamer had been going toward Calcutta; but the passengers, with their

eyes fixed on the Master and their ears given to his nectar-like words, were

oblivious of its motion.

Dakshineswar, with its temples and gardens, was left behind. The paddles

of the boat churned the waters of the Ganges with a murmuring sound. But

the devotees were indifferent to all this. Spellbound, they looked on a great

yogi, his face lighted with a divine smile, his countenance radiating love,

his eyes sparkling with joy-a man who had renounced all for God and who

knew nothing but God. Unceasing words of wisdom flowed from his lips.

Reasoning of jnanis

MASTIER: "The jnanis, who adhere to the non-dualistic philosophy of

Vedanta, say that the acts of creation, preservation, and destruction, the

universe itself and all its living beings, are the manifestations of Śakti, the

Divine Power. If you reason it out, you will realize that all these are as

illusory as a dream. Brahman alone is the Reality, and all else is unreal.

Even this very Śakti is unsubstantial, like a dream.

"But though you reason all your life, unless you are established in samādhi,

you cannot go beyond the jurisdiction of Śakti. Even when you say, 'I am

meditating', or 'I am contemplating', still you are moving in the realm of

Śakti, within Its power.

Identity of Brahman and Śakti

"Thus Brahman and Śakti are identical. If you accept the one, you must

accept the other. It is like fire and its power to burn. If you see the fire, you

must recognize its power to burn also. You cannot think of fire without its

power to burn, nor can you think of the power to burn without fire. You

cannot conceive of the sun's rays without the sun, nor can you conceive of

the sun without its rays.

"What is milk like? Oh, you say, it is something white. You cannot think of

the milk without the whiteness, and again, you cannot think of the

whiteness without the milk.

"Thus one cannot think of Brahman without Śakti, or of Śakti without

Brahman. One cannot think of the Absolute without the Relative, or of the

Relative without the Absolute.

"The Primordial Power is ever at play. She is creating, preserving, and

destroying in play, as it were. This Power is called Kāli. Kāli is verily

Brahman, and Brahman is verily Kāli. It is one and the same Reality. When

we think of It as inactive, that is to say, not engaged in the acts of creation,

preservation, and destruction, then we call It Brahman.

But when It engages in these activities, then we call It Kāli or Śakti. The

Reality is one and the same; the difference is in name and form.

"It is like water, called in different languages by different names, such as

'jal', 'pani', and so forth. There are three or four ghats on a lake. The Hindus,

who drink water at one place, call it 'jal'. The Mussalmans at another place

call it 'pani'. And the English at a third place call it 'water'. All three denote

one and the same thing, the difference being in the name only. In the same

way, some address the Reality as 'Allah', some as 'God', some as 'Brahman',

some as 'Kāli', and others by such names as 'Rama', 'Jesus', 'Durga', 'Hari.' "

Different manifestations of Kāli

KESHAB (with a smile): "Describe to us, sir, in how many ways Kāli, the

Divine Mother, sports in this world."

MASTER (with a smile): "Oh, She plays in different ways. It is She alone

who is known as Maha-Kāli, Nitya-Kāli, Smasana-Kāli, Raksha-Kāli, and

Syama-Kāli. Maha-Kāli and Nitya-Kāli are mentioned in the Tantra

philosophy. When there were neither the creation, nor the sun, the moon,

the planets, and the earth and when darkness was enveloped in darkness,

then the Mother, the Formless One, Maha-Kāli, the Great Power, was one

with Maha-Kala, the Absolute.

"Syama-Kāli has a somewhat tender aspect and is worshipped in the Hindu

households.

She is the Dispenser of boons and the Dispeller of fear. People worship

Raksha-Kāli, the Protectress, in times of epidemic, famine, earthquake,

drought, and flood. Smasana-Kāli is the embodiment of the power of

destruction. She resides in the cremation ground, surrounded by corpses,

jackals, and terrible female spirits. From Her mouth flows a stream of

blood, from Her neck hangs a garland of human heads, and around Her

waist is a girdle made of human hands.

Beginning of a cycle

"After the destruction of the universe, at the end of a great cycle, the Divine

Mother garners the seeds for the next creation. She is like the elderly

mistress of the house, who has a hotchpotch-pot in which she keeps

different articles for household use. (All laugh.)

"Oh, yes! Housewives have pots like that, where they keep 'sea-foam', blue

pills, small bundles of seeds of cucumber, pumpkin, and gourd, and so on.

They take them out when they want them. In the same way, after the

destruction of the universe, my Divine Mother, the Embodiment of

Brahman, gathers together the seeds for the next creation. After the creation

the Primal Power dwells in the universe itself. She brings forth this

phenomenal world and then pervades it. In the Vedas creation is likened to

the spider and its web. The spider brings the web out of itself and then

remains in it.

God is the container of the universe and also what is contained in it.

"Is Kāli, my Divine Mother, of a black complexion? She appears black

because She is viewed from a distance; but when intimately known She is

no longer so. The sky appears blue at a distance; but look at it close by and

you will find that it has no colour.

The water of the ocean looks blue at a distance, but when you go near and

take it in your hand, you find that it is colourless."

The Master became intoxicated with divine love and sang: Is Kāli, my

Mother, really black?

The Naked One, of blackest hue,

Lights the Lotus of the Heart. . . .

The Master continued: "Bondage and liberation are both of Her making. By

Her Maya worldly people become entangled in 'woman and gold', and

again, through Her grace they attain their liberation. She is called Saviour,

and the remover of the bondage that binds one to the world."

Divine Mother's sport

Then the Master sang the following song in his melodious voice: In the

world's busy marketplace, O Syama, Thou art flying kites;

High up they soar on the wind of hope, held fast by maya's string.

Their frames are human skeletons, their sails of the three gunas made;

But all their curious workmanship is merely for ornament.

Upon the kite-strings Thou hast rubbed the manja-paste of worldliness,

So as to make each straining strand all the more sharp and strong.

Out of a hundred thousand kites, at best but one or two break free;

And Thou dost laugh and clap Thy hands, O Mother, watching them!

On favouring winds, says Ramprasad, the kites set loose will speedily

Be borne away to the Infinite, across the sea of the world.

The Master said: "The Divine Mother is always playful and sportive. This

universe is Her play. She is self-willed and must always have Her own way.

She is full of bliss. She gives freedom to one out of a hundred thousand."

A BRAHMO DEVOTEE: "But, sir, if She likes, She can give freedom to

all. Why, then, has She kept us bound to the world?"

MASTER: "That is Her will. She wants to continue playing with Her

created beings. In a game of hide-and-seek the running about soon stops if

in the beginning all the players touch the 'granny'. If all touch her, then how

can the game go on? That displeases her.

Her pleasure is in continuing the game. Therefore the poet said: Out of a

hundred thousand kites, at best but one or two break free;

And Thou dost laugh and clap Thy hands, O Mother, watching them!

Reassurance to householders

"It is as if the Divine Mother said to the human mind in confidence, with a

sign from Her eye, 'Go and enjoy the world.' How can one blame the mind?

The mind can disentangle itself from worldliness if, through Her grace, She

makes it turn toward Herself. Only then does it become devoted to the

Lotus Feet of the Divine Mother."

Whereupon Sri Ramakrishna, taking upon himself, as it were, the agonies

of all householders, sang a song complaining to the Divine Mother: Mother,

this is the grief that sorely grieves my heart, That even with Thee for

Mother, and though I am wide awake, There should be robbery in my house.

Many and many a time I vow to call on Thee,

Yet when the time for prayer comes round, I have forgotten.

Now I see it is all Thy trick.

As Thou hast never given, so Thou receivest naught; Am I to blame for this,

O Mother? Hadst Thou but given, Surely then Thou hadst received;

Out of Thine own gifts I should have given to Thee.

Glory and shame, bitter and sweet, are Thine alone; This world is nothing

but Thy play.

Then why, O Blissful One, dost Thou cause a rift in it?

Says Ramprasad: Thou hast bestowed on me this mind, And with a knowing

wink of Thine eye

Bidden it, at the same time, to go and enjoy the world.

And so I wander here forlorn through Thy creation, Blasted, as it were, by

someone's evil glance, Taking the bitter for the sweet,

Taking the unreal for the Real.

The Master continued: "Men are deluded through Her maya and have

become attached to the world.

Says Ramprasad: Thou hast bestowed on me this mind, And with a knowing

wink of Thine eye

Bidden it, at the same time, to go and enjoy the world."

BRAHMO DEVOTEE: "Sir, can't we realize God without complete

renunciation?"

MASTFR (with a laugh): "Of course you can! Why should you renounce

everything? You are all right as you are, following the middle path-like

molasses partly solid and partly liquid. Do you know the game of nax?

Having scored the maximum number of points, I am out of the game. I can't

enjoy it. But you are very clever. Some of you have scored ten points, some

six, and some five. You have scored just the right number; so you are not

out of the game like me. The game can go on. Why, that's fine! (All laugh.)

"I tell you the truth: there is nothing wrong in your being in the world. But

you must direct your mind toward God; otherwise you will not succeed.

Do your duty with one hand and with the other hold to God. After the duty

is over, you will hold to God with both hands.

Bondage and liberation are of the mind

"It is all a question of the mind. Bondage and liberation are of the mind

alone. The mind will take the colour you dye it with. It is like white clothes

just returned from the laundry. If you dip them in red dye, they will be red.

If you dip them in blue or green, they will be blue or green. They will take

only the colour you dip them in, whatever it may be. Haven't you noticed

that, if you read a little English, you at once begin to utter English words:

Foot fut it mit? Then you put on boots and whistle a tune, and so on. It all

goes together. Or, if a scholar studies Sanskrit, he will at once rattle off

Sanskrit verses. If you are in bad company, then you will talk and think like

your companions.

On the other hand, when you are in the company of devotees, you will think

and talk only of God.

"The mind is everything. A man has his wife on one side and his daughter

on the other.

He shows his affection to them in different ways. But his mind is one and

the same.

"Bondage is of the mind, and freedom is also of the mind. A man is free if

he constantly thinks: 'I am a free soul. How can I be bound, whether I live

in the world or in the forest? I am a child of God, the King of Kings. Who

can bind me?' If bitten by a snake, a man may get rid of its venom by saying

emphatically, 'There is no poison in me.' In the same way, by repeating with

grit and determination, 'I am not bound, I am free', one really becomes so-

one really becomes free.

"Once someone gave me a book of the Christians. I asked him to read it to

me. It talked about nothing but sin. (To Keshab) Sin is the only thing one

hears of at your Brahmo Samaj, too. The wretch who constantly says, 'I am

bound, I am bound' only succeeds in being bound. He who says day and

night, 'I am a sinner, I am a sinner'

verily becomes a sinner.

Redeeming power of faith

"One should have such burning faith in God that one can say: 'What? I have

repeated the name of God, and can sin still cling to me? How can I be a

sinner any more? How can I be in bondage any more?'

"If a man repeats the name of God, his body, mind, and everything become

pure. Why should one talk only about sin and hell, and such things? Say but

once, 'O Lord, I have undoubtedly done wicked things, but I won't repeat

them.' And have faith in His name."

Sri Ramakrishna became intoxicated with divine love and sang: If only I

can pass away repeating Durga's name, How canst Thou then, O Blessed

One,

Withhold from me deliverance,

Wretched though I may be? . . .

Master's prayer

Then he said: "To my Divine Mother I prayed only for pure love. I offered

flowers at Her Lotus Feet and prayed to Her: 'Mother, here is Thy virtue,

here is Thy vice. Take them both and grant me only pure love for Thee.

Here is Thy knowledge, here is Thy ignorance. Take them both and grant

me only pure love for Thee. Here is Thy purity, here is Thy impurity. Take

them both, Mother, and grant me only pure love for Thee.

Here is Thy dharma, here is Thy adharma. Take them both, Mother, and

grant me only pure love for Thee.'

(To the Brahmo devotees) "Now listen to a song by Ramprasad: Come, let

us go for a walk, O mind, to Kāli, the Wish-fulfilling Tree,

And there beneath It gather the four fruits of life.

Of your two wives, Dispassion and Worldliness, Bring alone Dispassion

only, on your way to the Tree, And ask her son Discrimination about the

Truth.

When will you learn to lie, O mind, in the abode of Blessedness, With

Cleanliness and Defilement on either side of you?

Only when you have found the way

To keep these wives contentedly under a single roof, Will you behold the

matchless form of Mother Syama.

Ego and Ignorance, your parents, instantly banish from your sight;

And should Delusion seek to drag you to its hole, Manfully cling to the

pillar of Patience.

Tie to the post of Unconcern the goats of Vice and Virtue, Killing them with

the sword of Knowledge if they rebel.

With the children of Worldliness, your first wife, plead from a goodly

distance,

And, if they will not listen, drown them in Wisdom's sea.

Says Ramprasad: If you do as I say,

You can submit a good account, O mind, to the King of Death, And I shall

be well pleased with you and call you my darling.

"Why shouldn't one be able to realize God in this world? King Janaka had

such realization. Ramprasad described the world as a mere 'framework of

illusion'. But if one loves God's hallowed feet, then-

This very world is a mansion of mirth;

Here I can eat, here drink and make merry.

Janaka's might was unsurpassed;

What did he lack of the world or the Spirit?

Holding to one as well as the other,

He drank his milk from a brimming cup! (All laugh.) "But one cannot be a

King Janaka all of a sudden. Janaka at first practised much austerity in

solitude.

Solitude for householders

"Even if one lives in the world, one must go into solitude now and then. It

will be of great help to a man if he goes away from his family, lives alone,

and weeps for God even for three days. Even if he thinks of God for one

day in solitude, when he has the leisure, that too will do him good. People

shed a whole jug of tears for wife and children. But who cries for the Lord?

Now and then one must go into solitude and practise spiritual discipline to

realize God. Living in the world and entangled in many of its duties, the

aspirant, during the first stage of spiritual life, finds many obstacles in the

path of concentration. While the trees on the footpath are young, they must

he fenced around; otherwise they will be destroyed by cattle. The fence is

necessary when the tree is young, but it can be taken away when the trunk

is thick and strong. Then the tree won't be hurt even if an elephant is tied to

it.

Malady of worldly people and its cure

"The disease of worldliness is like typhoid. And there are a huge jug of

water and a jar of savoury pickles in the typhoid patient's room. If you want

to cure him of his illness, you must remove him from that room. The

worldly man is like the typhoid patient. The various objects of enjoyment

are the huge jug of water, and the craving for their enjoyment is his thirst.

The very thought of pickles makes the mouth water; you don't have to bring

them near. And he is surrounded with them. The companionship of woman

is the pickles. Hence treatment in solitude is necessary.

"One may enter the world after attaining discrimination and dispassion. In

the ocean of the world there are six alligators: lust, anger, and so forth. But

you need not fear the alligators if you smear your body with turmeric before

you go into the water.

Discrimination and dispassion are the turmeric. Discrimination is the

knowledge of what is real and what is unreal. It is the realization that God

alone is the real and eternal Substance and that all else is unreal, transitory,

impermanent. And you must cultivate intense zeal for God. You must feel

love for Him and be attracted to Him. The gopis of Vrindāvan felt the

attraction of Krishna. Let me sing you a song:

Listen! The flute has sounded in yonder wood.

There I must fly, for Krishna waits on the path.

Tell me, friends, will you come along or no?

To you my Krishna is merely an empty name;

To me He is the anguish of my heart.

You hear His flute-notes onlv with your ears,

But, oh, I hear them in my deepest soul.

I hear His flute calling: 'Radha come out!

Without you the grove is shorn of its loveliness.' "

The Master sang the song with tears in his eyes, and said to Keshab and the

other Brahmo devotees: "Whether you accept Radha and Krishna, or not,

please do accept their attraction for each other. Try to create that same

yearning in your heart for God.

Yearning is all you need in order to realize Him."

Gradually the ebb-tide set in. The steamboat was speeding toward Calcutta.

It passed under the Howrah Bridge and came within sight of the Botanical

Garden. The captain was asked to go a little farther down the river. The

passengers were enchanted with the Master's words, and most of them had

no idea of time or of how far they had come.

Keshab began to serve some puffed rice and grated coconut. The guests

held these in the folds of their wearing-cloths and presently started to eat.

Everyone was joyful. The Master noticed, however, that Keshab and Vijay

rather shrank from each other, and he was anxious to reconcile them.

Disagreements necessary for enriching life

MASTEIR (to Keshab): "Look here. There is Vijay. Your quarrel seems like

the fight between Śiva and Rama. Śiva was Rama's s guru. Though they

fought with each other, yet they soon came to terms. But the grimaces of the

ghosts, the followers of Śiva, and the gibberish of the monkeys, the

followers of Rama, would not come to an end! (Loud laughter.) Such

quarrels take place even among one's own kith and kin. Didn't Rama fight

with His own sons, Lava and Kusa? Again, you must have noticed how a

mother and daughter, living together and having the same spiritual end in

view, observe their religious fast separately on Tuesdays, each on her own

accountas if the welfare of the mother were different from the welfare of the

daughter. But what benefits the one benefits the other. In like manner, you

have a religious society, and Vijay thinks he must have one too. (Laughter.)

But I think all these are necessary. While Sri Krishna, Himself God

Incarnate, played with the gopis at Vrindāvan, trouble-makers like Jatila

and Kutila appeared on the scene. You may ask why. The answer is that the

play does not develop without trouble-makers. (All laugh.) There is no fun

without Jatila and Kutila. (Loud laughter.)

"Ramanuja upheld the doctrine of Qualified Non-dualism. But his guru was

a pure non-dualist. They disagreed with each other and refuted each other's

arguments. That always happens. Still, to the teacher the disciple is his

own."

All rejoiced in the Mastcr's company and his words.

MASTER (to Keshab): "You don't look into people's natures, before you

make them your disciples, and so they break away from you.

"All men look alike, to be sure, but they have different natures. Some have

an excess of sattva, others an excess of rajas, and still others an excess of

tamas. You must have noticed that the cakes known as puli all look alike.

But their contents are very different.

Some contain condensed milk, some coconut kernel, and others mere boiled

kalai pulse.

(All laugh)

Master's humility

"Do you know my attitude? As for myself, I eat, drink, and live happily.

The rest the Divine Mother knows. Indeed, there are three words that prick

my flesh: 'guru', 'master', and 'father'.

"There is only one Guru, and that is Satchidananda. He alone is the Teacher.

My attitude toward God is that of a child toward its mother. One can get

human gurus by the million. All want to be teachers. But who cares to be a

disciple?

Difficulty of preaching

"It is extremely difficult to teach others. A man can teach only if God

reveals Himself to him and gives the command. Narada, Sukadeva, and

sages like them had such a command from God, and Sankara had it too.

Unless you have a command from God, who will listen to your words?

"Don't you know how easily the people of Calcutta get excited? The milk in

the kettle puffs up and boils as long as the fire burns underneath. Take away

the fuel and all becomes quiet. The people of Calcutta love sensations. You

may see them digging a well at a certain place. They say they want water.

But if they strike a stone they give up that place; they begin at another

place. And there, perchance, they find sand; they give up the second place

too. Next they begin at a third. And so it goes. But it won't do if a man only

imagines that he has God's command.

"God does reveal Himself to man and speak. Only then may one receive His

command.

How forceful are the words of such a teacher! They can move mountains.

But mere lectures? People will listen to them for a few days and then forget

them. They will never act upon mere words.

"At Kamarpukur there is a small lake called the Haldarpukur. Certain

people used to befoul its banks every day. Others who came there in the

morning to bathe would abuse the offenders loudly. But next morning they

would find the same thing. The nuisance didn't stop. (All laugh.) The

villagers finally informed the authorities about it. A constable was sent,

who put up a notice on the bank which read: 'Commit no nuisance.'

This stopped the miscreants at once. (All laugh.) "To teach others, one must

have a badge of authority; otherwise teaching becomes a mockery. A man

who is himself ignorant starts out to teach others-like the blind leading the

blind! Instead of doing good, such teaching does harm. After the realization

of God one obtains an inner vision. Only then can one diagnose a person's

spiritual malady and give instruction.

"Without the commission from God, a man becomes vain. He says to

himself, 'I am teaching people.' This vanity comes from ignorance, for only

an ignorant person feels that he is the doer. A man verily becomes liberated

in life if he feels: 'God is the Doer.

He alone is doing everything. I am doing nothing.' Man's sufferings and

worries spring only from his persistent thought that he is the doer.

Doing good to others

"You people speak of doing good to the world. Is the world such a small

thing? And who are you, pray, to do good to the world? First realize God,

see Him by means of spiritual discipline. If He imparts power, then you can

do good to others; otherwise not."

A BRAHMO DEVOTEE: "Then, sir, we must give up our activities until

we realize God?"

MASTER: "No. Why should you? You must engage in such activities as

contemplation, singing His praises, and other daily devotions."

BRAHMO: "But what about our worldly duties-duties associated with our

earning money, and so on?"

MASTER: "Yes, you can perform them too, but only as much as you need

for your livelihood. At the same time, you must pray to God in solitude,

with tears in your eyes, that you may be able to perform those duties in an

unselfish manner. You should say to Him: 'O God, make my worldly duties

fewer and fewer; otherwise, O Lord, I find that I forget Thee when I am

involved in too many activities. I may think I am doing unselfish work, but

it turns out to be selfish.' People who carry to excess the giving of alms, or

the distributing of food among the poor, fall victims to the desire of

acquiring name and fame.

"Sambhu Mallick once talked about establishing hospitals, dispensaries, and

schools, making roads, digging public reservoirs, and so forth. I said to him:

'Don't go out of your way to look for such works. Undertake only those

works that present themselves to you and are of pressing necessity-and

those also in a spirit of detachment.' It is not good to become involved in

many activities. That makes one forget God. Coming to the Kalighat

temple, some, perhaps, spend their whole time in giving alms to the poor.

They have no time to see the Mother in the inner shrine! (Laughter.) First of

all manage somehow to see the image of the Divine Mother, oven by

pushing through the crowd.

Then you may or may not give alms, as you wish. You may give to the poor

to your heart's content, if you feel that way. Work is only a means to the

realization of God.

Therefore I said to Sambhu, 'Suppose God appears before you; then will

you ask Him to build hospitals and dispensaries for you?' (Laughter.) A

lover of God never says that. He will rather say: 'O Lord, give me a place at

Thy Lotus Feet. Keep me always in Thy company. Give me sincere and

pure love for Thee.'

Path of devotion most elective for Kaliyuga

"Karmayoga is very hard indeed. In the Kaliyuga it is extremely difficult to

perform the rites enjoined in the scriptures. Nowadays man's life is centred

on food alone. He cannot perform many scriptural rites. Suppose a man is

laid up with fever. If you attempt a slow cure with the old-fashioned

indigenous remedies, before long his life may be snuffed out. He can't stand

much delay. Nowadays the drastic 'D Gupta' mixture is appropriate. In the

Kaliyuga the best way is bhaktiyoga, the path of devotion-singing the

praises of the Lord, and prayer. The path of devotion alone is the religion

for this age. (To the Brahmo devotees) Yours also is the path of devotion.

Blessed you are indeed that you chant the name of Hari and sing the Divine

Mother's glories. I like your attitude. You don't call the world a dream like

the non-dualists. You are not Brahmajnanis like them; you are bhaktas,

lovers of God. That you speak of Him as a Person is also good. You are

devotees. You will certainly realize Him if you call on Him with sincerity

and earnestness."

The boat cast anchor at Kayalaghat and the passengers prepared to

disembark. On coming outside they noticed that the full moon was up. The

trees, the buildings, and the boats on the Ganges were bathed in its mellow

light. A carriage was hailed for the Master, and M. and a few devotees got

in with him. The Master asked for Keshab.

Presently the latter arrived and inquired about the arrangements made for

the Master's return to Dakshineswar. Then he bowed low and took leave of

Sri Ramakrishna.

The carriage drove through the European quarter of the city. The Master

enjoyed the sight of the beautiful mansions on both sides of the well lighted

streets. Suddenly he said: "I am thirsty. What's to be done?" Nandalal,

Keshab's nephew, stopped the carriage before the India Club and went

upstairs to get some water. The Master inquired whether the glass had been

well washed. On being assured that it had been, he drank the water.

As the carriage went along, the Master put his head out of the window and

looked with childlike enjoyment, at the people, the vehicles, the horses, and

the streets, all flooded with moonlight. Now and then he heard European

ladies singing at the piano. He was in a very happy mood.

The carriage arrived at the house of Suresh Mitra, who was a great devotee

of the Master and whom he addressed affectionately as Surendra. He was

not at home.

The members of the household opened a room on the ground floor for the

Master and his party. The cab fare was to be paid. Surendra would have

taken care of it had he been there. The Master said to a devotee: "Why don't

you ask the ladies to pay the fare?

They certainly know that their master visits us at Dakshineswar. I am not a

stranger to them."(All laugh.)

Narendra, who lived in that quarter of the city, was sent for. In the mean

time Sri Ramakrishna and the devotees were invited to the drawing-room

upstairs. The floor of the room was covered with a carpet and a white sheet.

A few cushions were lying about. On the wall hung an oil painting

especially painted for Surendra, in which Sri Ramakrishna was pointing out

to Keshab the harmony of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and

other religions. On seeing the picture Keshab had once said, "Blessed is the

man who conceived the idea."

Sri Ramakrishna was talking joyously with the devotees, when Narendra

arrived. This made the Master doubly happy. He said to his young disciple,

"We had a boat trip with Keshab today. Vijay and many other Brahmo

devotees were there. (Pointing to M.) Ask him what I said to Keshab and

Vijay about the mother and daughter observing their religious fast on

Tuesdays, each on her own account, though the welfare of the one meant

the welfare of the other. I also said to Keshab that trouble-makers like jatila

and Kutila were necessary to lend zest to the play. (To M.) Isn't that so?"

M: "Yes, sir. Quite so."

It was late. Surendra had not yet returned. The Master had to leave for the

temple garden, and a cab was brought for him. M. and Narendra saluted

him and took their leave. Sri Ramakrishna's carriage started for

Dakshineswar through the moonlit streets.

--------------------

Chapter 6

THE MASTER WITH THE BRAHMO DEVOTEES (I)

October 28, 1882

IT WAS SATURDAY. The semi-annual Brahmo festival, celebrated each

autumn and spring, was being held in Benimadhav Pal's beautiful garden

house at Sinthi, about three miles north of Calcutta. The house stood in a

secluded place suited for contemplation.

Trees laden with flowers, artificial lakes with grassy banks, and green

arbours enhanced the beauty of the grounds. Just as the fleecy clouds were

turning gold in the light of the setting sun, the Master arrived.

Many devotees had attended the morning devotions, and in the afternoon

people from Calcutta and the neighbouring villages joined them. Shivanath,

the great Brahmo devotee whom the Master loved dearly, was one of the

large gathering of members of the Brahmo Samaj who had been eagerly

awaiting Sri Ramakrishna's arrival.

When the carriage bringing the Master and a few devotees reached the

garden house, the assembly stood up respectfully to receive him. There was

a sudden silence, like that which comes when the curtain in a theatre is

about to be rung up. People who had been conversing with one another now

fixed their attention on the Master's serene face, eager not to lose one word

that might fall from his lips.

Master's joy on seeing Shivanāth

At the sight of Shivanath the Master cried out joyously: "Ah! Here is

Shivanath! You see, you are a devotee of God. The very sight of you

gladdens my heart. One hemp-smoker feels very happy to meet another.

Very often they embrace each other in an exuberance of joy."

The devotees burst out laughing.

Worldly people's indifference to spiritual life MASTER: "Many people

visit the temple garden at Dakshineswar. If I see some among the visitors

indifferent to God, I say to them, 'You had better sit over there.' Or

sometimes I say, 'Go and see the beautiful buildings.' (Laughter.)

"Sometimes I find that the devotees of God are accompanied by worthless

people. Their companions are immersed in gross worldliness and don't

enjoy spiritual talk at all. Since the devotees keep on, for a long time,

talking with me about God, the others become restless. Finding it

impossible to sit there any longer, they whisper to their devotee friends:

'When shall we be going? How long will you stay here?' The devotees say:

'Wait a bit. We shall go after a little while.' Then the worldly people say in a

disgusted tone: 'Well, then, you can talk. We shall wait for you in the boat.'

(All laugh.) Power of God's name

"Worldly people will never listen to you if you ask them to renounce

everything and devote themselves whole-heartedly to God. Therefore

Chaitanya and Nitai, after some deliberation, made an arrangement to

attract the worldly. They would say to such persons, 'Come, repeat the name

of Hari, and you shall have a delicious soup of magur fish and the embrace

of a young woman.' Many people, attracted by the fish and the woman,

would chant the name of God. After tasting a little of the nectar of God's

hallowed name, they would soon realize that the 'fish soup' really meant the

tears they shed for love of God, while the 'young woman' signified the

earth. The embrace of the woman meant rolling on the ground in the rapture

of divine love.

"Nitai would employ any means to make people repeat Hari's name.

Chaitanya said: 'The name of God has very great sanctity. It may not

produce an immediate result, but one day it must bear fruit. It is like a seed

that has been left on the cornice of a building. After many days the house

crumbles, and the seed falls on the earth, germinates, and at last bears fruit.'

Three classes of devotees

"As worldly people are endowed with sattva, rajas, and tamas, so also is

bakti characterized by the three gunas.

"Do you know what a worldly person endowed with sattva is like? Perhaps

his house is in a dilapidated condition here and there. He doesn't care to

repair it. The worship hall may be strewn with pigeon droppings and the

courtyard covered with moss, but he pays no attention to these things. The

furniture of the house may be old; he doesn't think of polishing it and

making it look neat. He doesn't care for dress at all; anything is good

enough for him. But the man himself is very gentle, quiet, kind, and

humble; he doesn't injure anyone.

"Again, among the worldly there are people with the traits of rajas. Such a

man has a watch and chain, and two or three rings on his fingers. The

furniture of his house is all spick and span. On the walls hang portraits of

the Queen, the Prince of Wales, and other prominent people; the building is

whitewashed and spotlessly clean. His wardrobe is filled with a large

assortment of clothes; even the servants have their livery, and all that.

"The traits of a worldly man endowed with tamas are sleep, lust, anger,

egotism, and the like.

Three kinds of bhakti

"Similarly, bhakti, devotion, has its sattva. A devotee who possesses it

meditates on God in absolute secret, perhaps inside his mosquito net. Others

think he is asleep.

Since he is late in getting up, they think perhaps he has not slept well during

the night.

His love for the body goes only as far as appeasing his hunger, and that only

by means of rice and simple greens. There is no elaborate arrangement

about his meals, no luxury in clothes, and no display of furniture. Besides,

such a devotee never flatters anybody for money.

"An aspirant possessed of rajasic bhakti puts a tilak on his forehead and a

necklace of holy rudraksha beads, interspersed with gold ones, around his

neck. (All laugh.) At worship he wears a silk cloth.

"A man endowed with tamasic bhakti has burning faith. Such a devotee

literally extorts boons from God, even as a robber falls upon a man and

plunders his money. 'Bind!

Beat! Kill!'-that is his way, the way of the dacoits."

Utilizing Tamas for spiritual welfare Saying this, the Master began to sing

in a voice sweet with rapturous love, his eyes turned upward:

Why should I go to Ganga or Gaya, to Kasi, Kanchi, or Prabhas,

So long as I can breathe my last with Kāli's name upon my lips?

What need of rituals has a man, what need of devotions any more,

If he repeats the Mother's name at the three holy hours?

Rituals may pursue him close, but never can they overtake him.

Charity, vows, and giving of gifts do not appeal to Madan's mind;

The Blissful Mother's Lotus Feet are his whole prayer and sacrifice.

Who could ever have conceived the power Her name possesses?

Śiva Himself, the God of Gods, sings Her praise with His five mouths!

The Master was beside himself with love for the Divine Mother. He sang

with fiery enthusiasm:

If only I can pass away repeating Durga's name, How canst Thou then, O

Blessed One,

Withhold from me deliverance,

Wretched though I may be? . . .

Then he said, "One must take the firm attitude: 'What? I have chanted the

Mother's name. How can I be a sinner any more? I am Her child, heir to Her

powers and glories.'

"If you can give a spiritual turn to your tamas, you can realize God with its

help. Force your demands on God. He is by no means a stranger to you. He

is indeed your very own.

Illustration of physicians

"Again, you see, the quality of tamas can be used for the welfare of others.

There are three classes of physicians: superior, mediocre, and inferior. The

physician who feels the patient's pulse and just says to him, 'Take the

medicine regularly' belongs to the inferior class. He doesn't care to inquire

whether or not the patient has actually taken the medicine. The mediocre

physician is he who in various ways persuades the patient to take the

medicine, and says to him sweetly: 'My good man, how will you be cured

unless you use the medicine? Take this medicine. I have made it for you

myself.' But he who, finding the patient stubbornly refusing to take the

medicine, forces it down his throat, going so far as to put his knee on the

patient's chest, is the best physician. This is the manifestation of the tamas

of the physician. It doesn't injure the patient; on the contrary, it does him

good.

Three types of gurus

"Like the physicians, there are three types of religious teachers. The inferior

teacher only gives instruction to the disciples but makes no inquiries about

their progress. The mediocre teacher, for the good of the student, makes

repeated efforts to bring the instruction home to him, begs him to assimilate

it, and shows him love in many other ways. But there is a type of teacher

who goes to the length of using force when he finds the student persistently

unyielding; I call him the best teacher."

No finality about God's nature

A BRAHMO DEVOTEE: "Sir, has God forms or has He none?"

MASTER: "No one can say with finality that God is only 'this' and nothing

else. He is formless, and again He has forms. For the bhakta He assumes

forms. But He is formless for the jnani, that is, for him who looks on the

world as a mere dream. The bhakta feels that he is one entity and the world

another. Therefore God reveals Himself to him as a Person. But the jnani-

the Vedantist, for instance-always reasons, applying the process of 'Not this,

not this'. Through this discrimination he realizes, by his inner perception,

that the ego and the universe are both illusory, like a dream. Then the jnani

realizes Brahman in his own consciousness. He cannot describe what

Brahman is.

"Do you know what I mean? Think of Brahman, Existence-Knowledge-

Bliss Absolute, as a shoreless ocean. Through the cooling influence, as it

were, of the bhakta's love, the water has frozen at places into blocks of ice.

In other words, God now and then assumes various forms for His lovers and

reveals Himself to them as a Person. But with the rising of the sun of

Knowledge, the blocks of ice melt. Then one doesn't feel any more that God

is a Person, nor does one see God's forms. What He is cannot be described.

Who will describe Him? He who would do so disappears. He cannot find

his 'I' any more.

Illusoriness of "I"

"If one analyses oneself, one doesn't find any such thing as 'I'. Take an

onion, for instance. First of all you peel off the red outer skin; then you find

thick white skins.

Peel these off one after the other, and you won't find anything inside.

"In that state a man no longer finds the existence of his ego. And who is

there left to seek it? Who can describe how he feels in that state-in his own

Pure Consciousness-about the real nature of Brahman? Once a salt doll

went to measure the depth of the ocean. No sooner was it in the water than

it melted. Now who was to tell the depth?

Sign of Perfect Knowledge

"There is a sign of Perfect Knowledge. Man becomes silent when It is

attained. Then the 'I', which may be likened to the salt doll, melts in the

Ocean of Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute and becomes one with It.

Not the slightest trace of distinction is left.

"As long as his self-analysis is not complete, man argues with much ado.

But he becomes silent when he completes it. When the empty pitcher has

been filled with water, when the water inside the pitcher becomes one with

the water of the lake outside, no more sound is heard. Sound comes from

the pitcher as long as the pitcher is not filled with water.

"People used to say in olden days that no boat returns after having once

entered the 'black waters' of the ocean.

"All trouble and botheration come to an end when the 'I' dies. You may

indulge in thousands of reasoning, but still the 'I' doesn't disappear. For

people like you and me, it is good to have the feeling, 'I am a lover of God.'

Personal God for devotees

"The Saguna Brahman is meant for the bhaktas. In other words, a bhakta

believes that God has attributes and reveals Himself to men as a Person,

assuming forms. It is He who listens to our prayers. The prayers that you

utter are directed to Him alone. You are bhaktas, not jnanis or Vedantists. It

doesn't matter whether you accept God with form or not. It is enough to feel

that God is a Person who listens to our prayers, who creates, preserves, and

destroys the universe, and who is endowed with infinite power.

"It is easier to attain God by following the path of devotion."

BRAHMO DEVOTEE: "Sir, is it possible for one to see God? If so, why

can't we see Him?"

MASTER: "Yes, He can surely be seen. One can see His forms, and His

formless aspect as well. How can I explain that to you?"

Intense longing enables one to see God

BRAHMO DEVOTEE: "What are the means by which one can see God?"

MASTER: "Can you weep for Him with intense longing of heart? Men shed

a jugful of tears for the sake of their children, for their wives, or for money.

But who weeps for God? So long as the child remains engrossed with its

toys, the mother looks after her cooking and other household duties. But

when the child no longer relishes the toys, it throws them aside and yells for

its mother. Then the mother takes the rice-pot down from the hearth, runs in

haste, and takes the child in her arms."

Why so much controversy about God?

BRAHMO DEVOTEE: "Sir, why are there so many different opinions

about the nature of God? Some say that God has form, while others say that

He is formless. Again, those who speak of God with form tell us about His

different forms. Why all this controversy?"

MASTER: "A devotee thinks of God as he sees Him. In reality there is no

confusion about God. God explains all this to the devotee if the devotee

only realizes Him somehow. You haven't set your foot in that direction.

How can you expect to know all about God?

Parable of the chameleon

"Listen to a story. Once a man entered a wood and saw a small animal on a

tree. He came back and told another man that he had seen a creature of a

beautiful red colour on a certain tree. The second man replied: 'When I went

into the wood, I also saw that animal. But why do you call it red? It is

green.' Another man who was present contradicted them both and insisted

that it was yellow. Presently others arrived and contended that it was grey,

violet, blue, and so forth and so on. At last they started quarrelling among

themselves. To settle the dispute they all went to the tree. They saw a man

sitting under it. On being asked, he replied: 'Yes, I live under this tree and I

know the animal very well. All your descriptions are true. Sometimes it

appears red, sometimes yellow, and at other times blue, violet, grey, and so

forth. It is a chameleon. And sometimes it has no colour at all. Now it has a

colour, and now it has none.'

"In like manner, one who constantly thinks of God can know His real

nature; he alone knows that God reveals Himself to seekers in various

forms and aspects. God has attributes; then again He has none. Only the

man who lives under the tree knows that the chameleon can appear in

various colours, and he knows, further, that the animal at times has no

colour at all. It is the others who suffer from the agony of futile argument.

"Kabir used to say, 'The formless Absolute is my Father, and God with form

is my Mother.'

"God reveals Himself in the form which His devotee loves most. His love

for the devotee knows no bounds. It is written in the Purana that God

assumed the form of Rama for His heroic devotee, Hanuman.

Vedantic Non-dualism

"The forms and aspects of God disappear when one discriminates in

accordance with the Vedanta philosophy. The ultimate conclusion of such

discrimination is that Brahman alone is real and this world of names and

forms illusory. It is possible for a man to see the forms of God, or to think

of Him as a Person, only so long as he is conscious that he is a devotee.

From the standpoint of discrimination this 'ego of a devotee' keeps him a

little away from God.

"Do you know why images of Krishna or Kāli are three and a half cubits

high? Because of distance. Again, on account of distance the sun appears to

be small. But if you go near it you will find the sun so big that you won't be

able to comprehend it. Why have images of Krishna and Kāli a dark-blue

colour? That too is on account of distance, like the water of a lake, which

appears green, blue, or black from a distance. Go near, take the water in the

palm of your hand, and you will find that it has no colour. The sky also

appears blue from a distance. Go near and you will see that it has no colour

at all.

"Therefore I say that in the light of Vedantic reasoning Brahman has no

attributes. The real nature of Brahman cannot be described. But so long as

your individuality is real, the world also is real, and equally real are the

different forms of God and the feeling that God is a Person.

"Yours is the path of bhakti. That is very good; it is an easy path. Who can

fully know the infinite God? and what need is there of knowing the Infinite?

Having attained this rare human birth, my supreme need is to develop love

for the Lotus Feet of God.

"If a jug of water is enough to remove my thirst, why should I measure the

quantity of water in a lake? I become drunk on even half a bottle of wine-

what is the use of my calculating the quantity of liquor in the tavern? What

need is there of knowing the Infinite?

"The various states of mind of the Brahmajnani are described in the Vedas.

The path of knowledge is extremely difficult. One cannot obtain jnāna if

one has the least trace of worldliness and the slightest attachment to 'woman

and gold'. This is not the path for the Kaliyuga.

Seven planes of the mind

"The Vedas speak of seven planes where the mind dwells. When the mind is

immersed in worldliness it dwells in the three lower planes-at the naval, the

organ of generation, and the organ of evacuation. In that state the mind

loses all its higher visions-it broods only on 'woman and gold'. The fourth

plane of the mind is at the heart. When the mind dwells there, one has the

first glimpse of spiritual consciousness. One sees light all around. Such a

man, perceiving the divine light, becomes speechless with wonder and says:

'Ah! What is this? What is this?' His mind does not go downward to the

objects of the world.

"The fifth plane of the mind is at the throat. When the mind reaches this, the

aspirant becomes free from all ignorance and illusion. He does not enjoy

talking or hearing about anything but God. If people talk about worldly

things, he leaves the place at once.

"The sixth plane is at the forehead. When the mind reaches it, the aspirant

sees the form of God day and night. But even then a little trace of ego

remains. At the sight of that incomparable beauty of God's form, one

becomes intoxicated and rushes forth to touch and embrace it. But one

doesn't succeed. It is like the light inside a lantern. One feels as if one could

touch the light, but one cannot on account of the pane of glass.

"In the top of the head is the seventh plane. When the mind rises there, one

goes into samādhi. Then the Brahmajnani directly perceives Brahman. But

in that state his body does not last many days. He remains unconscious of

the outer world. If milk is poured into his mouth, it runs out. Dwelling on

this plane of consciousness, he gives up his body in twenty-one days. That

is the condition of the Brahmajnani. But yours is the path of devotion. That

is a very good and easy path.

"Once a man said to me, 'Sir, can you teach me quickly the thing you call

samādhi?' (All laugh.)

Duties drop away with deepening of spiritual mood "After a man has

attained samādhi all his actions drop away. All devotional activities, such as

worship, japa, and the like, as well as all worldly duties, cease to exist for

such a person. At the beginning there is much ado about work. As a man

makes progress toward God, the outer display of his work becomes less and

less-so much so that he cannot even sing the name and glories of God. (To

Shivanath) As long as you were not here at the meeting, people talked a

great deal about you and discussed your virtues.

But no sooner did you arrive here than all that stopped. Now the very sight

of you makes everyone happy. People now simply say, 'Ah! Here is

Shivanath Babu.' All other talk about you has stopped.

What happens after samādhi

"After attaining samādhi, I once went to the Ganges to perform tarpan. But

as I took water in the palm of my hand, it trickled down through my fingers.

Weeping, I said to Haladhāri, 'Cousin, what is this?' Haladhāri replied, 'It is

called galitahasta in the holy books.' After the vision of God, such duties as

the performance of tarpan drop away.

"In the kirtan the devotee first sings, 'Nitai amar mata hati.' As the

devotional mood deepens, he simply sings, 'Hati! Hati!' Next, all he can

sing is 'Hati'. And last of all he simply sings, 'Ha!' and goes into samādhi.

The man who has been singing all the while then becomes speechless.

"Again, at a feast given to the brahmins one at first hears much noise of

talking. When the guests sit on the floor with leaf-plates in front of them,

much of the noise ceases.

Then one hears only the cry, 'Bring some luchi!'

As they partake of the luchi and other dishes, three quarters of the noise

subsides.

When the curd, the last course, appears, one hears only the sound 'soop,

soop' as the guests eat the curd with their fingers. Then there is practically

no noise. Afterwards all retire to sleep, and absolute silence reigns.

"Therefore I say, at the beginning of religious life a man makes much ado

about work, but as his mind dives deeper into God, he becomes less active.

Last of all comes the renunciation of work, followed by samādhi.

"Generally the body does not remain alive after the attainment of samādhi.

The only exceptions are such sages as Narada, who keep their bodies alive

in order to bring spiritual light to others. It is also true of Divine

Incarnations, like Chaitanya. After the well is dug, one generally throws

away the spade and the basket. But some keep them in order to help their

neighbours. The great souls who retain their bodies after samādhi feel

compassion for the suffering of others. They are not so selfish as to be

satisfied with their own illumination. You are well aware of the nature of

selfish people. If you ask them to spit at a particular place, they won't, lest it

should do you good. If you ask them to bring a sweetmeat worth a cent

from the store, they will perhaps lick it on the way back. (All laugh.)

"But the manifestations of Divine Power are different in different beings.

Ordinary souls are afraid to teach others. A piece of worthless timber may

itself somehow float across the water, but it sinks even under the weight of

a bird. Sages like Narada are like a heavy log of wood, which not only

floats on the water but also can carry men, cows, and even elephants.

(To Shivanath and the other Brahmo devotees) "Can you tell me why you

dwell so much on the powers and glories of God? I asked the same thing of

Keshab Sen. One day Keshab and his party came to the temple garden at

Dakshineswar. I told them I wanted to hear how they lectured. A meeting

was arranged in the paved courtyard above the bathing-ghat on the Ganges,

where Keshab gave a talk. He spoke very well. I went into a trance. After

the lecture I said to Keshab, 'Why do you so often say such things as: "O

God, what beautiful flowers Thou hast made! O God, Thou hast created the

heavens, the stars, and the ocean!" and so on?' Those who love splendour

themselves are fond of dwelling on God's splendour.

"Once a thief stole the jewels from the images in the temple of Radhakanta.

Mathur Babu entered the temple and said to the Deity: 'What a shame, O

God! You couldn't save Your own ornaments.' 'The idea!' I said to Mathur.

'Does He who has Lakshmi for His handmaid and attendant ever lack any

splendour? Those jewels may be precious to you, but to God they are no

better than lumps of clay. Shame on you! You shouldn't have spoken so

meanly. 'What riches can you give to God to magnify His glory?'

"Therefore I say, a man seeks the person in whom he finds joy. What need

has he to ask where that person lives, the number of his houses, gardens,

relatives, and servants, or the amount of his wealth? I forget everything

when I see Narendra. Never, even unwittingly, have I asked him where he

lived, what his father's profession was, or the number of his brothers.

"Dive deep in the sweetness of God's Bliss. What need have we of His

infinite creation and unlimited glory?"

The Master sang:

Dive deep, O mind, dive deep in the Ocean of God's Beauty; If you descend

to the uttermost depths,

There you will find the gem of Love.

Go seek, O mind, go seek Vrindāvan in your heart, Where with His loving

devotees

Sri Krishna sports eternally.

Light up, O mind, light up true wisdom's shining lamp, And let it burn with

steady flame

Unceasingly within your heart.

Who is it that steers your boat across the solid earth?

It is your guru, says Kubir;

Meditate on his holy feet.

Sri Ramakrishna continued: "It is also true that after the vision of God the

devotee desires to witness His lila. After the destruction of Ravana at

Rama's hands, Nikasha, Ravana's mother, began to run away for fear of her

life. Lakshmana said to Rama: 'Revered Brother, please explain this strange

thing to me. This Nikasha is an old woman who has suffered a great deal

from the loss of her many sons, and yet she is so afraid of losing her own

life that she is taking to her heels!' Rama bade her come near, gave her

assurance of safety, and asked her why she was running away. Nikasha

answered: 'O

Rama, I am able to witness all this lila of Yours because I am still alive. I

want to live longer so that I may see the many more things You will do on

this earth.' (All laugh.) (To Shivanath) "I like to see you. How can I live

unless I see pure-souled devotees? I feel as if they had been my friends in a

former incarnation."

Reincarnation of soul & Inscrutability of God's ways A BRAHMO

DEVOTEE: "Sir, do you believe in the reincarnation of the soul?"

MASTER: "Yes, they say there is something like that. How can we

understand the ways of God through our small intellects? Many people have

spoken about reincarnation; therefore I cannot disbelieve it. As Bhishma lay

dying on his bed of arrows, the Pandava brothers and Krishna stood around

him. They saw tears flowing from the eyes of the great hero. Arjuna said to

Krishna: 'Friend, how surprising it is! Even such a man as our grandsire

Bhishma-truthful, self-restrained, supremely wise, and one of the eight

Vasus-weeps, through maya, at the hour of death.' Sri Krishna asked

Bhishma about it.

Bhishma replied: 'O Krishna, You know very well that this is not the cause

of my grief. I am thinking that there is no end to the Pandavas' sufferings,

though God Himself is their charioteer.7 A thought like this makes me feel

that I have understood nothing of the ways of God, and so I weep.' "

It was about half past eight when the evening worship began in the prayer

hall. Soon the moon rose in the autumn sky and flooded the trees and

creepers of the garden with its light. After prayer the devotees began to

sing. Sri Ramakrishna was dancing, intoxicated with love of God. The

Brahmo devotees danced around him to the accompaniment of drums and

cymbals. All appeared to be in a very joyous mood. The place echoed and

reechoed with God's holy name. When the music had stopped, Sri

Ramakrishna prostrated himself on the ground and, making salutations to

the Divine Mother again and again, said: "Bhagavata-Bhakta-Bhagavan!

My salutations at the feet of the jnanis! My salutations at the feet of the

bhaktas! I salute the bhaktas who believe in God with form, and I salute the

bhaktas who believe in God without form. I salute the knowers of Brahman

of olden times. And my salutations at the feet of the modern knowers of

Brahman of the Brahmo Samaj!"

Then the Master and the devotees enjoyed a supper of delicious dishes,

which Benimadhav, their host, had provided.

Wednesday, November 15, 1882

Master at the circus

Sri Ramakrishna, accompanied by Rakhal and several other devotees, came

to Calcutta in a carriage and called for M. at the school where he was

teaching. Then they all set out for the Maidan. Sri Ramakrishna wanted to

see the Wilson Circus. As the carriage rolled along the crowded Chitpore

Road, his joy was very great. Like a little child he leaned first out of one

side of the carriage and then out of the other, talking to himself as if

addressing the passers-by. To M. he said: "I find the attention of the people

fixed on earthly things. They are all rushing about for the sake of their

stomachs. No one is thinking of God."

They arrived at the circus. Tickets for the cheapest seats were purchased.

The devotees took the Master to a high gallery, and they all sat on a bench.

He said joyfully: "Ha! This is a good place. I can see the show well from

here." There were exhibitions of various feats. A horse raced around a

circular track over which large iron rings were hung at intervals. The circus

rider, an Englishwoman, stood on one foot on the horse's back, and as the

horse passed under the rings, she jumped through them, always alighting on

one foot on the horse's back. The horse raced around the entire circle, and

the woman never missed the horse or lost her balance.

When the circus was over, the Master and the devotees stood outside in the

field, near the carriage. Since it was a cold night he covered his body with

his green shawl.

Necessity of spiritual discipline

Sri Ramakrishna said to M.: "Did you see how that Englishwoman stood on

one foot on her horse, while it ran like lightning? How difficult a feat that

must be! She must have practised a long time. The slightest carelessness

and she would break her arms or legs; she might even be killed. One faces

the same difficulty leading the life of a householder. A few succeed in it

through the grace of God and as a result of their spiritual practice. But most

people fail. Entering the world, they become more and more involved in it;

they drown in worldliness and suffer the agonies of death. A few only, like

Janaka, have succeeded, through the power of their austerity, in leading the

spiritual life as householders. Therefore spiritual practice is extremely

necessary; otherwise one cannot rightly live in the world."

The Master got into the carriage with the devotees and went to Balaram

Bose's house.

He was taken with his companions to the second floor. It was evening and

the lamps were lighted. The Master described the feats he had seen at the

circus. Gradually other devotees gathered, and soon he was engaged in

spiritual talk with them.

Master on caste-system

The conversation turned to the caste-system. Sri Ramakrishna said: "The

caste-system can be removed by one means only, and that is the love of

God. Lovers of God do not belong to any caste. The mind, body, and soul of

a man become purified through divine love. Chaitanya and Nityananda

scattered the name of Hari to everyone, including the pariah, and embraced

them all. A brahmin without this love is no longer a brahmin.

And a pariah with the love of God is no longer a pariah. Through bhakti an

untouchable becomes pure and elevated."

Entanglement of householders

Speaking of householders entangled in worldliness, the Master said: "They

are like the silk-worm. They can come out of the cocoon of their worldly

life if they wish. But they can't bear to; for they themselves have built the

cocoon with great love and care. So they die there. Or they are like the fish

in a trap. They can come out of it by the way they entered, but they sport

inside the trap with other fish and hear the sweet sound of the murmuring

water and forget everything else. They don't even make an effort to free

themselves from the trap. The lisping of children is the murmur of the

water; and the other fish are relatives and friends. Only one or two make

good their escape by running away. They are the liberated souls."

The Master then sang:

When such delusion veils the world, through Mahamaya's spell, That

Brahma is bereft of sense,

And Vishnu loses consciousness,

What hope is left for men?

The narrow channel first is made, and there the trap is set; But open though

the passage lies,

The fish, once safely through the gate,

Do not come out again.

The silk-worm patiently prepares its closely spun cocoon; Yet even though a

way leads forth,

Encased within its own cocoon,

The worm remains to die.

The Master continued: "Man may be likened to grain. He has fallen

between the millstones and is about to be crushed. Only the few grains that

stay near the peg escape. Therefore men should take refuge at the peg, that

is to say, in God. Call on Him. Sing His name. Then you will be free.

Otherwise you will be crushed by the King of Death."

The Master sang again:

Mother! Mother! My boat is sinking, here in the ocean of this world;

Fiercely the hurricane of delusion rages on every side!

Clumsy is my helmsman, the mind; stubborn my six oarsmen, the passions;

Into a pitiless wind

I sailed my boat, and now it is sinking!

Split is the rudder of devotion; tattered is the sail of faith; Into my boat the

waters are pouring! Tell me, what shall I do?

For with my failing eyes, alas! nothing but darkness do I see.

Here in the waves I will swim,

O Mother, and cling to the raft of Thy name!

Mr. Viswas had been sitting in the room a long time; he now left. He had

once been wealthy but had squandered everything in an immoral life.

Finally he had become indifferent to his wife and children. Referring to Mr.

Viswas, the Master said: "He is an unfortunate wretch. A householder has

his duties to discharge, his debts to pay: his debt to the gods, his debt to his

ancestors, his debt to the rishis, and his debt to wife and children. If a wife

is chaste, then her husband should support her; he should also bring up their

children until they are of age. Only a monk must not save; the bird and the

monk do not provide for the morrow. But even a bird provides when it has

young.

It brings food in its bill for its chicks."

BALARAM: "Mr. Viswas now wants to cultivate the company of holy

people."

MASTER (with a smile): "A monk's kamandalu goes to the four principal

holy places with him, but it still tastes bitter. Likewise, it is said that the

Malaya breeze turns all trees into sandalwood. But there are a few

exceptions, such as the cotton-tree, the Aśwattha, and the hog plum.

"Some frequent the company of holy men in order to smoke hemp. Many

monks smoke it, and these householders stay with them, prepare the hemp,

and partake of the prasad."

Thursday, November 16, 1882

The Master had come to Calcutta. In the evening he went to the house of

Rajmohan, a member of the Brahmo Samaj, where Narendra and some of

his young friends used to meet and worship according to the Brahmo

ceremonies. Sri Ramakrishna wanted to see their worship. He was

accompanied by M. and a few other devotees.

The Master was very happy to see Narendra and expressed a desire to watch

the young men at their worship. Narendra sang and then the worship began.

One of the young men conducted it. He prayed, "O Lord, may we give up

everything and be absorbed in Thee!" Possibly the youth was inspired by

the Master's presence and so talked of utter renunciation. Sri Ramakrishna

remarked in a whisper, "Much likelihood there is of that!"

Rajmohan served the Master with refreshments.

Sunday, November 19, 1882

It was the auspicious occasion of the Jagaddhatri Puja, the festival of the

Divine Mother.

Sri Ramakrishna was invited to Surendra's house in Calcutta; but first he

went to the house of Manomohan in the neighbourhood.

The Master was seated in Manomohan's parlour.

He said: "God very

much relishes the bhakti of the poor and the lowly, just as the cow relishes

fodder mixed with oil-cake. King Duryodhana showed Krishna the

splendour of his wealth and riches, but Krishna accepted the hospitality of

the poor Vidura. God is fond of His devotees. He runs after the devotee as

the cow after the calf."

The Master sang:

And, for that love, the mighty yogis practise yoga from age to age;

When love awakes, the Lord, like a magnet, draws to Him the soul.

Then he said: "Chaitanya used to shed tears of joy at the very mention of

Krishna's name. God alone is the real Substance; all else is illusory. Man

can realize God if he wants to, but he madly craves the enjoyment of

'woman and gold'. The snake has a precious stone in its head, but it is

perfectly satisfied to eat a mere frog.

"Bhakti is the one essential thing. Who can ever know God through

reasoning? I want love of God. What do I care about knowing His infinite

glories? One bottle of wine makes me drunk. What do I care about knowing

how many gallons there are in the grog-shop?

One jar of water is enough to quench my thirst. I don't need to know the

amount of water there is on earth."

Sri Ramakrishna arrived at Surendra's house. Many devotees had assembled

there, including Surendra's elder brother, who was a judge.

Futility of reasoning

MASTER (To Surendra's brother): "You are a judge. That is very good. But

remember, everything happens through God's power. It is He who has given

you your high position; that is how you became a judge. People think it is

they who are great. The water from the roof flows through a spout that is

shaped like a lion's head. It looks as if the lion were bringing the water out

through its mouth. But look at the source of the water! A cloud gathers in

the sky and rain falls on the roof; then the water flows through the pipe and

at last comes out through the spout."

SURENDRA'S BROTHER: "The Brahmo Samaj preaches the freedom of

women and the abolition of the caste-system. What do you think about

these matters?"

MASTER: "Men feel that way when they are just beginning to develop

spiritual yearning.

A storm raises clouds of dust, and one cannot distinguish between the

different trees-the mango, the hog plum, and the tamarind. But after the

storm blows over, one sees clearly. After the first storm of divine passion is

quelled, one gradually understands that God alone is the Highest Good, the

Eternal Substance, and that all else is transitory.

One cannot grasp this without tapasya and the company of holy men. What

is the use of merely reciting the written parts for the drum? It is very

difficult to put them into practice on the instrument. What can be

accomplished by a mere lecture? It is austerity that is necessary. By that

alone can one comprehend.

"You asked about caste distinctions. There is only one way to remove them,

and that is by love of God. Lovers of God have no caste. Through this

divine love the untouchable becomes pure, the pariah no longer remains a

pariah. Chaitanya embraced all, including the pariahs.

"The members of the Brahmo Samaj sing the name of Hari. That is very

good. Through earnest prayer one receives the grace of God and realizes

Him. God can be realized by means of all paths. The same God is invoked

by different names."

Master on Theosophy

SURENDRA'S BROTHER: "Sir, what do you think of Theosophy?"

MASTER: "I have heard that man can acquire superhuman powers through

it and perform miracles. I saw a man who had brought a ghost under

control. The ghost used to procure various things for his master. What shall

I do with superhuman powers? Can one realize God through them? If God

is not realized then everything becomes false."

November 1882

It was about four o'clock in the afternoon when Sri Ramakrishna arrived in

Calcutta to attend the annual festival of the Brahmo Samaj, which was to be

celebrated at Manilal Mallick's house. Besides M. and other devotees of the

Master, Vijay Goswami and a number of Brahmos were present. Elaborate

arrangements had been made to make the occasion a success. Vijay was to

conduct the worship.

The kathak recited the life of Prahlada from the Purana. Its substance was

as follows: Hiranyakasipu, Prahlada's father, was king of the demons. He

bore great malice toward God and put his own son through endless tortures

for leading a religious life. Afflicted by his father, Prahlada prayed to God,

"O God, please give my father holy inclinations."

At these words the Master wept. He went into an ecstatic mood. Afterwards

he began to talk to the devotees.

MASTER: "Bhakti is the only essential thing. One obtains love of God by

constantly chanting His name and singing His glories. Ah! What a devotee

Shivanath is! He is soaked in the love of God, like a cheese-cake in syrup.

"One should not think, 'My religion alone is the right path and other

religions are false.'

God can be realized by means of all paths. It is enough to have sincere

yearning for God. Infinite are the paths and infinite the opinions.

The pure in heart see God

"Let me tell you one thing. God can be seen. The Vedas say that God is

beyond mind and speech. The meaning of this is that God is unknown to the

mind attached to worldly objects. Vaishnavcharan used to say, 'God is

known by the mind and intellect that are pure.' Therefore it is necessary to

seek the company of holy men, practise prayer, and listen to the instruction

of the guru. These purify the mind. Then one sees God. Dirt can be

removed from water by a purifying agent. Then one sees one's reflection in

it.

One cannot see one's face in a mirror if the mirror is covered with dirt.

"After the purification of the heart one obtains divine love. Then one sees

God, through His grace. One can teach others if one receives that command

from God after seeing Him. Before that one should not 'lecture'. There is a

song that says: You have set up no image here,

Within the shrine, O fool!

Blowing the conch, you simply make

Confusion worse confounded.

"You should first cleanse the shrine of your heart. Then you should install

the Deity and arrange worship. As yet nothing has been done. What can you

achieve by blowing the conchshell and simply making a loud noise?"

Vijay sat on a raised stool and conducted the worship according to the rules

of the Brahmo Samaj. Afterwards he sat by the Master.

MASTER (to Vijay): "Will you tell me one thing? Why did you harp so

much on sin? By repeating a hundred times, 'I am a sinner', one verily

becomes a sinner. One should have such faith as to be able to say, 'What? I

have taken the name of God; how can I be a sinner?' God is our Father and

Mother. Tell Him, 'O Lord, I have committed sins, but I won't repeat them.'

Chant His name and purify your body and mind. Purify your tongue by

singing God's holy name."

December 1882

In the afternoon Sri Ramakrishna was seated on the west porch of his room

in the temple garden at Dakshineswar. Among others, Baburam, Ramdayal,

and M. were present. These three were going to spend the night with the

Master. M. intended to stay the following day also, for he was having his

Christmas holidays. Baburam had only recently begun to visit the Master.

MASTER (to the devotees): "A man becomes liberated even in this life

when he knows that God is the Doer of all things. Once Keshab came here

with Sambhu Mallick. I said to him, 'Not even a leaf moves except by the

will of God.' Where is man's free will? All are under the will of God.

Nangta was a man of great knowledge, yet even he was about to drown

himself in the Ganges. He stayed here eleven months. At one time he

suffered from stomach trouble. The excruciating pain made him lose control

over himself, and he wanted to drown himself in the river. There was a long

shoal near the bathing-ghat. However far he went into the river, he couldn't

find water above his knees. Then he understood everything and came back.

At one time I was very ill and was about to cut my throat with a knife.

Therefore I say: 'O Mother, I am the machine and Thou art the Operator; I

am the chariot and Thou art the Driver. I move as Thou movest me; I do as

Thou makest me do.' "

The devotees sing kirtan in the Master's room:

Dwell, O Lord, O Lover of bhakti,

In the Vrindāvan of my heart,

And my devotion unto Thee

Will be Thy Radha, dearly loved;

My body will be Nanda's home,

My tenderness will be Yaśoda,

My longing for deliverance

Will be Thy gentle gopi maids.

Lift the Govardhan of my sin

And slay my six unyielding passions,

Fierce as the demons sent by Kamsa!

Sweetly play the flute of Thy grace,

Charming the milch cow of my mind;

Abide in the pasture of my soul.

Dwell by the Jamuna of my yearning,

Under the banyan of my hope,

For ever gracious to Thy servant;

And, if naught but the cowherds' love

Can hold Thee in Vrindāvan's vale,

Then, Lord, let Dasarathi, too,

Become Thy cowherd and Thy slave.

Again they sang:

Sing, O bird that nestles deep within my heart!

Sing, O bird that sits on the Kalpa-Tree of Brahman!

Sing God's everlasting praise.

Taste, O bird, of the four fruits of the Kalpa-Tree, Dharma, artha, kama,

moksha.

Sing, O bird, "He alone is the Comfort of my soul!"

Sing, O bird, "He alone is my life's enduring Joy!"

O thou wondrous bird of my life,

Sing aloud in my heart! Unceasingly sing, O bird!

Sing for evermore, even as the thirsty chatak

Sings for the raindrop from the cloud.

A devotee from Nandanbagan entered the room with his friends. The

Master looked at him and said, "Everything inside him can be seen through

his eyes, as one sees the objects in a room through a glass door." This

devotee and his brothers always celebrated the anniversary of the Brahmo

Samaj at their house in Nandanbagan. Sri Ramakrishna had taken part in

these festivals.

The evening worship began in the temples. The Master was seated on the

small couch in his room, absorbed in meditation. He went into an ecstatic

mood and said a little later: "Mother, please draw him to Thee. He is so

modest and humble! He has been visiting Thee." Was the Master referring

to Baburam, who later became one of his foremost disciples?

Why so much suffering in God's creation?

The Master explained the different kinds of samādhi to the devotees. The

conversation then turned to the joy and suffering of life. Why did God

create so much suffering?

M: "Once Vidyasagar said in a mood of pique: 'What is the use of calling on

God? Just think of this incident: At one time Chenghiz Khan plundered a

country and imprisoned many people. The number of prisoners rose to

about a hundred thousand. The commander of his army said to him: "Your

Majesty, who will feed them? It is risky to keep them with us. It will be

equally dangerous to release them. What shall I do?"

Chenghiz Khan said: "That's true. What can be done? Well, have them

killed." The order was accordingly given to cut them to pieces. Now, God

saw this slaughter, didn't He?

But He didn't stop it in any way. Therefore I don't need God, whether He

exists or not.

I don't derive any good from Him.'"

MASTER: "Is it possible to understand God's action and His motive? He

creates, He preserves, and He destroys. Can we ever understand why He

destroys? I say to the Divine Mother: 'O Mother, I do not need to

understand. Please give me love for Thy Lotus Feet.' The aim of human life

is to attain bhakti. As for other things, the Mother knows best. I have come

to the garden to eat mangoes. What is the use of my calculating the number

of trees, branches, and leaves? I only eat the mangoes; I don't need to know

the number of trees and leaves."

Baburam, M., and Ramdayal slept that night on the floor of the Master's

room.

It was an early hour of the morning, about two or three o'clock. The room

was dark. Sri Ramakrishna was seated on his bed and now and then

conversed with the devotees.

Compassion and attachment

MASTER: "Remember that daya, compassion, and maya, attachment, are

two different things. Attachment means the feeling of 'my-ness' toward

one's relatives. It is the love one feels for one's parents, one's brother, one's

sister, one's wife and children.

Compassion is the love one feels for all beings of the world. It is an attitude

of equality.

If you see anywhere an instance of compassion, as in Vidyasagar, know that

it is due to the grace of God. Through compassion one serves all beings.

Maya also comes from God. Through maya God makes one serve one's

relatives. But one thing should be remembered: maya keeps us in ignorance

and entangles us in the world, whereas daya makes our hearts pure and

gradually unties our bonds.

"God cannot be realized without purity of heart. One receives the grace of

God by subduing the passions-lust, anger, and greed. Then one sees God. I

tried many things in order to conquer lust.

"When I was ten or eleven years old and lived at Kamarpukur, I first

experienced samādhi. As I was passing through a paddy-field, I saw

something and was overwhelmed. There are certain characteristics of God-

vision. One sees light, feels joy, and experiences the upsurge of a great

current in one's chest, like the bursting of a rocket."

The next day Baburam and Ramdayal returned to Calcutta. M. spent the day

and the night with the Master.

December 1882

It was afternoon. The Master was sitting in his room at Dakshineswar with

M. and one or two other devotees. Several Marwari devotees arrived and

saluted the Master. They requested Sri Ramakrishna to give them spiritual

instruction. He smiled.

MASTER (to the Marwari devotees): "You see, the feeling of 'I' and 'mine'

is the result of ignorance. But to say, 'O God, Thou art the Doer; all these

belong to Thee' is the sign of Knowledge. How can you say such a thing as

'mine'? The superintendent of the garden says, 'This is my garden.' But if he

is dismissed because of some misconduct, then he does not have the

courage to take away even such a worthless thing as his mango-wood box.

Anger and lust cannot be destroyed. Turn them toward God. If you must

feel desire and temptation, then desire to realize God, feel tempted by Him.

Discriminate and turn the passions away from worldly objects. When the

elephant is about to devour a plaintain-tree in someone's garden, the mahut

strikes it with his iron-tipped goad.

"You are merchants. You know how to improve your business gradually.

Some of you start with a castor-oil factory. After making some money at

that, you open a cloth shop. In the same way, one makes progress toward

God. It may be that you go into solitude, now and then, and devote more

time to prayer.

"But you must remember that nothing can be achieved except in its proper

time. Some persons must pass through many experiences and perform many

worldly duties before they can turn their attention to God; so they have to

wait a long time. If an abscess is lanced before it is soft, the result is not

good; the surgeon makes the opening when it is soft and has come to a

head. Once a child said to its mother: 'Mother, I am going to sleep now.

Please wake me up when I feel the call of nature.' 'My child,' said the

mother, 'when it is time for that, you will wake up yourself. I shan't have to

wake you.'

The Marwari devotees generally brought offerings of fruit, candy, and other

sweets for the Master. But Sri Ramakrishna could hardly eat them. He

would say: "They earn their money by falsehood. I can't eat their offerings."

He said to the Marwaris: "You see, one can't strictly adhere to truth in

business. There are ups and downs in business. Nanak once said, 'I was

about to eat the food of unholy people, when I found it stained with blood.'

A man should offer only pure things to holy men. He shouldn't give them

food earned by dishonest means. God is realized by following the path of

truth. One should always chant His name. Even while one is performing

one's duties, the mind should be left with God. Suppose I have a carbuncle

on my back. I perform my duties, but the mind is drawn to the carbuncle. It

is good to repeat the name of Rama. 'The same Rama who was the son of

King Dasaratha has created this world. Again, as Spirit, He pervades all

beings. He is very near us; He is both within and without.' "

--------------------

Chapter 7

THE MASTER AND VIJAY GOSWAMI

Thursday, December 14, 1882

IT WAS AFTERNOON. Sri Ramakrishna was sitting on his bed after a

short noonday rest. Vijay, Balaram, M., and a few other devotees were

sitting on the floor with their faces toward the Master. They could see the

sacred river Ganges through the door.

Since it was winter all were wrapped up in warm clothes. Vijay had been

suffering from colic and had brought some medicine with him.

Vijay, the Brahmo preacher

Vijay was a paid preacher in the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj, but there were

many things about which he could not agree with the Samaj authorities. He

came from a very noble family of Bengal noted for its piety and other

spiritual qualities. Advaita Goswami, one of his remote ancestors, had been

an intimate companion of Sri Chaitanya. Thus the blood of a great lover of

God flowed in Vijay's veins. As an adherent of the Brahmo Samaj, Vijay no

doubt meditated on the formless Brahman; but his innate love of God,

inherited from his distinguished ancestors, had merely been waiting for the

proper time to manifest itself in all its sweetness. Thus Vijay was

irresistibly attracted by the God-intoxicated state of Sri Ramakrishna and

often sought his company. He would listen to the Master's words with great

respect, and they would dance together in an ecstasy of divine love.

It was a week-day. Generally devotees came to the Master in large numbers

on Sundays; hence those who wanted to have intimate talks with him

visited him on week-days.

Tendencies from previous births

A boy named Vishnu, living in Ariadaha, had recently committed suicide by

cutting his throat with a razor. The talk turned to him.

MASTER: "I felt very badly when I heard of the boy's passing away. He

was a pupil in a school and he used to come here. He would often say to me

that he couldn't enjoy worldly life. He had lived with some relatives in the

western provinces and at that time used to meditate in solitude, in the

meadows, hills, and forests. He told me he had visions of many divine

forms.

"Perhaps this was his last birth. He must have finished most of his duties in

his previous birth. The little that had been left undone was perhaps finished

in this one.

"One must admit the existence of tendencies inherited from previous births.

There is a story about a man who practised the sava-sadhana.l He

worshipped the Divine Mother in a deep forest. First he saw many terrible

visions. Finally a tiger attacked and killed him. Another man, happening to

pass and seeing the approach of the tiger, had climbed a tree. Afterwards he

got down and found all the arrangements for worship at hand. He performed

some purifying ceremonies and seated himself on the corpse. No sooner had

he done a little japa than the Divine Mother appeared before him and said:

'My child, I am very much pleased with you. Accept a boon from Me.' He

bowed low at the Lotus Feet of the Goddess and said: 'May I ask You one

question, Mother? I am speechless with amazement at Your action. The

other man worked so hard to get the ingredients for Your worship and tried

to propitiate You for such a long time, but You didn't condescend to show

him Your favour. And I, who don't know anything of worship, who have

done nothing, who have neither devotion nor knowledge nor love, and who

haven't practised any austerities, am receiving so much of Your grace.' The

Divine Mother said with a laugh: 'My child, you don't remember your

previous births. For many births you tried to propitiate Me through

austerities. As a result of those austerities all these things have come to

hand, and you have been blessed with My Vision. Now ask Me your boon.'

Suicide after the vision of God

A DEVOTEE: "I am frightened to hear of the suicide."

MASTER: "Suicide is a heinous sin, undoubtedly. A man who kills himself

must return again and again to this world and suffer its agony.

"But I don't call it suicide if a person leaves his body after having the vision

of God.

There is no harm in giving up one's body that way. After attaining

Knowledge some people give up their bodies. After the gold image has

been cast in the clay mould, you may either preserve the mould or break it.

"Many years ago a young man of about twenty used to come to the temple

garden from Baranagore; his name was Gopal Sen. In my presence he used

to experience such intense ecstasy that Hriday had to support him for fear

he might fall to the ground and break his limbs. That young man touched

my feet one day and said: 'Sir, I shall not be able to see you any more. Let

me bid you good-bye.' A few days later I learnt that he had given up his

body.

Four classes of men

"It is said that there are four classes of human beings: the bound, those

aspiring after liberation, the liberated, and the everperfect.

Parable of the fish and the net

"This world is like a fishing-net. Men are the fish, and God, whose maya

has created this world, is the fisherman. When the fish are entangled in the

net, some of them try to tear through its meshes in order to get their

liberation. They are like the men striving after liberation. But by no means

all of them escape. Only a few jump out of the net with a loud splash, and

then people say, 'Ah! There goes a big one!' In like manner, three or four

men attain liberation. Again, some fish are so careful by nature that they are

never caught in the net; some beings of the everperfect class, like Narada,

are never entangled in the meshes of worldliness. Most of the fish are

trapped; but they are not conscious of the net and of their imminent death.

No sooner are they entangled than they run headlong, net and all, trying to

hide themselves in the mud. They don't make the least effort to get free. On

the contrary, they go deeper and deeper into the mud. These fish are like the

bound men. They are still inside the net, but they think they are quite safe

there. A bound creature is immersed in worldliness, in 'woman and gold',

having gone deep into the mire of degradation. But still he believes he is

quite happy and secure. The liberated, and the seekers after liberation, look

on the world as a deep well. They do not enjoy it. Therefore, after the

attainment of Knowledge, the realization of God, some give up their bodies.

But such a thing is rare indeed.

Worldly-minded forget their lessons

"The bound creatures, entangled in worldliness, will not come to their

senses at all.

They suffer so much misery and agony, they face so many dangers, and yet

they will not wake up.

"The camel loves to eat thorny bushes. The more it eats the thorns, the more

the blood gushes from its mouth. Still it must eat thorny plants and will

never give them up. The man of worldly nature suffers so much sorrow and

affliction, but he forgets it all in a few days and begins his old life over

again. Suppose a man has lost his wife or she has turned unfaithful. Lo! He

marries again.

"Or take the instance of a mother: her son dies and she suffers bitter grief;

but after a few days she forgets all about it. The mother, so overwhelmed

with sorrow a few days before, now attends to her toilet and puts on her

jewelry. A father becomes bankrupt through the marriage of his daughters,

yet he goes on having children year after year.

People are ruined by litigation, yet they go to court all the same. There are

men who cannot feed the children they have, who cannot clothe them or

provide decent shelter for them; yet they have more children every year.

"Again, the worldly man is like a snake trying to swallow a mole. The

snake can neither swallow the mole nor give it up. The bound soul may

have realized that there is no substance to the world-that the world is like a

hog plum, only stone and skin-but still he cannot give it up and turn his

mind to God.

"I once met a relative of Keshab Sen, fifty years old. He was playing cards.

As if the time had not yet come for him to think of God!

"There is another characteristic of the bound soul. If you remove him from

his worldly surroundings to a spiritual environment, he will pine away. The

worm that grows in filth feels very happy there. It thrives in filth. It will die

if you put it in a pot of rice."

All remained silent.

Bondage removed by strong renunciation

VIJAY: "What must the bound soul's condition of mind be in order to

achieve liberation?"

MASTER: "He can free himself from attachment to 'woman and gold' if, by

the grace of God, he cultivates a spirit of strong renunciation. What is this

strong renunciation? One who has only a mild spirit of renunciation says,

'Well, all will happen in the course of time; let me now simply repeat the

name of God.' But a man possessed of a strong spirit of renunciation feels

restless for God, as the mother feels for her own child. A man of strong

renunciation seeks nothing but God. He regards the world as a deep well

and feels as if he were going to be drowned in it. He looks on his relatives

as venomous snakes; he wants to fly away from them. And he does go

away. He never thinks, 'Let me first make some arrangement for my family

and then I shall think of God.' He has great inward resolution.

Parable of the two farmers

"Let me tell you a story about strong renunciation. At one time there was a

drought in a certain part of the country. The farmers began to cut long

channels to bring water to their fields. One farmer was stubbornly

determined. He took a vow that he would not stop digging until the channel

connected his field with the river. He set to work. The time came for his

bath, and his wife sent their daughter to him with oil. 'Father,' said the girl,

'it is already late. Rub your body with oil and take your bath.' 'Go away!'

thundered the farmer. 'I have too much to do now.' It was past midday, and

the farmer was still at work in his field. He didn't even think of his bath.

Then his wife came and said: 'Why haven't you taken your bath? The food

is getting cold. You overdo everything. You can finish the rest tomorrow or

even today after dinner.' The farmer scolded her furiously and ran at her,

spade in hand, crying: 'What? Have you no sense?

There's no rain. The crops are dying. What will the children eat? You'll all

starve to death. I have taken a vow not to think of bath and food today

before I bring water to my field.' The wife saw his state of mind and ran

away in fear. Through a whole day's back-breaking labour the farmer

managed by evening to connect his field with the river.

Then he sat down and watched the water flowing into his field with a

murmuring sound.

His mind was filled with peace and joy. He went home, called his wife, and

said to her, 'Now give me some oil and prepare me a smoke.' With serene

mind he finished his bath and meal, and retired to bed, where he snored to

his heart's content. The determination he showed is an example of strong

renunciation.

"Now, there was another farmer who was also digging a channel to bring

water to his field. His wife, too, came to the field and said to him: 'It's very

late. Come home. It isn't necessary to overdo things.' The farmer didn't

protest much, but put aside his spade and said to his wife, 'Well, I'll go

home since you ask me to.' (All laugh) That man never succeeded in

irrigating his field. This is a case of mild renunciation.

"As without strong determination the farmer cannot bring water to his field,

so also without intense yearning a man cannot realize God. (To Vijay) Why

don't you come here now as frequently as before?"

VIJAY: "Sir, I wish to very much, but I am not free. I have accepted work in

the Brahmo Samaj."

Attachment to "woman" creates bondage MASTER: "It is 'woman and

gold' that binds man and robs him of his freedom. It is woman that creates

the need for gold. For woman one man becomes the slave of another, and so

loses his freedom. Then he cannot act as he likes.

Story of Govindaji's priests

"The priests in the temple of Govindaji at Jaipur were celibates at first, and

at that time they had fiery natures. Once the King of Jaipur sent for them,

but they didn't obey him.

They said to the messenger, 'Ask the king to come to see us.' After

consultation, the king and his ministers arranged marriages for them. From

then on the king didn't have to send for them. They would come to him of

themselves and say: 'Your Majesty, we have come with our blessings. Here

are the sacred flowers of the temple. Deign to accept them.' They came to

the palace, for now they always wanted money for one thing or another: the

building of a house, the rice-taking ceremony of their babies, or the rituals

connected with the beginning of their children's education.

Story of twelve hundred nedas

"There is the story of the twelve hundred nedas and thirteen hundred nedis.

Virabhadra, the son of Nityananda Goswami, had thirteen hundred 'shaven-

headed' disciples. They attained great spiritual powers. That alarmed their

teacher. 'My disciples have acquired great spiritual powers', thought

Virabhadra. 'Whatever they say to people will come to pass. Wherever they

go they may create alarming situations; for people offending them

unwittingly will come to grief.' Thinking thus, Virabhadra one day called

them to him and said, 'See me after performing your daily devotions on the

bank of the Ganges.' These disciples had such a high spiritual nature that,

while meditating, they would go into samādhi and be unaware of the river

water flowing over their heads during the flood-tide. Then the ebb-tide

would come and still they would remain absorbed in meditation.

"Now, one hundred of these disciples had anticipated what their teacher

would ask of them. Lest they should have to disobey his injunctions, they

had quickly disappeared from the place before he summoned them. So they

did not go to Virabhadra with the others. The remaining twelve hundred

disciples went to the teacher after finishing their meditation. Virabhadra

said to them: 'These thirteen hundred nuns will serve you. I ask you to

marry them.' 'As you please, revered sir', they said. 'But one hundred of us

have gone away.' Thenceforth each of these twelve hundred disciples had a

wife.

Consequently they all lost their spiritual power. Their austerities did not

have their original fire. The company of woman robbed them of their

spirituality because it destroyed their freedom.

Degrading effect of serving others

(To Vijay) "You yourself perceive how far you have gone down by being a

servant of others. Again, one finds that people with many university

degrees, scholars with their vast English education, accept service under

their English masters and are daily trampled under their boots. The one

cause of all this is woman. They have married and set up a 'gay fair' with

their wives and children. Now they cannot go back, much as they would

like to. Hence all these insults and humiliations, all this suffering from

slavery.

"Once a man realizes God through intense dispassion, he is no longer

attached to woman. Even if he must lead the life of a householder, he is free

from fear of and attachment to woman. Suppose there are two magnets, one

big and the other small.

Which one will attract the iron? The big one, of course. God is the big

magnet.

Compared to Him, woman is a small one. What can 'woman' do?"

Worshipping woman as Divine Mother

A DEVOTEE: "Sir, shall we hate women then?"

MASTER: "He who has realized God does not look upon a woman with the

eye of lust; so he is not afraid of her. He perceives clearly that women are

but so many aspects of the Divine Mother. He worships them all as the

Mother Herself.

(To Vijay) "Come here now and then. I like to see you very much."

VIJAY: "I have to do my various duties in the Brahmo Samaj; that is why I

can't always come here. But I shall visit you whenever I find it possible."

Difficulties of preaching

MASTER (to Vijay): "The task of a religious teacher is indeed difficult.

One cannot teach men without a direct command from God. People won't

listen to you if you teach without such authority. Such teaching has no force

behind it. One must first of all attain God through spiritual discipline or

some other means. Thus armed with authority from God, one can deliver

lectures.

"After receiving the command from God, one can be a teacher and give

lectures anywhere. He who receives authority from God also receives

power from Him. Only then can he perform the difficult task of a teacher.

"An insignificant tenant was once engaged in a lawsuit with a big landlord.

People realized that there was a powerful man behind the tenant. Perhaps

another big landlord was directing the case from behind. Man is an

insignificant creature. He cannot fulfil the difficult task of a teacher without

receiving power direct from God."

VIJAY: "Don't the teachings of the Brahmo Samaj bring men salvation?"

MASTER: "How is it ever possible for one man to liberate another from the

bondage of the world? God alone, the Creator of this world-bewitching

maya, can save men from maya. There is no other refuge but that great

Teacher, Satchidananda. How is it ever possible for men who have not

realized God or received His command, and who are not strengthened with

divine strength, to save others from the prison-house of the world?

"One day as I was passing the Panchavati on my way to the pine-grove, I

heard a bullfrog croaking. I thought it must have been seized by a snake.

After some time, as I was coming back, I could still hear its terrified

croaking. I looked to see what was the matter, and found that a water-snake

had seized it. The snake could neither swallow it nor give it up. So there

was no end to the frog's suffering. I thought that had it been seized by a

cobra it would have been silenced after three croaks at the most. As it was

only a water-snake, both of them had to go through this agony. A man's ego

is destroyed after three croaks, as it were, if he gets into the clutches of a

real teacher.

But if the teacher is an 'unripe' one, then both the teacher and the disciple

undergo endless suffering. The disciple cannot get rid either of his ego or of

the shackles of the world. If a disciple falls into the clutches of an

incompetent teacher, he doesn't attain liberation."

Ego alone the cause of bondage

VIJAY: "Sir, why are we bound like this? Why don't we see God?"

MASTER: "Maya is nothing but the egotism of the embodied soul. This

egotism has covered everything like a veil. 'All troubles come to an end

when the ego dies.' If by the grace of God a man but once realizes that he is

not the doer, then he at once becomes a Jivanmukta. Though living in the

body, he is liberated. He has nothing else to fear.

"This maya, that is to say, the ego, is like a cloud. The sun cannot be seen

on account of a thin patch of cloud; when that disappears one sees the sun.

If by the grace of the guru one's ego vanishes, then one sees God.

"Rama, who is God Himself, was only two and a half cubits ahead of

Lakshmana. But Lakshmana couldn't see Him because Sita stood between

them. Lakshmana may be compared to the jiva, and Sita to maya. Man

cannot see God on account of the barrier of maya. Just look: I am creating a

barrier in front of my face with this towel. Now you can't see me, even

though I am so near. Likewise, God is the nearest of all, but we cannot see

Him on account of this covering of maya.

Maya creates upadhis

"The jiva is nothing but the embodiment of Satchidananda. But since maya,

or ego, has created various upadhis, he has forgotten his real Self.

"Each upadhi changes man's nature. If he wears a fine black-bordered cloth,

you will at once find him humming Nidhu Babu's love-songs. Then

playing-cards and a walking-stick follow. If even a sickly man puts on high

boots, he begins to whistle and climbs the stairs like an Englishman,

jumping from one step to another. If a man but holds a pen in his hand, he

scribbles on any paper he can get hold of-such is the power of the pen!

"Money is also a great upadhi. The possession of money makes such a

difference in a man! He is no longer the same person. A brahmin used to

frequent the temple garden.

Outwardly he was very modest. One day I went to Konnagar with Hriday.

No sooner did we get off the boat than we noticed the brahmin seated on the

bank of the Ganges. We thought he had been enjoying the fresh air. Looking

at us, he said: 'Hello there, priest!

How do you do?' I marked his tone and said to Hriday: 'The man must have

got some money. That's why he talks that way.' Hriday laughed.

"A frog had a rupee, which he kept in his hole. One day an elephant was

going over the hole, and the frog, coming out in a fit of anger, raised his

foot, as if to kick the elephant, and said, 'How dare you walk over my

head?' Such is the pride that money begets!

"One can get rid of the ego after the attainment of Knowledge. On attaining

Knowledge one goes into samādhi, and the ego disappears. But it is very

difficult to obtain such Knowledge.

Seven planes of the mind

"It is said in the Vedas that a man experiences samādhi when his mind

ascends to the seventh plane. The ego can disappear only when one goes

into samādhi. Where does the mind of a man ordinarily dwell? In the first

three planes. These are at the organs of evacuation and generation, and at

the navel. Then the mind is immersed only in worldliness, attached to

'woman and gold'. A man sees the light of God when his mind dwells in the

plane of the heart. He sees the light and exclaims: 'Ah! What is this? What

is this?' The next plane is at the throat. When the mind dwells there he likes

to hear and talk only of God. When the mind ascends to the next plane, in

the forehead, between the eyebrows, he sees the form of Satchidānanda and

desires to touch and embrace It.

But he is unable to do so. It is like the light in a lantern, which you can see

but cannot touch. You feel as if you were touching the light, but in reality

you are not. When the mind reaches the seventh plane, then the ego

vanishes completely and the man goes into samādhi."

Indescribability of highest plane

VIJAY: "What does a man see when he attains the Knowledge of Brahman

after reaching the seventh plane?"

MASTER: "What happens when the mind reaches the seventh plane cannot

be described.

"Once a boat enters the 'black waters' of the ocean, it does not return.

Nobody knows what happens to the boat after that. Therefore the boat

cannot give us any information about the ocean.

"Once a salt doll went to measure the depth of the ocean. No sooner did it

enter the water than it melted. Now who could tell how deep the ocean was?

That which could have told about its depth had melted. Reaching the

seventh plane, the mind is annihilated; man goes into samādhi. What he

feels then cannot be described in words.

The "wicked I"

"The 'I' that makes one a worldly person and attaches one to 'woman and

gold' is the 'wicked I'. The intervention of this ego creates the difference

between jiva and Ātman.

Water appears to be divided into two parts if one puts a stick across it. But

in reality there is only one water. It appears as two on account of the stick.

This 'I' is the stick.

Remove the stick and there remains only one water as before.

"Now, what is this 'wicked I'? It is the ego that says: 'What? Don't they

know me? I have so much money! Who is wealthier than I?' If a thief robs

such a man of only ten rupees, first of all he wrings the money out of the

thief, then he gives him a good beating. But the matter doesn't end there: the

thief is handed over to the police and is eventually sent to jail. The 'wicked

I' says: 'What? Doesn't the rogue know whom he has robbed?

To steal my ten rupees! How dare he?' "

VIJAY: "If without destroying the 'I' a man cannot get rid of attachment to

the world and consequently cannot experience samādhi, then it would be

wise for him to follow the path of Brahmajnāna to attain samādhi. If the 'I'

persists in the path of devotion, then one should rather choose the path of

knowledge."

The "servant I"

MASTER: "It is true that one or two can get rid of the 'I' through samādhi;

but these cases are very rare. You may indulge in thousands of reasonings,

but still the 'I' comes back. You may cut the peepal-tree to the very root

today, but you will notice a sprout springing up tomorrow. Therefore if the

'I' must remain, let the rascal remain as the 'servant I'. As long as you live,

you should say, 'O God, Thou art the Master and I am Thy servant.' The 'I'

that feels, 'I am the servant of God, I am His devotee' does not injure one.

Sweet things cause acidity of the stomach, no doubt, but sugar candy is an

exception.

"The path of knowledge is very difficult. One cannot obtain Knowledge

unless one gets rid of the feeling that one is the body. In the Kaliyuga the

life of man is centred on food. He cannot get rid of the feeling that he is the

body and the ego. Therefore the path of devotion is prescribed for this

cycle.

This is an easy path. You will attain God if you sing His name and glories

and pray to Him with a longing heart. There is not the least doubt about it.

"Suppose you draw a line on the surface of water with a bamboo stick. The

water appears to be divided into two parts; but the line doesn't remain for

any length of time.

The 'servant I'or the 'devotee I' or the 'child I' is only a line drawn with the

ego and is not real".

The "ego of a devotee"

VIJAY (to the Master): "Sir, you ask us to renounce the 'wicked I'. Is there

any harm in the 'servant I'?"

MASTER: "The 'servant I'-that is, the feeling, 'I am the servant of God, I

am the devotee of God'-does not injure one. On the contrary, it helps one to

realize God."

VIJAY: "Well, sir, what becomes of the lust, anger, and other passions of

one who keeps the 'servant I'?"

MASTER: "If a man truly feels like that, then he has only the semblance of

lust, anger, and the like. If, after attaining God, he looks on himself as the

servant or the devotee of God, then he cannot injure anyone. By touching

the philosopher's stone a sword is turned into gold. It keeps the appearance

of a sword but cannot injure.

"When the dry branch of a coconut palm drops to the ground, it leaves only

a mark on the trunk indicating that once there was a branch at that place. In

like manner, he who has attained God keeps only an appearance of ego;

there remains in him only a semblance of anger and lust. He becomes like a

child. A child has no attachment to the three gunas-sattva, rajas, and tamas.

He becomes as quickly detached from a thing as he becomes attached to it.

You can cajole him out of a cloth worth five rupees with a doll worth an

ānnā, though at first he may say with great determination: 'No, I won't give

it to you. My daddy bought it for me.' Again, all persons are the same to a

child.

He has no feeling of high and low in regard to persons. So he doesn't

discriminate about caste. If his mother tells him that a particular man should

be regarded as an elder brother, the child will eat from the same plate with

him, though the man may belong to the low caste of a blacksmith. The child

doesn't know hate, or what is holy or unholy.

"Even after attaining samādhi, some retain the 'servant ego' or the 'devotee

ego'. The bhakta keeps this 'I-consciousness'. He says, 'O God, Thou art the

Master and I am Thy servant; Thou art the Lord and I am Thy devotee.' He

feels that way even after the realization of God. His 'I' is not completely

effaced. Again, by constantly practising this kind of 'I-consciousness', one

ultimately attains God. This is called bhaktiyoga.

"One can attain the Knowledge of Brahman, too, by following the path of

bhakti. God is all-powerful. He may give His devotee Brahmajnāna also, if

He so wills. But the devotee generally doesn't seek the Knowledge of the

Absolute. He would rather have the consciousness that God is the Master

and he the servant, or that God is the Divine Mother and he the child."

VIJAY: "But those who discriminate according to the Vedanta philosophy

also realize Him in the end, don't they?"

Path of bhakti is easy

MASTER: "Yes, one may reach Him by following the path of

discrimination too: that is called Jnanayoga. But it is an extremely difficult

path. I have told you already of the seven planes of consciousness. On

reaching the seventh plane the mind goes into samādhi. If a man acquires

the firm knowledge that Brahman alone is real and the world illusory, then

his mind merges in samādhi. But in the Kaliyuga the life of a man depends

entirely on food. How can he have the consciousness that Brahman alone is

real and the world illusory? In the Kaliyuga it is difficult to have the

feeling, 'I am not the body, I am not the mind, I am not the twenty-four

cosmic principles; I am beyond pleasure and pain, I am above disease and

grief, old age and death.' However you may reason and argue, the feeling

that the body is identical with the soul will somehow crop up from an

unexpected quarter. You may cut a peepal-tree to the ground and think it is

dead to its very root, but the next morning you will find a new sprout

shooting up from the dead stump. One cannot get rid of this identification

with the body; therefore the path of bhakti is best for the people of the

Kaliyuga. It is an easy path.

"And, 'I don't want to become sugar; I want to eat it.' I never feel like

saying, 'I am Brahman.' I say, 'Thou art my Lord and I am Thy servant.' It is

better to make the mind go up and down between the fifth and sixth planes,

like a boat racing between two points. I don't want to go beyond the sixth

plane and keep my mind a long time in the seventh. My desire is to sing the

name and glories of God. It is very good to look on God as the Master and

oneself as His servant. Further, you see, people speak of the waves as

belonging to the Ganges; but no one says that the Ganges belongs to the

waves. The feeling, 'I am He', is not wholesome. A man who entertains

such an idea, while looking on his body as the Self, causes himself great

harm. He cannot go forward in spiritual life; he drags himself down. He

deceives himself as well as others. He cannot understand his own state of

mind.

Prema-bhakti

"But it isn't any and every kind of bhakti that enables one to realize God.

One cannot realize God without prema-bhakti. Another name for prema-

bhakti is raga-bhakti. God cannot be realized without love and longing.

Unless one has learnt to love God, one cannot realize Him.

"There is another kind of bhakti, known as vaidhibhakti, according to which

one must repeat the name of God a fixed number of times, fast, make

pilgrimages, worship God with prescribed offerings, make so many

sacrifices, and so forth and so on. By continuing such practices a long time

one gradually acquires raga-bhakti. God cannot be realized until one has

raga-bhakti. One must love God. In order to realize God one must be

completely free from worldliness and direct all of one's mind to Him.

"But some acquire raga-bhakti directly. It is innate in them. They have it

from their very childhood. Even at an early age they weep for God. An

instance of such bhakti is to be found in Prahlada. Vaidhibhakti is like

moving a fan to make a breeze. One needs the fan to make the breeze.

Similarly, one practises japa, austerity, and fasting, in order to acquire love

of God. But the fan is set aside when the southern breeze blows of

itself.

Such actions as japa and austerity drop away when one spontaneously feels

love and attachment for God. Who, indeed, will perform the ceremonies

enjoined in the scriptures, when mad with love of God?

"Devotion to God may be said to be 'green' so long as it doesn't grow into

love of God; but it becomes 'ripe' when it has grown into such love.

"A man with 'green' bhakti cannot assimilate spiritual talk and instruction;

but one with 'ripe' bhakti can. The image that falls on a photographic plate

covered with black film5

is retained. On the other hand, thousands of images may be reflected on a

bare piece of glass, but not one of them is retained. As the object moves

away, the glass becomes the same as it was before. One cannot assimilate

spiritual instruction unless one has already developed love of God."

VIJAY: "Is bhakti alone sufficient for the attainment of God, for His

vision?"

MASTER: "Yes, one can see God through bhakti alone. But it must be 'ripe'

bhakti, prema-bhakti and raga-bhakti. When one has that bhakti, one loves

God even as the mother loves the child, the child the mother, or the wife the

husband.

"When one has such love and attachment for God, one doesn't feel the

attraction of maya to wife, children, relatives, and friends. One retains only

compassion for them. To such a man the world appears a strange land, a

place where he has merely to perform his duties. It is like a man's having

his real home in the country, but coming to Calcutta for work; he has to rent

a house in Calcutta for the sake of his duties. When one develops love of

God, one completely gets rid of one's attachment to the world and worldly

wisdom.

"One cannot see God if one has even the slightest trace of worldliness.

Match-sticks, if damp, won't strike fire though you rub a thousand of them

against the match-box. You only waste a heap of sticks. The mind soaked in

worldliness is such a damp match-stick. Once Sri Radha said to her friends

that she saw Krishna everywhere-both within and without. The friends

answered: 'Why, we don't see Him at all. Are you delirious?'

Radha said, 'Friends, paint your eyes with the collyrium of divine love, and

then you will see Him.'

(To Vijay) "It is said in a song of your Brahmo Samaj:

O Lord, is it ever possible to know Thee without love, However much one

may perform worship and sacrifice?

"If the devotee but once feels this attachment and ecstatic love for God, this

mature devotion and longing, then he sees God in both His aspects, with

form and without form."

Purity of heart

VIJAY: "How can one see God?"

MASTER: "One cannot see God without purity of heart. Through

attachment to 'woman and gold' the mind has become stained-covered with

dirt, as it were. A magnet cannot attract a needle if the needle is covered

with mud. Wash away the mud and the magnet will draw it. Likewise, the

dirt of the mind can be washed away with the tears of our eyes. This stain is

removed if one sheds tears of repentance and says, 'O God, I shall never

again do such a thing.' Thereupon God, who is like the magnet, draws to

Himself the mind, which is like the needle. Then the devotee goes into

samādhi and obtains the vision of God.

God's grace is the ultimate help

"You may try thousands of times, but nothing can be achieved without

God's grace. One cannot see God without His grace. Is it an easy thing to

receive the grace of God? One must altogether renounce egotism; one

cannot see God as long as one feels, 'I am the doer.' Suppose, in a family, a

man has taken charge of the store-room; then if someone asks the master,

'Sir, will you yourself kindly give me something from the store-room?', the

master says to him: 'There is already someone in the store-room. What can I

do there?'

"God doesn't easily appear in the heart of a man who feels himself to be his

own master. But God can be seen the moment His grace descends. He is the

Sun of Knowledge. One single ray of His has illumined the world with the

light of knowledge.

That is how we are able to see one another and acquire varied knowledge.

One can see God only if He turns His light toward His own face.

"The police sergeant goes his rounds in the dark of night with a lantern6 in

his hand. No one sees his face; but with the help of that light the sergeant

sees everybody's face, and others, too, can see one another. If you want to

see the sergeant, however, you must pray to him: 'Sir, please turn the light

on your own face. Let me see you.' In the same way one must pray to God:

'O Lord, be gracious and turn the light of knowledge on Thyself, that I may

see Thy face.'

"A house without light indicates poverty. So one must light the lamp of

Knowledge in one's heart. As it is said in a song:

Lighting the lamp of Knowledge in the chamber of your heart, Behold the

face of the Mother, Brahman's Embodiment."

As Vijay had brought medicine with him, the Master asked a devotee to

give him some water. He was indeed a fountain of infinite compassion. He

had arranged for Vijay's boat fare, since the latter was too poor to pay it.

Vijay, Balaram, M., and the other devotees left for Calcutta in a country

boat.

Monday, January 1, 1883

At eight o'clock in the morning Sri Ramakrishna was seated on a mat spread

on the floor of his room at Dakshineswar. Since it was a cold day, he had

wrapped his body in his moleskin shawl. Prankrishna and M. were seated in

front of him. Rakhal, too, was in the room. Prankrishna was a high

government official and lived in Calcutta. Since he had had no offspring by

his first wife, with her permission he had married a second time. By the

second wife he had a son. Because he was rather stout, the Master

addressed him now and then as "the fat brahmin". He had great respect for

Sri Ramakrishna. Though a householder, Prankrishna studied the Vedanta

and had been heard to say: "Brahman alone is real and the world illusory. I

am He." The Master used to say to him: "In the Kaliyuga the life of a man

depends on food. The path of devotion prescribed by Narada is best for this

age."

A devotee had brought a basket of jilipi for the Master, which the latter kept

by his side.

Eating a bit of the sweets, he said to Prankrishna with a smile: "You see, I

chant the name of the Divine Mother; so I get all these good things to eat.

(Laughter.) But She doesn't give such fruits as gourd or pumpkin. She

bestows the fruit of Amrita, Immortality-knowledge, love, discrimination,

renunciation, and so forth."

A boy six or seven years old entered the room. The Master himself became

like a child.

He covered the contents of the basket with the palm or his hand, as a child

does to conceal sweets from another child lest the latter should snatch them.

Then he put the basket aside.

Suddenly the Master went into samādhi and sat thus a long time. His body

was transfixed, his eyes wide open and unwinking, his breathing hardly

perceptible. After a long time he drew a deep breath, indicating his return to

the world of sense.

Vision of Divine Mother

MASTER (to Prankrishna): "My Divine Mother is not only formless, She

has forms as well. One can see Her forms. One can behold Her

incomparable beauty through feeling and love. The Mother reveals Herself

to Her devotees in different forms.

"I saw Her yesterday. She was clad in a seamless ochre-coloured garment,

and She talked with me.

"She came to me another day as a Mussalman girl six or seven years old.

She had a tilak on her forehead and was naked. She walked with me, joking

and frisking like a child.

"At Hriday's house I had a vision of Gauranga. He wore a black-bordered

cloth.

"Haladhāri used to say that God is beyond both Being and Non-being. I told

the Mother about it and asked Her, 'Then is the divine form an illusion?'

The Divine Mother appeared to me in the form of Rati's mother and said,

'Do thou remain in Bhāva' I repeated this to Haladhāri. Now and then I

forget Her command and suffer. Once I broke my teeth because I didn't

remain in bhava. So I shall remain in bhava unless I receive a revelation

from heaven or have a direct experience to the contrary. I shall follow the

path of love. What do you say?"

PRANKRISHNA: "Yes, sir."

MASTER: "But why should I ask you about it? There is Someone within

me who does all these things through me. At times I used to remain in a

mood of Godhood and would enjoy no peace of mind unless I was being

worshipped.

"I am the machine and God is the Operator. I act as He makes me act. I

speak as He makes me speak. Keep your raft, says Ramprasad, afloat on the

sea of life, Drifting up with the flood-tide, drifting down with the ebb.

"It is like the cast-off leaf before a gale; sometimes it is blown to a good

place and sometimes into the gutter, according to the direction of the wind.

"As the weaver said in the story: 'The robbery was committed by the will of

Rama, I was arrested by the police by the will of Rama, and again, by the

will of Rama, I was set free.'

"Hanuman once said to Rama: 'O Rama, I have taken refuge in Thee. Bless

me that I may have pure devotion to Thy Lotus Feet and that I may not be

caught in the spell of Thy world-bewitching maya.'

"Once a dying bullfrog said to Rama: 'O Rama, when caught by a snake I

cry for Your protection. But now I am about to die, struck by Your arrow.

Hence I am silent.'

God's nature like that of a child

"I used to see God directly with these very eyes, just as I see you. Now I see

divine visions in trance.

"After realizing God a man becomes like a child. One acquires the nature of

the object one meditates upon. The nature of God is like that of a child. As

a child builds up his toy house and then breaks it down, so God acts while

creating, preserving, and destroying the universe. Further, as the child is not

under the control of any guna, so God is beyond the three gunas-sattva,

rajas, and tamas. That is why paramahamsas keep five or ten children with

them, that they may assume their nature."

Sitting on the floor in the room was a young man from Agarpara about

twenty-two years old. Whenever he came to the temple garden, he would

take the Master aside, by a sign, and whisper his thoughts to him. He was a

newcomer. That day he was sitting on the floor near the Master.

MASTER (to the young man): "A man can change his nature by imitating

another's character. He can get rid of a passion like lust by assuming the

feminine mood. He gradually comes to act exactly like a woman. I have

noticed that men who take female parts in the theatre speak like women or

brush their teeth like women while bathing.

Come again on a Tuesday or Saturday.

(To Prankrishna) "Brahman and Śakti are inseparable. Unless you accept

Śakti, you will find the whole universe unreal-'I', 'you', house, buildings,

and family. The world stands solid because the Primordial Energy stands

behind it. If there is no supporting pole, no framework can be made, and

without the framework there can be no beautiful image of Durga.

"Without giving up worldliness a man cannot awaken his spiritual

consciousness, nor can he realize God. He cannot but be a hypocrite as long

as he has even a trace of worldly desire. God cannot be realized without

guilelessness.

Cherish love within your heart; abandon cunning and deceit: Through

service, worship, selflessness, does Rama's blessed vision come.

Even those engaged in worldly activities, such as office work or business,

should hold to the truth. Truthfulness alone is the spiritual discipline in the

Kaliyuga."

PRANKRISHNA: "Yes, sir. It is said in the Mahanirvana Tantra: 'O

Goddess, this religion enjoins it upon one to be truthful, self-controlled,

devoted to the welfare of others, unagitated, and compassionate.'"

MASTER: "Yes. But these ideas must be assimilated."

Sri Ramakrishna was sitting on the small couch. He was in an ecstatic mood

and looked at Rakhal. Suddenly he was filled with the tender feeling of

parental love toward his young disciple and spiritual child. Presently he

went into samādhi. The devotees sat speechless, looking at the Master with

wondering eyes.

Regaining partial consciousness, the Master said: "Why is my spiritual

feeling kindled at the sight of Rakhal? The more you advance toward God,

the less you will see of His glories and grandeur. The aspirant at first has a

vision of the Goddess with ten arms;8

there is a great display of power in that image. The next vision is that of the

Deity with two arms; there are no longer ten arms holding various weapons

and missiles. Then the aspirant has a vision of Gopala, in which there is no

trace of power. It is the form of a tender child. Beyond that there are other

visions also. The aspirant then sees only Light.

"Reasoning and discrimination vanish after the attainment of God and

communion with Him in samādhi. How long does a man reason and

discriminate? As long as he is conscious of the manifold, as long as he is

aware of the universe, of embodied beings, of 'I' and 'you'. He becomes

silent when he is truly aware of Unity. This was the case with Trailanga

Swami.

"Have you watched a feast given to the brahmins? At first there is a great

uproar. But the noise lessens as their stomachs become more and more

filled with food. When the last course of curd and sweets is served, one

hears only the sound 'soop, soop' as they scoop up the curd in their hands.

There is no other sound. Next is the stage of sleep-samādhi. There is no

more uproar.

(To M. and Prankrishna) "Many people talk of Brahmajnāna, but their

minds are always preoccupied with lower things: house, buildings, money,

name, and sense pleasures. As long as you stand at the foot of the

Monument,10 so long do you see horses, carriages, Englishmen, and

Englishwomen. But when you climb to its top, you behold the sky and the

ocean stretching to infinity. Then you do not enjoy buildings, carriages,

horses, or men. They look like ants.

"All such things as attachment to the world and enthusiasm for 'woman and

gold'

disappear after the attainment of the Knowledge of Brahman. Then comes

the cessation of all passions. When the log burns, it makes a crackling noise

and one sees the flame.

But when the burning is over and only ash remains, then no more noise is

heard. Thirst disappears with the destruction of attachment. Finally comes

peace.

"The nearer you come to God, the more you feel peace. Peace, peace,

peace-supreme peace! The nearer you come to the Ganges, the more you

feel its coolness. You will feel completely soothed when you plunge into the

river.

"But the universe and its created beings, and the twenty-four cosmic

principles, all exist because God exists. Nothing remains if God is

eliminated. The number increases if you put many zeros after the figure

one; but the zeros don't have any value if the one is not there."

The Master continued: "There are some who come down, as it were, after

attaining the Knowledge of Brahman-after samādhi-and retain the 'ego of

Knowledge' or the 'ego of Devotion', just as there are people who, of their

own sweet will, stay in the marketplace after the market breaks up. This

was the case with sages like Narada. They kept the 'ego of Devotion' for the

purpose of teaching men. Sankaracharya kept the 'ego of Knowledge' for

the same purpose.

"God cannot be realized if there is the slightest attachment to the things of

the world. A thread cannot pass through the eye of a needle if the tiniest

fibre sticks out.

"The anger and lust of a man who has realized God are only appearances.

They are like a burnt string. It looks like a string, but a mere puff blows it

away.

"God is realized as soon as the mind becomes free from attachment.

Whatever appears in the Pure Mind is the voice of God. That which is Pure

Mind is also Pure Buddhi; that, again, is Pure Ātman, because there is

nothing pure but God. But in order to realize God one must go beyond

dharma and adharma."

The Master sang in his melodious voice:

Come, let us go for a walk, O mind, to Kāli, the Wish-fulfilling Tree,

And there beneath It gather the four fruits of life. . . .

Sri Ramakrishna went out on the southeast verandah of his room and sat

down.

Prankrishna and the other devotees accompanied him. Hazra, too, was

sitting there.

The Master said to Prankrishna with a smile: "Hazra is not a man to be

trifled with. If one finds the big dargah here, then Hazra is the smaller

dargah." All laughed at the Master's words. A certain gentleman,

Navakumar by name, came to the door and stood there. At sight of the

devotees he immediately left. "Oh! Egotism incarnate!" Sri Ramakrishna

remarked.

About half past nine in the morning Prankrishna took leave of the Master.

Soon afterwards a minstrel sang some devotional songs to the

accompaniment of a stringed instrument. The Master was listening to the

songs when Kedār Chatterji, a householder devotee, entered the room clad

in his office clothes. He was a man of devotional temperament and

cherished the attitude of the gopis of Vrindāvan. Words about God would

make him weep.

The sight of Kedār awakened in the Master's mind the episode of Vrindāvan

in Sri Krishna's life. Intoxicated with divine love, the Master stood up and

sang, addressing Kedār:

Tell me, friend, how far is the grove

Where Krishna, my Beloved, dwells?

His fragrance reaches me even here;

But I am tired and can walk no farther. . . .

Sri Ramakrishna assumed the attitude of Sri Radha to Krishna and went

into deep samādhi while singing the song. He stood there, still as a picture

on canvas, with tears of divine joy running down his cheeks.

Kedār knelt before the Master. Touching his feet, he chanted a hymn: We

worship the Brahman-Consciousness in the Lotus of the Heart,

The Undifferentiated, who is adored by Hari, Hara, and Brahma;

Who is attained by yogis in the depths of their meditation; The Scatterer of

the fear of birth and death,

The Essence of Knowledge and Truth, the Primal Seed of the world.

After a time the Master regained consciousness of the relative world. Soon

Kedār took his leave and returned to his office in Calcutta.

At midday Ramlal brought the Master a plate of food that had been offered

in the Kāli temple. Like a child he ate a little of everything.

Later in the afternoon several Marwari devotees entered the Master's room,

where Rakhal and M. also were seated.

A MARWARI DEVOTEE: "Sir, what is the way?"

Two ways of God-realization

MASTER: "There are two ways. One is the path of discrimination, the other

is that of love. Discrimination means to know the distinction between the

Real and the unreal.

God alone is the real and permanent Substance; all else is illusory and

impermanent.

The magician alone is real; his magic is illusory. This is discrimination.

"Discrimination and renunciation. Discrimination means to know the

distinction between the Real and the unreal. Renunciation means to have

dispassion for the things of the world. One cannot acquire them all of a

sudden. They must be practised every day.

One should renounce 'woman and gold' mentally at first. Then, by the will

of God, one can renounce it both mentally and outwardly. It is impossible to

ask the people of Calcutta to renounce all for the sake of God. One has to

tell them to renounce mentally.

Constant practice urged

"Through the discipline of constant practice one is able to give up

attachment to 'woman and gold'. That is what the Gita says. By practice one

acquires uncommon power of mind. Then one doesn't find it difficult to

subdue the sense-organs and to bring anger, lust, and the like under control.

Such a man behaves like a tortoise, which, once it has tucked in its limbs,

never puts them out. You cannot make the tortoise put its limbs out again,

though you chop it to pieces with an axe."

MARWARI DEVOTEE: "Revered sir, you just mentioned two paths. What

is the other path?"

MASTER: "The path of bhakti, or zealous love of God. Weep for God in

solitude, with a restless soul, and ask Him to reveal Himself to you. Cry to

your Mother Syama with a real cry, O mind! And how can She hold Herself

from you? "

MARWARI DEVOTEE: "Sir, what is the meaning of the worship of the

Personal God? And what is the meaning of God without form or attribute?"

MASTER: "As you recall your father by his photograph, so likewise the

worship of the image reveals in a flash the nature of Reality.

"Do you know what God with form is like? Like bubbles rising on an

expanse of water, various divine forms are seen to rise out of the Great

Ākāśa of Consciousness. The Incarnation of God is one of these forms. The

Primal Energy sports, as it were, through the activities of a Divine

Incarnation.

"What is there in mere scholarship? God can be attained by crying to Him

with a longing heart. There is no need to know many things.

"He who is an Āchārya has to know different things. One needs a sword and

shield to kill others; but to kill oneself, a needle or a nail-knife suffices.

"One ultimately discovers God by trying to know who this 'I' is. Is this 'I'

the flesh, the bones, the blood, or the marrow? Is it the mind or the buddhi?

Analysing thus, you realize at last that you are none of these. This is called

the process of 'Neti, neti', 'Not this, not this'. One can neither comprehend

nor touch the Ātman. It is without qualities or attributes.

"But, according to the path of devotion, God has attributes. To a devotee

Krishna is Spirit, His Abode is Spirit, and everything about Him is Spirit."

The Marwari devotees saluted the Master and took their leave.

At the approach of evening Sri Ramakrishna went out to look at the sacred

river. The lamp was lighted in his room. The Master chanted the hallowed

name of the Divine Mother and meditated on Her. Then the evening

worship began in the various temples.

The sound of gongs, floating on the air, mingled with the murmuring voice

of the river.

Peace and blessedness reigned everywhere.

--------------------

Chapter 8

THE MASTER'S BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION AT DAKSHINESWAR

Sunday, February 18, 1883

SRI RAMAKRISHNA arrived at Govinda Mukherji's house at Belgharia,

near Calcutta.

Besides Narendra, Ram, and other devotees, some of Govinda's neighbours

were present. The Master first sang and danced with the devotees. After the

kirtan they sat down. Many saluted the Master. Now and then he would say,

"Bow before God."

Master's attitude toward the wicked

"It is God alone", he said, "who has become all this. But in certain places-

for instance, in a holy man-there is a greater manifestation than in others.

You may say, there are wicked men also. That is true, even as there are

tigers and lions; but one need not hug the 'tiger God'. One should keep away

from him and salute him from a distance. Take water, for instance. Some

water may be drunk, some may be used for worship, some for bathing, and

some only for washing dishes."

Paths of knowledge and devotion

A NEIGHBOUR: "Revered sir, what are the doctrines of Vedanta?"

MASTER: "The Vedantist says, 'I am He.' Brahman is real and the world

illusory. Even the 'I' is illusory. Only the Supreme Brahman exists.

"But the 'I' cannot be got rid of. Therefore it is good to have the feeling, 'I

am the servant of God, His son, His devotee.'

"For the Kāli Yuga the path of bhakti is especially good. One can realize

God through bhakti too. As long as one is conscious of the body, one is also

conscious of objects.

Form, taste, smell, sound, and touch-these are the objects. It is extremely

difficult to get rid of the consciousness of objects. And one cannot realize 'I

am He' as long as one is aware of objects.

"The sannyasi is very little conscious of worldly objects. But the

householder is always engrossed in them. Therefore it is good for him to

feel, 'I am the servant of God.'"

God's name destroys sin

NEIGHBOUR: "Sir, we are sinners. What will happen to us?"

MASTER: "All the sins of the body flyaway if one chants the name of God

and sings His glories. The birds of sin dwell in the tree of the body. Singing

the name of God is like clapping your hands. As, at a clap of the hands, the

birds in the tree flyaway, so do our sins disappear at the chanting of God's

name and glories.

"Again, you find that the water of a reservoir dug in a meadow is

evaporated by the heat of the sun. Likewise, the water of the reservoir of sin

is dried up by the singing of the name and glories of God.

"You must practise it every day. The other day, at the circus, I saw a horse

running at top speed, with an Englishwoman standing on one foot on its

back. How much she must have practised to acquire that skill!

"Weep at least once to see God.

"These, then, are the two means: practice and passionate attachment to God,

that is to say, restlessness of the soul to see Him."

Sri Ramakrishna began his midday meal with the devotees. It was about one

o'clock. A devotee sang in the courtyard below:

Awake, Mother! Awake! How long Thou hast been asleep In the lotus of the

Muladhara!

Fulfil Thy secret function, Mother:

Rise to the thousand-petalled lotus within the head, Where mighty Śiva has

His dwelling;

Swiftly pierce the six lotuses

And take away my grief, O Essence of Consciousness!

Hearing the song, Sri Ramakrishna went into samādhi; his whole body

became still, and his hand remained touching the plate of food. He could eat

no more. After a long time his mind came down partially to the plane of the

sense world, and he said, "I want to go downstairs." A devotee led him

down very carefully. Still in an abstracted mood, he sat near the singer. The

song had ended. The Master said to him very humbly, "Sir, I want to hear

the chanting of the Mother's name again."

The musician sang:

Awake, Mother! Awake! How long Thou hast been asleep In the lotus of the

Muladhara! . . .

The Master again went into ecstasy.

February 25, 1883

After his noon meal the Master conversed with the devotees. Ram, Kedār,

Nityagopal, M., and others had arrived from Calcutta. Rakhal, Harish, Lātu,

and Hazra were living with the Master. Mr.Choudhury, who had three or

four university degrees and was a government officer, was also present. He

had recently lost his wife and had visited the Master several times for peace

of mind.

MASTER (to Ram and the other devotees): "Devotees like Rakhal,

Narendra, and Bhavanath may be called Nityasiddha. Their spiritual

consciousness has been awake since their very birth. They assume human

bodies only to impart spiritual illumination to others.

"There is another class of devotees, known as K ripasiddha, that is to say,

those on whom the grace of God descends all of a sudden and who at once

attain His vision and Knowledge. Such people may be likened to a room

that has been dark a thousand years, which, when a lamp is brought into it,

becomes light immediately, not little by little.

Mystery of God's ways

"Those who lead a householder's life should practise spiritual discipline;

they should pray eagerly to God in solitude. (To Mr. Choudhury) God

cannot be realized through scholarship. Who, indeed, can understand the

things of the Spirit through reason? No, all should strive for devotion to the

Lotus Feet of God.

"Infinite are the glories of God! How little can you fathom them! Can you

ever find out the meaning of God's ways?

"Bhishma was none other than one of the eight Vasus, but even he shed

tears on his bed of arrows. He said: 'How astonishing! God Himself is the

companion of the Pandava brothers, and still there is no end to their

troubles and sorrows!' Who can ever understand the ways of God?

"A man thinks, 'I have practised a little prayer and austerity; so I have

gained a victory over others.' But victory and defeat lie with God. I have

seen a prostitute dying in the Ganges and retaining consciousness to the

end."

God-vision through pure love

MR. CHOUDHURY: "How can one see God?"

MASTER: "Not with these eyes. God gives one divine eyes; and only then

can one behold Him. God gave Arjuna divine eyes so that he might see His

Universal Form.

"Your philosophy is mere speculation. It only reasons. God cannot be

realized that way.

"God cannot remain unmoved if you have raga-bhakti, that is, love of God

with passionate attachment to Him. Do you know how fond God is of His

devotees' love? It is like the cow's fondness for fodder mixed with oil-cake.

The cow gobbles it down greedily.

"Raga-bhakti is pure love of God, a love that seeks God alone and not any

worldly end.

Prahlada had it. Suppose you go to a wealthy man every day, but you seek

no favour of him; you simply love to see him. If he wants to show you

favour, you say: 'No, sir. I don't need anything. I came just to see you.' Such

is love of God for its own sake. You simply love God and don't want

anything from Him, in return."

Saying this, the Master sang:

Though I am never loath to grant salvation,

I hesitate indeed to grant pure love.

Whoever wins pure love surpasses all;

He is adored by men;

He triumphs over the three worlds. . . .

He continued, "The gist of the whole thing is that one must develop

passionate yearning for God and practise discrimination and renunciation."

Guru and Ishta

MR. CHOUDHURY: "Sir, is it not possible to have the vision of God

without the help of a guru?"

MASTER: "Satchidananda Himself is the Guru. At the end of the

Shavasadhana, just when the vision of the Ishta is about to take place, the

guru appears before the aspirant and says to him, 'Behold! There is your

Ishta.' Saying this, the guru merges in the Ishta. He who is the guru is also

the Ishta. The guru is the thread that leads to God.

Women perform a ritualistic worship known as the 'Ananta-vrata', the object

of worship being the Infinite. But actually the Deity worshipped is Vishnu.

In Him are the 'infinite'

forms of God.

(To Ram and the other devotees) "If you asked me which form of God you

should meditate upon, I should say: Fix your attention on that form which

appeals to you most; but know for certain that all forms are the forms of one

God alone.

"Never harbour malice toward anyone. Śiva, Kāli, and Hari are but different

forms of that One. He is blessed indeed who has known all as one.

Outwardly he appears as Śiva's devotee, But in his heart he worships Kāli,

the Blissful Mother, And with his tongue he chants aloud Lord Hari's name.

"The body does not endure without a trace of lust, anger, and the like. You

should try to reduce them to a minimum."

Looking at Kedār, the Master said: "He is very nice. He accepts both the

Absolute and the Relative. He believes in Brahman, but he also accepts the

gods and Divine Incarnations in human form."

In Kedār's opinion Sri Ramakrishna was such an Incarnation.

Looking at Nityagopal, the Master said to the devotees, "He is in a lofty

mood.

(To Nityagopal) "Don't go there too often. You may go once in a while. She

may be a devotee, but she is a woman too. Therefore I warn you.

"The sannyasi must observe very strict discipline. He must not look even at

the picture of a woman. But this rule doesn't apply to householders. An

aspirant should not associate with a woman, even though she is very much

devoted to God. A sannyasi, even though he may have subdued his

passions, should follow this discipline to set an example to householders.

"Worldly people learn renunciation by seeing the complete renunciation of

a monk; otherwise they sink more and more. A sannyasi is a world teacher."

Friday, March 9, 1883

Life of worldliness

About nine o'clock in the morning the Master was seated in his room with

Rakhal, M., and a few other devotees. It was the day of the new moon. As

usual with him on such days, Sri Ramakrishna entered again and again into

communion with the Divine Mother.

He said to the devotees: "God alone exists, and all else is unreal. The

Divine Mother has kept all deluded by Her maya. Look at men. Most of

them are entangled in worldliness.

They suffer so much, but still they have the same attachment to 'woman and

gold'. The camel eats thorny shrubs, and blood gushes from its mouth; still

it will eat thorns. While suffering pain at the time of delivery, a woman

says, 'Ah! I shall never go to my husband again.' But afterwards she forgets.

"The truth is that no one seeks God. There are people who eat the prickly

leaves of the pineapple and not the fruit."

DEVOTEE: "Sir, why has God put us in the world?"

MASTER: "The world is the field of action. Through action one acquires

knowledge. The guru instructs the disciple to perform certain works and

refrain from others. Again, he advises the pupil to perform action without

desiring the result. The impurity of the mind is destroyed through the

performance of duty. It is like getting rid of a disease by means of medicine,

under the instruction of a competent physician.

"Why doesn't God free us from the world? Ah, He will free us when the

disease is cured.

He will liberate us from the world when we are through with the enjoyment

of 'woman and gold'. Once a man registers his name in the hospital, he

cannot run away. The doctor will not let him go away unless his illness is

completely cured."

Master's love for Rakhal

During these days Sri Ramakrishna's heart overflowed with motherly love

like the love Yaśoda felt for Krishna. So he kept Rakhal with him. Rakhal

felt toward the Master as a child feels toward its mother. He would sit

leaning on the Master's lap as a young child leans on its mother while

sucking her breast.

Rakhal was thus seated by the Master when a man entered the room and

said that a high tide was coming in the Ganges. The Master and the

devotees ran to the Panchavati to see it. At the sight of a boat being tossed

by the tide, Sri Ramakrishna exclaimed: "Look! Look! I hope nothing

happens to it."

They all sat in the Panchavati. The Master asked M. to explain the cause of

the tide. M.

drew on the ground the figures of the sun, moon, and earth and tried to

explain gravitation, ebb-tide, flood-tide, new moon, full moon, eclipse, and

so forth.

MASTER (to M.): "Stop it! I can't follow you. It makes me dizzy. My head

is aching.

Well, how can they know of things so far off?

"You see, during my childhood I could paint well; but arithmetic would

make my head spin. I couldn't learn simple arithmetic."

Sri Ramakrishna returned to his room with the devotees. Looking at a

picture of Yaśoda, on the wall, he said: "It is not well done. She looks like a

garland-seller."

Adhar's first visit

The Master enjoyed a nap after his noon meal. Adhar and other devotees

gradually gathered. This was Adhar's first visit. He was a deputy magistrate

and about thirty years old.

Much reasoning condemned

ADHAR (to the Master): "Sir, I have a question to ask. Is it good to

sacrifice animals before the Deity? It certainly involves killing."

MASTER: "The sastra prescribes sacrifice on special occasions. Such

sacrifice is not harmful. Take, for instance, the sacrifice of a goat on the

eighth day of the full or new moon.

"I am now in such a state of mind that I cannot watch a sacrifice. Also I

cannot eat meat offered to the Divine Mother. Therefore I first touch my

finger to it, then to my head, lest She should be angry with me.

"Again, in a certain state of mind I see God in all beings, even in an ant. At

that time, if I see a living being die, I find consolation in the thought that it

is the death of the body, the soul being beyond life and death.

"One should not reason too much; it is enough if one loves the Lotus Feet

of the Mother.

Too much reasoning throws the mind into confusion. You get clear water if

you drink from the surface of a pool. Put your hand deeper and stir the

water, and it becomes muddy. Therefore pray to God for devotion.

"Behind Dhruva's devotion there was desire. He practised austerities to gain

his father's kingdom. But Prahlada's love for God was motiveless-a love

that sought no return."

A DEVOTEE: "How can one realize God?"

MASTER: "Through that kind of love. But one must force one's demand on

God. One should be able to say: 'O God, wilt Thou not reveal Thyself to

me? I will cut my throat with a knife.' This is the tamas of bhakti."

DEVOTEE: "Can one see God?"

MASTER: "Yes, surely. One can see both aspects of God-God with form

and without form. One can see God with form, the Embodiment of Spirit.

Again, God can be directly perceived in a man with a tangible form. Seeing

an Incarnation of God is the same as seeing God Himself. God is born on

earth as man in every age."

March 11, 1883

Master's birthday celebration

It was Sri Ramakrishna's birthday. Many of his disciples and devotees

wanted to celebrate the happy occasion at the Dakśineśwar temple garden.

From early morning the devotees streamed in, alone or in parties. After the

morning worship in the temples sweet music was played in the nahabat. It

was springtime. The trees, creepers, and plants were covered with new

leaves and blossoms. The very air seemed laden with joy. And the hearts of

the devotees were glad on this auspicious day.

M. arrived early in the morning and found the Master talking smilingly to

Bhavanath, Rakhal, and Kalikrishna. M. prostrated himself before him.

MASTER (to M.): "I am glad you have come.

(To the devotees) "One cannot be spiritual as long as one has shame, hatred,

or fear.

Great will be the joy today. But those fools who will not sing or dance, mad

with God's name, will never attain God. How can one feel any shame or

fear when the names of God are sung? Now sing, all of you."

Bhavanath and his friend Kalikrishna sang:

Thrice blessed is this day of joy!

May all of us unite, O Lord,

To preach Thy true religion here

In India's holy land!

Thou dwellest in each human heart;

Thy name, resounding everywhere,

Fills the four corners of the sky.

Today Thy devotees proclaim

Thy boundless majesty.

We seek not wealth or friends or fame,

O Lord! No other hope is ours.

For Thee alone Thy devotees

Long with unflagging love.

Safe at Thy feet, what fear have we

Of death or danger? We have found

The Fount of Immortality.

To Thee the victory, O Lord!

To Thee the victory!

As Sri Ramakrishna listened to the song with folded hands, his mind soared

to a far-off realm. He remained absorbed in meditation a long time. After a

while Kalikrishna whispered something to Bhavanath. Then he bowed

before the Master and rose. Sri Ramakrishna was surprised. He asked,

"Where are you going?"

BHAVANATH: "He is going away on a little business."

MASTER: "What is it about?"

BHAVANATH: "He is going to the Baranagore Workingmen's Institute."

MASTER: "It's his bad luck. A stream of bliss will flow here today. He

could have enjoyed it. But how unlucky!"

Sri Ramakrishna did not feel well; so he decided not to bathe in the Ganges.

About nine o'clock a few jars of water were taken from the river, and with

the help of the devotees he finished his bath on the verandah east of his

room.

After bathing, the Master put on a new wearing-cloth, all the while chanting

the name of God. Accompanied by one or two disciples he walked across

the courtyard to the temple of Kāli, still chanting Her hallowed name. His

eyes had an indrawn look, like that of a bird hatching her eggs.

On entering the temple, he prostrated himself before the image and

worshipped the Divine Mother. But he did not observe any ritual of

worship. Now he would offer flowers and sandal-paste at the feet of the

image, and now he would put them on his own head.

After finishing the worship in his own way, he asked Bhavanath to carry the

green coconut that had been offered to the Mother. He also visited the

images of Radha and Krishna in the Vishnu temple.

When the Master returned to his room, he found that other devotees had

arrived, among them Ram, Nityagopal, and Kedār. They all saluted the

Master, who greeted them cordially.

He asked Nityagopal, "Will you eat something now?" "Yes", the devotee

answered.

Nityagopal, who was twenty-three or twenty-four years old and unmarried,

was like a child. His mind was always soaring in the spiritual realm. He

visited the Master sometimes alone and sometimes in Ram's company. The

Master had observed the spiritual state of his mind and had become very

fond of him. He remarked now and then that Nityagopal was in the state of

a paramahamsa.

Warning to monks

After Nityagopal had finished eating, the Master took him aside and gave

him various instructions.

A certain woman, about thirty-one years old and a great devotee, often

visited Sri Ramakrishna and held him in high respect. She had been much

impressed by Nityagopal's spiritual state and, looking upon him as her own

son, often invited him to her house.

MASTER (to Nityagopal): "Do you go there?"

NITYAGOPAL (like a child): "Yes, I do. She takes me".

MASTER: "Beware, holy man! Go there once in a great while, but not

frequently; otherwise you will slip from the ideal. Maya is nothing but

'woman and gold'. A holy man must live away from woman. All sink there.

'Even Brahma and Vishnu struggle for life in that whirlpool.' "

Nityagopal listened to these words attentively.

M. (to himself): "How strange! This young man has developed the state of a

paramahamsa. That is what the Master says now and then. Is there still a

possibility of his falling into danger in spite of his high spiritual state? What

an austere rule is laid down for a sādhu! He may slip from his ideal by

associating intimately with women. How can an ordinary man expect to

attain liberation unless such a high ideal is set by holy men? The woman in

question is very devout; but still there is danger. Now I understand why

Chaitanya punished his disciple, the younger Haridas, so severely. In spite

of his teacher's prohibition, Haridas conversed with a widow devotee. But

he was a sannyasi.

Therefore Chaitanya banished him. What a severe punishment! How hard is

the rule for one who has accepted the life of renunciation! Again, what love

the Master cherishes for this devotee! He is warning him even now, lest he

should run into danger in the future."

"Beware, holy man!" These words of the Master echoed in the hearts of the

devotees, like the distant rumbling of thunder.

The Master went with the devotees to the northeast verandah of his room.

Among them was a householder from the village of Dakśineśwar, who

studied Vedanta philosophy at home. He had been discussing Om with

Kedār before the Master. He said, "This Eternal Word, the Anāhata Śabda,

is ever present both within and without."

MASTER: "But the Word is not enough. There must be something

indicated by the Word. Can your name alone make me happy? Complete

happiness is not possible for me unless I see you."

DEVOTEE: "That Eternal Word itself is Brahman."

MASTER (to Kedār): "Oh, don't you understand? He upholds the doctrine

of the rishis of olden times. They once said to Rama: 'O Rama, we know

You only as the son of Dasaratha. Let sages like Bharadvaja worship You as

God Incarnate. We want to realize Brahman, the Indivisible Existence-

Knowledge-Bliss Absolute.' At these words Rama smiled and went away."

KEDĀR: "Those rishis could not recognize Rama as an Incarnation of God.

They must have been fools,"

MASTER (seriously): "Please don't say such a thing. People worship God

according to their tastes and temperaments. The mother cooks the same fish

differently for her children, that each one may have what suits his stomach.

For some she cooks the rich dish of pilau. But not all the children can digest

it. For those with weak stomachs she prepares soup. Some, again, like fried

fish or pickled fish. It depends on one's taste.

Incarnation of God

"The rishis followed the path of jnāna. Therefore they sought to realize

Brahman, the Indivisible Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute. But those

who follow the path of devotion seek an Incarnation of God, to enjoy the

sweetness of bhakti. The darkness of the mind disappears when God is

realized. In the Purana it is said that it was as if a hundred suns were shining

when Rama entered the court. Why, then, weren't the courtiers burnt up? It

was because the brilliance of Rama was not like that of a material object.

As the lotus blooms when the sun rises, so the lotus of the heart of the

people assembled in the court burst into blossom."

As the Master uttered these words, standing before the devotees, he

suddenly fell into an ecstatic mood. His mind was withdrawn from external

objects. No sooner did he say, "the lotus of the heart burst into blossom",

than he went into deep samādhi. He stood motionless, his countenance

beaming and his lips parted in a smile.

After a long time he returned to the normal consciousness of the world. He

drew a long breath and repeatedly chanted the name of Rama, every word

showering nectar into the hearts of the devotees. The Master sat down, the

others seating themselves around him.

MASTER (to the devotees): "Ordinary people do not recognize the advent

of an Incarnation of God. He comes in secret. Only a few of His intimate

disciples can recognize Him. That Rama was both Brahman Absolute and a

perfect Incarnation of God in human form was known only to twelve rishis.

The other sages said to Him, 'Rama, we know You only as Dasaratha's son.'

"Can everyone comprehend Brahman, the Indivisible Existence-

Knowledge-Bliss Absolute? He alone has attained perfect love of God who,

having reached the Absolute, keeps himself in the realm of the Relative in

order to enjoy the divine lila. A man can describe the ways and activities of

the Queen if he has previously visited her in England.

Only then will his description of the Queen be correct. Sages like

Bharadvaja adored Rama and said: 'O Rama, You are nothing but the

Indivisible Satchidananda. You have appeared before us as a human being,

but You look like a man because You have shrouded Yourself with Your

own maya.' These rishis were great devotees of Rama: and had supreme

love for God."

Master's different spiritual moods

Presently some devotees from Konnagar arrived, singing kirtan to the

accompaniment of drums and cymbals. As they reached the northeast

verandah of Sri Ramakrishna's room, the Master joined in the music,

dancing with them intoxicated with divine joy.

Now and then he went into samādhi, standing still as a statue. While he was

in one of these states of divine unconsciousness, the devotees put thick

garlands of jasmine around his neck. The enchanting form of the Master

reminded the devotees of Chaitanya, another Incarnation of God. The

Master passed alternately through three moods of divine consciousness: the

inmost, when he completely lost all knowledge of the outer world; the semi-

conscious, when he danced with the devotees in an ecstasy of love; and the

conscious, when he joined them in loud singing. It was indeed a sight for

the gods, to see the Master standing motionless in samādhi, with fragrant

garlands hanging from his neck, his countenance beaming with love, and

the devotees singing and dancing around him.

When it was time for his noon meal, Sri Ramakrishna put on a new yellow

cloth and sat on the small couch. His golden complexion, blending with his

yellow cloth, enchanted the eyes of the devotees.

After his meal Sri Ramakrishna rested a little on the small couch. Inside and

outside his room crowded the devotees, among them Kedār, Suresh, Ram,

Manomohan, Girindra, Rakhal, Bhavanath, and M. Rakhal's father was also

present.

Efficacy of earnest japa

A Vaishnava goswami was seated in the room. The Master said to him:

"Well, what do you say? What is the way?"

GOSWAMI: "Sir, the chanting of God's name is enough. The scriptures

emphasize the sanctity of God's name for the Kaliyuga."

MASTER: "Yes, there is no doubt about the sanctity of God's name. But

can a mere name achieve anything, without the yearning love of the devotee

behind it? One should feel great restlessness of soul for the vision of God.

Suppose a man repeats the name of God mechanically, while his mind is

absorbed in 'woman and gold'. Can he achieve anything? Mere muttering of

magic words doesn't cure one of the pain of a spider or scorpion sting. One

must also apply the smoke of burning cow-dung."

GOSWAMI: "But what about Ajamila then? He was a great sinner; there

was no sin he had not indulged in. But he uttered the name of Narayana on

his death-bed, calling his son, who also had that name. And thus he was

liberated."

MASTER: "Perhaps Ajamila had done many spiritual things in his past

births. It is also said that he once practised austerity; besides, those were the

last moments of his life.

What is the use of giving an elephant a bath? It will cover itself with dirt

and dust again and become its former self. But if someone removes the dust

from its body and gives it a bath just before it enters the stable, then the

elephant remains clean. .

"Suppose a man becomes pure by chanting the holy name of God, but

immediately afterwards commits many sins. He has no strength of mind. He

doesn't take a vow not to repeat his sins. A bath in the Ganges undoubtedly

absolves one of all sins; but what does that avail? They say that the sins

perch on the trees along the bank of the Ganges.

No sooner does the man come back from the holy waters than the old sins

jump on his shoulders from the trees. (All laugh.) The same old sins take

possession of him again.

He is hardly out of the water before they fall upon him.

"Therefore I say, chant the name of God, and with it pray to Him that you

may have love for Him. Pray to God that your attachment to such transitory

things as wealth, name, and creature comforts may become less and less

every day.

Dogmatism condemned

(To the goswami) "With sincerity and earnestness one can realize God

through all religions. The Vaishnavas will realize God, and so will the

Saktas, the Vedantists, and the Brahmos. The Mussalmans and Christians

will realize Him too. All will certainly realize God if they are earnest and

sincere.

"Some people indulge in quarrels, saying, 'One cannot attain anything

unless one worships our Krishna', or, 'Nothing can be gained without the

worship of Kāli, our Divine Mother', or, 'One cannot be saved without

accepting the Christian religion.' This is pure dogmatism. The dogmatist

says, 'My religion alone is true, and the religions of others are false.' This is

a bad attitude. God can be reached by different paths.

"Further, some say that God has form and is not formless. Thus they start

quarrelling.

A Vaishnava quarrels with a Vedantist.

"One can rightly speak of God only after one has seen Him. He who has

seen God knows really and truly that God has form and that He is formless

as well. He has many other aspects that cannot be described.

Parable of the elephant and the blind men

"Once some blind men chanced to come near an animal that someone told

them was an elephant. They were asked what the elephant was like. The

blind men began to feel its body. One of them said the elephant was like a

pillar; he had touched only its leg.

Another said it was like a winnowing-fan; he had touched only its ear. In

this way the others, having touched its tail or belly, gave their different

versions of the elephant. Just so, a man who has seen only one aspect of

God limits God to that alone. It is his conviction that God cannot be

anything else.

Illustration of the ocean and the ice

(To the goswami) "How can you say that the only truth about God is that He

has form?

It is undoubtedly true that God comes down to earth in a human form, as in

the case of Krishna. And it is true as well that God reveals Himself to His

devotees in various forms. But it is also true that God is formless; He is the

Indivisible Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute. He has been described in

the Vedas both as formless and as endowed with form. He is also described

there both as attributeless and as endowed with attributes.

"Do you know what I mean? Satchidananda is like an infinite ocean.

Intense cold freezes the water into ice, which floats on the ocean in blocks

of various forms.

Likewise, through the cooling influence of bhakti, one sees forms of God in

the Ocean of the Absolute. These forms are meant for the bhaktas, the

lovers of God. But when the Sun of Knowledge rises, the ice melts; it

becomes the same water it was before. Water above and water below,

everywhere nothing but water. Therefore a prayer in the Bhagavata says: 'O

Lord, Thou hast form, and Thou art also formless. Thou walkest before us,

O Lord, in the shape of a man; again, Thou hast been described in the Vedas

as beyond words and thought.'

"But you may say that for certain devotees God assumes eternal forms.

There are places in the ocean where the ice doesn't melt at all. It assumes

the form of quartz."

KEDĀR: "It is said in the Bhagavata that Vyāsa asked God's forgiveness for

his three transgressions. He said: 'O Lord, Thou art formless, but I have

thought of Thee in my meditation as endowed with form; Thou art beyond

speech, but I have sung Thee hymns; Thou art the All-pervading Spirit, but

I have made pilgrimages to sacred places.

Be gracious, O Lord, and forgive these three transgressions of mine.'"

MASTER: "Yes, God has form and He is formless too. Further, He is

beyond both form and formlessness. No one can limit Him."

Rakhal's father was sitting in the room. At that time Rakhal was staying

with the Master. After his mother's death his father had married a second

time. Now and then he came to Dakśineśwar because of Rakhal's being

there. He did not raise much objection to his son's living with the Master.

Being a wealthy man of the world, he was always involved in litigation.

There were lawyers and deputy magistrates among Sri Ramakrishna's

visitors.

Rakhal's father found it profitable to cultivate their acquaintance, since he

expected to be benefited by their counsels in worldly matters.

Now and then the Master cast a glance at Rakhal's father. It was his

cherished desire that Rakhal should live with him permanently at

Dakśineśwar.

Rakhal's inborn spiritual nature

MASTER (to Rakhal's father and the devotees): "Ah, what a nice character

Rakhal has developed! Look at his face and every now and then you will

notice his lips moving.

Inwardly he repeats the name of God, and so his lips move.

Parable of the Homa bird

"Youngsters like him belong to the class of the everperfect. They are born

with God-Consciousness. No sooner do they grow a little older than they

realize the danger of coming in contact with the world. There is the parable

of the Homa bird in the Vedas.

The bird lives high up in the sky and never descends to earth. It lays its egg

in the sky, and the egg begins to fall. But the bird lives in such a high region

that the egg hatches while falling. The fledgling comes out and continues to

fall. But it is still so high that while falling it grows wings and its eyes open.

Then the young bird perceives that it is dashing down toward the earth and

will be instantly killed. The moment it sees the ground, it turns and shoots

up toward its mother in the sky. Then its one goal is to reach its mother.

"Youngsters like Rakhal are like that bird. From their very childhood they

are afraid of the world, and their one thought is how to reach the Mother,

how to realize God.

"You may ask, 'How is it possible for these boys, born of worldly parents

and living among the worldly-minded, to develop such knowledge and

devotion?' It can be explained. If a pea falls into a heap of dung, it

germinates into a pea-plant none the less. The peas that grow on that plant

serve many useful purposes. Because it was sown in dung, will it produce

another kind of plant?

"Ah, what a sweet nature Rakhal has nowadays! And why shouldn't it be

so? If the yam is a good one, its shoots also become good. (All laugh.) Like

father like son."

M. (aside to Girindra): "How well he has explained God with and without

form! Do the Vaishnavas believe only in God with form?"

GIRINDRA: "Perhaps so. They are one-sided."

M: "Did you understand what he meant by the 'eternal form' of God? That

'quartz'? I couldn't grasp it well."

MASTER (to M.): "Well, what are you talking about?"

M. and Girindra smiled and remained silent.

Later in the afternoon the devotees were singing in the Panchavati, where

the Master joined them. They sang together in praise of the Divine Mother:

High in the heaven of the Mother's feet, my mind was soaring like a kite,

When came a blast of sin's rough wind that drove it swiftly toward the earth.

Maya disturbed its even flight by bearing down upon one side, And I could

make it rise no more.

Entangled in the twisting string of love for children and for wife,

Alas! my kite was rent in twain.

It lost its crest of wisdom soon and downward plunged as I let it go;

How could it hope to fly again, when all its top was torn away?

Though fastened with devotion's cord, it came to grief in playing here;

Its six opponents worsted it.

Now Nareschandra rues this game of smiles and tears, and thinks it better

Never to have played at all.

The singing continued. Sri Ramakrishna danced with the devotees. They

sang: The black bee of my mind is drawn in sheer delight To the blue lotus

flower of Mother Syama's feet, The blue flower of the feet of Kāli, Śiva's

Consort; Tasteless, to the bee, are the blossoms of desire.

My Mother's feet are black, and black, too, is the bee; Black is made one

with black! This much of the mystery My mortal eyes behold, then hastily

retreat.

But Kamalakanta's hopes are answered in the end; He swims in the Sea of

Bliss, unmoved by joy or pain.

The kirtan went on:

O Mother, what a machine is this that Thou hast made!

What pranks Thou playest with this toy

Three and a half cubits high!

Hiding Thyself within, Thou holdest the guiding string; But the machine,

not knowing it,

Still believes it moves by itself.

Whoever finds the Mother remains a machine no more; Yet some machines

have even bound

The Mother Herself with the string of Love.

It was a very happy day for all.

The Master, accompanied by M., was coming back to his room, when he

met Trailokya, a Brahmo devotee, on the way. Trailokya bowed before the

Master.

MASTER: "They are singing in the Panchavati. Won't you go there?"

TRAILOKYA: "What shall I do there?"

MASTER: "Why, you will enjoy the music."

TRAILOKYA: "I have been there already."

MASTER: "Well, well! That's good."

It was about six o'clock in the evening. The Master was sitting with the

devotees on the southeast verandah of his room.

MASTER: "A holy man who has renounced the world will of course chant

the name of God. That is only natural. He has no other duties to perform. If

he meditates on God it shouldn't surprise anybody. On the other hand, if he

fails to think of God or chant His holy name, then people will think ill of

him.

"But it is a great deal to his credit if a householder utters the name of the

Lord. Think of King Janaka. What courage he had, indeed! He fenced with

two swords, the one of Knowledge and the other of work. He possessed the

perfect Knowledge of Brahman and also was devoted to the duties of the

world. An unchaste woman attends to the minutest duties of the world, but

her mind always dwells on her paramour.

"The constant company of holy men is necessary. The holy man introduces

one to God."

KEDĀR: "Yes, sir. The great soul is born in the world for the redemption of

humanity.

He leads others to God, just as a locomotive engine takes along with it a

long train of carriages. Or again, he is like a river or lake that quenches the

thirst of many people."

The devotees were ready to return home. One by one they saluted the

Master. At the sight of Bhavanath Sri Ramakrishna said: "Don't go away

today. The very sight of you inspires me." Bhavanath had not yet entered

into worldly life. A youth of twenty, he had a fair complexion and

handsome features. He shed tears of joy on hearing the name of God. The

Master looked on him as the embodiment of Narayana.

Thursday, March 29, 1883

The Master had taken a little rest after his noon meal, when a few devotees

arrived from Calcutta, among them Amrita and the well-known singer of

the Brahmo Samaj, Trailokya.

Rakhal was not feeling well. The Master was greatly worried about him and

said to the devotees: "You see, Rakhal is not well. Will soda-water help

him? What am I to do now?

Rakhal, please take the prasad from the Jagannath temple."

Even as he spoke these words the Master underwent a strange

transformation. He looked at Rakhal with the infinite tenderness of a

mother and affectionately uttered the name of Govinda. Did he see in

Rakhal the manifestation of God Himself? The disciple was a young boy of

pure heart who had renounced all attraction to lust and greed. And Sri

Ramakrishna was intoxicated day and night with love of God. At the sight

of Rakhal his eyes expressed the tender feelings of a mother, a love like that

which had filled the heart of Mother Yaśoda at the sight of the Baby

Krishna. The devotees gazed at the Master in wonder as he went into deep

samādhi. As his soul soared into the realm of Divine Consciousness, his

body became motionless, his eyes were fixed on the tip of his nose, and his

breathing almost ceased.

Renunciation, false and true

An unknown Bengali, dressed in the ochre cloth of a monk, entered the

room and sat on the floor. The Master's mind was coming down to the

ordinary plane of consciousness.

Presently he began to talk, though the spell of samādhi still lingered.

MASTER (at the sight of the ochre cloth): "Why this gerrua? Should one

put on such a thing for a mere fancy? A man once said, 'I have exchanged

the Chandi for a drum.' At first he used to sing the holy songs of the

Chandi; now he beats the drum. (All laugh.) "There are three or four

varieties of renunciation. Afflicted with miseries at home, one may put on

the ochre cloth of a monk; but that renunciation doesn't last long. Again, a

man out of work puts on an ochre wearing-cloth and goes off to Benares.

After three months he writes home: 'I have a job here. I shall come home in

a few days. Don't worry about me.' Again, a man may have everything he

wants. He lacks nothing, yet he does not enjoy his possessions. He weeps

for God alone. That is real renunciation.

"No lie of any sort is good. A false garb, even though a holy one, is not

good. If the outer garb does not correspond to the inner thought, it gradually

brings ruin. Uttering false words or doing false deeds, one gradually loses

all fear. Far better is the white cloth of a householder. Attachment to

worldliness, occasional lapses from the ideal, and an outer garb of gerrua-

how dreadful!

"It is not proper for a righteous person to tell a lie or do something false

even in a dramatic performance. Once I went to Keshab's house to see the

performance of a play called Nava-Vrindāvan. They brought something on

the stage which they called the 'Cross'. Another actor sprinkled water,

which they said was the 'Water of Peace'. I saw a third actor staggering and

reeling in the role of a drunkard."

A BRAHMO DEVOTEE: "It was K-."

MASTER: "It is not good for a devotee to play such parts. It is bad for the

mind to dwell on such subjects for a long while. The mind is like white

linen fresh from the laundry; it takes the colour in which you dip it. If it is

associated with falsehood for a long time, it will be stained with falsehood.

"Another day I went to Keshab's house to see the play called Nimai

Sannyas. Some flattering disciples of Keshab spoiled the whole

performance.

One of them said to Keshab, 'You are the Chaitanya of the Kaliyuga.'

Keshab pointed to me and asked with a smile, 'Then who is he?' I replied:

'Why, I am the servant of your servant. I am a speck of the dust of your

feet.' Keshab had a desire for name and fame.

(To Amrita and Trailokya) "Youngsters like Narendra and Rakhal are

everperfect. Every time they are born they are devoted to God. An ordinary

man acquires a little devotion after austerities and a hard struggle. But these

boys have love of God from the very moment of their birth. They are like

the natural image of Śiva, which springs forth from the earth and is not set

up by human hands.

Nature of the everperfect

"The everperfect form a class by themselves. Not all birds have crooked

beaks. The everperfect are never attached to the world. There is the instance

of Prahlada.

"Ordinary people practise spiritual discipline and cultivate devotion to God;

but they also become attached to the world and are caught in the glamour of

'woman and gold'. They are like flies, which sit on a flower or a sweetmeat

and light on filth as well.

"But the everperfect are like bees, which light only on flowers and sip the

honey. The everperfect drink only the Nectar of Divine Bliss. They are

never inclined to worldly pleasures.

"The devotion of the everperfect is not like the ordinary devotion that one

acquires as a result of strenuous spiritual discipline. Ritualistic devotion

consists in repeating the name of God and performing worship in a

prescribed manner. It is like crossing a rice-field in a roundabout way along

the balk. Again, it is like reaching a near-by village by boat in a roundabout

way along a winding river.

"One does not follow the injunctions of ceremonial worship when one

develops raga-bhakti, when one loves God as one's own. Then it is like

crossing a rice-field after the harvest. You don't have to walk along the balk.

You can go straight across the field in any direction.

"When the country is flooded deep with water, one doesn't have to follow

the winding river. Then the fields are deep under water. You can row your

boat straight to the village.

"Without this intense attachment, this passionate love, one cannot realize

God."

Master's experiences in samādhi

AMRITA: "Sir, how do you feel in samādhi?"

MASTER: "You may have heard that the cockroach, by intently meditating

on the Bhramara, is transformed into a Bhramara. Do you know how I feel

then? I feel like a fish released from a pot into the water of the Ganges."

AMRITA: "Don't you feel at that time even a trace of ego?"

MASTER: "Yes, generally a little of it remains. However hard you may rub

a grain of gold against a grindstone, still a bit of it always remains. Or

again, take the case of a big fire; the ego is like one of its sparks. In samādhi

I lose outer consciousness completely; but God generally keeps a little trace

of ego in me for the enjoyment of divine communion. Enjoyment is

possible only when 'I' and 'you' remain.

"Again, sometimes God effaces even that trace of 'I'. Then one experiences

jada samādhi or nirvikalpa samādhi. That experience cannot be described.

A salt doll went to measure the depth of the ocean, but before it had gone

far into the water it melted away. It became entirely one with the water of

the ocean. Then who was to come back and tell the ocean's depth?"

--------------------

Chapter 9

ADVICE TO THE BRAHMOS

Saturday, April 7, 1883

SRI RAMAKRISHNA was visiting Balarām in Calcutta, with Narendra,

Bhavanath, Rākhāl , M., and others. Balarām, at the Master's bidding, had

invited some of the young devotees to lunch. Sri Ramakrishna often said to

him, "Feed them now and then; that will confer on you the merit of feeding

holy men." The Master looked on his young disciples, yet untouched by

"woman and gold", as veritable embodiments of God.

A few days earlier Sri Ramakrishna had been to Keshab's house with

Narendra and Rākhāl to see a performance of the play entitled Nava-

Vrindāvan. Narendra had taken part in the performance, in which Keshab

had played the role of Pavhari Baba.

MASTER: "Keshab came on the stage in the role of a holy man and

sprinkled the 'Water of Peace'. But I didn't like it. The idea of sprinkling

such water on a theatrical stage after a performance!

"Another gentleman played the part of Sin. That is not good either. One

should not commit sin; one should not even feign it."

Narendra's music

The Master wanted to hear Narendra sing. The young disciple was not

feeling well, but at the Master's earnest request he sang to the

accompaniment of the Tānpura:

Sing, O bird that nestles deep within my heart!

Sing, O bird that sits on the Kalpa-Tree of Brahman!

Sing God's everlasting praise. . . .

Then he sang:

Brahman, Joy of the whole universe, Supreme Effulgence; God

beginningless, Lord of the world, the very Life of life! . . .

And again:

O King of Kings, reveal Thyself to me!

I crave Thy mercy. Cast on me Thy glance!

At Thy dear feet I dedicate my life,

Seared in the fiery furnace of this world.

My heart, alas, is deeply stained with sin;

Ensnared in maya, I am all but dead.

Compassionate Lord! Revive my fainting soul

With the life-giving nectar of Thy grace.

Narendra continued:

Upon the tray of the sky blaze bright The lamps of Sun and moon;

Like diamonds shine the glittering stars

To deck Thy wondrous form.

The sweet Malaya breeze blows soft,

For fragrant incense smoke;

The moving air sways to and fro

The fan before Thy holy face:

Like gleaming votive lights

The fresh and flowery groves appear.

How wonderful Thy worship is,

O Slayer of birth and death!

The sacred Om, from space arisen,

Is the resounding drum.

My mind craves nectar day and night

At Hari's Lotus Feet;

Oh, shower the waters of Thy grace

On thirsty Nanak, blessed Lord;

And may Thy hallowed name

Become his everlasting home!

He sang again:

In Wisdom's firmament the moon of Love is rising full, And Love's flood-

tide, in surging waves, is flowing everywhere.

O Lord, how full of bliss Thou art! Victory unto Thee! . . .

Then at the Master's bidding Bhavanath sang:

Where is a friend like Thee, O Essence of Mercy?

Where is another friend like Thee

To stand by me through pain and pleasure?

Who, among all my friends, forgives my failings, Bringing me comfort for

my grief,

Soothing my spirit in its terror?

Thou art the Helmsman who dost steer life's craft Across the world's

perilous sea;

Thy grace it is alone, O Lord,

That silences my raging passions' storm.

Thou pourest out the waters of peace

Upon my burning, penitent soul:

And Thine is the bosom that will shelter me

When every other friend I own

Deserts me in my dying hour.

True renunciation

Narendra said to the Master with a smile, referring to Bhavanath, "He has

given up fish and betel-leaf."

MASTER: "Why so? What is the matter with fish and betel-leaf? They

aren't harmful.

The renunciation of 'woman and gold' is the true renunciation.

"Where is Rākhāl?"

A DEVOTEE: "He is asleep, sir."

MASTER (with a smile): "Once a man went to a certain place to see a

theatrical performance, carrying a mat under his arm. Hearing that it would

be some time before the performance began, he spread the mat on the floor

and fell asleep. When he woke up it was all over. (All laugh.) Then he

returned home with the mat under his arm."

Ramdayal was very ill and lay in bed in another room. The Master went

there to inquire about him.

About four o'clock in the afternoon some members of the Brahmo Samaj

arrived. The Master began to converse with them.

Study of scriptures for the beginner

A BRAHMO: "Sir, have you read the Panchadasi?"

MASTER: "At first one should hear books like that and indulge in

reasoning. But later on-

Cherish my precious Mother Syama

Tenderly within, O mind;

May you and I alone behold Her,

Letting no one else intrude.

"One should hear the scriptures during the early stages of spiritual

discipline. After attaining God there is no lack of knowledge. Then the

Divine Mother supplies it without fail.

"A child spells out every word as he writes, but later on he writes fluently.

"The goldsmith is up and doing while melting gold. As long as the gold

hasn't melted, he works the bellows with one hand, moves the fan with the

other, and blows through a pipe with his mouth. But the moment the gold

melts and is poured into the mould, he is relieved of all anxiety.

"Mere reading of the scriptures is not enough. A person cannot understand

the true significance of the scriptures if he is attached to the world. Though

with intense delight I learnt many poems and dramas, I have forgotten them

all, entrapped in Krishna's love.

"Keshab enjoys the world and practises yoga as well. Living in the world,

he directs his mind to God."

A devotee described the Convocation of Calcutta University, saying that the

meeting looked like a forest of human heads.

MASTER: "The feeling of the Divine is awakened in me when I see a great

crowd of people. Had I seen that meeting, I should have been overwhelmed

with spiritual fervour."

Sunday, April 8, 1883

It was Sunday morning. The Master, looking like a boy, was seated in his

room, and near him was another boy, his beloved disciple Rākhāl. M.

entered and saluted the Master. Ramlal also was in the room, and Kishori,

Manilal Mallick, and several other devotees gathered by and by.

Manilal Mallick, a business man, had recently been to Benares, where he

owned a bungalow.

Trailanga Swami and Bhāskarānanda

MASTER: "So you have been to Benares. Did you see any holy men

there?"

MANILAL: "Yes, sir. I paid my respects to Trailanga Swami,

Bhaskarananda, and others."

MASTER: "Tell us something about them."

MANILAL: "Trailanga Swami is living in the same temple where he lived

before-on the Manikarnika Ghat; near the Benimadhav Minaret. People say

he was formerly in a more exalted spiritual state. He could perform many

miracles. Now he has lost much of that power."

MASTER: "That is the criticism of worldly people."

MANILAL: "Trailanga Swami keeps a strict vow of silence. Unlike him,

Bhaskarananda is friendly with all."

MASTER: "Did you have any conversation with Bhaskarananda?"

MANILAL: "Yes, sir. We had a long talk. Among other things we discussed

the problem of good and evil. He said to me: 'Don't follow the path of evil.

Give up sinful thoughts.

That is how God wants us to act. Perform only those duties that are

virtuous.' "

The seer of God transcends good and evil

MASTER: "Yes, that is also a path, meant for worldly-minded people. But

those whose spiritual consciousness has been awakened, who have realized

that God alone is real and all else illusory, cherish a different ideal. They are

aware that God alone is the Doer and others are His instruments.

"Those whose spiritual consciousness has been awakened never make a

false step. They do not have to reason in order to shun evil. They are so full

of love of God that whatever action they undertake is a good action. They

are fully conscious that they are not the doers of their actions, but mere

servants of God. They always feel: 'I am the machine and He is the

Operator. I do as He does through me. I speak as He speaks through me. I

move as He moves me.'

"Fully awakened souls are beyond virtue and vice. They realize that it is

God who does everything.

Seeing God in everything

"There was a monastery in a certain place. The monks residing there went

out daily to beg their food. One day a monk, while out for his alms, saw a

landlord beating a man mercilessly. The compassionate monk stepped in

and asked the landlord to stop. But the landlord was filled with anger and

turned his wrath against the innocent monk. He beat the monk till he fell

unconscious on the ground. Someone reported the matter to the monastery.

The monks ran to the spot and found their brother lying there. Four or five

of them carried him back and laid him on a bed. He was still unconscious.

The other monks sat around him sad at heart; some were fanning him.

Finally someone suggested that he should be given a little milk to drink.

When it was poured into his mouth he regained consciousness. He opened

his eyes and looked around. One of the monks said, 'Let us see whether he

is fully conscious and can recognize us.' Shouting into his ear, he said,

'Revered sir, who is giving you milk?' 'Brother,' replied the holy man in a

low voice, 'He who beat me is now giving me milk.'

"But one does not attain such a state of mind without the realization of

God."

MANILAL: "Sir, what you have just said applies to a man of a very lofty

spiritual state. I talked on such topics in a general way with

Bhaskarananda."

MASTER: "Does he live in a house?"

MANILAL: "Yes, sir. He lives with a devotee."

MASTER: "How old is he now?"

MANILAL: "About fifty-five."

MASTER: "Did you talk about anything else?"

MANILAL: "I asked him how to cultivate bhakti. He said: 'Chant the name

of God.

Repeat the name of Rāma.' "

MASTER: "That is very good."

The worship was over in the temples and the bells rang for the food

offerings in the shrines. As it was a summer noon the sun was very hot. The

flood-tide began in the Ganges and a breeze came up from the south. Sri

Ramakrishna was resting in his room after his meal.

The people of Basirhat, Rākhāl 's birthplace, had been suffering from a

severe drought during the summer months.

MASTER (to Manilal): "Rākhāl says that the people in his native village

have been suffering seriously from a scarcity of water. Why don't you build

a reservoir there? That will do the people good. (Smiling) You have so

much money; what will you do with all your wealth? But they say that telis

are very calculating." (All laugh.) Manilal was truly a calculating man,

though he suffered no lack of money. In later years he set up an endowment

of twenty-five thousand rupees for the maintenance of poor students.

Manilal made no answer to these words of the Master about his caste

characteristics.

Later on, in the course of the conversation, he remarked casually: "Sir, you

referred to a reservoir. You might as well have confined yourself to that

suggestion. Why allude to the 'oil-man caste' and all that?"

Some of the devotees smiled to themselves. The Master laughed.

Presently a few elderly members of the Brahmo Samaj arrived. The room

was full of devotees. Sri Ramakrishna was sitting on his bed, facing the

north. He kept smiling, and talked to the Brahmo devotees in a joyous

mood.

Characteristics of divine love

MASTER: "You talk glibly about prema. But is it such a commonplace

thing? There are two characteristics of prema. First, it makes one forget the

world. So intense is one's love of God that one becomes unconscious of

outer things. Chaitanya had this ecstatic love; he 'took a wood for the sacred

grove of Vrindāvan and the ocean for the dark waters of the Jamuna'.

Second, one has no feeling of 'my-ness' toward the body, which is so dear to

man. One wholly gets rid of the feeling that the body is the soul.

Indications of God-realization

"There are certain signs of God-realization. The man in whom longing for

God manifests its glories is not far from attaining Him. What are the glories

of that longing? They are discrimination, dispassion, compassion for living

beings, serving holy men, loving their company, chanting the name and

glories of God, telling the truth, and the like. When you see those signs of

longing in an aspirant, you can rightly say that for him the vision of God is

not far to seek.

"The state of a servant's house will tell you unmistakably whether his

master has decided to visit it. First, the rubbish and jungle around the house

are cleared up.

Second, the soot and dirt are removed from the rooms. Third, the courtyard,

floors, and other places are swept clean. Finally the master himself sends

various things to the house such as a carpet, a hubble-bubble for smoking,

and the like. When you see these things arriving, you conclude that the

master will very soon come"

A DEVOTEE: "Sir, should one first practise discrimination to attain self-

control?"

MASTER: "That is also a path. It is called the path of vichara, reasoning.

But the inner organs3 are brought under control naturally through the path

of devotion as well. It is rather easily accomplished that way. Sense

pleasures appear more and more tasteless as love for God grows. Can carnal

pleasure attract a grief-stricken man and woman the day their child has

died?"

Efficacy of japa and prayer

DEVOTEE: "How can I develop love for God?"

MASTER: "Repeat His name, and sins will disappear. Thus you will

destroy lust, anger, the desire for creature comforts, and so on."

DEVOTEE: "How can I take delight in God's name?"

MASTER: "Pray to God with a yearning heart that you may take delight in

His name. He will certainly fulfil your heart's desire."

So saying, the Master sang a song in his sweet voice, pleading with the

Divine Mother to show Her grace to suffering men:

O Mother, I have no one else to blame:

Alas! I sink in the well these very hands have dug.

With the six passions for my spade,

I dug a pit in the sacred land of earth;

And now the dark water of death gushes forth!

How can I save myself, O my Redeemer?

Surely I have been my own enemy;

How can I now ward off this dark water of death?

Behold, the waters rise to my chest!

How can I save myself? O Mother, save me!

Thou art my only Refuge; with Thy protecting glance Take me across to the

other shore of the world.

The Master sang again:

What a delirious fever is this that I suffer from!

O Mother, Thy grace is my only cure.

False pride is the fever that racks my wasted form; "I" and "mine" are my

cry. Oh, what a wicked delusion!

My quenchless thirst for wealth and friends is never-ceasing; How, then,

shall I sustain my life?

Talk about things unreal, this is my wretched delirium, And I indulge in it

always, O Giver of all good fortune!

My eyes in seeming sleep are closed, my stomach is filled With the vile

worms of cruelty.

Alas! I wander about absorbed in unmeaning deeds; Even for Thy holy

name I have no taste, O Mother!

I doubt that I shall ever be cured of this malady.

Then the Master said: " 'Even for Thy holy name I have no taste.' A typhoid

patient has very little chance of recovery if he loses all taste for food; but

his life need not be despaired of if he enjoys food even a little. That is why

one should cultivate a taste for God's name. Any name will do-Durga,

Krishna, or Śiva. Then if, through the chanting of the name, one's

attachment to God grows day by day, and joy fills the soul, one has nothing

to fear. The delirium will certainly disappear; the grace of God will

certainly descend.

Parable of the two friends

" 'As is a man's feeling of love, so is his gain.' Once two friends were going

along the street, when they saw some people listening to a reading of the

Bhagavata. 'Come, friend', said the one to the other. 'Let us hear the sacred

book.' So saying he went in and sat down. The second man peeped in and

went away. He entered a house of ill fame. But very soon he felt disgusted

with the place. 'Shame on me!' he said to himself. 'My friend has been

listening to the sacred word of Hari; and see where I am!'

But the friend who had been listening to the Bhagavata also became

disgusted. 'What a fool I am!' he said. 'I have been listening to this fellow's

blah-blah, and my friend is having a grand time.' In course of time they both

died. The messenger of Death came for the soul of the one who had listened

to the Bhagavata and dragged it off to hell. The messenger of God came for

the soul of the one who had been to the house of prostitution and led it up to

heaven.

"Verily, the Lord looks into a man's heart and does not judge him by what

he does or where he lives. 'Krishna accepts a devotee's inner feeling of

love.'

"In the Kartabhaja sect, the teacher, while giving initiation, says to the

disciple, 'Now everything depends on your mind.' According to this sect,

'He who has the right mind find the right way and also achieves the right

end.' It was through the power of his mind that Hanuman leapt over the sea.

'I am the servant of Rāma; I have repeated the holy name of Rāma. Is there

anything impossible for me?'-that was Hanuman's faith.

"Ignorance lasts as long as one has ego. There can be no liberation so long

as the ego remains. 'O God, Thou art the Doer and not I'-that is knowledge.

"By being lowly one can rise high. The chatak bird makes its nest on low

ground, but it soars very high in the sky. Cultivation is not possible on high

land; in low land water accumulates and makes cultivation possible.

"One must take the trouble to seek the company of holy persons. In his own

home a man hears only worldly talk; the disease of worldliness has become

chronic with him.

The caged parrot sitting on its perch repeats, 'Rāma! Rāma!' But let it fly to

the forest and it will squawk in its usual way.

"Mere possession of money doesn't make a nobleman. One sign of the

mansion of a nobleman is that all the rooms are lighted. The poor cannot

afford much oil, and consequently cannot have so many lights. This shrine

of the body should not be left dark; one should illumine it with the lamp of

Wisdom. Lighting the lamp of knowledge in the chamber of your heart,

Behold the face of the Mother, Brahman's Embodiment.

"Everyone can attain Knowledge. There are two entities: Jivatma, the

individual soul, and Paramatma, the Supreme Soul. Through prayer all

individual souls can be united to the Supreme Soul. Every house has a

connection for gas, and gas can be obtained from the main storage-tank of

the Gas Company. Apply to the Company, and it will arrange for your

supply of gas. Then your house will be lighted.

"In some people spiritual consciousness has already been awakened; but

they have special marks. They do not enjoy hearing or talking about

anything but God. They are like the chatak, which prays for rain-water

though the seven oceans, the Ganges, the Jamuna, and the rivers near it are

all filled with water. It won't drink anything but rain-water, even though its

throat is burning with thirst."

The Master wanted to hear a few songs. Ramlal and a brahmin official of

the temple garden sang:

Dwell, O Lord, O Lover of bhakti,

In the Vrindāvan of my heart,

And my devotion unto Thee

Will be Thy Radha, dearly loved. . . .

And again:

The dark cloud of the summer storm fades into nothingness, When, flute in

hand and a smile on His lips,

Lighting the world with His loveliness,

Krishna, the Dark One, appears.

His dazzling yellow robe outgleams even the lightning's glare; A wreath of

wild-flowers interwoven

Gently swings from His youthful breast

And softly kisses His feet.

See, there He stands, the Lord of life, the Moon of Nanda's line,

Outshining all the moons in heaven

And with the splendour of His rays

Flooding the Jamuna's bank!

He stands there, stealing the maidens' hearts; He lures them from hearth

and home.

Krishna enters my own heart's shrine,

And with His flute-note steals away

My wisdom, life, and soul.

To whom shall Ganga Narayana pour out his tale of woe?

Ah, friend, you might have understood

Had you but gone to the Jamuna's bank

To fill your water-jar!

Again they sang:

High in the heaven of the Mother's feet, my mind was soaring like a kite,

When came a blast of sin's rough wind that drove it swiftly toward the earth.

. . .

Zeal for the Lord destroys sin

MASTER (to the devotees): "As the tiger devours other animals, so does

the 'tiger of zeal for the Lord' eat up lust, anger, and the other passions.

Once this zeal grows in the heart, lust and the other passions disappear. The

gopis of Vrindāvan had that state of mind because of their zeal for Krishna.

"Again, this zeal for God is compared to collyrium. Radha said to her

friends, 'I see Krishna everywhere.' They replied, 'Friend, you have painted

your eyes with the collyrium of love; that is why you see Krishna

everywhere.'

"They say that when your eyes are painted with collyrium made from the

ashes of a frog's head you see snakes everywhere.

Traits of bound souls

"They are indeed bound souls who constantly dwell with 'woman and gold'

and do not think of God even for a moment. How can you expect noble

deeds of them? They are like mangoes pecked by a crow, which may not be

offered to the Deity in the temple, and which even men hesitate to eat.

"Bound souls, worldly people, are like silk-worms. The worms can cut

through their cocoons if they want, but having woven the cocoons

themselves, they are too much attached to them to leave them. And so they

die there.

"Free souls are not under the control of 'woman and gold'. There are some

silk-worms that cut through the cocoon they have made with such great

care. But they are few and far between.

"It is maya that deludes. Only a few become spiritually awakened and are

not deluded by the spell of maya. They do not come under the control of

'woman and gold'.

Two classes of perfect souls

"There are two classes of perfect souls: those who attain perfection through

spiritual practice, and those who attain it through the grace of God. Some

farmers irrigate their fields with great labour. Only then can they grow

crops. But there are some who do not have to irrigate at all; their fields are

flooded by rain. They don't have to go to the trouble of drawing water. One

must practise spiritual discipline laboriously, in order to avoid the clutches

of maya. Those who attain liberation through the grace of God do not have

to labour. But they are few indeed.

The everperfect

"Then there is the class of the everperfect. They are born in each life with

their spiritual consciousness already awakened. Think of a spring whose

outlet is obstructed. While looking after various things in the garden, the

plumber accidentally clears it and the water gushes out. Yet people are

amazed to see the first manifestations of an everperfect soul's zeal for God.

They say, 'Where was all this devotion and renunciation and love?'"

The conversation turned to the spiritual zeal of devotees, as illustrated in the

earnestness of the gopis of Vrindāvan. Ramlal sang:

Thou art my All in All, O Lord!-the Life of my life, the Essence of essence;

In the three worlds I have none else but Thee to call my own.

Thou art my peace, my joy, my hope; Thou my support, my wealth, my

glory;

Thou my wisdom and my strength.

Thou art my home, my place of rest; my dearest friend, my next of kin;

My present and my future, Thou; my heaven and my salvation.

Thou art my scriptures, my commandments; Thou art my ever gracious

Guru;

Thou the Spring of my boundless bliss.

Thou art the Way, and Thou the Goal; Thou the Adorable One, O Lord!

Thou art the Mother tender-hearted; Thou the chastising Father;

Thou the Creator and Protector; Thou the Helmsman who dost steer

My craft across the sea of life.

MASTER (to the devotees): "Ah! What a beautiful song!-'Thou art my All

in All.' "

Ramlal sang again, this time describing the pangs of the gopis on being

separated from their beloved Krishna:

Hold not, hold not the chariot's wheels!

Is it the wheels that make it move?

The Mover of its wheels is Krishna,

By whose will the worlds are moved. . . .

The Master went into deep samādhi. His body was motionless; he sat with

folded hands as in his photograph. Tears of joy flowed from the corners of

his eyes. After a long time his mind came down to the ordinary plane of

consciousness. He mumbled something, of which only a word now and then

could be heard by the devotees in the room. He was saying: "Thou art I, and

I am Thou-Thou eatest-Thou-I eat! . . . What is this confusion Thou hast

created?"

Continuing, the Master said: "I see everything like a man with jaundiced

eyes! I see Thee alone everywhere. O Krishna, Friend of the lowly! O

Eternal Consort of my soul! O

Govinda!"

As he uttered the words "Eternal Consort of my soul" and "Govinda", the

Master again went into samādhi. There was complete silence in the room.

The eager and unsatiated eyes of the devotees were fixed on the Master, a

God-man of infinite moods.

Adhar Sen arrived with several of his friends. He was a deputy magistrate,

about thirty years old. This was his second visit to the Master. He was

accompanied by his friend Saradacharan, who was extremely unhappy

because of the death of his eldest son. A retired deputy inspector of schools,

Saradacharan devoted himself to meditation and prayer. Adhar had brought

his friend to the Master for consolation in his afflicted state of mind.

Coming down from samādhi, the Master found the eyes of the devotees

fixed on him.

He muttered to himself, still in an abstracted mood.

Worldly people’s lack perseverance

Then, addressing the devotees, Sri Ramakrishna said: "The spiritual

wisdom of worldly people is seen only on rare occasions. It is like the flame

of a candle. No, it is rather like a single ray of the sun passing through a

chink in a wall. Worldly people chant the name of God, but there is no zeal

behind it. It is like children's swearing by God, having learnt the word from

the quarrels of their aunts.

"Worldly people have no grit. If they succeed in an undertaking, it is all

right, but if they don't succeed, it scarcely bothers them at all. When they

need water, they begin to dig a well. But as soon as they strike a stone, they

give up digging there and begin at another place. Perhaps they come to a

bed of sand. Finding nothing but sand, they give that place up too. How can

they succeed in getting water unless they continue to dig persistently where

they started?

"Man reaps the harvest of his own past actions. Hence you read in the song:

O Mother, I have no one else to blame:

Alas! I sink in the well these very hands have dug.

"'I' and 'mine'-that is ignorance. By discriminating you will realize that what

you call 'I'

is really nothing but Ātman. Reason it out. Are you the body or the flesh or

something else? At the end you will know that you are none of these. You

are free from attributes.

Then you will realize that you have never been the doer of any action, that

you have been free from virtue and faults alike, that you are beyond

righteousness and unrighteousness.

"From ignorance a man says, 'This is gold and this is brass.' But a man of

Knowledge says, 'It is all gold.'

"Reasoning stops when one sees God. But there are instances of people who

have realized God and who still continue to reason. Again, there are people

who, even after having seen God, chant His name with devotion and sing

His glories.

"How long does a child cry? So long as it is not sucking at its mother's

breast. As soon as it is nursed it stops crying. Then the child feels only joy.

Joyously it drinks the milk from its mother's breast. But it is also true that,

while drinking, the child sometimes plays and laughs.

"It is God alone who has become everything. But in man He manifests

Himself the most. God is directly present in the man who has the pure heart

of a child and who laughs and cries and dances and sings in divine ecstasy."

By this time Sri Ramakrishna had become better acquainted with Adhar,

who related the cause of his friend's grief. The Master sang, as if to himself:

To arms! To arms, O man! Death storms your house in battle array!

Bearing the quiver of knowledge, mount the chariot of devotion;

Bend the bow of your tongue with the bow-string of love, And aim at him

the shaft of Mother Kāli's holy name.

Here is a ruse for the fray: You need no chariot or charioteer; Fight your

foe from the Ganges' bank, and he is easily slain.

Master consoles a bereaved father

Then he said: "What can you do? Be ready for Death. Death has entered the

house.

You must fight him with the weapon of God's holy name. God alone is the

Doer. I say: 'O Lord, I do as Thou doest through me. I speak as Thou

speakest through me. I am the machine and Thou art the Operator. I am the

house and Thou art the Indweller. I am the engine and Thou art the

Engineer.' Give your power of attorney to God. One doesn't come to grief

through letting a good man assume one's responsibilities. Let His will be

done.

"But isn't your grief for your son only natural? The son is one's own self

reborn.

Lakshmana ran to Ravana when the latter fell dead on the battlefield.

Looking at Ravana's body, he found that everyone of his bones was full of

holes. Thereupon he said to Rāma: 'O Rāma, glory be to Your arrows!

There is no spot in Ravana's body that they have not pierced.' 'Brother,'

replied Rāma, 'the holes you see in his bones are not from My arrows. Grief

for his sons has pierced them through and through. These holes are the

marks of his grief. It has penetrated his very bones.'

"But house, wife, and children are all transitory; they have only a

momentary existence.

The palm-tree alone is real. One or two fruits have dropped off. Why

lament?

"God is engaged in three kinds of activity: creation, preservation, and

destruction.

Death is inevitable. All will be destroyed at the time of dissolution. Nothing

will remain.

At that time the Divine Mother will gather up the seeds for the future

creation, even as the elderly mistress of the house keeps in her hotchpotch-

pot little bags of cucumber seeds, 'sea-foam', blue pills, and other

miscellaneous things. The Divine Mother will take Her seeds out again at

the time of the new creation."

Sri Ramakrishna began to talk with Adhar on the verandah north of his

room.

MASTER (to Adhar): "You are a deputy magistrate. Remember that you

have obtained your position through the grace of God. Do not forget Him,

but remember that all men must one day walk down the same path. We stay

in the world only a couple of days.

"This world is our field of activity. We are born here to perform certain

duties. People have their homes in the country but come to Calcutta to

work.

"It is necessary to do a certain amount of work. This is a kind of discipline.

But one must finish it speedily. While melting gold, the goldsmith uses

everything-the bellows, the fan, and the pipe-so that he may have the hot

fire he needs to melt the metal. After the melting is over, he relaxes and

asks his attendant to prepare a smoke for him. All this time his face has

been hot and perspiring; but now he can smoke.

"One must have stern determination; then alone is spiritual practice

possible. One must make a firm resolve.

"There is great power in the seed of God's name. It destroys ignorance. A

seed is tender, and the sprout soft; still it pierces the hard ground. The

ground breaks and makes way for the sprout.

"The mind becomes very much distracted if one lives long in the midst of

'woman and gold'. Therefore one must be very careful. But monks do not

have much to fear. The real sannyasi lives away from 'woman and gold'.

Therefore through the practice of spiritual discipline he can always fix his

mind on God.

"True sannyasis, those who are able to devote their minds constantly to

God, are like bees, which light only on flowers and sip their honey. Those

who live in the world, in the midst of 'woman and gold', may direct their

attention to God; but sometimes their minds dwell also on 'woman and

gold'. They are like common flies, which light on a piece of candy, then on

a sore or filth.

"Always keep your mind fixed on God. In the beginning you must struggle

a little; later on you will enjoy your pension."

Sunday, April 15, 1883

Surendra, a beloved lay disciple of the Master, had invited him to his house

on the auspicious occasion of the Annapurna Puja. It was about six o'clock

when Sri Ramakrishna arrived there with some of his devotees. The image

of the Divine Mother had been installed in the worship hall. At Her feet lay

Hibiscus flowers and vilwa-leaves; from Her neck hung a garland of

flowers. Sri Ramakrishna entered the hall and bowed down before the

image. Then he went to the open courtyard, where he sat on a carpet,

surrounded by his devotees and disciples. A few bolsters lay on the carpet,

which was covered with a white linen sheet. He was asked to lean against

one of these, but he pushed it aside.

Difficulty of overcoming vanity

MASTER (to the devotees): "To lean against a bolster! You see, it is very

difficult to give up vanity. You may discriminate, saying that the ego is

nothing at all; but still it comes, nobody knows from where. A goat's legs

jerk for a few moments even after its head has been cut off. Or perhaps you

are frightened in a dream; you shake off sleep and are wide awake, but still

you feel your heart palpitating. Egotism is exactly like that. You may drive

it away, but still it appears from somewhere. Then you look sullen and say:

'What! I have not been shown proper respect!'"

KEDĀR: "One should be lowlier than a straw and patient as a tree."

MASTER: "As for me, I consider myself as a speck of the dust of the

devotee's feet."

Vaidyanath arrived. He was a well-educated man, a lawyer of the High

Court of Calcutta. With folded hands he saluted the Master and took his seat

at one side.

SURENDRA (to the Master): "He is one of my relatives."

MASTER: "Yes, I see he has a nice nature."

SURENDRA: "He has come here because he wants to ask you a question or

two."

Different manifestations of divine power

MASTER (to Vaidyanath): "All that you see is the manifestation of God's

Power. No one can do anything without this Power. But you must remember

that there is not an equal manifestation of God's Power in all things.

Vidyasagar once asked me whether God endowed some with greater power

than others. I said to him: 'If there are no greater and lesser manifestations

of His Power, then why have we taken the trouble to visit you?

Have you grown two horns?' So it stands to reason that God exists in all

beings as the All-pervasive Power; but the manifestations of His Power are

different in different beings."

Free will and God's will

VAIDYANATH: "Sir, I have a doubt. People speak of free will. They say

that a man can do either good or evil according to his will. Is it true? Are

we really free to do whatever we like?"

MASTER: "Everything depends on the will of God. The world is His play.

He has created all these different things-great and small, strong and weak,

good and bad, virtuous and vicious. This is all His maya, His sport. You

must have observed that all the trees in a garden are not of the same kind.

"As long as a man has not realized God, he thinks he is free. It is God

Himself who keeps this error in man. Otherwise sin would have multiplied.

Man would not have been afraid of sin, and there would have been no

punishment for it.

"But do you know the attitude of one who has realized God? He feels: 'I am

the machine, and Thou, O Lord, art the Operator. I am the house and Thou

art the Indweller. I am the chariot and Thou art the Driver. I move as Thou

movest me; I speak as Thou makest me speak.'

(To Vaidyanath): "It is not good to argue. Isn't that so?"

VAIDYANATH: "Yes, sir. The desire to argue disappears when a man

attains wisdom."

The Master, out of his stock of a dozen English words, said, "Thank you!"

in the most charming way, and all laughed.

MASTER (to Vaidyanath): "You will make spiritual progress. People don't

trust a man when he speaks about God. Even if a great soul affirms that he

has seen God, still the average person will not accept his words. He says to

himself, 'If this man has really seen God, then let him show Him to me.' But

can a man learn to feel a person's pulse in one day? He must go about with a

physician for many days; only then can he distinguish the different pulses.

He must be in the company of those with whom the examination of the

pulse has become a regular profession.

"Can anyone and everyone pick out a yarn of a particular count? If you are

in that trade, you can distinguish in a moment a forty-count thread from a

forty-one."

The kirtan was about to begin. Some Vaishnavas were seated on one side

with their mridangas and cymbals. A drummer began to play on his

instrument preparatory to the singing. The sweet and melodious sound of

the mridanga filled the courtyard, calling to mind the ecstatic kirtan of Sri

Gaurānga. The Master passed into a deep spiritual state.

Now and then he looked at the drummer and said, "Ah! Ah! My hair is all

standing on end."

The singers asked what kind of song they should sing. The Master said

humbly, "Something about Gaurānga, if you please."

The kirtan began. They sang about the celestial beauty of Sri Gaurānga: The

beauty of Gaurānga's face

Glows brighter than the brightest gold;

His smile illumines all the world.

Who cares for even a million moons

Shining in the blue autumn sky?

The chief musician added improvised lines as they sang: "O friend, his face

shines like the full moon!" "But it does not wane nor has it any stain." "It

illumines the devotee's heart." Again he improvised: "His face is bathed

with the essence of a million moons."

At these words the Master went into deep samādhi. After a short while he

regained consciousness of the sense world. Then he suddenly stood up,

overpowered by his spiritual mood, and sang improvised lines with the

professionals, thinking himself to be a milkmaid of Vrindāvan gone mad

with the beauty of Sri Krishna's form: "Whose fault is it-my mind's or His

beauty's?" "In the three worlds I see nothing but my beloved Krishna."

The Master danced and sang. All remained spellbound as they watched. The

chief musician sang the words of a gopi: "O flute, pray stop. Can you not go

to sleep?" One of the musicians added a new line: "How can it sleep? It

rests on Krishna's lips."

The Master sat down. The music went on. They sang, assuming the mood

of Radha: "My eyes are blinded. My ears are deaf. I have lost the power of

smell. All my senses are paralysed. But, alas, why am I left alone?"

Finally the musicians sang of the union of Radha and Krishna: Radha and

Krishna are joined at last in the Nidhu Grove of Vrindāvan;

Incomparable their beauty, and limitless their love!

The one half shines like yellow gold, the other like bluest sapphire;

Round the neck, on one side, a wild-flower garland hangs, And, on the

other, there swings a necklace of precious gems.

A ring of gold adorns one ear, a ring of shell the other; Half of the brow is

bright as the blazing midday sun, The other softly gleams with the glow of

the rising moon.

Upon one half of the head a graceful peacock feather stands, And, from the

other half, there hangs a braid of hair.

As the music came to a close the Master said, "Bhagavata-Bhakta-

Bhagavan", and bowed low to the devotees seated on all sides. He touched

with his forehead the ground made holy by the singing of the sacred music.

It was now about half past nine in the evening. Surendra entertained the

Master and the devotees with a sumptuous feast. When it was time to take

leave of their host, the Master, the devotees, and Surendra entered the

worship hall and stood before the image.

SURENDRA (to the Master): "No one has sung anything about the Divine

Mother today."

MASTER (pointing to the image): "Ah! Look at the beauty of the hall. The

light of the Divine Mother seems to have lighted the whole place. Such a

sight fills the heart with joy. Grief and desire for pleasure disappear.

"But can one not see God as formless Reality? Of course one can But not if

one has the slightest trace of worldliness. The. rishis of olden times

renounced everything and then contemplated Satchidananda, the Indivisible

Brahman.

"The Brahmajnanis of modern times sing of God as 'immutable,

homogeneous'. It sounds very dry to me. It seems as if the singers

themselves don't enjoy the sweetness of God's Bliss. One doesn't want a

refreshing drink made with sugar candy if one is satisfied with mere coarse

treacle.

"Just see how happy you are, looking at this image of the Deity. But those

who always cry after the formless Reality do not get anything. They realize

nothing either inside or outside."

The Master sang a song to the Divine Mother:

O Mother, ever blissful as Thou art,

Do not deprive Thy worthless child of bliss!

My mind knows nothing but Thy Lotus Feet.

The King of Death scowls at me terribly;

Tell me, Mother, what shall I say to him?

It was my heart's desire to sail my boat

Across the ocean of this mortal life,

O Durga, with Thy name upon my lips.

I never dreamt that Thou wouldst drown me here In the dark waters of this

shoreless sea.

Both day and night I swim among its waves,

Chanting Thy saving name; yet even so

There is no end, O Mother, to my grief.

If I am drowned this time, in such a plight,

No one will ever chant Thy name again.

Again he sang:

Repeat, O mind, my Mother Durga's hallowed name!

Whoever treads the path, repeating "Durga! Durga!", Śiva Himself protects

with His almighty trident.

Thou art the day, O Mother! Thou art the dusk and the night.

Sometimes Thou art man, and sometimes woman art Thou.

Thou mayest even say to me: "Step aside! Go away!"

Yet I shall cling to Thee, O Durga! Unto Thy feet As Thine anklets I shall

cling, making their tinkling sound.

Mother, when as the Kite Thou soarest in the sky, There, in the water

beneath, as a minnow I shall be swimming; Upon me Thou wilt pounce, and

pierce me through with Thy claws.

Thus, when the breath of life forsakes me in Thy grip, Do not deny me the

shelter of Thy Lotus Feet!

The Master saluted the divine image. As he came down the steps, he called

softly to Rākhāl: "Where are my shoes? Are they missing?"

As the Master got into the carriage, Surendra and the other devotees bowed

down before him. Then the carriage started for Dakshineswar. The moon

still lighted the streets.

--------------------

Chapter 10

THE MASTER WITH THE BRAHMO DEVOTEES (II)

April 22, 1883

Master's visit to Brahmo festival

SRI RAMAKRISHNA paid a visit to Benimadhav Pal's garden house at

Sinthi, near Calcutta, on the occasion of the semi-annual festival of the

Brahmo Samaj. Many devotees of the Samaj were present and sat around

the Master. Now and then some of them asked him questions.

Love and prayer

A BRAHMO DEVOTEE: "Sir, what is the way?"

MASTER: "Attachment to God, or, in other words, love for Him. And

secondly, prayer."

BRAHMO DEVOTEE: "Which one is the way-love or prayer?"

MASTER: "First love, and then prayer."

The Master sang:

Cry to your Mother Syama with a real cry, O mind!

And how can She hold Herself from you?

How can Syama stay away? . . .

Continuing, the Master said: "And one must always chant the name and

glories of God and pray to Him. An old metal pot must be scrubbed every

day. What is the use of cleaning it only once? Further, one must practise

discrimination and renunciation; one must be conscious of the unreality of

the world."

BRAHMO: "Is it good to renounce the world?"

MASTER: "Not for all. Those who have not yet come to the end of their

enjoyments should not renounce the world. Can one get drunk on two

ānnās' worth of wine?"

How to lead a householder's life

BRAHMO: "Then should they lead a worldly life?"

MASTER: "Yes, they should try to perform their duties in a detached way.

Before you break the jackfruit open, rub your hands with oil, so that the

sticky milk will not smear them. The maidservant in a rich man's house

performs all her duties, but her mind dwells on her home in the country.

This is an example of doing duty in a detached way.

You should renounce the world only in mind. But a sannyasi should

renounce the world both inwardly and outwardly."

BRAHMO: "What is the meaning of the 'end of enjoyments'?"

MASTER: "I mean the enjoyment of 'woman and gold'. It is risky to put a

typhoid patient in a room where pitchers of water and jugs of pickled

tamarind are kept. Most people don't feel any longing for God unless they

have once passed through the experience of wealth, name, fame, creature

comforts, and the like, that is to say, unless they have seen through these

enjoyments."

BRAHMO: "Who is really bad, man or woman?"

MASTER: "As there are women endowed with vidyaŚakti, so also there are

women with avidyaŚakti. A woman endowed with spiritual attributes leads

a man to God, but a woman who is the embodiment of delusion makes him

forget God and drowns him in the ocean of worldliness.

"This universe is created by the Mahamaya of God. Mahamaya contains

both Vidyā-

māyā, the illusion of knowledge, and Avidyā-māyā, the illusion of

ignorance. Through the help of Vidyā-māyā one cultivates such virtues as

the taste for holy company, knowledge, devotion, love, and renunciation.

Avidyā-māyā consists of the five elements and the objects of the five

senses-form, flavour, smell, touch, and sound. These make one forget God."

Why there is evil in the world

BRAHMO: "If the power of avidyā is the cause of ignorance, then why has

God created it?"

MASTER: "That is His play. The glory of light cannot be appreciated

without darkness.

Happiness cannot be understood without misery. Knowledge of good is

possible because of knowledge of evil.

"Further, the mango grows and ripens on account of the covering skin. You

throwaway the skin when the mango is fully ripe and ready to be eaten. It is

possible for a man to attain gradually to the Knowledge of Brahman

because of the covering skin of maya.

Maya in its aspects of vidyā and avidyā may be likened to the skin of the

mango. Both are necessary."

BRAHMO: "Sir, is it good to worship God with form, an image of the Deity

made of clay?"

MASTER: "You do not accept God with form. That is all right. The image

is not meant for you. For you it is good to deepen your feeling toward your

own Ideal. From the worshippers of the Personal God you should learn their

yearning-for instance, Sri Krishna's attraction for Radha. You should learn

from the worshippers of the Personal God their love for their Chosen Ideal.

When the believers in the Personal God worship the images of Kāli and

Durga, with what feeling they cry from the depths of their souls, 'Mother! O

Mother!' How much they love the Deity! You should accept that feeling.

You don't have to accept the image."

BRAHMO: "How does one cultivate the spirit of dispassion? Why don't all

attain it?"

MASTER: "Dispassion is not possible unless there is satiety through

enjoyment. You can easily cajole a small child with candies or toys. But

after eating the candies and finishing its play, it cries, 'I want to go to my

mother.' Unless you take the child to its mother, it will throw away the toy

and scream at the top of its voice."

The members of the Brahmo Samaj are opposed to the traditional guru

system of orthodox Hinduism. Therefore the Brahmo devotee asked the

Master about it.

The need of a guru

BRAHMO: "Is spiritual knowledge impossible without a guru?"

MASTER: "Satchidananda alone is the Guru. If a man in the form of a guru

awakens spiritual consciousness in you, then know for certain that it is God

the Absolute who has assumed that human form for your sake. The guru is

like a companion who leads you by the hand. After the realization of God,

one loses the distinction between the guru and the disciple. 'That creates a

very difficult situation; there the guru and the disciple do not see each

other.' It was for this reason that Janaka said to Sukadeva, 'Give me first my

teacher's fee if you want me to initiate you into the Knowledge of

Brahman.' For the distinction between the teacher and the disciple ceases to

exist after the disciple attains to Brahman. The relationship between them

remains as long as the disciple does not see God."

It was dusk. Some of the Brahmo devotees said to the Master, "Perhaps it is

time for your evening devotions."

MASTER: "No, it isn't exactly that. One should pass through these

disciplines in the beginning. Later one doesn't need the rituals of formal

worship or to follow the injunctions."

After dusk the preacher of the Brahmo Samaj conducted the service from

the pulpit.

The service was interspersed with recitations from the Upanishads and the

singing of Brahmo songs.

After the service the Master and the preacher conversed.

Personal God and formless Deity

MASTER: "Well, it seems to me that both the formless Deity and God with

form are real.

What do you say?"

PREACHER: "Sir, I compare the formless God to the electric current,

which is not seen with the eyes but can be felt."

MASTER: "Yes, both are true. God with form is as real as God without

form. Do you know what describing God as being formless only is like? It

is like a man's playing only a monotone on his flute, though it has seven

holes. But on the same instrument another man plays different melodies.

Likewise, in how many ways the believers in a Personal God enjoy Him!

They enjoy Him through many different attitudes: the serene attitude, the

attitude of a servant, a friend, a mother, a husband, or a lover.

"You see, the thing is somehow or other to get into the Lake of the Nectar

of Immortality. Suppose one person gets into It by propitiating the Deity

with hymns and worship, and you are pushed into It. The result will be the

same. Both of you will certainly become immortal.

"I give the Brahmos the illustration of water and ice. Satchidananda is like

an endless expanse of water. The water of the great ocean in cold regions

freezes into blocks of ice. Similarly, through the cooling influence of divine

love, Satchidananda assumes forms for the sake of the bhaktas. The rishis

had the vision of the supersensuous Spirit-form and talked with It. But

devotees acquire a 'love body', and with its help they see the Spirit-form of

the Absolute.

"It is also said in the Vedas that Brahman is beyond mind and words. The

heat of the sun of Knowledge melts the ice-like form of the Personal God.

On attaining the Knowledge of Brahman and communing with It in

nirvikalpa samādhi, one realizes Brahman, the Infinite, without form or

shape and beyond mind and words.

God's true nature cannot be described

"The nature of Brahman cannot be described. About It one remains silent.

Who can explain the Infinite in words? However high a bird may soar, there

are regions higher still. What do you say?"

PREACHER: "Yes, sir, it is so stated in the Vedanta philosophy."

MASTER: "Once a salt doll went to the ocean to measure its depth. But it

could not come back to give a report. According to one school of thought,

sages like Sukadeva saw and touched the Ocean of Brahman, but did not

plunge into It.

"Once I said to Vidyasagar, 'Everything else but Brahman has been

polluted, as it were, like food touched by the tongue.' In other words, no one

has been able to describe what Brahman is. A thing once uttered by the

tongue becomes polluted. Vidyasagar, great pundit though he was, was

highly pleased with my remarks.

"It is said that there are places near Kedār that are covered with eternal

snow; he who climbs too high cannot come back. Those who have tried to

find out what there is in the higher regions, or what one feels there, have not

come back to tell us about it.

"After having the vision of God man is overpowered with bliss. He

becomes silent. Who will speak? Who will explain?

"The king lives beyond seven gates. At each gate sits a man endowed with

great power and glory. At each gate the visitor asks, 'Is this the king?' The

gate-keeper answers, 'No. Not this, not this.' The visitor passes through the

seventh gate and. becomes overpowered with joy. He is speechless. This

time he doesn't have to ask, 'Is this the king?' The mere sight of him

removes all doubts."

PREACHER: "Yes, sir, it is so described in Vedanta."

MASTER: "When the Godhead is thought of as creating, preserving, and

destroying, It is known as the Personal God, Saguna Brahman, or the Primal

Energy, Ādyāśakti. Again, when It is thought of as beyond the three gunas,

then It is called the Attributeless Reality, Nirguna Brahman, beyond speech

and thought; this is the Supreme Brahman, Parabrahman.

The three gunas

"Under the spell of God's maya man forgets his true nature. He forgets that

he is heir to the infinite glories of his Father. This divine maya is made up

of three gunas. And all three are robbers; for they rob man of all his

treasures and make him forget his true nature. The three gunas are sattva,

rajas, and tamas. Of these, sattva alone points the way to God. But even

sattva cannot take a man to God.

Parable of the three robbers

"Let me tell you a story. Once a rich man was passing through a forest,

when three robbers surrounded him and robbed him of all his wealth. After

snatching all his possessions from him, one of the robbers said: 'What's the

good of keeping the man alive? Kill him.' Saying this, he was about to

strike their victim with his sword, when the second robber interrupted and

said: 'There's no use in killing him. Let us bind him fast and leave him here.

Then he won't be able to tell the police.' Accordingly the robbers tied him

with a rope, left him, and went away.

"After a while the third robber returned to the rich man and said: 'Ah!

You're badly hurt, aren't you? Come, I'm going to release you.' The third

robber set the man free and led him out of the forest. When .they came near

the highway, the robber said, 'Follow this road and you will reach home

easily.' 'But you must come with me too', said the man.

'You have done so much for me. We shall all be happy to see you at our

home.' 'No,'

said the robber, 'it is not possible for me to go there. The police will arrest

me.' So saying, he left the rich man after pointing out his way.

"Now, the first robber, who said: 'What's the good of keeping the man alive?

Kill him', is tamas. It destroys. The second robber is rajas, which binds a

man to the world and entangles him in a variety of activities. Rajas makes

him forget God. Sattva alone shows the way to God. It produces virtues like

compassion, righteousness, and devotion. Again, sattva is like the last step

of the stairs. Next to it is the roof. The Supreme Brahman is man's own

abode. One cannot attain the Knowledge of Brahman unless one transcends

the three gunas."

PREACHER: "You have given us a fine talk, sir."

MASTER (with a smile): "Do you know the nature of devotees? When one

devotee meets another, he says, 'Let me speak and you listen; and when you

speak I shall listen.' You are a preacher and teach so many people! You are a

steamship, and I am a mere fishing-boat.' (All laugh.)

Wednesday, May 2, 1883

About five o'clock in the afternoon Sri Ramakrishna arrived at the temple of

the Brahmo Samaj in Nandanbagan, accompanied by M., Rakhal, and a few

other devotees. At first the Master sat in the drawing-room on the ground

floor, where the Brahmo devotees gradually assembled. Rabindranath

Tagore and a few other members of the Tagore family were present on this

occasion.

Sri Ramakrishna was asked to go to the worship hall on the second floor. A

dais had been built on the eastern side of the room. There were a few chairs

and a piano in the hall. The Brahmo worship was to begin at dusk.

Why temples are holy

As soon as the Master entered the worship hall he bowed low before the

dais. Having taken his seat, he said to M. and the other devotees, "Narendra

once asked me, 'What good is there in bowing before the Brahmo Samaj

temple?' The sight of the temple recalls to my mind God alone; then God-

Consciousness is kindled in my mind. God is present where people talk

about Him. One feels there the presence of all the holy places. Places of

worship recall God alone to my mind.

"Once a devotee was overwhelmed with ecstasy at the sight of a babla-tree.

The idea flashed in his mind that the handle of the axe used in the garden of

the temple of Radhakanta was made from the wood of the babla. Another

devotee had such devotion for his guru that he would be overwhelmed with

divine feeling at the sight of his guru's neighbours. Krishna-consciousness

would be kindled in Radha's mind at the sight of a cloud, a blue dress, or a

painting of Krishna. She would become restless and cry like a mad person,

'Krishna, where art Thou?' "

GHOSAL: "But madness is not desirable."

MASTER: "What do you mean? Was Radha's madness the madness that

comes from brooding over worldly objects and makes one unconscious?

One attains that madness by meditating on God. Haven't you heard of love-

madness and knowledge-madness?"

A BRAHMO DEVOTEE: "How can one realize God?"

MASTER: "By directing your love to Him and constantly reasoning that

God alone is real and the world illusory. The Aśwattha tree alone is

permanent; its fruit is transitory."

How to spiritualize the passions

BRAHMO: "We have passions like anger and lust. What shall we do with

these?"

MASTER: "Direct the six passions to God. The impulse of lust should be

turned into the desire to have intercourse with Ātman. Feel angry at those

who stand in your way to God. Feel greedy for Him. If you must have the

feeling of I and Mine, then associate it with God. Say, for instance, 'My

Rama, my Krishna.' If you must have pride, then feel like Bibhishana, who

said, 'I have touched the feet of Rama with my head; I will not bow this

head before anyone else.'"

Responsibility for sins

BRAHMO: "If it is God that makes me do everything, then I am not

responsible for my sins."

MASTER (with a smile): "Yes, Duryodhana also said that. 'O Krishna, I do

what Thou, seated in my heart, makest me do.' If a man has the firm

conviction that God alone is the Doer and he is His instrument, then he

cannot do anything sinful. He who has learnt to dance correctly never

makes a false step. One cannot even believe in the existence of God until

one's heart becomes pure."

Sri Ramakrishna looked at the devotees assembled in the worship hall and

said: "It is very good to gather in this way, now and then, and think of God

and sing His name and glories. But the worldly man's yearning for God is

momentary. It lasts as long as a drop of water on a red-hot frying-pan."

Brahmo worship

The worship was about to begin, and the big hall was filled with Brahmo

devotees.

Some of the Brahmo ladies sat on chairs, with music books in their hands.

The songs of the Brahmo Samaj were sung to the accompaniment of

harmonium and piano. Sri Ramakrishna's joy was unbounded. The

invocation was followed by a prayer, and then the worship began. The

acharyas, seated on the platform, recited from the Vedas: Om. Thou art our

Father. Give us right knowledge; do not destroy us! We bow to Thee.

The Brahmo devotees chanted in chorus with the acharyas: Om. Brahman

is Truth, Knowledge, Infinity.

It shines as Bliss and Immortality.

Brahman is Peace, Blessedness, and the One without a Second; It is pure

and unstained by sin.

The acharyas chanted in praise of God:

Om. O Reality, Cause of the Universe, we bow to Thee!

Then the acharyas chanted their prayer together:

From the unreal lead us to the Real;

From darkness lead us to Light;

From death lead us to Immortality.

Reach us through and through,

O Rudra, and protect us evermore with Thy Compassionate Face.

As Sri Ramakrishna heard these hymns, he went into a spiritual mood.

After this an Āchārya read a paper.

The worship was over. Most of the devotees went downstairs or to the

courtyard for fresh air while the refreshments were being made ready. It

was about nine o'clock in the evening. The hosts were so engrossed with the

other invited guests that they forgot to pay any attention to Sri

Ramakrishna.

MASTER (to Rakhal and the other devotees): "What's the matter? Nobody

is paying any attention to us!"

RAKHAL (angrily): "Sir, Let us leave here and go to Dakshineswar."

MASTER (with a smile): "Keep quiet! The carriage hire is three rupees and

two ānnās.

Who will pay that? Stubbornness won't get us anywhere. You haven't a

penny, and you are making these empty threats! Besides, where shall we

find food at this late hour of the night?"

After a long time dinner was announced. The devotees were asked to take

their seats.

The Master, with Rakhal and the others, followed the crowd to the second

floor. No room could be found for him inside the hall. Finally, with great

difficulty, a place was found for him in a dusty corner. A brahmin woman

served some curry, but Sri Ramakrishna could not eat it. He ate luchi with

salt and took some sweets.

There was no limit to the Master's kindness. The hosts were mere

youngsters; how could he be displeased with them, even though they did

not show him proper respect?

Further, it would have been inauspicious for the household if a holy man

had left the place without taking food. Finally the feast had been prepared

in the name of God.

Sri Ramakrishna got into a carriage: but who was to pay the hire? The hosts

could not be found. Referring to this incident afterwards, the Master said to

the devotees, jokingly: "The boys went to our hosts for the carriage hire.

First they were put out, but at last they managed to get together three

rupees. Our hosts refused to pay the extra two ānnās and said, 'No, that will

do.' "

Sunday, May 13, 1883

The Master paid a visit to the Hari-Bhakti-Pradayini-Sabha of

Kansharipara, in Calcutta, on the anniversary day of that religious society.

Kirtan and other forms of devotional music had been arranged for the

occasion. The songs centred round the Vrindāvan episode of Sri Krishna's

life. The theme was Radha's pique because of Sri Krishna's having visited

Chandravali, another of the gopis of Vrindāvan. Radha's friends tried to

console her and said to her: "Why are you piqued? It seems you are not

thinking of Krishna's happiness, but only of your own." Radha said to them:

"I am not angry at His going to Chandravali's grove. But why should He go

there? She doesn't know how to take care of Him."

May 20,1883

The following Sunday a kirtan was arranged at the house of Ram, one of the

Master's householder devotees. Sri Ramakrishna graced the occasion with

his presence. The musicians sang about Radha's pangs at her separation

from Krishna: Radha said to her friends: "I have loved to see Krishna from

my childhood. My finger-nails are worn off from counting the days on them

till I shall see Him. Once He gave me a garland. Look, it has withered, but I

have not yet thrown it away. Alas! Where has the Moon of Krishna risen

now? Has that Moon gone away from my firmament, afraid of the Rahu of

my pique? Alas! Shall I ever see Krishna again? O my beloved Krishna, I

have never been able to look at You to my heart's complete satisfaction. I

have only one pair of eyes; they blink and so hinder my vision. And further,

on account of streams of tears I could not see enough of my Beloved. The

peacock feather on the crown of His head shines like arrested lightning. The

peacocks, seeing Krishna's dark-cloud complexion, would dance in joy,

spreading their tails. O friends, I shall not be able to keep my life-breath.

After my death, place my body on a branch of the dark tamala tree and

inscribe on my body Krishna's sweet name."

The Master said: "God and His name are identical; that is the reason Radha

said that.

There is no difference between Rama and His holy name."

May 27, 1883

Sri Ramakrishna was in his room at Dakshineswar, conversing with the

devotees. It was about nine o'clock in the morning.

Religious quarrels condemned

MASTER (to M. and the other devotees): "It is not good to harbour malice.

The Saktas, the Vaishnavas, and the Vedantists quarrel among themselves.

That is not wise.

Padmalochan was court pundit of the Maharaja of Burdwan. Once at a

meeting the pundits were discussing whether Śiva was superior to Brahma,

or Brahma to Śiva.

Padmalochan gave an appropriate reply. 'I don't know anything about it',

said he. 'I haven't talked either to Śiva or to Brahma.'

Single-minded devotion

"If people feel sincere longing, they will find that all paths lead to God. But

one should have nishtha, single-minded devotion. It is also described as

chaste and unswerving devotion to God. It is like a tree with only one trunk

shooting straight up. Promiscuous devotion is like a tree with five branches.

Such was the single-minded devotion of the gopis to Krishna that they

didn't care to look at anyone but the Krishna they had seen at Vrindāvan-the

Shepherd Krishna, bedecked with a garland of yellow wild-flowers and

wearing a peacock feather on His crest. At the sight of Krishna at Mathura

with a turban on His head and dressed in royal robes, the gopis pulled down

their veils. They would not look at His face. 'Who is this man?' they said.

'Should we violate our chaste love for Krishna by talking to him?'

"The devotion of the wife to her husband is also an instance of unswerving

love. She feeds her brothers-in-law as well, and looks after their comforts,

but she has a special relationship with her husband. Likewise, one may have

that single-minded devotion to one's own religion; but one should not on

that account hate other faiths. On the contrary, one should have a friendly

attitude, toward them."

The Master bathed in the Ganges and then went to the Kāli temple with M.

He sat before the image and offered flowers at the feet of the Divine

Mother. Now and then he put flowers on his own head and meditated.

After a long time he stood up. He was in a spiritual mood and danced

before the image, chanting the name of Kāli. Now and again he said: "O

Mother! O Destroyer of suffering!

O Remover of grief and agony!" Was he teaching people thus to pray to the

Mother of the Universe with a yearning heart, in order to get rid of the

suffering inevitable in physical life?

Sri Ramakrishna returned to his room and sat on the west porch. Rakhal,

M., Nakur Vaishnav, and other devotees were with him. Nakur had been

known to the Master for about twenty-five years. He was a devotee of

Gauranga and had a small shop which Sri Ramakrishna had often visited

when he first came to Calcutta from Kamarpukur.

Still overpowered with divine ecstasy, the Master sang: O Kāli, my Mother

full of Bliss! Enchantress of the almighty Śiva!

In Thy delirious joy Thou dancest, clapping Thy hands together!

Eternal One! Thou great First Cause, clothed in the form of the Void

Thou wearest the moon upon Thy brow,

Where didst Thou find Thy garland of heads before the universe was made?

Thou art the Mover of all that move, and we are but Thy helpless toys;

We move alone as Thou movest us and speak as through us Thou speakest.

But worthless Kamalakanta says, fondly berating Thee: Confoundress! With

Thy flashing sword

Thoughtlessly Thou hast put to death my virtue and my sin alike!

He sang again:

Mother, Thou art our sole Redeemer,

Thou the Support of the three gunas,

Higher than the most high.

Thou art compassionate, I know,

Who takest away our bitter grief.

Sandhya art Thou, and Gayatri;

Thou dost sustain this universe.

Mother, the Help art Thou

Of those that have no help but Thee,

O Eternal Beloved of Śiva!

Thou art in earth, in water Thou;

Thou liest at the root of all.

In me, in every creature,

Thou hast Thy home; though clothed with form, Yet art Thou formless

Reality.

The Master sang a few more songs in praise of the Divine Mother. Then he

said to the devotees: "It is not always best to tell householders about the

sorrows of life. They want bliss. Those who suffer from chronic poverty can

go without food for a day or two.

But it is not wise to talk about the sorrows and miseries of life to those who

suffer if their food is delayed a few minutes. Vaishnavcharan used to say:

'Why should one constantly dwell on sin? Be merry!' "

While the Master was resting after his midday meal, Manohor Goswami, a

singer of kirtan, arrived. He sang about the ecstatic love of Gauranga and

the divine episode of Vrindāvan. The Master was absorbed in a deep

spiritual mood. He tore off his shirt and said, to the melody of the kirtan,

assuming the attitude of Radha: "O Krishna, my Beloved! O friends, bring

Krishna to me. Then you will be real friends. Or take me to Him, and I will

be your slave for ever."

The musician sat spellbound at Sri Ramakrishna's ecstasy; then he said with

folded hands, "Won't you please rid me of my worldliness?"

MASTER: "You are like the holy man who went about the city after first

finding a lodging. You are a sweet person and express many sweet ideas."

MUSICIAN: "Sir, I am like the bullock that only carries the bag of sugar

but cannot taste it. Alas, I myself do not enjoy the sweetness of divine

bliss."

The melodious music went on, and all were filled with joy.

Saturday, June 2, 1883

Sri Ramakrishna had been invited to visit the homes of his devotees

Balaram, Adhar, and Ram in Calcutta. Devotional music had been arranged

by Adhar and Ram. The Master was accompanied in the carriage by

Rakhal, M., and others.

As they drove along, Sri Ramakrishna said to the devotees: "You see, sin

flies away when love of God grows in a man's heart, even as the water of

the reservoir dug in a meadow dries up under the heat of the sun. But one

cannot love God if one feels attracted to worldly things, to 'woman and

gold'. Merely taking the vow of monastic life will not help a man if he is

attached to the world. It is like swallowing your own spittle after spitting it

out on the ground."

After a few minutes the Master continued: 'The members of the Brahmo

Samaj do not accept God with form. Narendra says that God with form is a

mere idol. He says further: 'What? He still goes to the Kāli temple!'"

Sri Ramakrishna and his party arrived at Balaram's house. Yajnanath of

Nandanbagan came to invite the Master to his house at four o'clock in the

afternoon. Sri Ramakrishna agreed to go if he felt well. After Yajnanath's

departure the Master went into an ecstatic mood. He said to the Divine

Mother: "Mother, what is all this? Stop! What are these things Thou art

showing to me? What is it that Thou dost reveal to me through Rakhal and

others? The form is disappearing. But, Mother, what people call 'man' is

only a pillow-case, nothing but a pillow-case. Consciousness is Thine alone.

"The modern Brahmajnanis have not tasted Thy sweet bliss. Their eyes look

dry and so do their faces. They won't achieve anything without ecstatic love

of God.

"Mother, once I asked Thee to give me a companion just like myself. Is that

why Thou hast given me Rakhal?"

The Master went to Adhar's house, where arrangements were being made

for the kirtan.

Many devotees and neighbours had gathered in Adhar's drawing-room,

anxious to listen to the Master's words.

Spiritual inspiration comes from God

MASTER (to the devotees): "Both worldliness and liberation depend on

God's will. It is God alone who has kept man in the world in a state of

ignorance; and man will be free when God, of His own sweet will, calls him

to Himself. It is like the mother calling the child at meal-time, when he is

out playing. When the time comes for setting a man free, God makes him

seek the company of holy men. Further, it is God who makes him restless

for spiritual life."

A NEIGIHBOUR: "What kind of restlessness, sir?"

MASTER: "Like the restlessness of a clerk who has lost his job. He makes

the round of the offices daily and asks whether there is any vacancy. When

that restlessness comes, man longs for God. A fop, seated comfortably with

one leg over the other, chewing betel-leaf and twirling his moustaches-a

carefree dandy-, cannot attain God."

NEIGHBOUR: "Can one get this longing for God through frequenting the

company of holy men?"

MASTER: "Yes, it is possible. But not for a confirmed scoundrel. A

sannyasi's kamandalu, made of bitter gourd, travels with him to the four

great places of pilgrimage but still does not lose its bitterness."

The kirtan began. The musician sang of Sri Krishna's life in Vrindāvan:

RADHA: "Friend, I am about to die. Give me back my Krishna."

FRIEND: "But, Radha; the cloud of Krishna was ready to burst into rain. It

was yourself who blew it away with the strong wind of your pique. You are

certainly not happy to see Krishna happy; or why were you piqued?"

RADHA: "But this pride was not mine. My pride has gone away with Him

who made me proud."

After the music Sri Ramakrishna conversed with the devotees.

MASTER: "The gopis worshipped Katyayani in order to be united with Sri

Krishna.

Everyone is under the authority of the Divine Mother, Mahamaya, the

Primal Energy.

Even the Incarnations of God accept the help of maya to fulfil their mission

on earth.

Therefore they worship the Primal Energy. Don't you see how bitterly Rama

wept for Sita? 'Brahman weeps, ensnared in the meshes of maya.'

"Vishnu incarnated Himself as a sow in order to kill the demon

Hiranyaksha. After killing the demon, the sow remained quite happy with

her young ones. Forgetting her real nature, she was suckling them very

contentedly. The gods in heaven could not persuade Vishnu to relinquish

His sow's body and return to the celestial regions. He was absorbed in the

happiness of His beast form. After consulting among themselves, the gods

sent Śiva to the sow. Śiva asked the sow, 'Why have you forgotten

yourself?' Vishnu replied through the sow's body, 'Why, I am quite happy

here.' Thereupon with a stroke of his trident Śiva destroyed the sow's body,

and Vishnu went back to heaven."

Ramchandra Dutta

From Adhar's house Sri Ramakrishna went to Ram's house. Ramchandra

Dutta, one of the chief householder disciples of the Master, lived in

Calcutta. He had been one of the first to announce the Master as an

Incarnation of God. The Master had visited his house a number of times and

unstintingly praised the devotion and generosity of this beloved disciple. A

few of the Master's disciples made Ram's house virtually their own

dwelling-place.

Ram had arranged a special festival to celebrate the Master's visit. The

small courtyard was nicely decorated. A kathak, seated on a raised

platform, was reciting from the Bhagavata when the Master arrived. Ram

greeted him respectfully and seated him near the reader. The disciple was

extremely happy. The kathak was in the midst of the story of King

Harischandra.

Story of Harishchandra

The great King Harischandra of the Purana was the embodiment of

generosity. No one ever went away from him empty-handed. Now, the sage

Viswamitra, wanting to test the extent of the king's charity, extracted from

him a promise to grant any boon that he might ask. Then the sage asked for

the gift of the sea-girt world, of which Harischandra was king. Without the

slightest hesitation the king gave away his kingdom. Then Viswamitra

demanded the auxiliary fee, which alone makes charity valid and

meritorious. The kathak continued his recitation: Viswamitra said to the

king: "O King, you have given away the entire world, which was your

kingdom. It now belongs to me; you cannot claim any place here. But you

may live in Benares, which belongs to Śiva. I shall lead you there with your

wife Saibya, and Rohitasva, your son. There you can procure the auxiliary

fee that you owe me." The royal family, accompanied by the sage, reached

Benares and visited the temple of Śiva.

At the very mention of Śiva, the Master went into spiritual mood and

repeated the holy name several times indistinctly.

The kathak continued:

The king could not procure the fee and was compelled to sell Saibya, his

royal consort, to a brahmin. With her went Prince Rohitasva. But since even

that was not enough to redeem his pledge to the sage, Harischandra sold

himself to an untouchable who kept a cremation ground. He was ordered to

supervise the cremations. One day, while plucking flowers for his brahmin

master, Prince Rohitasva was bitten by a venomous snake and that very

night died. The cruel brahmin would not leave his bed to help the poor

mother cremate the body. The night was dark and stormy. Lightning rent the

black clouds. Saibya started for the cremation ground alone, carrying the

body of her son in her arms. Smitten with fear and overpowered with grief,

the queen filled heaven and earth with her wailing. Arriving at the

cremation ground, she did not recognize her husband, who demanded the

usual fee for the cremation. Saibya was penniless and wept bitterly at her

unending misfortunes. The impenetrable darkness was illumined only by

the terrible flames of the cremation pyres. Above her the thunder roared,

and before her the uncouth guardian of the cremation ground demanded his

fee. She who had once been queen of the world sat there with her only child

dead and cold on her lap.

The devotees burst into tears and loudly lamented this tragic episode of a

royal life. And what was the Master doing? He was listening to the recital

with rapt attention. Tear-drops appeared in his eyes and he wiped them

away.

The kathak continued:

When the queen, wailing bitterly, uttered the name of her husband,

Harischandra at once recognized his wife and son. Then the two wept for

the dead prince. Yet in all these misfortunes the king never once uttered a

word of regret for his charity.

Finally the sage Viswamitra appeared and told them that he had only

wanted to put the king's charitable impulses to a crucial test. Then, through

his spiritual power, the sage brought the prince back to life and returned to

the king his lost kingdom.

Story of Uddhava

Sri Ramakrishna asked the kathak to recite the episode of Uddhava, the

friend and devotee of Krishna.

At the request of Krishna, Uddhava had gone to Vrindāvan to console the

cowherds and the gopis, who were sore at heart because of their separation

from their beloved Krishna.

The Kathak said:

When Uddhava arrived at Vrindāvan, the gopis and cowherd boys ran to

him eagerly and asked him: "How is our Krishna? Has He forgotten us

altogether? Doesn't He even speak our names?" So saying, some of them

wept. Others accompanied him to various places in Vrindāvan still filled

with Krishna's sweet memory. They said: "Here it was that Krishna lifted up

Mount Govardhan, and here He killed the demons sent by the evil-minded

Kamśa. In this meadow He tended His cows; here on the bank of the

Jamuna He sported with the gopis. Here

He played with the cowherd boys, and here in these groves He met the

gopis secretly."

Uddhava said to them: "Why are you so grief-stricken at Krishna's absence?

He resides in all beings as their indwelling Spirit. He is God Himself, and

nothing can exist without God." "But", said the gopis, "we do not

understand all that. We can neither read nor write. We know only our

Krishna of Vrindāvan, who played with us here in so many ways." Uddhava

said: "Krishna is God Himself. By meditating on Him, man escapes from

birth and death in the world and attains liberation." The gopis said: "We do

not understand big words like 'liberation'. We want to see the Krishna of our

hearts."

The Master listened to the story from the Bhagavata with great attention

and said at last, "Yes, the gopis were right."

Then he sang:

Though I am never loath to grant salvation,

I hesitate indeed, to grant pure love.

Whoever wins pure love surpasses all;

He is adored by men;

He triumphs over the three worlds.

Listen, Chandravali! I shall tell you of love: Mukti a man may gain, but

rare is bhakti.

Solely for pure love's sake did I become

King Vali's door-keeper

Down in his realm in the nether world.

Alone in Vrindāvan can pure love be found;

Its secret none but the gopas and gopis know.

For pure love's sake I dwelt in Nanda's house; Taking him as My father,

I carried his burdens on My head.

The Master said to the kathak: "The gopis had ecstatic love, unswerving

and single-minded devotion to one ideal. Do you know the meaning of

devotion that is not loyal to one ideal? It is devotion tinged with intellectual

knowledge. It makes one feel: 'Krishna has become all these. He alone is

the Supreme Brahman. He is Rama, Śiva, and Śakti.'

But this element of knowledge is not present in ecstatic love of God. Once

Hanuman came to Dwaraka and wanted to see Sita and Rama. Krishna said

to Rukmini, His queen, 'You had better assume the form of Sita; otherwise

there will be no escape from the hands of Hanuman.'

"Once the Pandava brothers performed the Rajasuya sacrifice. All the kings

placed Yudhisthira on the royal throne and bowed low before him in

homage. But Bibhishana, the King of Ceylon, said, 'I bow down to

Narayana and to none else.' At these words the Lord Krishna bowed down

to Yudhisthira. Only then did Bibhishana prostrate himself, crown and all,

before him.

"Do you know what devotion to one ideal is like? It is like the attitude of a

daughter-in-law in the family. She serves all the members of the family-her

brothers-in-law, father-in-law, husband, and so forth-, bringing them water

to wash their feet, fetching their towels, arranging their seats, and the like;

but with her husband she has a special relationship.

Characteristics of divine love

"There are two elements in this ecstatic love: 'I-ness' and 'my-ness'. Yaśoda

used to think: 'Who would look after Gopala if I did not? He will fall ill if I

do not serve Him.' She did not look on Krishna as God. The other element

is 'my-ness'. It means to look on God as one's own-'my Gopala'. Uddhava

said to Yaśoda: 'Mother, your Krishna is God Himself. He is the Lord of the

Universe and not a common human being.' 'Oh!'

exclaimed Yaśoda. 'I am not asking you about your Lord of the Universe. I

want to know how my Gopala fares. Not the Lord of the Universe, but my

Gopala.'

"How faithful to Krishna the gopis were! After many entreaties to the door-

keeper, the gopis entered the royal court in Mathura, where Krishna was

seated as king. The door-keeper took them to Him; but at the sight of King

Krishna wearing the royal turban, the gopis bent down their heads and said

among themselves: 'Who is this man with a turban on his head? Should we

violate our chaste love for Krishna by talking to him? Where is our beloved

Krishna with the yellow robe and the bewitching crest with the peacock

feather?'

"Did you observe the single-minded love of the gopis for Krishna? The

ideal of Vrindāvan is unique. I am told that the people of Dwaraka worship

Krishna, the companion of Arjuna, but reject Radha."

A DEVOTEE: "Which is the better, ecstatic love or love mixed with

knowledge?"

Parable of the three friends

MASTER: "It is not possible to develop ecstatic love of God unless you

love Him very deeply and regard Him as your very own.

"Listen to a story. Once three friends were going through a forest, when a

tiger suddenly appeared before them. 'Brothers,' one of them exclaimed, 'we

are lost!' 'Why should you say that?' said the second friend. 'Why should we

be lost? Come, let us pray to God.' The third friend said: 'No. Why should

we trouble God about it? Come, let us climb this tree.'

"The friend who said, 'We are lost!' did not know that there is a God who is

our Protector. The friend who asked the others to pray to God was a jnani.

He was aware that God is the Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer of the

world. The third friend, who didn't want to trouble God with prayers and

suggested climbing the tree, had ecstatic love of God. It is the very nature

of such love that it makes a man think himself stronger than his Beloved.

He is always alert lest his Beloved should suffer. The one desire of his life

is to keep his Beloved from even being pricked in the foot by a thorn."

Ram served the Master and the devotees with delicious sweets.

--------------------

Chapter 11

WITH THE DEVOTEES AT DAKSHINESWAR (I)

Monday, June 4, 1883

ABOUT NINE O'CLOCK in the morning the devotees began to arrive at

the temple garden. Sri Ramakrishna was sitting on the porch of his room

facing the Ganges. M., who had spent the previous night with the Master,

sat near him. Balarām and several other devotees were present. Rākhāl lay

on the floor, resting his head on the Master's lap. For the past few days the

Master had been regarding Rākhāl as the Baby Krishna.

Seeing Trailokya passing on his way to the Kali temple, Sri Ramakrishna

asked Rākhāl to get up. Trailokya bowed to the Master.

MASTER (to Trailokya): "Was there no yatra performance last night?"

TRAILOKYA: "No, sir. We couldn't conveniently arrange it."

MASTER: "What is done is done. But please see that this doesn't happen

again. The traditions of the temple should be properly observed."

Trailokya gave a suitable reply and went on his way. After a while Ram

Chatterji, the priest of the Vishnu temple, came up to Sri Ramakrishna.

MASTER: "Well, Ram, I told Trailokya that the yatra performance should

not be omitted again. Was I right in saying that?".

RAM: "What of it, sir? Of course you were right. The traditions should be

observed."

The Master asked Balarām to stay for his midday meal. Before the meal Sri

Ramakrishna described to the devotees the days of his God-intoxication.

Rākhāl, M., Ramlal, and a few others were present.

Master's attitude toward young disciples

MASTER: "Now and then Hazra comes forward to teach me. He says to

me, 'Why do you think so much about the youngsters?' One day, as I was

going to Balarām's house in a carriage, I felt greatly troubled about it. I said

to the Divine Mother: 'Mother, Hazra admonishes me for worrying about

Narendra and the other young boys. He asks me why I forget God and think

about these youngsters.' No sooner did this thought arise in my mind than

the Divine Mother revealed to me in a flash that it is She Herself who has

become man. But She manifests Herself most clearly through a. pure soul.

At this vision I went into samadhi. Afterwards I felt angry with Hazra. I

said to myself, 'That rascal made me miserable.' Then I thought: 'But why

should I blame the poor man? How is he to know?'

His yearning for Narendra

"I know these youngsters to be Narayana Himself. At my first meeting with

Narendra I found him completely indifferent to his body. When I touched

his chest with my hand, he lost consciousness of the outer world. Regaining

consciousness, Narendra said: 'Oh, what have you done to me? I have my

father and mother at home!' The same thing happened at Jadu Mallick's

house. As the days passed I longed more and more to see him. My heart

yearned for him. One day at that time I said to Bholanath: 'Can you tell me

why I should feel this way? There is a boy called Narendra, of the kayastha

caste.

Why should I feel so restless for him?' Bholanath said: 'You will find the

explanation in the Mahabharata. On coming down to the plane of ordinary

consciousness, a man established in samadhi enjoys himself in the company

of sattvic people. He feels peace of mind at the sight of such men.' When I

heard this my mind was set at ease. Now and then I would sit alone and

weep for the sight of Narendra.

Reminiscences of his God-intoxicated state

"Oh, what a state of mind I passed through! When I first had that

experience, I could not perceive the coming and going of day or night.

People said I was insane. What else could they say? They made me marry. I

was then in a state of God-intoxication. At first I felt worried about my

wife. Then I thought she too would eat and drink and live like me.

"I visited my father-in-law's house. They arranged a kirtan. It was a great

religious festival, and there was much singing of God's holy name. Now

and then I would wonder about my future. I would say to the Divine

Mother, 'Mother, I shall take my spiritual experiences to be real if the

landlords of the country show me respect.' They too came of their own

accord and talked with me.

"Oh, what an ecstatic state it was! Even the slightest suggestion would

awaken my spiritual consciousness. I worshipped the 'Beautiful' in a girl

fourteen years old. I saw that she was the personification of the Divine

Mother. At the end of the worship I bowed before her and offered a rupee at

her feet. One day I witnessed a Ramlila performance.

I saw the performers to be the actual Sita, Rāma, Lakshmana, Hanuman,

and Bibhishana. Then I worshipped the actors and actresses who played

those parts.

"At that time I used to invite maidens here and worship them. I found them

to be embodiments of the Divine Mother Herself.

"One day I saw a woman in blue standing near the bakul-tree. She was a

prostitute.

But she instantly kindled in me the vision of Sita. I forgot the woman. I saw

that it was Sita herself on her way to meet Rāma after her rescue from

Ravana in Ceylon. For a long time I remained in samadhi, unconscious of

the outer world.

"Another day I had gone to the Maidan in Calcutta for fresh air. A great

crowd had assembled there to watch a balloon ascension. Suddenly I saw an

English boy leaning against a tree. As he stood there his body was bent in

three places. The vision of Krishna came before me in a flash. I went into

samadhi.

"Once, at Sihore, I fed the cowherd boys. I put sweetmeats into their hands.

I saw that these boys were actually the cowherd boys of Vrindavan, and I

partook of the sweetmeats from their hands.

"At that time I was almost unconscious of thc outer world. Mathur Babu

kept me at his Janbazar mansion a few days. While living there I regarded

myself as the handmaid of the Divine Mother. The ladies of the house didn't

feel at all bashful with me. They felt as free before me as women feel

before a small boy or girl. I used to escort Mathur's daughter to her

husband's chamber with the maidservant.

"Even now the slightest thing awakens God-Consciousness in me. Rākhāl

used to repeat the name of God half aloud. At such times I couldn't control

myself. It would rouse my spiritual consciousness and overwhelm me."

Sri Ramakrishna went on describing the different experiences he had had

while worshipping the Divine Mother as Her handmaid. He said: "Once I

imitated a professional woman, singer for a man singer. He said my acting

was quite correct and asked me where I had learnt it." The Master repeated

his imitation for the devotees, and they burst into laughter.

After his noon meal the Master took a short rest. Manilal Mallick, an old

member of the Brahmo Samaj, entered the room and sat down after saluting

the Master, who was still lying on his bed. Manilal asked him questions

now and then, and the Master, still half asleep, answered with a word or

two. Manilal said that Shivanath admired Nityagopal's spiritual state. The

Master asked in a sleepy tone what they thought of Hazra.

Then Sri Ramakrishna sat up on his bed and told Manilal about Bhavanath's

devotion to God.

MASTER: "Ah, what an exalted state he is in! He has hardly begun to sing

about God before his eyes fill with tears. The very sight of Harish made him

ecstatic. He said that Harish was very lucky. He made the remark because

Harish was spending a few days here, now and then, away from his home."

Sri Ramakrishna asked M., "Well, what is the cause of bhakti? Why should

the spiritual feeling of young boys like Bhavanath be awakened?" M.

remained silent.

MASTER: "The fact is, all men may look alike from the outside, but some

of them have fillings of 'condensed milk'. Cakes may have fillings of

condensed milk or powdered black grams, but they all look alike from the

outside. The desire to know God, ecstatic love of Him, and such other

spiritual qualities are the 'condensed milk'."

Reassurance to the devotees & Parable of the tigress Sri Ramakrishna

spoke reassuringly to the devotees.

MASTER (to M.): "Some think: 'Oh, I am a bound soul. I shall never

acquire knowledge and devotion.' But if one receives the guru's grace, one

has nothing to fear. Once a tigress attacked a flock of goats. As she sprang

on her prey, she gave birth to a cub and died. The cub grew up in the

company of the goats. The goats ate grass and the cub followed their

example. They bleated; the cub bleated too. Gradually it grew to be a big

tiger. One day another tiger attacked the same flock. It was amazed to see

the grass-eating tiger. Running after it, the wild tiger at last seized it,

whereupon the grass-eating tiger began to bleat. The wild tiger dragged it to

the water and said: 'Look at your face in the water. It is just like mine. Here

is a little meat. Eat it.' Saying this, it thrust some meat into its mouth. But

the grass-eating tiger would not swallow it and began to bleat again.

Gradually, however, it got the taste for blood and came to relish the meat.

Then the wild tiger said: 'Now you see there is no difference between you

and me.

Come along and follow me into the forest.'

"So there can be no fear if the guru's grace descends on one. He will let you

know who you are and what your real nature is.

"If the devotee practises spiritual discipline a little, the guru explains

everything to him.

Then the disciple understands for himself what is real and what is unreal.

God alone is real, and the world is illusory.

Parable of the false ascetic

"One night a fisherman went into a garden and cast his net into the lake in

order to steal some fish. The owner heard him and surrounded him with his

servants. They brought lighted torches and began to search for him. In the

mean time the fisherman smeared his body with ashes and sat under a tree,

pretending to be a holy man. The owner and his men searched a great deal

but could not find the thief. All they saw was a holy man covered with

ashes, meditating under a tree. The next day the news spread in the

neighbourhood that a great sage was staying in the garden. People gathered

there and saluted him with offerings of fruit, flowers, and sweets. Many

also offered silver and copper coins. 'How strange!' thought the fisherman.

'I am not a genuine holy man, and still people show such devotion to me. I

shall certainly realize God if I become a true sadhu. There is no doubt about

it.'

"If a mere pretence of religious life can bring such spiritual awakening, you

can imagine the effect of real sadhana. In that state you will surely realize

what is real and what is unreal. God alone is real, and the world is illusory."

The world is a dream

One of the devotees said to himself: "Is the world unreal, then? The

fisherman, to be sure, renounced worldly life. What, then, will happen to

those who live in the world?

Must they too renounce it?" Sri Ramakrishna, who could see into a man's

innermost thought, said very tenderly: "Suppose an office clerk has been

sent to jail. He undoubtedly leads a prisoner's life there. But when he is

released from jail, does he cut capers in the street? Not at all. He gets a job

as a clerk again and goes on working as before. Even after attaining

Knowledge through the guru's grace, one can very well live in the world as

a Jivanmukta." Thus did Sri Ramakrishna reassure those who were living as

householders.

MANILAL: "Sir, where shall I meditate on God when I perform my daily

worship?"

MASTER: "Why, the heart is a splendid place. Meditate on God there."

Manilal, a member of the Brahmo Samaj, believed in a formless God.

Addressing him, the Master said: "Kabir used to say: 'God with form is my

Mother, the formless God my Father. Whom should I blame? Whom should

I adore? The two sides of the scales are even.' During the day-time

Haladhari used to meditate on God with form, and at night on the formless

God. Whichever attitude you adopt, you will certainly realize God if you

have firm faith. You may believe in God with form or in God without form,

but your faith must be sincere and whole-hearted. Sambhu Mallick used to

come on foot from Baghbazar to his garden house at Dakshineswar. One

day a friend said to him: 'It is risky to walk such a long distance. Why don't

you come in a carriage?' At that Sambhu's face turned red and he

exclaimed: 'I set out repeating the name of God! What danger can befall

me?' Through faith alone one attains everything. I used to say, 'I shall take

all this to be true if I meet a certain person or if a certain officer of the

temple garden talks to me.' What I would think of would invariably come to

pass."

M. had studied English logic. In the chapters on fallacies he had read that

only superstitious people believed in the coincidence of morning dreams

with actual events.

Therefore he asked the Master, "Was there never any exception?"

MASTER: "No. At that time everything happened that way. I would repeat

the name of God and believe that a certain thing would happen, and it

would invariably come to pass. (To Manilal) But you must remember,

unless one is guileless and broad-minded, one cannot have such faith. Bony

people, the hollow-eyed, the cross-eyed-people with physical traits like

those cannot easily acquire faith. What can a man do if there are evil omens

on all sides?"

It was dusk. The maidservant entered the room and burnt incense. Manilal

and some other devotees left for Calcutta. M. and Rākhāl were in the room.

The Master was seated on his small couch absorbed in meditation on the

Divine Mother. There was complete silence.

After a time Bhagavati, an old maidservant of the temple proprietor, entered

the room and saluted the Master from a distance. Sri Ramakrishna bade her

sit down. The Master had known her for many years. In her younger days

she had lived a rather immoral life; but the Master's compassion was great.

Soon he began to converse with her.

MASTER: "Now you are pretty old. Have you been feeding the Vaishnavas

and holy men, and thus spending your money in a noble way?"

BHAGAVATI (smiling): "How can I say that?"

MASTER: "Have you been to Vrindavan, Benares, and the other holy

places?"

BHAGAVATI (shrinkingly): "How can I say that-I have built a bathing

place, and my name is inscribed there on a slab."

MASTER: "Indeed!"

BHAGAVATI: "Yes, sir. My name, 'Srimati Bhagavati Dasi', is written

there."

MASTER (with a smile): "How nice!"

Emboldened by the Master's words, Bhagavati approached and saluted him,

touching his feet. Like a man stung by a scorpion, Sri Ramakrishna stood

up and cried out, "Govinda! Govinda!" A big jar of Ganges water stood in a

comer of the room. He hurried there, panting, and washed with the holy

water the spot the maidservant had touched.

The devotees in the room were amazed to see this incident. Bhagavati sat as

if struck dead.

Sri Ramakrishna consoled her and said in a very kindly tone, "You should

salute me from a distance." In order to relieve her mind of all

embarrassment, the Master said tenderly, "Listen to a few songs."

The Master then sang about the Divine Mother:

The black bee of my mind is drawn in sheer delight To the blue lotus flower

of Mother Syama's feet. . . .

Then he sang:

High in the heaven of the Mother's feet, my mind was soaring like a kite,

When came a gust of sin's rough wind that drove it swiftly toward the earth.

. . .

Again:

Dwell, O mind, within yourself;

Enter no other's home.

If you but seek there, you will find

All you are searching for.

God, the true Philosopher's Stone,

Who answers every prayer,

Lies hidden deep within your heart, The richest gem of all.

How many pearls and precious stones

Are scattered all about

The outer court that lies before

The chamber of your heart!

Tuesday, June 5, 1883

Rākhāl and Hazra were staying with the Master in the temple garden at

Dakshineswar.

M., too, had been there since the previous Sunday. As it was a week-day

there were only a few devotees in the room. Generally people gathered

there in large numbers on Sundays or holidays.

It was afternoon. Sri Ramakrishna was telling the devotees about his

experiences during his God-intoxicated state.

MASTER (to M.): "Oh, what a state I passed through! At that time I didn't

eat my meals here. I would enter the house of a brahmin in the village or at

Baranagore or at Ariadaha. Generally it would be past meal-time. I would

just sit down there without saying a word. If the members of the household

asked me why I had come, I would simply say, 'I want something to eat.'

Now and then I would go, uninvited of course, to Ram Chatterji's house at

Alambazar or to the Choudhurys at Dakshineswar. But I didn't relish the

food at the Choudhurys' house.

"One day I begged Mathur to take me to Devendra Tagore's house. I said:

'Devendra chants the name of God, I want to see him. Will you take me

there?' Mathur Babu was a very proud man. How could one expect him to

go to another man's house uninvited? At first he hesitated. But then he said:

'All right. Devendra and I were fellow students. I will take you to him.'

"Another day I learnt of a good man named Dina Mukherji, living at

Baghbazar near the bridge. He was a devotee. I asked Mathur to take me

there. Finding me insistent, he took me to Dina's house in a carriage. It was

a small place. The arrival of a rich man in a big carriage embarrassed the

inmates. We too were embarrassed. That day Dina's son was being invested

with the sacred thread. The house was crowded, and there was hardly any

place for Dina to receive us. We were about to enter a side room, when

someone cried out: 'Please don't go into that room. There are ladies there.' It

was really a distressing situation. Returning, Mathur Babu said, 'Father, I

shall never listen to you again.' I laughed.

"Oh, what a state I passed through! Once Kumar Singh gave a feast to the

sadhus and invited me too. I found a great many holy men assembled there.

When I sat down for the meal, several sadhus asked me about myself. At

once I felt like leaving them and sitting alone. I wondered why they should

bother about all that. The sadhus took their seats. I began to eat before they

had started. I heard several of them remark, 'Oh!

What sort of man is this?' "

Parable of the farmer

It was about five o'clock in the afternoon. Sri Ramakrishna was sitting on

the steps of his verandah. Hazra, Rākhāl, and M. were near him. Hazra had

the attitude of a Vedantist: "I am He."

MASTER (to Hazra): "Yes, all one's confusion comes to an end if one only

realizes that it is God who manifests Himself as the atheist and the believer,

the good and the bad, the real and the unreal; that it is He who is present in

waking and in sleep; and that He is beyond all these.

"There was a farmer to whom an only son was born when he was rather

advanced in age. As the child grew up, his parents became very fond of

him. One day the farmer was out working in the fields, when a neighbour

told him that his son was dangerously ill-indeed, at the point of death.

Returning home he found the boy dead. His wife wept bitterly, but his own

eyes remained dry. Sadly the wife said to her ncighbours, 'Such a son has

passed away, and he hasn't even one tear to shed!' After a long while the

farmer said to his wife: 'Do you know why I am not crying? Last night I

dreamt I had become a king, and the father of seven princes. These princes

were beautiful as well as virtuous. They grew in stature and acquired

wisdom and knowledge in the various arts.

Suddenly I woke up. Now I have been wondering whether I should weep

for those seven children or this one boy.' To the jnanis the waking state is no

more real than the dream state.

"God alone is the Doer. Everything happens by His will."

Law of karma

HAZRA: "But it is very difficult to understand that. Take the case of the

sadhu of Bhukailas. How people tortured him and; in a way, killed him!

They had found him in samadhi. First they buried him, then they put him

under water, and then they branded him with a hot iron. Thus they brought

him back to consciousness of the world. But in the end the sadhu died as a

result of these tortures. He undoubtedly suffered at the hands of men,

though, as you say, he died by the will of God."

MASTER: "Man must reap the fruit of his own karma. But as far as the

death of that holy man is concerned, it was brought about by the will of

God. The kavirajs prepare makaradhvaja in a bottle. The bottle is covered

with clay and heated in the fire. The gold inside the bottle melts and

combines with the other ingredients, and the medicine is made. Then the

physicians break the bottle carefully and take out the medicine. When the

medicine is made, what difference does it make whether the bottle is

preserved or broken? So people think that the holy man was killed. But

perhaps his inner stuff had been made. After the realization of God, what

difference does it make whether the body lives or dies?

Different kinds of samadhi

"The sadhu of Bhukailas was in samadhi. There are many kinds of samadhi.

My own spiritual experiences tally with the words I heard from a sadhu of

Hrishikesh.

Sometimes I feel the rising of the spiritual current inside me, as though it

were the creeping of an ant. Sometimes it feels like the movement of a

monkey jumping from one branch to another. Again, sometimes it feels like

a fish swimming in water. Only he who experiences it knows what it is like.

In samadhi one forgets the world. When the mind comes down a little, I say

to the Divine Mother: 'Mother, please cure me of this. I want to talk to

people.'

"None but the Isvarakotis can return to the plane of relative consciousness

after attaining samadhi. Some ordinary men attain samadhi through spiritual

discipline; but they do not come back. But when God Himself is born as a

man, as an Incarnation, holding in His hand the key to others' liberation,

then for the welfare of humanity the Incarnation returns from samadhi to

consciousness of the world."

M. (to himself): "Does the Master hold in his hand the key to man's

liberation?"

HAZRA: "The one thing needful is to please God. What does it matter

whether an Incarnation of God exists or not?"

It was the day of the new moon. Gradually night descended and dense

darkness enveloped the trees and the temples. A few lights shone here and

there in the temple garden. The black sky was reflected in the waters of the

Ganges.

The Master went to the verandah south of his room. A spiritual mood was

the natural state of his mind. The dark night of the new moon, associated

with the black complexion of Kali, the Divine Mother, intensified his

spiritual exaltation. Now and then he repeated "Om" and the name of Kali.

He lay down on a mat and whispered to M.

MASTER: "Yes, God can be seen. X-has had a vision of God. But don't tell

anyone about it. Tell me, which do you like better, God with form, or the

formless Realitv?"

M: "Sir, nowadays I like to think of God without form. But I am also

beginning to understand that it is God alone who manifests Himself through

different forms."

MASTER: "Will you take me in a carriage some day to Mati Seal's garden

house at Belgharia? When you throw puffed rice into the lake there, the fish

come to the surface and eat it. Ah! I feel so happy to see them sport in the

water. That will awaken your spiritual consciousness too. You will feel as if

the fish of the human soul were playing in the Ocean of Satchidananda. In

the same manner, I go into an ecstatic mood when I stand in a big meadow.

I feel like a fish released from a bowl into a lake.

"Spiritual discipline is necessary in order to see God. I had to pass through

very severe discipline. How many austerities I practised under the bel-tree!

I would lie down under it, crying to the Divine Mother, 'O Mother, reveal

Thyself to me.' The tears would flow in torrents and soak my body."

M: "You practised so many austerities, but people expect to realize God in a

moment!

Can a man build a wall simply by moving his finger around his home?"

MASTER (with a smile): "Amrita says that one man lights a fire and ten

bask in its heat.

I want to tell you something else. It is good to remain on the plane of the

Lila after reaching the Nitya."

M: "You once said that one comes down to the plane of the Lila in order to

enjoy the divine play."

MASTER; "No, not exactly that. The Lila is real too.

"Let me tell you something. Whenever you come here, bring a trifle with

you. Perhaps I shouldn't say it; it may look like egotism. I also told Adhar

Sen that he should bring a pennyworth of something with him. I asked

Bhavanath to bring a pennyworth of betel-leaf. Have you noticed

Bhavanath's devotion? Narendra and he seem like man and woman. He is

devoted to Narendra. Bring Narendra here with you in a carriage, and also

bring some sweets with you. It will do you good.

Paths of love and knowledge

"Knowledge and love-both are paths leading to God. Those who follow the

path of love have to observe a little more outer purity. But the violation of

this by a man following the path of knowledge cannot injure him. It is

destroyed in the fire of knowledge. Even a banana tree is burnt up when it is

thrown into a roaring fire.

"The jnanis follow the path of discrimination. Sometimes it happens that,

discriminating between the Real and the unreal, a man loses his faith in the

existence of God. But a devotee who sincerely yearns for God does not give

up his meditation even though he is invaded by atheistic ideas. A man

whose father and. grandfather have been farmers continues his farming

even though he doesn't get any crop in a year of drought."

Lying on the mat and resting his head on a pillow, Sri Ramakrishna

continued the conversation. He said to M: "My legs are aching. Please

stroke them gently." Thus, out of his infinite compassion, the Master

allowed his disciple to render him personal service.

June 8, 1883

It was a summer day. The evening service in the Kali temple was over. Sri

Ramakrishna stood before the image of the Divine Mother and waved the

fan a few minutes.

Ram, Kedar Chatterji, and Tarak arrived from Calcutta with flowers and

sweets. Kedar was about fifty years old. At first he had frequented the

Brahmo Samaj and joined other religious sects in his search for God, but

later on he had accepted the Master as his spiritual guide. He was an

accountant in a government office and lived in a suburb of Calcutta.

Tarak was a young man of twenty-four. His wife had died shortly after their

marriage.

He hailed from the village of Barasat not far from Calcutta. His father, a

highly spiritual soul, had visited Sri Ramakrishna many times. Tarak often

went to Ram's house and used to go to Dakshineswar in the company of

Ram and Nityagopal. He worked in a business firm, but his attitude toward

the world was one of utter indifference.

As Sri Ramakrishna came out of the temple, he saw Ram, Kedar, M., Tarak,

and other devotees standing outside. He showed his affection for Tarak by

touching his chin. He was very happy to see him.

Returning to his room, the Master sat on the floor in an ecstatic mood, with

his legs stretched before him. Ram and Kedar decorated his feet with

flowers and garlands. The Master was in samadhi.

Master's exhortation to a devotee to go forward Kedar believed in

certain queer practices of a religious sect to which he had once belonged.

He held the Master's big toe in his hand, believing that in this way the

Master's spiritual power would be transmitted to him. As Sri Ramakrishna

regained partial consciousness, he said, "Mother, what can he do to me by

holding my toe?" Kedar sat humbly with folded hands. Still in an ecstatic

mood, the Master said to Kedar: "Your mind is still attracted by 'woman and

gold'. What is the use of saying you don't care for it? Go forward. Beyond

the forest of sandalwood there are many more things: mines of silver, gold,

diamonds, and other precious stones. Having a glimpse of spirituality, don't

think you have attained everything." The Master was again in an ecstatic

mood. He said to the Divine Mother, "Mother, take him away." At these

words Kedar's throat dried up.

In a frightened tone he said to Ram, "What is the Master saying?"

At the sight of Rākhāl, Sri Ramakrishna was again overpowered with a

spiritual mood.

He said to his beloved disciple: "I have been here many days; When did you

come?"

Was the Master hinting that he was an Incarnation of God, and Rākhāl his

divine companion, a member of the inner circle of devotees?

Sunday, June 10, 1883

The Master was sitting in his room with Rākhāl, M., Latu, Kishori, Ramlal,

Hazra, and other devotees. It was about ten o'clock in the morning.

Reminiscences of boyhood

Describing his early life, Sri Ramakrishna said to them: "During my

younger days the men and women of Kamarpukur were equally fond of me.

They loved to hear me sing. I could imitate other people's gestures and

conversation and I used to entertain them that way. The women would put

aside things for me to eat. No one distrusted me.

Everybody took me in as one of the family.

"But I was like a happy pigeon. I used to frequent only happy families. I

would run away from a place where I saw misery and suffering.

"One or two young boys of the village were my close friends. I was very

intimate with some of them; but now they are totally immersed in

worldliness. A few of them visit me here now and then and say, 'Goodness!

He seems to be just the same as he was in the village school!' While I was at

school, arithmetic would throw me into confusion, but I could paint very

well and could also model small images of the deities.

"I loved to visit the free eating-places maintained for holy men and the

poor, and would watch them for hours.

"I loved to hear the reading of sacred books such as the Ramayana and

Bhagavata. If the readers had any affectations, I could easily imitate them

and would entertain others with my mimicry.

"I understood the behaviour of women very well and imitated their words

and intonations. I could easily recognize immoral women. Immoral widows

part their hair in the middle and perform their toilet with great care. They

have very little modesty. The way they sit is so different! But let's not talk

of worldly things any more."

The Master asked Ramlal to sing. Ramlal sang:

Who is this terrible Woman, dark as the sky at midnight?

Who is this Woman dancing over the field of battle.

Like a blue lotus that floats on a crimson sea of blood?

Who is She, clad alone in the Infinite for a garment, Rolling Her three great

eyes in frenzy and savage fury?

Under the weight of Her tread the earth itself is trembling!

Siva, Her mighty Husband, who wields the fearful trident, Lies like a lifeless

corpse beneath Her conquering feet.

The next song described the grief of Mandodari at the death of her husband

Ravana. As he listened to it the Master shed tears of sorrow and said:

"Once, when I entered the pine-grove over there, I heard the boatmen on the

Ganges singing that song and wept bitterly for a long time. I had to be

brought back to my room."

Ramlal sang about the love of the gopis for Sri Krishna. Akrura was about

to drive Sri Krishna in a chariot from Vrindavan to Mathura. The gopis

would not let Him go. Some held the wheels of the chariot; some lay down

in front of it. They blamed Akrura, not knowing that Sri Krishna was

leaving them of His own will. Akrura was explaining this to the gopis.

Ramlal sang:

Hold not, hold not the chariot's wheels!

Is it the wheels that make it move?

The Mover of its wheels is Krishna,

By whose will the worlds are moved. . . .

About the gopis, the Master said: "What deep love, what ecstatic devotion

they had for Krishna! Radha painted the picture of Sri Krishna with her own

hand, but did not paint His legs lest He should run away to Mathura! I used

to sing these songs very often during my boyhood. I could reproduce the

whole drama from memory."

After his meal Sri Ramakrishna sat on the couch. He had not yet found time

to rest.

The devotees began to assemble. One party arrived from Manirampur and

another from Belgharia. Some of the devotees said, "We have disturbed

your rest."

MASTER: "Oh, no! What you say applies only to a rajasic man. About him

people say, 'Ah, now he will enjoy his sleep.'"

The devotees from Manirampur asked the Master how to realize God.

MASTER: "You must practise spiritual discipline a little. It will not do

simply to say that milk contains butter. You must let the milk set into curd

and then churn it. Only then can you get butter from it. Spiritual aspirants

must go into solitude now and then. After acquiring love of God in solitude,

they may live in the world. If one is wearing a pair of shoes, one can easily

walk over thorns.

"The most important thing is faith.

As is a man's meditation, so is his feeling of love; As is a man's feeling of

love, so is his gain; And faith is the root of all.

If one has faith one has nothing to fear."

A DEVOTEE: "Sir, is it necessary to have a guru?"

MASTER: "Yes, many need a guru. But a man must have faith in the guru's

words. He succeeds in spiritual life by looking on his guru as God Himself.

Therefore the Vaishnavas speak of Guru, Krishna, and Vaishnava.

"One should constantly repeat the name of God. The name of God is highly

effective in the Kaliyuga. The practice of yoga is not possible in this age,

for the life of a man depends on food. Clap your hands while repeating

God's name, and the birds of your sin will fly away.

"One should always seek the company of holy men. The nearer you

approach the Ganges, the cooler the breeze will feel. Again, the nearer you

go to a fire, the hotter the air will feel.

"But one cannot achieve anything through laziness and procrastination.

People who desire worldly enjoyment say about spiritual progress: 'Well, it

will all happen in time.

We shall realize God some time or other.'

"I said to Keshab Sen: 'When a father sees that his son has become restless

for his inheritance, he gives him his share of the property even three years

before the legal time. A mother keeps on cooking while the baby is in bed

sucking its toy. But when it throws the toy away and cries for her, she puts

down the rice-pot and takes the baby in her arms and nurses it.' I said all

this to Keshab.

"It is said that, in the Kaliyuga, if a man can weep for God one day and one

night, he sees Him.

"Feel piqued at God and say to Him: 'You have created me. Now You must

reveal Yourself to me.' Whether you live in the world or elsewhere, always

fix your mind on God. The mind soaked in worldliness may be compared to

a wet match-stick. You won't get a spark, however much you may rub it.

Ekalavya placed the clay image of Drona, his teacher, in front of him and

thus learnt archery.

Go forward. The wood-cutter, following the instructions of the holy man,

went forward and found in the forest sandalwood and mines of silver and

gold; and going still farther, he found diamonds and other precious stones.

"The ignorant are like people living in a house with clay walls. There is

very little light inside, and they cannot see outside at all. But those who

enter the world after attaining the Knowledge of God are like people living

in a house made of glass. For them both inside and outside are light. They

can see things outside as well as inside.

"Nothing exists except the One. That One is the Supreme Brahman. So long

as He keeps the 'I' in us, He reveals to us that it is He who, as the Primal

Energy, creates, preserves, and destroys the universe.

"That which is Brahman is also the Primal Energy. Once a king asked a

yogi to impart Knowledge to him in one word. The yogi said, 'All right; you

will get Knowledge in one word.' After a while a magician came to the

king. The king saw the magician moving two of his fingers rapidly and

heard him exclaim, 'Behold, O King! Behold.' The king looked at him

amazed when, after a few minutes, he saw the two fingers becoming one.

The magician moved that one finger rapidly and said, 'Behold, O King!

Behold.' The implication of the story is that Brahman and the Primal Energy

at first appear to be two.

But after attaining the Knowledge of Brahman one does not see the two.

Then there is no differentiation; it is One, without a second -Advaita-non-

duality."

The Master was very happy to see a musician who had come with the

devotees from Belghariā. Some time before, Sri Ramakrishna had gone into

an ecstatic mood on hearing his devotional music. At the Master's request

the musician sang a few songs, one of which described the awakening of

the Kundalini and the six centres: Awake, Mother! Awake! How long Thou

hast been asleep In the lotus of the Muladhara!

Fulfil Thy secret function, Mother:

Rise to the thousand-petalled lotus within the head, Where mighty Siva has

His dwelling; Swiftly pierce the six lotuses

And take away my grief, O Essence of Consciousness!

MASTER: "The song speaks of the Kundalini's passing through the six

centres. God is both within and without. From within He creates the various

states of mind. After passing through the six centres, the jiva goes beyond

the realm of maya and becomes united with the Supreme Soul. This is the

vision of God.

"One cannot see God unless maya steps aside from the door. Rāma,

Lakshmana, and Sita were walking together. Rāma was in front, Sita

walked in the middle, and Lakshmana followed them. But Lakshmana

could not see Rāma because Sita was between them. In like manner, man

cannot see God because maya is between them.

(To Mani Mallick) But maya steps aside from the door when God shows

His grace to the devotee. When the visitor stands before the door, the door-

keeper says to the master, 'Sir, command us, and we shall let him pass.'

"There are two schools of thought: the Vedānta and the Purana. According

to the Vedānta this world is a 'framework of illusion', that is to say, it is all

illusory, like a dream. But according to the Purana, the books of devotion,

God Himself has become the twenty-four cosmic principles. Worship God

both within and without.

"As long as God keeps the awareness of 'I' in us, so long do sense-objects

exist; and we cannot very well speak of the world as a dream. There is fire

in the hearth; therefore the rice and pulse and potatoes and the other

vegetables jump about in the pot. They jump about as if to say: 'We are

here! We are jumping!' This body is the pot. The mind and intelligence are

the water. The objects of the senses are the rice, potatoes, and other

vegetables. The 'I-consciousness' identified with the senses says, 'I am

jumping about.' And Satchidananda is the fire.

"Hence the Bhakti scriptures describe this very world as a 'mansion of

mirth'.

Ramprasad sang in one of his songs, 'This world is a framework of illusion.'

Another devotee gave the reply, 'This very world is a mansion of mirth.' As

the saying goes, 'The devotee of Kali, free while living, is full of Eternal

Bliss.' The bhakta sees that He who is God has also become maya. Again,

He Himself has become the universe and all its living beings. The bhakta

sees God, maya, the universe, and the living beings as one. Some devotees

see everything as Rāma: it is Rāma alone who has become everything.

Some see everything as Radha and Krishna. To them it is Krishna alone

who has become the twenty-four cosmic principles. It is like seeing

everything green through green glasses.

"But the Bhakti scriptures admit that the manifestations of Power are

different in different beings. It is Rāma who has become everything, no

doubt; but He manifests Himself more in some than in others. There is one

kind of manifestation of Rāma in the Incarnation of God, and another in

men. Even the Incarnations are conscious of the body. Embodiment is due

to maya. Rāma wept for Sita. But the Incarnation of God puts a bondage

over His eyes by His own will, like children playing blindman's buff. The

children stop playing when their mother calls them. It is quite different,

however, with the ordinary man. The cloth his eyes are bandaged with is

fastened to his back with screws, as it were. There are eight fetters. Shame,

hatred, fear, caste, lineage, good conduct, grief, and secretiveness-these are

the eight fetters. And they cannot be unfastened without the help of a guru.

Earnestness in spiritual life extolled

A DEVOTEE : "Sir, please bless us."

MASTER: "God is in all beings. But you must apply to the Gas Company.

It will connect the storage-tank with the pipe in your house.

"One must pray earnestly. It is said that one can realize God by directing to

Him the combined intensity of three attractions, namely, the child's

attraction for the mother, the husband's attraction for the chaste wife, and

the attraction of worldly possessions for the worldly man.

Traits of a true devotee

"There are certain signs by which you can know a true devotee of God. His

mind becomes quiet as he listens to his teacher's instruction, just as the

poisonous snake is quieted by the music of the charmer. I don't mean the

cobra. There is another sign. A real devotee develops the power of

assimilating instruction. An image cannot be impressed on bare glass, but

only on glass stained with a black solution, as in photography. The black

solution is devotion to God. There is a third sign of a true devotee. The true

devotee has controlled his senses. He has subdued his lust. The gopis were

free from lust.

"You are talking about your leading a householder's life. Suppose you are a

householder. It rather helps in the practice of spiritual discipline. It is like

fighting from inside a fort. The Tantriks sometimes use a corpse in their

religious rites. Now and then the dead body frightens them by opening its

mouth. That is why they keep fried rice and grams near them, and from

time to time they throw some of the grains into the corpse's mouth. Thus

pacifying the corpse, they repeat the name of the Deity without any worry.

Likewise, the householder should pacify his wife and the other members of

his family. He should provide them with food and other necessities. Thus he

removes the obstacles to his practice of spiritual discipline.

"Those who still have a few worldly experiences to enjoy should lead a

householder's life and pray to God. That is why Nityananda allowed the

worldly to enjoy catfish soup and the warm embrace of a young woman

while repeating God's name.

"But it is quite different with genuine sannyasis. A bee lights on flowers

and on nothing else. To the chatak all water except rain is tasteless. It will

drink no other water, but looks up agape for the rain that falls when the star

Svati is in the ascendant. It drinks only that water. A real sannyasi will not

enjoy any kind of bliss except the Bliss of God.

The bee lights only on flowers. The real monk is like a bee, whereas the

householder devotee is like a common fly, which lights on a festering sore

as well as on a sweetmeat.

"You have taken so much trouble to come here. You must be seeking God.

But almost everyone is satisfied simply by seeing the garden. Only one or

two look for its owner.

People enjoy the beauty of the world; they do not seek its Owner.

(Pointing to the singer) "A little while ago he sang a song describing the six

centres.

These are dealt with in Yoga. There are two kinds of yoga: hathayoga and

rajayoga.

The hathayogi practises physical exercises. His goal is to acquire

supernatural powers: longevity and the eight psychic powers. These are his

aims. But the aim of rajayoga is the attainment of devotion, ecstatic love,

knowledge, and renunciation. Of these two, rajayoga is the better.

Seven planes of the Vedas

"There is much similarity between the seven 'planes' described in the

Vedānta and the six 'centres' of Yoga. The first three planes of the Vedas

may be compared to the first three Yogic centres, namely, Muladhara,

Svadhisthana, and Manipura. With ordinary people the mind dwells in these

three planes, at the organs of evacuation and generation and at the navel.

When the mind ascends to the fourth plane, the centre designated in Yoga as

Anahata, it sees the individual soul as a flame. Besides, it sees light. At this

the aspirant cries: 'Ah! What is this? Ah! What is this?'

"When the mind rises to the fifth plane, the aspirant wants to hear only

about God. This is the Visuddha centre of Yoga. The sixth plane and the

centre known by the yogi as Ajna are one and the same. When the mind

rises there, the aspirant sees God. But still there is a barrier between God

and the devotee. It is like the barrier of glass in a lantern, which keeps one

from touching the light. King Janaka used to give instruction about

Brahmajnana from the fifth plane. Sometimes he dwelt on the fifth plane,

and sometimes on the sixth.

"After passing the six centres the aspirant arrives at the seventh plane.

Reaching it, the mind merges in Brahman. The individual soul and the

Supreme Soul become one. The aspirant goes into samadhi. His

consciousness of the body disappears. He loses the knowledge of the outer

world. He does not see the manifold any more. His reasoning comes to a

stop.

"Trailanga Swami once said that because a man reasons he is conscious of

multiplicity, of variety. Attaining samadhi, one gives up the body in twenty-

one days. Spiritual consciousness is not possible without the awakening of

the Kundalini.

"A man who has realized God shows certain characteristics. He becomes

like a child or a madman, or an inert thing or a ghoul. Further, he is firmly

convinced that he is the machine and God is its Operator, that God alone is

the Doer and all others are His instruments. As some Sikh devotees once

said to me, even the leaf moves because of God's will. One should be aware

that everything happens by the will of Rāma. The weaver said: 'The price of

the cloth, by the will of Rāma, is one rupee six annas. By the will of Rāma

the robbery was committed. By the will of Rāma the robbers were arrested.

By the will of Rāma I too was arrested by the police. And at last, by the will

of Rāma, I was released.' "

It was dusk. Sri Ramakrishna had had no rest since his midday meal. He

had talked unceasingly to the devotees about God. At last the visitors took

their leave and went home.

Friday, June 15, 1883

It was a holiday on account of the Hindu religious festival Dasahara.

Among the devotees who visited Sri Ramakrishna at Dakshineswar that day

were Adhar, M., and Rākhāl 's father. Rākhāl 's father's father-in-law was

also present. All were seated on the floor of the Master's room.

Advice to householders

Rākhāl 's father's father-in-law was a devotee of God. He asked the Master,

"Sir, can one realize God while leading the life of a householder?"

MASTER (with a smile): "Why not? Live in the world like a mudfish. The

mudfish lives in the mud but itself remains unstained. Or live in the world

like a loose woman. She attends to her household duties, but her mind is

always on her sweetheart. Do your duties in the world, fixing your mind on

God. But this is extremely difficult. I said to the members of the Brahmo

Samaj: 'Suppose a typhoid patient is kept in a room where there are jars of

pickles and pitchers of water. How can you expect the patient to recover?

The very thought of spiced pickles brings water to one's mouth.' To a man,

woman is like that pickle. The craving for worldly things, which is chronic

in man, is like the patient's craving for water. There is no end to this

craving. The typhoid patient says, 'I shall drink a whole pitcher of water.'

The situation is very difficult. There is so much confusion in the world. If

you go this way, you are threatened with a shovel; if you go that way, you

are threatened with a broomstick; again, in another direction, you are

threatened with a shoe-beating. Besides, one cannot think of God unless one

lives in solitude. The goldsmith melts gold to make ornaments. But how can

he do his work well if he is disturbed again and again? Suppose you are

separating rice from bits of husk. You must do it all by yourself. Every now

and then you have to take the rice in your hand to see how clean it is. But

how can you do your work well if you are called away again and again?"

A DEVOTEE: "What then is the way, sir?"

MASTER: "There is a way. One succeeds if one develops a strong spirit of

renunciation.

Give up at once, with determination, what you know to be unreal. Once,

when I was seriously ill, I was taken to the physician Gangaprasad Sen. He

said to me: 'I shall give you a medicine, but you mustn't drink any water.

You may take pomegranate juice.'

Everyone wondered how I could live without water; but I was determined

not to drink it.

I said to myself: 'I am a paramahamsa and not a goose. I shall drink only

milk.'

"You have to spend a few days in solitude. If you but touch the 'granny' you

are safe.

Turn yourself into gold and then live wherever you please. After realizing

God and divine love in solitude one may live in the world as well. (To

Rākhāl 's father) That is why I ask the youngsters to stay with me; for they

will develop love of God by staying here a few days. After that they can

very well lead the life of a householder."

Problem of good and evil

DEVOTEE: "If God is responsible for everything, then why should people

speak of good and evil, virtue and vice? One commits sin also by the will of

God, isn't that so?"

ANOTHER DEVOTEE: "How can we understand the will of God?"

MASTER: "There is no doubt that virtue and vice exist in the world; but

God Himself is unattached to them. There may be good and bad smells in

the air, but the air is not attached to them. The very nature of God's creation

is that good and evil, righteousness and unrighteousness, will always exist

in the world. Among the trees in the garden one finds mango and jackfruit,

and hog plum too. Haven't you noticed that even wicked men are needed?

Suppose there are rough tenants on an estate; then the landlord must send a

ruffian to control them."

The conversation again turned to the life of the householder.

MASTER (to the devotees): "You see, by leading a householder's life a man

needlessly dissipates his mental powers. The loss he thus incurs can be

made up if he takes to monastic life. The first birth is a gift of the father;

then comes the second birth, when one is invested with the sacred thread.

There is still another birth at the time of being initiated into monastic life.

The two obstacles to spiritual life are 'woman' and 'gold'.

Attachment to 'woman' diverts one from the way leading to God. Man

doesn't know what it is that causes his downfall. Once, while going to the

Fort, I couldn't see at all that I was driving down a sloping road; but when

the carriage went inside the Fort, I realized how far down I had come. Alas!

Women keep men deluded. Captain says, 'My wife is full of wisdom.' The

man possessed by a ghost does not realize it. He says, 'Why, I am all right!'

The devotees listened to these words in deep silence.

MASTER: "It is not lust alone that one should be afraid of in the life of the

world. There is also anger. Anger arises when obstacles are placed in the

way of desire."

M: "At meal-time, sometimes a cat stretches out its paw to take the fish

from my plate.

But I cannot show any resentment."

MASTER: "Why? You may even beat it once in a while. What's the harm?

A worldly man should hiss, but he shouldn't pour out his venom. He mustn't

actually injure others. But he should make a show of anger to protect

himself from enemies. Otherwise they will injure him. But a sannyasi need

not even hiss."

A DEVOTEE: "I find it is extremely difficult for a householder to realize

God. How few people can lead the life you prescribe for them! I haven't

found any."

MASTER: "Why should that be so? I have heard of a deputy magistrate

named Pratap Singh. He is a great man. He has many virtues: compassion

and devotion to God. He meditates on God. Once he sent for me. Certainly

there are people like him.

"The practice of discipline is absolutely necessary. Why shouldn't a man

succeed if he practises sadhana? But he doesn't have to work hard if he has

real faith-faith in his guru's words. Once Vyasa was about to cross the

Jamuna, when the gopis also arrived there, wishing to go to the other side.

But no ferryboat was in sight. They said to Vyasa, 'Revered sir, what shall

we do now?' 'Don't worry', said Vyasa. 'I will take you across. But I am very

hungry. Have you anything for me to eat?' The gopis had plenty of milk,

cream, and butter with them. Vyasa ate it all. Then the gopis asked, 'Well,

sir, what about crossing the river?' Vyasa stood on the bank of the Jamuna

and said, 'O

Jamuna, if I have not eaten anything today, then may your waters part so

that we may all walk to the other side.' No sooner did the sage utter these

words than the waters of the Jamuna parted. The gopis were speechless with

wonder. 'He ate so much just now,'

they said to themselves, 'and he says, "If I have not eaten anything. . ."!'

Vyasa had the firm conviction that it was not himself, but the Narayana who

dwelt in his heart, that had partaken of the food.

"Sankaracharya was a Brahmajnani, to be sure. But at the beginning he too

had the feeling of differentiation. He didn't have absolute faith that

everything in the world is Brahman. One day as he was coming out of the

Ganges after his bath, he saw an untouchable, a butcher, carrying a load of

meat. Inadvertently the butcher touched his body. Sankara shouted angrily,

'Hey there! How dare you touch me?' 'Revered sir,' said the butcher, 'I have

not touched you, nor have you touched me. The Pure Self cannot be the

body nor the five elements nor the twenty-four cosmic principles.' Then

Sankara came to his senses. Once Jadabharata was carrying King

Rahugana's palanquin and at the same time giving a discourse on Self-

Knowledge. The king got down from the palanquin and said to Jadabharata,

'Who are you, pray?' The latter answered, 'I am Not this, not this-I am the

Pure Self.' He had perfect faith that he was the Pure Self.

" 'I am He', 'I am the Pure Self'-that is the conclusion of the jnanis. But the

bhaktas say, 'The whole universe is the glory of God.' Who would recognize

a wealthy man without his power and riches? But it is quite different when

God Himself, gratified by the aspirant's devotion, says to him, 'You are the

same as Myself.' Suppose a king is seated in his court, and his cook enters

the hall, sits on the throne, and says, 'O King, you and I are the same!'

People will certainly call him a madman. But suppose one day the king,

pleased with the cook's service, says to him: 'Come, sit beside me. There is

nothing wrong in that. There is no difference between you and me.' Then, if

the cook sits on the throne with the king, there is no harm in it. It is not

good for ordinary people to say, 'I am He'. The waves belong to the water.

Does the water belong to the waves?

Result of yoga through bhakti

"The upshot of the whole thing is that, no matter what path you follow,

yoga is impossible unless the mind becomes quiet. The mind of a yogi is

under his control; he is not under the control of his mind. When the mind is

quiet the prana stops functioning.

Then one gets kumbhaka. One may have the same kumbhaka through

bhaktiyoga as well; the prana stops functioning through love of God too. In

the kirtan the musician sings, 'Nitai amar mata hati!' Repeating this, he goes

into a spiritual mood and cannot sing the whole sentence. He simply sings,

'Hati! Hati' When the mood deepens he sings only, 'Ha! Ha!' Thus his prana

stops through ecstasy, and kumbhaka follows.

"Suppose a man is sweeping a courtyard with his broom, and another man

comes and says to him: 'Hello! So-and-so is no more. He is dead.' Now, if

the dead person was not related to the sweeper, the latter goes on with his

work, remarking casually: 'Ah! That's too bad. He is dead. He was a good

fellow.' The sweeping goes on all the same. But if the dead man was his

relative, then the broom drops from his hand. 'Ah!' he exclaims, and he too

drops to the ground. His prana has stopped functioning. He can neither

work nor think. Haven't you noticed, among women, that if one of them

looks at something or listens to something in speechless amazement, the

other women say to her, 'What? Are you in ecstasy?' In this instance, too,

the prana has stopped functioning, and so she remains speechless, with

mouth agape.

"It will not do merely to repeat, 'I am He, I am He.' There are certain signs

of a Jnāni.

Narendra has big protruding eyes. (Pointing to a devotee) He also has good

eyes and forehead.

Different classes of men

"All men are by no means on the same level. It is said that there are four

classes of men: the bound, the struggling, the liberated, and the ever-free. It

is also not a fact that all men have to practise spiritual discipline. There are

the ever-free and those who achieve perfection through spiritual discipline.

Some realize God after much spiritual austerity, and some are perfect from

their very birth. Prahlada is an example of the ever-free.

"Eternally perfect sages like Prahlada also practise meditation and prayer.

But they have realized the fruit, God-vision, even before their spiritual

practice. They are like gourds and pumpkins, which grow fruit first and

then flowers.

(Looking at Rākhāl 's father) "Even though an eternally perfect soul is born

in a low family, still he retains his innate perfection. He cannot do anything

else. A pea germinating in a heap of cow-dung still grows into a pea-plant.

"God has given to some greater power than to others. In one man you see it

as the light of a lamp, in another, as the light of a torch. One word of

Vidyasagar's revealed to me the utmost limit of his intelligence. When I told

him of the different manifestations of God's Power in different beings, he

said to me, 'Sir, has God then given greater power to some than to others?'

At once I said: 'Yes, certainly He has; If there are not different degrees of

manifestation of His Power, then why should your name be known far and

wide? You see, we have come to you after hearing of your knowledge and

compassion.

You haven't grown two horns, have you?' With all his fame and erudition,

Vidyasagar said such a childish thing as 'Has God given greater power to

some than to others?' The truth is that when the fisherman draws his net, he

first catches big fish like trout and carp; then he stirs up the mud with his

feet, and small fish come out-minnows, mudfish, and so on. So also, unless

a man knows God, 'minnows' and the like gradually come out from within

him. What can one achieve through mere scholarship?"

Sunday, June 17, 1883

Sri Ramakrishna was resting in his room in the temple garden at

Dakshineswar. It was afternoon. Adhar and M. arrived and saluted the

Master. A Tantrik devotee also came in. Rākhāl , Hazra, and Ramlal were

staying with Sri Ramakrishna.

MASTER (to the devotees): "Why shouldn't one be able to attain

spirituality, living the life of a householder? But it is extremely difficult.

Sages like Janaka entered the world after attaining Knowledge. But still the

world is a place of terror. Even a detached householder has to be careful.

Once Janaka bent down his head at the sight of a bhairavi. He shrank from

seeing a woman. The bhairavi said to him: 'Janaka, I see you have not yet

attained Knowledge. You still differentiate between man and woman.'

"If you move about in a room filled with soot, you will soil your body,

however slightly, no matter how clever you may be. I have seen

householder devotees filled with spiritual emotion while performing their

daily worship wearing their silk clothes. They maintain that attitude even

until they take their refreshments after the worship. But afterwards they

become their old selves again. They display their rajasic and tamasic

natures.

"Sattva begets bhakti. Even bhakti has three aspects: sattva, rajas, and

tamas. The sattva of bhakti is pure sattva. When a devotee acquires it he

doesn't direct his mind to anything but God. He pays only as much attention

to his body as is absolutely necessary for its protection.

"But a paramahamsa is beyond the three gunas. Though they exist in him,

yet they are practically non-existent. Like a child, he is not under the

control of any of the gunas.

That is why paramahamsas allow small children to come near them-in order

to assume their nature.

"Paramahamsas may not lay things up; but this rule does not apply to

householders.

They must provide for their families."

TANTRIK DEVOTEE: "Is a paramahamsa aware of virtue and vice?"

MASTER: "Keshab Sen also asked that question. I said to him, 'If I explain

that to you, then you won't be able to keep your society together.' 'In that

case we had better stop here', said Keshab.

"Do you know the significance of virtue and vice? A paramahamsa sees that

it is God who gives us evil tendencies as well as good tendencies. Haven't

you noticed that there are both sweet and bitter fruits? Some trees give

sweet fruit, and some bitter or sour.

God has made the mango-tree, which yields sweet fruit, and also the hog

plum, which yields sour fruit."

TANTRIK: "Yes, sir. That is true. On the hill-top one sees extensive rose

gardens, reaching as far as the eye can see."

MASTER: "The paramahamsa realizes that all these-good and bad, virtue

and vice, real and unreal-are only the glories of God's maya. But these are

very deep thoughts. One realizing this cannot keep an organization together

or anything like that."

TANTRIK: "But the law of karma exists, doesn't it?"

MASTER: "That also is true. Good produces good, and bad produces bad.

Don't you get the hot taste if you eat chillies? But these are all God's lila,

His play."

TANTRIK: "Then what is the way for us? We shall have to reap the result

of our past karma, shall we not?"

MASTER: "That may be so. But it is different with the devotees of God.

Listen to a song:

O mind, you do not know how to farm!

Fallow lies the field of your life.

If you had only worked it well,

How rich a harvest you might reap!

Hedge it about with Kali's name

If you would keep your harvest safe;

This is the stoutest hedge of all,

For Death himself cannot come near it.

Sooner or later will dawn the day

When you must forfeit your precious field;

Gather, O mind, what fruit you may.

Sow for your seed the holy name

Of God that your guru has given to you,

Faithfully watering it with love;

And if you should find the task too hard,

Call upon Ramprasad for help.

He sang again:

I have securely blocked the way by which the King of Death will come;

Henceforward all my doubts and fears are set at naught for ever.

Siva Himself is standing guard at the nine doorways of my house,

Which has one Pillar for support, and three ropes to secure it.

The Lord has made His dwelling-place the thousand-petalled lotus flower

Within the head, and comforts me with never-ceasing care.

The Master continued: "Anyone who dies in Benares, whether a brahmin or

a prostitute, will become Siva. When a man sheds tears at the name of Hari,

Kali, or Rāma, then he has no further need of the sandhya and other rites.

All actions drop away of themselves. The fruit of action does not touch

him."

Again the Master sang:

As is a man's meditation, so is his feeling of love; As is a man's feeling of

love, so is his gain; And faith is the root of all.

If in the Nectar Lake of Mother Kali's feet

My mind remains immersed,

Of little use are worship, oblations, or sacrifice.

He sang another song:

Why should I go to Ganga or Gaya, to Kasi, Kanchi, or Prabhas,

So long as I can breathe my last with Kali's name upon my lips?..

Then he said, "When a man merges himself in God, he can no longer retain

wicked or sinful tendencies."

TANTRIK: "You have said rightly that he keeps only the 'Knowledge ego'."

MASTER: "Yes, he keeps only the 'Knowledge ego', the 'devotee ego', the

'servant ego', and the 'good ego'. His 'wicked ego' disappears."

TANTRIK: "Today you have destroyed many of our doubts."

MASTER: "All doubts disappear when one realizes the Self.

"Assume the tamasic aspect of bhakti. Say with force: 'What? I have uttered

the names of Rāma and Kali. How can I be in bondage any more? How can

I be affected by the law of karma?' "

The Master sang:

If only I can pass away repeating Durga's name, How canst Thou then, O

Blessed One,

Withhold from me deliverance,

Wretched though I may be?

I may have stolen a drink of wine, or killed a child unborn, Or slain a

woman or a cow,

Or even caused a brahmin's death;

But, though it all be true,

Nothing of this can make me feel the least uneasiness; For through the

power of Thy sweet name

My wretched soul may still aspire

Even to Brahmanhood.

The Master continued: "Faith! Faith! Faith! Once a guru said to his pupil,

'Rāma alone has become everything.' When a dog began to eat the pupil's

bread, he said to it: 'O

Rāma, wait a little. I shall butter Your bread.' Such was his faith in the

words of his guru.

"Worthless people do not have any faith. They always doubt. But doubts do

not disappear completely till one realizes the Self.

"In genuine love of God there is no desire. Only through such love does one

speedily realize God. Attainment of supernatural powers and so on-these

are desires. Krishna once said to Arjuna: 'Friend, you cannot realize God if

you acquire even one of the eight supernatural powers. They will only add a

little to your power.' "

TANTRIK: "Sir, why don't the rituals of Tantra bear fruit nowadays?"

MASTER: "It is because people cannot practise them with absolute

correctness and devotion."

In conclusion the Master said: "Love of God is the one essential thing. A

true lover of God has nothing to fear, nothing to worry about. He is aware

that the Divine Mother knows everything. The cat handles the mouse one

way, but its own kitten a very different way."

--------------------

Chapter 12

THE FESTIVAL AT PĀNIHĀTI

Monday, June 18, 1883

Festival at Pānihāti

SRI RAMAKRISHNA had been invited to the great religious festival at

Pānihāti, near Calcutta. This "Festival of the Flattened Rice" was

inaugurated by Raghunath Das, a disciple of Sri Chaitanya. It is said that

Raghunath used to run away from home, secretly practise his devotions, and

enjoy the bliss of spiritual ecstasy. One day Nityananda said to him: "Thief!

You run away from home and enjoy the love of God all alone. You hide it

from us. I shall punish you today. You must arrange a religious festival and

entertain the devotees with flattened rice." Since then the festival has been

annually celebrated at Pānihāti by the Vaishnavas. Thousands of the

followers of Sri Chaitanya participate in it. Its chief feature is the singing of

the names and glories of God, and the dancing of the devotees in religious

fervour. The centre of the festivity is the temple of Radha-Krishna, built on

the bank of the Ganges.

The Master had been invited to the festival by Mani Sen, who was the

custodian of the temple. Ram, M., Rākhāl , Bhavanath, and a few other

disciples went with the Master in a carriage. On his way to Pānihāti Sri

Ramakrishna was in a light mood and joked with the youngsters. But as

soon as the carriage reached the place of the festival, the Master, to the utter

amazement of' the devotees, shot into the crowd. He joined the kirtan party

of Navadvip Goswami, Mani Sen's guru, and danced, totally forgetting the

world. Every now and then he stood still in samādhi, carefully supported by

Navadvip Goswami for fear he might fall to the ground. Thousands of

devotees were gathered together for the festival. Wherever one looked there

was a forest of human heads. The crowd seemed to become infected by the

Master's divine fervour and swayed to and fro, chanting the name of God,

until the very air seemed to reverberate with it. Drums, cymbals, and other

instruments produced melodious sounds. The atmosphere became intense

with spiritual fervour. The devotees felt that Gaurānga himself was being

manifested in the person of Sri Ramakrishna. Flowers were showered from

all sides on his feet and head. The shouting of the name of Hari was heard

even at a distance, like the rumbling of the ocean.

Sri Ramakrishna entered by turn into all the moods of ecstasy. In deep

samādhi he stood still, his face radiating a divine glow. In the state of partial

consciousness he danced, sometimes gently and sometimes with the vigour

of a lion. Again, regaining consciousness of the world, he sang, himself

leading the chorus: Behold, the two brothers have come, who weep while

chanting Hari's name,

The brothers who dance in ecstasy and make the world dance in His name!

Behold them, weeping themselves, and making the whole world weep as

well,

The brothers who, in return for blows, offer to sinners Hari's love.

Behold them, drunk with Hari's love, who make the world drunk as well!

Behold, the two brothers have come, who once were Kanai and Balai of

Braja,

They who would steal the butter out of the pots of the gopi maids.

Behold, the two have come, who shatter all the rules of caste, Embracing

everyone as brother, even the outcaste shunned by men;

Who lose themselves in Hari's name, making the whole world mad;

Who are none other than Hari Himself, and chant His hallowed name!

Behold them,who saved from their sinful ways the ruffians Jagai and

Madhai,

They who cannot distinguish between a friend and an enemy!

Behold the two brothers, Gaur and Nitai, who come again to save mankind.

Again the Master sang:

See how all Nadia is shaking

Under the waves of Gaurānga's love! . . .

The crowd, with the Master in the centre, surged toward the temple of

Radha-Krishna.

Only a small number could enter. The rest stood outside the portal and

jostled with one another to have a look at Sri Ramakrishna. In a mood of

intoxication he began to dance in the courtyard of the shrine. Every now

and then his body stood transfixed in deep samādhi. Hundreds of people

around him shouted the name of God, and thousands outside caught the

strain and raised the cry with full-throated voices. The echo travelled over

the Ganges, striking a note in the hearts of people in the boats on the holy

river, and they too chanted the name of God.

When the kirtan was over, Mani Sen took Sri Ramakrishna and Navadvip

Goswami into a room and served them with refreshments. Afterwards Ram,

M., and the other devotees were also served with the prasad.

In the afternoon, the Master was sitting in Mani Sen's drawing-room with

the devotees.

Navadvip was also near him. Mani offered the carriage hire to Sri

Ramakrishna.

Pointing to Ram and the others, the Master said: "Why should they accept it

from you?

They earn money." He became engaged in conversation with Navadvip.

Different states of bhakti

MASTER: "Bhakti matured becomes bhava. Next is mahabhava, then

prema, and last of all is the attainment of God. Gaurānga experienced the

states of mahabhava and prema. When prema is awakened, a devotee

completely forgets the world; he also forgets his body, which is so dear to a

man. Gaurānga experienced prema. He jumped into the ocean, thinking it to

be the Jamuna. The ordinary jiva does not experience mahabhava or prema.

He goes only as far as bhava. But Gaurānga experienced all three states.

Isn't that so?"

NAVADVIP: "Yes, sir, that is true. The inmost state, the semi-conscious

state, and the conscious state."

MASTER: "In the inmost state he would remain in samādhi, unconscious of

the outer world. In the semi-conscious state he could only dance. In the

conscious state he chanted the name of God."

Navadvip introduced his son to the Master. The young man was a student of

the scriptures. He saluted Sri Ramakrishna.

NAVADVIP: "He studies the scriptures at home. Previously one hardly saw

a copy of the Vedas in this country. Max Muller has translated them; so

people can now read these books."

Essence of the scriptures

MASTER: "Too much study of the scriptures does more harm than good.

The important thing is to know the essence of the scriptures. After that,

what is the need of books?

One should learn the essence and then dive deep in order to realize God.

Ideal of the Gitā

"The Divine Mother has revealed to me the essence of the Vedānta. It is that

Brahman alone is real and the world illusory. The essence of the Gitā is

what you get by repeating the word ten times. The word becomes reversed.

It is then 'tagi', which refers to renunciation. The essence of the Gitā is: 'O

man, renounce everything and practise spiritual discipline for the realization

of God.' "

NAVADVIP: "But how can we persuade our minds to renounce?"

MASTER: "You are a goswami. It is your duty to officiate as priest in the

temple. You cannot renounce the world; otherwise, who would look after

the temple and its services?

You have to renounce mentally.

"It is God Himself who has kept you in the world to set an example to men.

You may resolve in your mind a thousand times to renounce the world, but

you will not succeed.

God has given you such a nature that you must perform your worldly

duties.

"Krishna said to Arjuna: 'What do you mean, you will not fight? By your

mere will you cannot desist from fighting. Your very nature will make you

fight.' "

At the mere mention of Krishna and Arjuna the Master went into samādhi.

In the twinkling of an eye his body became motionless and his eyeballs

transfixed, while his breathing could scarcely be noticed. At this sudden

transformation Navadvip and his son and the other devotees looked at the

Master in mute wonder.

Regaining partial consciousness, he said to Navadvip: "Yoga and bhoga.

You goswamis have both. Now your only duty is to call on God and pray to

Him sincerely: 'O God, I don't want the glories of Thy world-bewitching

maya. I want Thee alone!' God dwells in all beings, undoubtedly. That

being the case, who may be called His devotee? He who dwells in God, he

who has merged his mind and life and innermost soul in God."

The Master returned to the sense plane. Referring to his samādhi, he said to

Navadvip: "Some say that this state of mine is a disease. I say to them,

'How can one become unconscious by thinking of Him whose

Consciousness has made the whole world conscious?' "

Mani Sen said good-bye to the invited brahmins and Vaishnavas with

suitable gifts of money. He offered five rupees to Sri Ramakrishna. The

latter said that he could not possibly accept any money. But Mani insisted.

The Master then asked him in the name of his guru not to press him. Mani

requested him again to accept the offering. Sri Ramakrishna asked M., in a

distressed voice, whether he should take the money. The disciple made a

vehement protest and said, "No, sir. By no means."

Friends of Mani Sen gave the money to Rākhāl , requesting him to buy

some mangoes and sweets for the Master. Sri Ramakrishna said to M.: "I

have definitely said to Mani that I would not accept the money. I feel free

now. But Rākhāl has accepted it. His is now the responsibility."

Sri Ramakrishna, accompanied by the devotees, took a carriage to return to

Dakshineswar. They were going to pass the temple garden of Mati Seal on

the way. For a long time the Master had been asking M. to take him to the

reservoir in the garden in order that he might teach him how to meditate on

the formless God. There were tame fish in the reservoir. Nobody harmed

them. Visitors threw puffed rice and other bits of food into the water, and

the big fish came in swarms to eat the food. Fearlessly the fish swam in the

water and sported there joyously.

Coming to the reservoir, the Master said to M.: "Look at the fish.

Meditating on the formless God is like swimming joyfully like these fish, in

the Ocean of Bliss and Consciousness."

Monday, June 25, 1883

Sri Ramakrishna was at Balarām Bose's house in Calcutta. Rākhāl and M.

were seated near him. The Master was in ecstasy. He conversed with the

devotees in an abstracted mood.

MASTER: "Let me assure you that a man can realize his Inner Self through

sincere prayer. But to the extent that he has the desire to enjoy worldly

objects, his vision of the Self becomes obstructed."

M: "Yes, sir. You always ask us to plunge into God."

MASTER (joyously): "Yes! That's it. Let me tell you that the realization of

Self is possible for all, without any exception."

M: "That is true, sir. But God is the Doer. He works through different

beings in different ways, according to their capacity to manifest the Divine.

God gives to some full spiritual consciousness, and others He keeps in

ignorance."

MASTER: "No, that is not so. One should pray to God with a longing heart.

God certainly listens to prayer if it is sincere. There is no doubt about it."

A DEVOTEE: "Yes, sir. There is this 'I-consciousness' in us; therefore we

must pray."

Nitya and Lila

MASTER (to M.): "A man should reach the Nitya, the Absolute, by

following the trail of the Lila, the Relative. It is like reaching the roof by the

stairs. After realizing the Absolute, he should climb down to the Relative

and live on that plane in the company of devotees, charging his mind with

the love of God. This is my final and most mature opinion.

"God has different forms, and He sports in different ways. He sports as

Isvara, deva, man, and the universe. In every age He descends to earth in

human form, as an Incarnation, to teach people love and devotion. There is

the instance of Chaitanya. One can taste devotion and love of God only

through His Incarnations. Infinite are the ways of God's play, but what I

need is love and devotion. I want only the milk. The milk comes through

the udder of the cow. The Incarnation is the udder."

Was Sri Ramakrislma hinting that he was an Incarnation of God? Did he

suggest that those who saw him saw God? Did he thus speak about himself

when speaking of Chaitanya?

It was a hot day in June 1883. Sri Ramakrishna was sitting on the steps of

the Śiva temples in the temple garden. M. arrived with ice and other

offerings and sat down on the steps after saluting the Master.

MASTER (to M.): "The husband of Mani Mallick's granddaughter was

here. He read in a book that God could not be said to be quite wise and

omniscient; otherwise, why should there be so much misery in the world?

As regards death, it would be much better to kill a man all at once, instead

of putting him through slow torture. Further, the author writes that if he

himself were the Creator, he would have created a better world."

M. listened to these words in surprise and made no comment.

The ways of God are inscrutable MASTER (to M.): "Can a man ever

understand God's ways? I too think of God sometimes as good and

sometimes as bad. He has kept us deluded by His great illusion.

Sometimes He wakes us up and sometimes He keeps us unconscious. One

moment the ignorance disappears, and the next moment it covers our mind.

If you throw a brick-bat into a pond covered with moss, you get a glimpse

of the water. But a few moments later the moss comes dancing back and

covers the water.

Body-consciousness produces duality

"One is aware of pleasure and pain, birth and death, disease and grief, as

long as one is identified with the body. All these belong to the body alone,

and not to the Soul. After the death of the body, perhaps God carries one to

a better place. It is like the birth of the child after the pain of delivery.

Attaining Self-Knowledge, one looks on pleasure and pain, birth and death,

as a dream.

"How little we know! Can a oneseer pot hold ten seers of milk? If ever a

salt doll ventures into the ocean to measure its depth, it cannot come back

and give us the information. It melts into the water and disappears."

At dusk the evening service began in the different temples. The Master was

sitting on the small couch in his room, absorbed in contemplation of the

Divine Mother. Several devotees also were there. M. was going to spend the

night with the Master.

A little later Sri Ramakrishna began to talk to a devotee privately, on the

verandah north of his room. He said: "It is good to meditate in the small

hours of the morning and at dawn. One should also meditate daily after

dusk." He instructed the devotee about meditation on the Personal God and

on the Impersonal Reality.

After a time he sat on the semicircular porch west of his room. It was about

nine o'clock.

MASTER: "Those who come here will certainly have all their doubts

removed. What do you say?"

M: "That is true, sir."

A boat was moving in the Ganges, far away from the bank. The boatman

began to sing.

The sound of his voice floating over the river reached the Master's ears, and

he went into a spiritual mood. The hair on his body stood on end. He said to

M., "Just feel my body."

M. was greatly amazed. He thought: "The Upanishads describe Brahman as

permeating the universe and the ether. Has that Brahman, as sound, touched

the Master's body?"

After a time Sri Ramakrishna began to converse again.

MASTER: "Those who come here must have been born with good

tendencies. Isn't that true?"

M: "It is true, sir."

MASTER: "Adhar must have good tendencies."

M: "That goes without saying."

MASTER: "A guileless man easily realizes God. There are two paths: the

path of righteousness and the path of wickedness.

One should follow the path of

righteousness."

M: "That is true, sir. If a thread has a single fibre sticking out, it cannot pass

through the eye of a needle."

MASTER: "If a man finds a hair in the food he is chewing, he spits out the

entire morsel."

M: "But you say that the man who has realized God cannot be injured by

evil company.

A blazing fire burns up even a plantain-tree."

Saturday, July 14, 1883

Sri Ramakrishna arrived at Adhar's house in Calcutta. Rākhāl, M., and other

devotees were with the Master. Adhar had arranged to have Rajnaraya, the

famous singer, and his party, recite the Chandi.

Rajnarayan began the recital in the worship hall. He sang: I have

surrendered my soul at the fearless feet of the Mother; Am I afraid of Death

any more? . . .

As the Master listened, he became filled with divine fervour and joined the

musicians.

Now and then he improvised an appropriate line. Suddenly he went into

samādhi and stood still.

The singer sang again:

Who is the Woman yonder who lights the field of battle?

Darker Her body gleams even than the darkest storm-cloud, And from Her

teeth there flash the lightning's blinding flames!

Dishevelled Her hair is flying behind as She rushes about, Undaunted in

this war between the gods and the demons.

Laughing Her terrible laugh, She slays the fleeing asuras, And with Her

dazzling flashes She bares the horror of war.

How beautiful on Her brow the drops of moisture appear!

About Her dense black hair the bees are buzzing in swarms; The moon has

veiled its face, beholding this Sea of Beauty.

Tell me, who can She be, this Sorceress? Wonder of wonders!

Śiva Himself, like a corpse, lies vanquished at Her feet.

Kamalakanta has guessed who She is, with the elephant's gait; She is none

other than Kāli, Mother of all the worlds.

Sri Ramakrishna was in deep samādhi.

Saturday, July 21, 1883

It was about four o'clock in the afternoon when Sri Ramakrishna, with

Ramlal and one or two other devotees, started from Dakshineswar for

Calcutta in a carriage. As the carriage passed the gate of the Kāli temple,

they met M. coming on foot with four mangoes in his hand. The carriage

stopped and M. saluted the Master. Sri Ramakrishna was going to visit

some of his devotees in Calcutta.

MASTER (to M., with a smile): "Come with us. We are going to Adhar's

house."

M. got joyfully into the carriage. Having received an English education, he

did not believe in the tendencies inherited from previous births. But he had

admitted a few days before that it was on account of Adhar's good

tendencies from past births that he showed such great devotion to the

Master. Later on he had thought about this subject and had discovered that

he was not yet completely convinced about inherited tendencies. He had

come to Dakshineswar that day to discuss the matter with Sri Ramakrishna.

MASTER: "Well, what do you think of Adhar?"

M: "He has great yearning for God."

MASTER: "Adhar, too, speaks very highly of you."

M. remained silent awhile and then began to speak of past tendencies.

M: "I haven't much faith in rebirth and inherited tendencies. Will that in any

way injure my devotion to God?"

Everything is possible for God

MASTER: "It is enough to believe that all is possible in God's creation.

Never allow the thought to cross your mind that your ideas are the only true

ones, and that those of others are false. Then God will explain everything.

"What can a man understand of God's activities? The facets of God's

creation are infinite. I do not try to understand God's actions at all. I have

heard that everything is possible in God's creation, and I always bear that in

mind. Therefore I do not give a thought to the world, but meditate on God

alone. Once Hanuman was asked, 'What day of the lunar month is it?'

Hanuman said: 'I don't know anything about the day of the month, the

position of the moon and stars, or any such things. I think of Rāma alone.'

"Can one ever understand the work of God? He is so near; still it is not

possible for us to know Him. Balarama did not realize that Krishna was

God."

M: "That is true, sir."

Maya is the cause of ignorance MASTER: "God has covered all with His

maya. He doesn't let us know anything. Maya is 'woman and gold'. He who

puts maya aside to see God, can see Him. Once, when I was explaining

God's actions to someone, God suddenly showed me the lake at

Kamarpukur.

I saw a man removing the green scum and drinking the water. The water

was clear as crystal. God revealed to me that Satchidananda is covered by

the scum of maya. He who puts the green scum aside can drink the water.

"Let me tell you a very secret experience. Once I had entered the wood near

the pine-grove, and was sitting there, when I had a vision of something like

the hidden door of a chamber. I couldn't see the inside of the chamber. I

tried to bore a hole in the door with a nail-knife, but did not succeed. As I

bored, the earth fell back into the hole and filled it. Then suddenly I made a

very big opening."

Uttering these words, the Master remained silent. After a time he said:

"These are very profound words. I feel as if someone were pressing my

mouth. . . . I have seen with my own eyes that God dwells even in the

sexual organ. I saw Him once in the sexual intercourse of a dog and a bitch.

"The universe is conscious on account of the Consciousness of God.

Sometimes I find that this Consciousness wriggles about, as it were, even in

small fish."

The carriage came to the crossing at Shovabazar in Calcutta. The Master

continued, saying, "Sometimes I find that the universe is saturated with the

Consciousness of God, as the earth is soaked with water in the rainy season.

"Well, I see so many visions, but I never feel vain about them."

M. (with a smile): "That you should speak of vanity, sir!"

MASTER: "Upon my word, I don't feel vanity even in the slightest degree."

M: "There once lived a man in Greece, Socrates by name. A voice from

heaven said that he was wise among men. Socrates was amazed at this

revelation. He meditated on it a long time in solitude and then realized its

significance. He said to his friends, 'I alone of all people have understood

that I do not know anything.' But every man believes he is wise. In reality

all are ignorant."

MASTER: "Now and then I think, 'What is it I know that makes so many

people come to me?' Vaishnavcharan was a great pundit. He used to say to

me: 'I can find in the scriptures all the things you talk about. But do you

know why I come to you? I come to hear them from your mouth.' "

M: "All your words tally with the scriptures. Navadvip Goswami also said

that the other day at the festival at Pānihāti. You told us that day that by

repeating the word 'Gitā' a number of times one reverses it and it becomes

'tagi', which refers to renunciation.

Renunciation is the essence of the Gitā. Navadvip Goswami supported your

statement from the grammatical standpoint."

MASTER: "Have you found anyone else resembling me-any pundit or holy

man?"

M: "God has created you with His own hands, whereas He has made others

by machine.

All others He has created according to law."

MASTER (laughing, to Ramlal and the other devotees): "Listen to what he

is saying!"

Sri Ramakrishna laughed for some time, and said at last. "Really and truly I

have no pride-no, not even the slightest bit."

M: "Knowledge does us good in one respect at least; it makes us feel that

we do not know anything, that we are nothing."

MASTER: "Right you are! I am nothing. I am nobody. "Do you believe in

English astronomy?"

M: "It is possible to make new discoveries by applying the laws of Western

astronomy.

Observing the irregular movement of Uranus, the astronomers looked

through their telescopes and discovered Neptune shining in the sky. They

can also foretell eclipses."

MASTER: "Yes, that is so."

Master's visits to various devotees

The carriage drove on. They were approaching Adhar's house. Sri

Ramakrishna said to M., "Dwell in the truth and you will certainly realize

God."

M: "You said the other day to Navadvip Goswami:'O God, I want Thee.

Please do not delude me with Thy world-bewitching maya. I want to realize

Thee.' "

MASTER: "Yes, one should be able to say that from one's innermost soul."

Sri Ramakrishna arrived at Adhar's house and took a seat in the parlour.

Ramlal, Adhar, M., and the other devotees sat near him. Rākhāl was staying

with his father in Calcutta.

MASTER (to Adhar): "Didn't you let Rākhāl know that I was coming?"

ADHAR: "Yes, sir. I have sent him word."

Finding that the Master was eager to see Rākhāl , Adhar at once sent his

carriage to fetch him. Adhar had been yearning to see the Master that day,

but he had not definitely known that Sri Ramakrishna was coming.

ADHAR: "You haven't been here for a long time. I prayed to God today that

you might come. I even shed tears"

The Master was pleased and said with a smile, "You don't mean that!"

It was dusk and the lamps were lighted. Sri Ramakrishna saluted the Divine

Mother with folded hands and sat quietly absorbed in meditation. Then he

began to chant the names of God in his sweet voice: "Govinda! Govinda!

Satchidananda! Hari! Hari!" Every word he uttered showered nectar on the

ears of the devotees.

Ramlal sang in praise of Kāli, the Divine Mother: Thy name, I have heard,

O Consort of Śiva, is the destroyer of our fear,

And so on Thee I cast my burden: Save me! Save me, O kindly Mother!

Out of Thy womb the world is born, and Thou it is that dost pervade it.

Art Thou Kāli? Art Thou Radha? Who can ever rightly say?

Mother, in every living creature Thou dost have Thy dwelling place;

As Kundalini Thou dost live in the lotus of the Muladhara.

Above it lies the Svadhisthana, where the four-petalled lotus blooms;

There also Thou dost make Thy home, O mystic power of Kundalini,

In the four petals of that flower, and in Vajrasana's six petals At the navel is

Manipura, the blue ten-petalled lotus flower; Through the pathway of

Sushumna, Thou dost ascend and enter there.

O Lady of the lotuses, in lotus blossoms Thou dost dwell!

Beyond them lies the Lake of Nectar, in the region of the heart, Where the

twelve-petalled lotus flower enchants the eye with scarlet flame.

When Thou dost open it, O Mother, touching it with Thy Lotus Feet,

The age-long darkness of the heart instantly scatters at Thy sight.

Above, in the throat, is the sixteen-petalled lotus flower, of smoky hue;

Within the petals of this flower there lies concealed a subtle space,

Transcending which, one sees at length the universe in Space dissolve.

And higher yet, between the eyebrows, blossoms the lotus of two petals,

Where the mind of man remains a prisoner and past controlling;

From this flower the mind desires to watch the sportive play of life.

Highest of all, within the head, the soul-enthralling centre is, Where shines

the thousand-petalled lotus, Mahadeva's dwelling place.

Having ascended to His throne, O Spouse of Śiva, sit beside Him!

Thou art the Primal Power, O Mother! She whose senses are controlled;

The yogis meditate on Thee as Uma, great Himalaya's daughter.

Thou who art the Power of Śiva! Put to death my ceaseless cravings;

Grant that I never fall again into the ocean of this world.

Mother, Thou art the Primal Power, Thou the five cosmic principles;

Who can ever hope to know Thee, who art beyond all principles?

Only for Thy bhaktas' sake dost Thou assume Thy various forms;

But when Thy devotee's five senses merge in the five elements, Mother, it is

Thyself alone that he beholds as formless Truth.

As Ramlal sang the lines:

Above, in the throat, is the sixteen-petalled lotus flower, of smoky hue;

Within the petals of this flower there lies concealed a subtle space,

Transcending which, one sees at length the universe in Space dissolve,

The Master said to M.: "Listen. This is known as the vision of

Satchidananda, the Formless Brahman. The Kundalini, rising above the

Visuddha chakra, enables one to see everything as Ākāśa."

M: "Yes, sir."

MASTER: "One attains the Absolute by going beyond the universe and its

created beings conjured up by maya. By passing beyond the Nada one goes

into samādhi. By repeating 'Om' one goes beyond the Nada and attains

samādhi."

Adhar served Sri Ramakrishna with fruits and sweets. The Master left for

Jadu Mallick's house.

Sri Ramakrishna entered the room in Jadu's house where the Divine Mother

was worshipped. He stood before the image, which had been decorated with

flowers, garlands, and sandal-paste, and which radiated a heavenly beauty

and splendour. Lights were burning before the pedestal. A priest was seated

before the image. The Master asked one of his companions to offer a rupee

in the shrine, according to the Hindu custom.

Sri Ramakrishna stood a long time with folded hands before the blissful

image, the devotees standing behind him. Gradually he went into samādhi,

his body becoming motionless and his eyes fixed.

With a long sigh he came back to the world of the senses and said, still

intoxicated with divine fervour, "Mother, good-bye." But he could not leave

the place. He remained standing there. Addressing Ramlal, he said: "Please

sing that song. Then I shall be all right."

Ramlal sang:

O Mother, Consort of Śiva, Thou hast deluded this world. . . .

The Master went to the drawing-room with the devotees. Every now and

then he said, "O Mother, please dwell in my heart." Jadu was sitting in the

drawing-room with his friends. The Master sat down, still in an ecstatic

mood, and sang: O Mother, ever blissful as Thou art,

Do not deprive Thy worthless child of bliss! . . .

Finishing the song, he said to Jadu, still in a state of divine fervour: "Well,

sir, what shall I sing? Shall I sing 'Mother, am I Thine eight-months child'?

He sang:

Mother, am I Thine eight-months child? Thy red eyes cannot frighten me!

My riches are Thy Lotus Feet, which Śiva holds upon His breast;

Yet, when I seek my heritage, I meet with excuses and delays.

A deed of gift I hold in my heart, attested by Thy Husband Śiva; I shall sue

Thee, if I must, and with a single point shall win.

If Thou dost oppose me, Thou wilt learn what sort of mother's son I am.

This bitterly contested suit between the Mother and Her son-What sport it

is! says Ramprasad. I shall not cease tormenting Thee

Till Thou Thyself, shalt yield the fight and take me in Thine arms at last.

Coming down nearly to a normal state, the Master said, "I shall take some

of the Divine Mother's prasad." Then he ate a little of it.

Jadu Mallick was sitting near him with several friends, among whom were a

few of his flatterers.

MASTER (with a smile): "Well, why do you keep these buffoons with

you?"

JADU (with a smile): "Suppose they are. Won't you redeem them?"

MASTER (smiling): "The water of the Ganges cannot purify a wine-jar."

Jadu had promised the Master that he would arrange a recital of the Chandi

in his house. Some time had elapsed, but he had not yet kept his promise.

MASTER: "Well, what about the recital of the Chandi?"

JADU: "I have been busy with many things; I haven't been able to arrange

it."

MASTER: "How is that? A man gives his word and doesn't take it back!

'The words of a man are like the tusks of the elephant: they come out but do

not go back.' A man must be true to his word. What do you say?"

JADU (with a smile): "You are right."

MASTER: "You are a shrewd man. You do a thing after much calculation.

You are like the brahmin who selects a cow that eats very little, supplies

plenty of dung, and gives much milk." (All laugh.)

After a time he said to Jadu: "I now understand your nature. It is half warm

and half cold. You are devoted to God and also to the world."

The Master and his devotees were served by Jadu with sweets and fruit, and

then the party left for the home of Khelat Ghosh.

Khelat Ghosh's house was a big mansion, but it looked deserted. As the

Master entered the house he fell into an ecstatic mood. M., Ramlal, and a

few other devotees were with him. Their host was Khelat Ghosh's brother-

in-law. He was an old man, a Vaishnava.

His body was stamped with the name of God, according to the Vaishnava

custom, and he carried in his hand a small bag containing his rosary. He had

visited the Master, now and then, at Dakshineswar. But most of the

Vaishnavas held narrow religious views; they criticized the Vedantists and

the followers of the Śiva cult. Sri Ramakrishna soon began to speak.

Dogmatism condemned

MASTER: "It is not good to feel that one's own religion alone is true and all

others are false. God is one only, and not two. Different people call on Him

by different names: some as Allah, some as God, and others as Krishna,

Śiva, and Brahman. It is like the water in a lake. Some drink it at one place

and call it 'jal', others at another place and call it 'pani', and still others at a

third place and call it 'water'. The Hindus call it 'jal', the Christians 'water',

and the Mussalmans 'pani'. But it is one and the same thing.

Opinions are but paths. Each religion is only a path leading to God, as

rivers come from different directions and ultimately become one in the one

ocean.

Oneness of God

"The Truth established in the Vedas, the Puranas, and the Tantras is but one

Satchidananda. In the Vedas It is called Brahman, in the Puranas It is called

Krishna, Rāma, and so on, and in the Tantras It is called Śiva. The one

Satchidananda is called Brahman, Krishna, and Śiva."

The devotees were silent.

A VAISHNAVA DEVOTEE: "Sir, why should one think of God at all"

MASTER: "If a man really has that knowledge, then he is indeed liberated

though living in a body.

Shallow faith of the worldly-minded

"Not all, by any means, believe in God. They simply talk. The worldly-

minded have heard from someone that God exists and that everything

happens by His will; but it is not their inner belief.

"Do you know what a worldly man's idea of God is like? It is like the

children's swearing by God when they quarrel. They have heard the word

while listening to their elderly aunts quarreling.

"Is it possible for all to comprehend God? God has created the good and the

bad, the devoted and the impious, the faithful and the sceptical. The

wonders that we see all exist in His creation. In one place there is more

manifestation of His Power, in another less. The sun's light is better

reflected by water than by earth, and still better by a mirror. Again, there are

different levels among the devotees of God: superior, mediocre, and

inferior. All this has been described in the Gitā."

VAISHNAVA: "True, sir."

Various classes of devotees

MASTER: "The inferior devotee says, 'God exists, but He is very far off, up

there in heaven.' The mediocre devotee says, 'God exists in all beings as life

and consciousness.'

The superior devotee says: 'It is God Himself who has become everything;

whatever I see is only a form of God. It is He alone who has become maya,

the universe, and all living beings. Nothing exists but God.' "

VAISHNAVA: "Does anyone ever attain that state of mind?"

Signs of God-vision

MASTER: "One cannot attain it unless one has seen God. But there are

signs that a man has had the vision of God. A man who has seen God

sometimes behaves like a madman: he laughs, weeps, dances, and sings.

Sometimes he behaves like a child, a child five years old-guileless,

generous, without vanity, unattached to anything, not under the control of

any of the gunas, always blissful. Sometimes he behaves like a ghoul: he

doesn't differentiate between things pure and things impure; he sees no

difference between things clean and things unclean. And sometimes he is

like an inert thing, staring vacantly: he cannot do any work; he cannot strive

for anything."

Was the Master making a veiled reference to his own states of mind?

Knowledge and ignorance

MASTER (to the Vaishnava devotee): "The feeling of 'Thee and Thine' is

the outcome of Knowledge; 'I and mine' comes from ignorance. Knowledge

makes one feel: 'O God, Thou art the Doer and I am Thy instrument.

O God, to Thee belongs all-body, mind, house, family, living beings, and

the universe.

All these are Thine. Nothing belongs to me.'

"An ignorant person says, 'Oh, God is there-very far off.' The man of

Knowledge knows that God is right here, very near, in the heart; that He has

assumed all forms and dwells in all hearts as their Inner Controller."

Sunday, July 22, 1883

Taking advantage of the holiday, many householder devotees visited Sri

Ramakrishna in his room at the Dakshineswar temple garden. The Young

devotees, mostly students, generally came on week-days. Sometimes the

Master asked his intimate disciples to come on a Tuesday or a Saturday,

days that he considered very auspicious for special religious instruction.

Adhar, Rākhāl , and M. had come from Calcutta in a hired carriage.

Sri Ramakrishna had enjoyed a little rest after his midday meal. The room

had an atmosphere of purity and holiness. On the walls hung pictures of

gods and goddesses, among them one of Christ rescuing the drowning Peter.

Outside the room were plants laden with fragrant flowers, and the Ganges

could be seen flowing toward the south.

The Master was seated on the small couch, facing the north, and the

devotees sat on mats and carpets spread on the floor. All eyes were directed

toward him. Mani Mallick, an old Brahmo devotee about sixty-five years of

age, came to pay his respects to the Master. He had returned a few months

earlier from a pilgrimage to Benares and was recounting his experiences to

Sri Ramakrishna.

Difficulty of the Vedantic method

MANI MALLICK: "A monk whom I met in Benares said that no religious

experience is possible without the control of the sense-organs. Nothing

could be achieved by merely crying, 'God! God!' "

MASTER: "Do you understand the views of teachers like him? According

to them, one must first practise spiritual discipline: self-restraint, self-

control, forbearance, and the like. Their aim is to attain Nirvāna. They are

followers of Vedānta. They constantly discriminate, saying, 'Brahman alone

is real, and the world illusory.' But this is an extremely difficult path. If the

world is illusory, then you too are illusory. The teacher who gives the

instruction is equally illusory. His words, too, are as illusory as a dream.

"But this experience is beyond the reach of the ordinary man. Do you know

what it is like? If you burn camphor nothing remains. When wood is burnt

at least a little ash is left. Finally, after the last analysis, the devotee goes

into samādhi. Then he knows nothing whatsoever of 'I', 'you', or the

universe.

"Padmalochan was a man of deep wisdom. He had great respect for me,

though at that time I constantly repeated the name of the Divine Mother. He

was the court pundit of the Maharaja of Burdwan. Once he came to Calcutta

and went to live in a garden house near kamarhati. I felt a desire to see him

and sent Hriday there to learn if the pundit had any vanity. I was told that he

had none. Then I met him. Though a man of great knowledge and

scholarship, he began to weep on hearing me sing Ramprasad's devotional

songs. We talked together a long while; conversation with nobody else gave

me such satisfaction. He said to me, 'Give up the desire for the company of

devotees; otherwise people of all sorts will come to you and make you

deviate from your spiritual ideal.' Once he entered into a controversy, by

correspondence, with Utshavananda, Vaishnavcharan's guru. He told me an

interesting incident. Once a meeting was called to decide which of the two

deities, Śiva or Brahma, was the greater. Unable to come to any decision,

the pundits at last referred the matter to Padmalochan. With characteristic

guilelessness he said: 'How do I know? Neither I nor any of my ancestors

back to the fourteenth generation have seen Śiva or Brahma.' About the

renunciation of 'woman and gold', he said to me one day: 'Why have you

given up those things? Such distinctions as "This is money and that is clay"

are the outcome of ignorance.' What could I say to that?

I replied: 'I don't know all these things, my dear sir. But for my part, I

cannot relish such things as money and the like.'

"There was a pundit who was tremendously vain. He did not believe in the

forms of God. But who can understand the inscrutable ways of the Divine?

God revealed Himself to him as the Primal Power. This vision made the

pundit unconscious for a long time.

After regaining partial consciousness he uttered only the sound 'Ka! Ka!

Ka!' He could not fully pronounce 'Kāli'."

A DEVOTEE: "Sir, you met Pundit Vidyasagar. What did you think of

him?"

MASTER: "Vidyasagar has both scholarship and charity, but he lacks inner

vision. Gold lies hidden within him. Had he but found it out, his activities

would have been reduced; finally they would have stopped altogether. Had

he but known that God resides in his heart, his mind would have been

directed to God in thought and meditation. Some persons must perform

selfless work a long time before they can practise dispassion and direct their

minds to the spiritual ideal and at last be absorbed in God.

Charity and attachment

"The activities that Vidyasagar is engaged in are good. Charity is very

noble. There is a great deal of difference between daya, compassion, and

maya, attachment. Daya is good, but not maya. Maya is love for one's

relatives-one's wife, children, brother, sister, nephew, father, and mother.

But daya is the same love for all created beings without any distinction."

M: "Is daya also a bondage?"

The three gunas

MASTER: "Yes, it is. But that concept is something far beyond the ordinary

man. Daya springs from sattva. Sattva preserves, rajas creates, and tamas

destroys. But Brahman is beyond the three gunas. It is beyond Prakriti.

"None of the three gunas can reach Truth; they are like robbers, who cannot

come to a public place for fear of being arrested. Sattva, rajas, and tamas

are like so many robbers.

"Listen to a story. Once a man was going through a forest, when three

robbers fell upon him and robbed him of all his possessions. One of the

robbers said, 'What's the use of keeping this man alive?' So saying, he was

about to kill him with his sword, when the second robber interrupted him,

saying: 'Oh, no! What is the use of killing him? Tie him hand and foot and

leave him here.' The robbers bound his hands and feet and went away.

After a while the third robber returned and said to the man: 'Ah, I am sorry.

Are you hurt? I will release you from your bonds.' After setting the man

free, the thief said: 'Come with me. I will take you to the public highway.'

After a long time they reached the road. Then the robber said: 'Follow this

road. Over there is your house.' At this the man said: 'Sir, you have been

very good to me. Come with me to my house ' 'Oh, no!'

the robber replied. 'I can't go there. The police will know it.'

This world itself is the forest. The three robbers prowling here are sattva,

rajas, and tamas. It is they that rob a man of the Knowledge of Truth. Tamas

wants to destroy him. Rajas binds him to the world. But sattva rescues him

from the clutches of rajas and tamas. Under the protection of sattva, man is

rescued from anger, passion, and the other evil effects of tamas. Further,

sattva loosens the bonds of the world. But sattva also is a robber. It cannot

give him the ultimate Knowledge of Truth, though it shows him the road

leading to the Supreme Abode of God. Setting him on the path, sattva tells

him: 'Look yonder. There is your home.' Even sattva is far away from the

Knowledge of Brahman.

Nature of Brahman cannot he described

"What Brahman is cannot be described. Even he who knows It cannot talk

about It.

There is a saying that a boat, once reaching the 'black waters' of the ocean,

cannot come back.

Parable of the four friends

"Once four friends, in the course of a walk, saw a place enclosed by a wall.

The wall was very high. They all became eager to know what was inside.

One of them climbed to the top of the wall. What he saw on looking inside

made him speechless with wonder. He only cried,'Ah! Ah!' and dropped in.

He could not give any information about what he saw. The others, too,

climbed the wall, uttered the same cry, 'Ah! Ah!', and jumped in.

Now who could tell what was inside?

"Sages like Jadabharata and Dattatreya, after realizing Brahman, could not

describe It.

A man's 'I' completely disappears when he goes into samādhi after attaining

the Knowledge of Brahman. That is why Ramprasad sang, addressing his

mind: If you should find the task too hard, Call upon Ramprasad for help.

The mind must completely merge itself in Knowledge. But that is not

enough.

'Ramprasad', that is, the principle of 'I', must vanish too. Then alone does

one get the Knowledge of Brahman."

A DEVOTEE: "Sir, is it possible then that Sukadeva did not have the

ultimate Knowledge?"

MASTER: "According to some people, Sukadeva only saw and touched the

Ocean of Brahman; he did not dive into It. That is why he could return to

the world and impart religious instruction. According to others, he returned

to the world of name and form, after attaining the Knowledge of Brahman,

for the purpose of teaching others. He had to recite the Bhagavata to King

Parikshit and had to teach people in various ways; therefore God did not

destroy his 'I' altogether. God kept in him the 'ego of Knowledge.'"

God and religious organization

DEVOTEE: "Can one keep up an organization after attaining the

Knowledge of Brahman?"

MASTER: "Once I talked to Keshab Sen about the Knowledge of Brahman.

He asked me to explain it further. I said, 'If I proceed further, then you won't

be able to preserve your organization and following.' 'Then please stop

here!' replied Keshab. (All laugh.) But still I said to Keshab: ' "I" and

"mine" indicate ignorance. Without ignorance one cannot have such a

feeling as "I am the doer; these are my wife, children, possessions, name

and fame".' Thereupon Keshab said, 'Sir, if one gave up the "I", nothing

whatsoever would remain.' I reassured him and said: 'I am not asking you to

give up all of the "I". You should give up only the "unripe I". The "unripe I"

makes one feel: "I am the doer. These are my wife and children. I am a

teacher." Renounce this. "unripe I"

and keep the "ripe I", which will make you feel that you are the servant of

God, His devotee, and that God is the Doer and you are His instrument.' "

DEVOTEE: "Can the 'ripe I' form an organization?"

Two kinds of ego

MASTER: "I said to Keshab Sen that the 'I' that says, 'I am a leader, I have

formed this party, I am teaching people', is the 'unripe I'. It is very difficult

to preach religion. It is not possible to do so without receiving the

commandment of God. The permission of God is necessary. Sukadeva had a

command from God to recite the Bhagavata. If, after realizing God, a man

gets His command and becomes a preacher or teacher, then that preaching

or teaching does no harm. His 'I' is not 'unripe'; it is 'ripe'.

"I asked Keshab to give up this 'unripe I'. The ego that feels, 'I am the

servant of God and lover of God' does not injure one. I said to him: 'You

have been constantly talking of your organization and your followers. But

people also go away from your organization.' Keshab answered: 'It is true,

sir. After staying in it several years, people go to another organization.

What is worse, on deserting me they abuse me right and left.' 'Why don't

you study their nature?' I said. 'Is there any good in making anybody and

everybody a disciple?'

"I said to Keshab further: 'You should accept the Divine Mother, the Primal

Energy.

Brahman is not different from Its Śakti. What is Brahman is also Śakti. As

long as a man remains conscious of the body, he is conscious of duality. It is

only when a man tries to describe what he sees that he finds duality.'

Keshab later on recognized Kāli.

"One day when Keshab was here with his disciples, I said to him that I

would like to hear him preach. He delivered a lecture in the chandni. Then

we all sat by the bathing-ghat and had a long conversation. I said to him: 'It

is Bhagavan alone who in one form appears as bhakta, and in another as the

Bhagavata. Please repeat "Bhagavata-Bhakta-Bhagavan".' Keshab and his

disciples repeated the words. Then I asked him to repeat 'Guru-Krishna-

Vaishnava'. Thereupon Keshab said: 'Sir, I should not go so far now.

People will say that I have become an orthodox Hindu.'

"It is extremely difficult to go beyond the three gunas. One cannot reach

that state without having realized God. Man dwells in the realm of maya.

Maya does not permit him to see God. It has made him a victim of

ignorance.

Man's inordinate attachment

"Once Hriday brought a bull-calf here. I saw, one day, that he had tied it

with a rope in the garden, so that it might graze there. I asked him, 'Hriday,

why do you tie the calf there every day?' 'Uncle,' he said, 'I am going to

send this calf to our village. When it grows strong I shall yoke it to the

plough.' As soon as I heard these words I was stunned to think: 'How

inscrutable is the play of the divine maya! Kamarpukur and Sihore are so

far away from Calcutta! This poor calf must go all that way. Then it will

grow, and at length it will be yoked to the plough. This is indeed the world!

This is indeed maya!' I fell down unconscious. Only after a long time did I

regain consciousness."

It was three or four o'clock in the afternoon. M. found Sri Ramakrishna

seated on the couch in an abstracted mood. After some time he heard him

talking to the Divine Mother. The Master said, "O Mother, why hast Thou

given him only a particle?"

Remaining silent a few moments, he added: "I understand it, Mother. That

little bit will be enough for him and will serve Thy purpose. That little bit

will enable him to teach people."

Did the Master thus transmit spiritual powers to his disciples? Did he thus

come to know that his disciples, after him, would go out into the world as

teachers of men?

Rākhāl was in the room. Sri Ramakrishna was still in a state of partial

consciousness when he said to Rākhāl : "You were angry with me, weren't

you? Do you know why I made you angry? There was a reason. Only then

would the medicine work. The surgeon first brings an abscess to a head.

Only then does he apply a herb so that it may burst and dry up."

After a pause he went on: "Yes, I have found Hazra to be like a piece of dry

wood. Then why does he live here? This has a meaning too. The play is

enlivened by the presence of trouble-makers like Jatila and Kutila.

(To M.) "One must accept the forms of God. Do you know the meaning of

the image of Jagaddhatri? She is the Bearer of the Universe. Without her

support and protection the universe would fall from its place and be

destroyed. The Divine Mother, Jagaddhatri, reveals Herself in the heart of

one who can control the mind, which may be compared to an elephant."

RĀKHĀL: "The mind is a mad elephant."

MASTER: "Therefore the lion, the carrier of the Divine Mother, keeps it

under control."

It was dusk. The evening service began in the temples. Sri Ramakrishna

was chanting the names of the gods and goddesses. He was seated on the

small couch, with folded hands, and became absorbed in contemplation of

the Divine Mother. The world outside was flooded with moonlight, and the

devotees inside the Master's room sat in silence and looked at his serene

face.

In the mean time Govinda of Belgharia and some of his friends had entered

the room.

Sri Ramakrishna was still in a semi-conscious state. After a few minutes he

said to the devotees: "Tell me your doubts. I shall explain everything."

Govinda and the other devotees looked thoughtful.

Black complexion of the Divine Mother

GOVINDA: "Revered sir, why does the Divine Mother have a black

complexion?"

MASTER: "You see Her as black because you are far away from Her. Go

near and you will find Her devoid of all colour. The water of a lake appears

black from a distance. Go near and take the water in your hand, and you

will see that it has no colour at all.

Similarly, the sky looks blue from a distance. But look at the atmosphere

near you; it has no colour. The nearer you come to God, the more you will

realize that He has neither name nor form. If you move away from the

Divine Mother, you will find Her blue, like the grass-flower. Is Syama male

or female? A man once saw the image of the Divine Mother wearing a

sacred thread. He said to the worshipper: 'What? You have put the sacred

thread on the Mother's neck!' The worshipper said: 'Brother, I see that you

have truly known the Mother. But I have not yet been able to find out

whether She is male or female; that is why I have put the sacred thread on

Her image.'

"That which is Syama is also Brahman. That which has form, again, is

without form.

That which has attributes, again, has no attributes. Brahman is Śakti; Śakti

is Brahman. They are not two. These are only two aspects, male and female,

of the same Reality, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute."

GOVINDA: "What is the meaning of 'yogamaya'?"

MASTER: "It signifies the yoga, or union, of Purusha and Prakriti.

Whatever you perceive in the universe is the outcome of this union. Take

the image of Śiva and Kāli.

Kāli stands on the bosom of Śiva; Śiva lies under Her feet like a corpse;

Kāli looks at Śiva. All this denotes the union of Purusha and Prakriti.

Purusha is inactive; therefore Śiva lies on the ground like a corpse. Prakriti

performs all Her activities in conjunction with Purusha. Thus She creates,

preserves, and destroys. That is also the meaning of the conjoined images of

Radha and Krishna. On account of that union, again, the images are slightly

inclined toward each other.

"To denote this union, Sri Krishna wears a pearl in His nose, Radha a blue

stone in hers.

Radha has a fair complexion, bright as the pearl. Sri Krishna's is blue. For

this reason Radha wears the blue stone. Further, Krishna's apparel is yellow,

and Radha's blue.

"Who is the best devotee of God? It is he who sees, after the realization of

Brahman, that God alone has become all living beings, the universe, and the

twenty-four cosmic principles. One must discriminate at first, saying 'Not

this, not this', and reach the roof.

After that one realizes that the steps are made of the same materials as the

roof, namely, brick, lime, and brick-dust. The devotee realizes that it is

Brahman alone that has become all these-the living beings, the universe,

and so on.

"Mere dry reasoning-I spit on it! I have no use for it! (The Master spits on

the ground.) "Why should I make myself dry through mere reasoning? May

I have unalloyed love for the Lotus Feet of God as long as the

consciousness of 'I' and 'you' remains with me!

(To Govinda) "Sometimes I say, 'Thou art verily I, and I am verily Thou.'

Again I feel, 'Thou art Thou.' Then I do not find any trace of 'I'. It is Śakti

alone that becomes flesh as God Incarnate. According to one school of

thought, Rāma and Krishna are but two waves in the Ocean of Absolute

Bliss and Consciousness.

Seeing God in everything

"Chaitanya, Consciousness, is awakened after Advaita-jnāna, the

Knowledge of the non-dual Brahman. Then one perceives that God alone

exists in all beings as Consciousness.

After this realization comes Ānanda, Bliss. Advaita, Chaitanya, and

Nityananda.

(to M.) "Let me ask you not to disbelieve in the forms of God. Have faith in

God's forms. Meditate on that form of God which appeals to your mind.

(To Govinda) "The fact is that one does not feel the longing to know or see

God as long as one wants to enjoy worldly objects. The child forgets

everything when he plays with his toys. Try to cajole him away from play

with a sweetmeat; you will not succeed. He will eat only a bit of it. When

he relishes neither the sweetmeat nor his play, then he says, 'I want to go to

my mother.' He doesn't care for the sweetmeat any more. If a man whom he

doesn't know and has never seen says to the child, 'Come along; I shall take

you to your mother', the child follows him. The child will go with anyone

who will carry him to his mother.

The soul becomes restless for God when one is through with the enjoyment

of worldly things. Then a person has only one thought-how to realize God.

He listens to whatever anyone says to him about God."

M. (to himself): "Alas! The soul becomes restless for God only when one is

through with the enjoyment of worldly things."

August 18, 1883

Mystery of Divine Incarnation

Sri Ramakrishna was at Balarām Bose's house in Calcutta. He was

explaining the mystery of Divine Incarnation to the devotees.

MASTER: "In order to bring people spiritual knowledge, an Incarnation of

God lives in the world in the company of devotees, cherishing an attitude of

love for God. It is like going up and coming down the stairs after having

once reached the roof. In order to reach the roof, other people should follow

the path of devotion, as long as they have not attained Knowledge and

become free of desire. The roof can be reached only when all desires are

done away with. The shopkeeper does not go to bed before finishing his

accounts. He goes to sleep only when his accounts are finished.

(To M.) "A man will certainly succeed if he will take the plunge. Success is

sure for such a man.

"Well, what do you think of the worship conducted by Keshab, Shivanath,

and the other Brahmo leaders?"

M: "They are satisfied, as you say, with describing the garden, but they

seldom speak of seeing the Master of the garden. Describing the garden is

the beginning and end of their worship."

MASTER: "You are right. Our only duty is to seek the Master of the garden

and speak to Him. The only purpose of life is to realize God."

Sri Ramakrishna then went to Adhar's house. After dusk he sang and

danced in Adhar's drawing-room. M., Rākhāl , and other devotees were

present. After the music he sat down, still in an ecstatic mood. He said to

Rākhāl: "This religious fervour is not like rain in the rainy season, which

comes in torrents and goes in torrents. It is like an image of Śiva that has

not been set up by human hands but is a natural one that has sprung up, as it

were, from the bowels of the earth. The other day you left Dakshineswar in

a temper. I prayed to the Divine Mother to forgive you."

The Master was still in an abstracted mood and said to Adhar, "My son,

meditate on the Deity whose name you chanted." With these words he

touched Adhar's tongue with his finger and wrote something on it. Did the

Master thereby impart spirituality to Adhar?

--------------------

Chapter 13

THE MASTER AND M.

August 19, 1883

IT WAS SUNDAY, the first day after the full moon. Sri Ramakrishna was

resting after his noon meal. The midday offering had been made in the

temples, and the temple doors were closed.

In the early afternoon the Master sat up on the small couch in his room. M.

prostrated himself before him and sat on the floor. The Master was talking

to him on the philosophy of Vedānta.

Householders and Non-dualism

MASTER (to M.): "Self-Knowledge is discussed in the Ashtāvakra

Samhitā. The non-dualists say, 'Soham', that is, 'I am the Supreme Self.'

This is the view of the sannyasis of the Vedantic school. But this is not the

right attitude for householders, who are conscious of doing everything

themselves. That being so, how can they declare, 'I am That, the actionless

Supreme Self'? According to the non-dualists the Self is unattached.

Good and bad, virtue and vice, and the other pairs of opposites, cannot in

any way injure the Self, though they undoubtedly afflict those who have

identified themselves with their bodies. Smoke soils the wall, certainly, but

it cannot in any way affect Ākāśa, space.

Following the Vedantists of this class, Krishnakishore used to say, 'I am

Kha', meaning Ākāśa. Being a great devotee, he could say that with some

justification; but it is not becoming for others to do so.

"But to feel that one is a free soul is very good. By constantly repeating, 'I

am free, I am free', a man verily becomes free. On the other hand, by

constantly repeating, 'I am bound, I am bound', he certainly becomes bound

to worldliness. The fool who says only, 'I am a sinner, I am a sinner', verily

drowns himself in worldliness. One should rather say: I have chanted the

name of God. How can I be a sinner? How can I be bound?'

(To M.) "You see, I am very much depressed today. Hriday has written me

that he is very ill. Why should I feel dejected about it? Is it because of maya

or daya?"

M. could not find suitable words for a reply, and remained silent.

Maya and compassion

MASTER: "Do you know what maya is? It is attachment to relatives-

parents, brother and sister, wife and children, nephew and niece. Daya

means love for all created beings.

Now what is this, my feeling about Hriday? Is it maya or daya? But Hriday

did so much for me: he served me whole-heartedly and nursed me when I

was ill. But later he tormented me also. The torment became so unbearable

that once I was about to commit suicide by jumping into the Ganges from

the top of the embankment. But he did much to serve me. Now my mind

will be at rest if he gets some money. But whom shall I ask for it? Who

likes to speak about such things to our rich visitors?"

At two or three o'clock in the afternoon Adhar Sen and Balarām arrived.

After saluting Sri Ramakrishna, they sat on the floor and asked him if he

was well. The Master said, "Yes, I am well physically, but a little troubled

in mind." He did not refer to Hriday and his troubles.

The conversation turned to the Goddess Simhavahini.

MASTER: "Yes, I visited the Goddess. She is worshipped by one of the

branches of the Mallick family of Calcutta. This branch of the family is

now in straitened circumstances, and the house they live in is dilapidated.

The walls and floor are spotted with moss and pigeon-droppings, and the

cement and plaster are crumbling. But other branches of the Mallick family

are well off. This branch has no signs of prosperity. (To M.) Well, what

does that signify?"

M. remained silent.

MASTER: "The thing is that everyone must reap the result of his past-

karma. One must admit the influence of tendencies inherited from past

births and the result of the prarabdha karma. Nevertheless, in that

dilapidated house I saw the face of the Goddess radiating a divine light.

One must believe in the Divine Presence in the image.

"Once I went to Vishnupur. The raja of that place has several fine temples.

In one of them there is an image of the Divine Mother, called Mrinmayi.

There are several lakes near the temple, known as the Lalbandh,

Krishnabandh, and so on. In the water of one of the lakes I could smell the

ointments that women use for their hair. How do you explain that? I didn't

know at that time that the woman devotees offer ointments to the Goddess

Mrinmayi while visiting Her temple. Near the lake I went into samādhi,

though I had not yet seen the image in the temple. In that state I saw the

divine form from the waist up, rising from the water."

In the mean time other devotees had arrived. Someone referred to the

political revolution and civil war in Kabul. A devotee said that Yakub Khan,

the Amir of Afghanistan, had been deposed. He told the Master that the

Amir was a great devotee of God.

Pleasure and pain are characteristics of physical life MASTER: "But

you must remember that pleasure and pain are the characteristics of the

embodied state. In Kavi Kankan's Chandi it is written that Kaluvir was sent

to prison and a heavy stone placed on his chest. Yet Kalu was born as a

result of a boon from the Divine Mother of the Universe. Thus pleasure and

pain are inevitable when the soul accepts a body. Again, take the case of

Srimanta, who was a great devotee. Though his mother, Khullana, was very

much devoted to the Divine Mother, there was no end to his troubles. He

was almost beheaded. There is also the instance of the wood-cutter who was

a great lover of the Divine Mother. She appeared before him and showed

him much grace and love; but he had to continue his profession of wood-

cutting and earn his livelihood by that arduous work. Again, while Devaki,

Krishna's mother, was in prison, she had a vision of God Himself endowed

with four hands, holding mace, discus, conchshell, and lotus. But with all

that she couldn't get out of prison."

M: "Why speak only of getting out of prison? This body is the source of all

our troubles.

Devaki should have been freed from the body."

Law of karma

MASTER: "The truth is that one must reap the result of the prarabdha

karma. The body remains as long as the results of past actions do not

completely wear away. Once a blind man bathed in the Ganges and as a

result was freed from his sins. But his blindness remained all the same. (All

laugh.) It was because of his evil deeds in his past birth that he had to

undergo that affliction."

M: "Yes,sir. The arrow that has already left the bow is beyond our control."

MASTER: "However much a bhakta may experience physical joy and

sorrow, he always has knowledge and the treasure of divine love. This

treasure never leaves him. Take the Pandava brothers for instance. Though

they suffered so many calamities, they did not lose their God-

Consciousness even once. Where can you find men like them, endowed

with so much knowledge and devotion?"

Just then Narendra and Colonel Viswanath Upadhyaya entered the room.

Narendra was then twenty-two years old and studying in college. They

saluted the Master and sat down. The Master requested Narendra to sing.

The Tānpura hung on the west wall of the room. The devotees fixed their

eyes on Narendra as he began to tune the drums.

MASTER (to Narendra): "The drums don't sound as well as before."

CAPTAIN: "They are now full. Therefore they are quiet, like a vessel filled

with water.

Or they are like a holy man, who remains silent when his heart is full of

God-Consciousness."

MASTER: "But what about sages like Nārada?"

CAPTAIN: "They talked because they were moved by the sufferings of

others."

MASTER: "You are right. After attaining samādhi, Nārada, Sukadeva, and

others came down a few steps, as it were, to the plane of normal

consciousness and broke their silence out of compassion for the sufferings

of others and to help them."

Narendra began to sing:

Oh, when will dawn for me that day of blessedness When He who is all

Good, all Beauty, and all Truth, Will light the inmost shrine of my heart?

When shall I sink at last, ever beholding Him, Into that Ocean of Delight? .

. .

No sooner had the Master heard a few words of the song than he went into

deep samādhi. He sat with folded hands, facing the east. His body was erect

and his mind completely bereft of worldly consciousness. His breath had

almost stopped. With unwinking eyes he sat motionless as a picture on a

canvas. His mind had dived deep into the Ocean of God's Beauty.

Narendra left the room and went to the east verandah, where Hazra was

seated on a blanket, with a rosary in his hand. They fell to talking. Other

devotees arrived. The Master came down from samādhi and looked around.

He could not find Narendra. The Tānpura was lying on the floor. He noticed

that the earnest eyes of the devotees were riveted on him.

MASTER (referring to Narendra): "He has lighted the fire. Now it doesn't

matter whether he stays in the room or goes out.

Joy of God-Consciousness

(To Captain and the other devotees) "Attribute to yourselves the bliss of

God-Consciousness; then you too will experience ineffable joy. The bliss of

God-Consciousness always exists in you. It is only hidden by the veiling

and projecting power of maya. The less you are attached to the world, the

more you love God."

CAPTAIN: "The farther you proceed toward your home in Calcutta, the

farther you leave Benares behind. Again, the farther you proceed toward

Benares, the farther behind you leave your home."

MASTER: "As Radha advanced toward Krishna, she could smell more and

more of the sweet fragrance of His body. The nearer you approach to God,

the more you feel His love. As the river approaches the ocean it

increasingly feels the flow of the tides.

Ideals of Jnāni and bhakta

"The Jnāni experiences God-Consciousness within himself; it is like the

upper Ganges, flowing in only one direction. To him the whole universe is

illusory, like a dream; he is always established in the Reality of Self. But

with the lover of God the case is different.

His feeling does not flow in only one direction. He feels both the ebb-tide

and the flood-tide of divine emotion. He laughs and weeps and dances and

sings in the ecstasy of God. The lover of God likes to sport with Him. In the

Ocean of God-Consciousness he sometimes swims, sometimes goes down,

and sometimes rises to the surface-like pieces of ice in the water.

(Laughter.)

Brahman and Śakti are not different "The Jnāni seeks to realize

Brahman. But the ideal of the bhakta is the Personal God-a God endowed

with omnipotence and with the six treasures. Yet Brahman and Śakti are, in

fact, not different. That which is the Blissful Mother is, again, Existence-

Knowledge-Bliss Absolute. They are like the gem and its lustre. When one

speaks of the lustre of the gem, one thinks of the gem; and again, when one

speaks of the gem, one refers to its lustre. One cannot conceive of the lustre

of the gem without thinking of the gem, and one cannot conceive of the

gem without thinking of its lustre.

"Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute is one, and one only. But It is

associated with different limiting adjuncts on account of the different

degrees of Its manifestation. That is why one finds various forms of God.

The devotee sings, 'O my Divine Mother, Thou art all these!' Wherever you

see actions, like creation, preservation, and dissolution, there is the

manifestation of Śakti. Water is water whether it is calm or full of waves

and bubbles. The Absolute alone is the Primordial Energy, which creates,

preserves, and destroys. Thus it is the same 'Captain', whether he remains

inactive or performs his worship or pays a visit to the Governor General.

Only we designate him by different names at different times."

CAPTAIN: "Yes, sir, that is so."

MASTER: "I said those words to Keshab Sen."

CAPTAIN: "Keshab is not an orthodox Hindu. He adopts manners and

customs according to his own whim. He is a well-to-do gentleman and not a

holy man."

MASTER (to the other devotees): "Captain forbids me to go to see

Keshab."

CAPTAIN: "But, sir, you act as you will. What can I do?"

MASTER (sharply): "Why shouldn't I go to see Keshab? You feel at ease

when you go to the Governor General's house, and for money at that.

Keshab thinks of God and chants His name. Isn't it you who are always

saying that God Himself has become the universe and all its living beings?

Doesn't God dwell in Keshab also?"

With these words the Master left the room abruptly and went to the

northeast verandah.

Captain and the other devotees remained, waiting for his return. M.

accompanied the Master to the verandah, where Narendra was talking with

Hazra. Sri Ramakrishna knew that Hazra always indulged in dry

philosophical discussions. Hazra would say: "The world is unreal, like a

dream. Worship, food offerings to the Deity, and so forth, are only

hallucinations of the mind. The aim of spiritual life is to meditate on one's

own real Self." Then he would repeat, "I am He." But, with all that, he had a

soft corner in his heart for money, material things, and people's attention.

Sri Ramakrishna smiled and said to Hazra and Narendra, "Hello! What are

you talking about?"

NARENDRA (smiling): "Oh, we are discussing a great many things. They

are rather too deep for others."

MASTER (with a smile): "But Pure Knowledge and Pure Love are one and

the same thing. Both lead the aspirants to the same goal. The path of love is

much the easier."

Narendra quoted a song:

O Mother, make me mad with Thy love!

What need have I of knowledge or reason?

Narendra said to M. that he had been reading a book by Hamilton, who

wrote: "A learned ignorance is the end of philosophy and the beginning of

religion."

MASTER (to M.): "What does that mean?"

Narendra explained the sentence in Bengali. The Master beamed with joy

and said in English, "Thank you! Thank you!" Everyone laughed at the

charming way he said these words. They knew that his English vocabulary

consisted of only half a dozen words.

It was almost dusk when most of the devotees, including Narendra, took

leave of the Master. Sri Ramakrishna went out and looked at the Ganges for

a few minutes from the west porch. Two priests were bathing in preparation

for the evening worship. Young men of the village were strolling in the

garden or standing on the concrete embankment, gazing at the murmuring

river. Others, perhaps more thoughtful, were walking about in the solitude

of the Panchavati.

It became dark. The maidservant lighted the lamp in Sri Ramakrishna's

room and burnt incense. The evening worship began in the twelve temples

of Śiva and in the shrines of Krishna and Kāli.

As it was the first day after the full moon, the moonlight soon flooded the

tops of the trees and temples, and touched with silver the numberless waves

of the sacred river.

The Master returned to his room. After bowing to the Divine Mother, he

clapped his hands and chanted the sweet names of God. A number of holy

pictures hung on the walls of the room. Among others, there were pictures

of Dhruva, Prahlada, Kāli, Radha-Krishna, and the coronation of Rāma. The

Master bowed low before the pictures and repeated the holy names. Then he

repeated the holy words, "Brahma-Ātmā-Bhagavan; Bhagavata-Bhakta-

Bhagavan; Brahma-Śakti, Śakti-Brahma; Veda, Purana, Tantra, Gitā,

Gayatri." Then he said: "I have taken refuge at Thy feet, O Divine Mother;

not I, but Thou. I am the machine and Thou art the Operator", and so on.

Master extols Narendra

While the Master was meditating in this fashion on the Divine Mother, a

few devotees, coming in from the garden, gathered in his room. Sri

Ramakrishna sat down on the small couch. He said to the devotees:

"Narendra, Bhavanath, Rākhāl , and devotees like them belong to the group

of the nityasiddhas; they are eternally free. Religious practice on their part

is superfluous. Look at Narendra. He doesn't care about anyone. One day he

was going with me in Captain's carriage. Captain wanted him to take a good

seat, but Narendra didn't even look at him. He is independent even of me.

He doesn't tell me all he knows, lest I should praise his scholarship before

others. He is free from ignorance and delusion. He has no bonds. He is a

great soul. He has many good qualities. He is expert in music, both as a

singer and player, and is also a versatile scholar. Again, he keeps his

passions under control and says that he will never marry.

There is a close friendship between Narendra and Bhavanath; they are just

like man and woman. Narendra doesn't come here very often. That is good,

for I am overwhelmed by his presence."

Monday, August 20, 1883

Sri Ramakrishna was sitting on his bed, inside the mosquito net, meditating.

It was about eight o'clock in the evening. M. was sitting on the floor with

his friend Hari Babu.

Hari, a young man of twenty-eight, had lost his wife about eleven years

before and had not married a second time. He was much, devoted to his

parents, brothers, and sisters.

Hazra was living at Dakshineswar. Rākhāl lived with the Master, though

now and then he stayed at Adhar's house. Narendra, Bhavanath, Adhar, M.,

Ram, Manomohan, and other devotees visited the Master almost every

week.

Hriday, Sri Ramakrishna's nephew, was ill in his home in the country. The

Master was worried about him. One of the devotees had sent him a little

money, but the Master did not know it.

When Sri Ramakrishna came out of the mosquito net and sat on the small

couch, the devotees saluted him.

MASTER (to M.): "I was meditating inside the net. It occurred to me that

meditation, after all, was nothing but the imagining of a form, and so I did

not enjoy it. One gets satisfaction if God reveals Himself in a flash. Again, I

said to myself, 'Who is it that meditates, and on whom does he meditate?' "

M: "Yes, sir. You said that God Himself has become everything-the

universe and all living beings. Even he who meditates is God."

MASTER: "What is more, one cannot meditate unless God wills it. One can

meditate when God makes it possible for one to do so. What do you say?"

M: "True, sir. You feel like that because there is no 'I' in you. When there is

no ego, one feels like that."

MASTER: "But it is good .to have a trace of ego, which makes it possible

for a man to feel that he is the servant of God. As long as a man thinks that

it is he who is doing his duties, it is very good for him to feel that God is the

Master and he God's servant. When one is conscious of doing work, one

should establish with God the relationship of servant and Master."

M. was always reflecting on the nature of the Supreme Brahman.

Nature of Brahman

MASTER (to M.): "Like the Ākāśa, Brahman is without any modification.

It has become manifold because of Śakti. Again, Brahman is like fire,

which itself has no colour. The fire appears white if you throw a white

substance into it, red if you throw a red, black if you throw a black. The

three gunas-sattva, rajas, and tamas-belong to Śakti alone.

Brahman Itself is beyond the three gunas. What Brahman is cannot be

described. It is beyond words. That which remains after everything is

eliminated by the Vedantic process of 'Not this, not this', and which is of the

nature of Bliss, is Brahman.

"Suppose the husband of a young girl has come to his father-in-law's house

and is seated in the drawing-room with other young men of his age. The girl

and her friends are looking at them through the window. Her friends do not

know her husband and ask her, pointing to one young man, 'Is that your

husband?' 'No', she answers, smiling.

They point to another young man and ask if he is her husband. Again she

answers no.

They repeat the question, referring to a third, and she gives the same

answer. At last they point to her husband and ask, 'Is he the one?' She says

neither yes nor no, but only smiles and keeps quiet. Her friends realize that

he is her husband.

"One becomes silent on realizing the true nature of Brahman.

(To M.) "Well, why do I talk so much?"

M: "You talk in order to awaken the spiritual consciousness of the devotees.

You once said that when an uncooked luchi is dropped into boiling ghee it

makes a sizzling noise."

The Master began to talk to M. about Hazra.

MASTER: "Do you know the nature of a good man? He never troubles

others. He doesn't harass people. The nature of some people is such that

when they go to a feast they want special seats. A man who has true

devotion to God never makes a false step, never gives others trouble for

nothing.

"It is not good to live in the company of bad people. A man should stay

away from them and thus protect himself. (To M.) Isn't that so?"

M: "Yes, sir. The mind sinks far down in the company of the wicked. But it

is quite different with a hero, as you say."

MASTER: "How is that?"

M: "When a fire is feeble it goes out when even a small stick is thrown into

it; but a blazing fire is not affected even if a plantain-tree is thrown into it.

The tree itself is burnt to ashes."

The Master asked M. about his friend Hari Babu.

M: "He has come here to pay you his respects. He lost his wife long ago."

MASTER (to Hari): "What kind of work do you do?"

M: "Nothing in particular. But at home he takes good care of his parents

and his brothers and sisters."

MASTER (with a smile): "How is that? You are like 'Elder, the pumpkin-

cutter'. You are neither a man of the world nor a devotee of God. That is not

good. You must have seen the sort of elderly man who lives in a family and

is always ready, day or night, to entertain the children. He sits in the parlour

and smokes the hubble-bubble. With nothing in particular to do, he leads a

lazy life. Now and again he goes to the inner court and cuts a pumpkin; for,

since women do not cut pumpkins, they send the children to ask him to

come and do it. That is the extent of his usefulness-hence his nickname,

'Elder, the pumpkin-cutter'.

"You must do 'this' as well as 'that'. Do your duties in the world, and also fix

your mind on the Lotus Feet of the Lord. Read books of devotion like the

Bhagavata or the life of Chaitanya when you are alone and have nothing

else to do."

It was about ten o'clock. Sri Ramakrishna finished a light supper of farina

pudding and one or two luchis. After saluting him, M. and his friend took

their leave.

Friday, September 7, 1883

Sri Ramakrishna and M. were talking in the Master's room at half past

seven in the evening. No one else was present.

MASTER: "The other day I went to Calcutta. As I drove along the streets in

the carriage, I observed that everyone's attention was fixed on low things.

Everyone was brooding over his stomach and running after nothing but

food. Everyone's mind was turned to 'woman and gold'. I saw only one or

two with their attention fixed on higher things, with their minds turned to

God."

M: "The present age has aggravated this stomach-worry. Trying to imitate

the English, people have turned their attention to more luxuries; therefore

their wants have also increased."

MASTER: "What do the English think about God?"

M: "They believe in a formless God."

MASTER: "That is also one of our beliefs."

Master's deep spiritual experiences

For a time Master and disciple remained silent. Then Sri Ramakrishna

began to describe his experiences of Brahman.

MASTER: "One day I had the vision of Consciousness, non-dual and

indivisible. At first it had been revealed to me that there were innumerable

men, animals, and other creatures. Among them there were aristocrats, the

English, the Mussalmans, myself, scavengers, dogs, and also a bearded

Mussalman with an earthenware tray of rice in his hand. He put a few

grains of rice into everybody's mouth. I too tasted a little.

"Another day I saw rice, vegetables, and other foodstuff, and filth and dirt

as well, lying around. Suddenly the soul came out of my body and, like a

flame, touched everything.

It was like a protruding tongue of fire and tasted everything once, even the

excreta. It was revealed to me that all these are one Substance, the non-dual

and indivisible Consciousness.

"Another day it was revealed to me that I had devotees-my intimate

companions, my very own. Thereafter I would climb to the roof of the kuthi

as soon as the bells and the conchshells of the evening service sounded in

the temples, and cry out with a longing heart: 'Oh, where are you all? Come

here! I am dying to see you!'

(To M.) "Well, what do you think of these visions?"

M: "God sports through you. This I have realized, that you are the

instrument and God is the Master. God has created other beings as if with a

machine, but yourself with His own hands."

MASTER: "Well, Hazra says that after the vision of God one acquires the

six divine powers."

M: "Those who seek pure love don't want powers."

MASTER: "Perhaps Hazra was a poor man in his previous life, and that is

why he wants so much to see the manifestation of power. He wants to know

what I talk about with the cook. He says to me: 'You don't have to talk to the

cook. I shall talk to the manager of the temple myself and see that you get

everything you want.' (M. laughs aloud.) He talks to me that way and I say

nothing."

M: "Many a time you have said that a devotee, who loves God for the sake

of love does not care to see God's powers. A true devotee wants to see God

as Gopala. In the beginning God becomes the magnet, and the devotee the

needle. But in the end the devotee himself becomes the magnet, and God

the needle; that is to say, God becomes small to His devotee."

MASTER: "Yes, it is just like the sun at dawn. You can easily look at that

sun. It doesn't dazzle the eyes; rather it satisfies them. God becomes tender

for the sake of His devotees. He appears before them, setting aside His

powers."

Both remained silent for some time.

M: "Why should your visions not be real? If they are unreal, then the world

is still more unreal; for there is only one mind that is the instrument of

perception. Your pure mind sees those visions, and our ordinary minds see

worldly objects."

MASTER: "I see that you have grasped the idea of unreality. Well, tell me

what you think of Hazra."

M: "Oh, I don't know." (The Master laughs.) MASTER: "Well, do you find

me to be like anybody else?"

M: "No, sir."

MASTER: "Like any other paramahamsa?"

M: "No, sir. You can't be compared to anybody else."

MASTER (smiling): "Have you heard of a tree called the 'achina'?"

M: "No, sir."

MASTER: "There is a tree called by that name. But nobody knows what it

is."

M: "Likewise, it is not possible to recognize you. The more a man

understands you, the more uplifted he will be."

M. was silent. He said to himself: "The Master referred to 'the sun at dawn'

and 'the tree unrecognizable by man'. Did he mean an Incarnation of God?

Is this the play of God through man? Is the Master himself an Incarnation?

Was this why he cried to the devotees from the roof of the kuthi: 'Where are

you? Come to me!'?"

Sri Ramakrishna was sitting on the steps of the southeast verandah of the

Kāli temple.

Rākhāl, M., and Hazra were with him. He talked light-heartedly about his

boyhood days.

When it was dusk he returned to his room and sat down on the small couch.

Soon he went into samādhi and in that state began to talk to the Divine

Mother. He said: "Mother, what is all this row about? Shall I go there? I

shall go if You take me." The Master was to go to a devotee's house. Was it

for this that he was asking the Divine Mother's permission?

Again he spoke to Her, perhaps praying about an intimate disciple: "Mother,

please make him stainless. Well, Mother, why have You given him only a

particle?" Remaining silent a moment, he said: "Oh, I see. That will be

enough for Your work."

Nature of the Divine Incarnation

In the same state he said, addressing the devotees: "That which is Brahman

is verily Śakti. I address That, again, as the Mother. I call It Brahman when

It is inactive, and Śakti when It creates, preserves, and destroys. It is like

water, sometimes still and sometimes covered with waves. The Incarnation

of God is a part of the lila of Śakti. The purpose of the Divine Incarnation is

to teach man ecstatic love for God. The Incarnation is like the udder of the

cow, the only place milk is to be got. God incarnates Himself as man. There

is a great accumulation of divinity in an Incarnation, like the accumulation

of fish in a deep hollow in a lake."

Some of the devotees wondered, "Is Sri Ramakrishna an Incarnation of

God, like Krishna, Chaitanya, and Christ?"

Sunday, September 9, 1883

Sri Ramakrishna had finished his midday meal and was sitting on the small

couch.

Rākhāl , M., and Ratan were sitting on the floor. Ratan was the steward of

Jadu Mallick's garden house and was devoted to the Master. Now and then

Ram Chatterji and Hazra passed in or out of the room. It was about two

o'clock.

Ratan told the Master that a yatra performance by Nilkantha had been

arranged in Jadu Mallick's house in Calcutta.

RATAN (to the Master): "You must go. The date has been set."

MASTER: "That's good, I want to go. Nilkantha sings with great devotion."

A DEVOTEE: "That is true, sir."

MASTER: "Tears flow from his eyes as he sings. (To Ratan) I am thinking

of spending the night in Calcutta when I go to see the yatra."

RATAN: "That will be fine."

Ram Chatterji and the other devotees asked Ratan about a theft in Jadu

Mallick's house.

RATAN: "Yes, the golden sandals of the Deity were stolen from the shrine

room in Jadu Babu's house. It has created an uproar. They are going to try to

discover the thief by means of a 'charmed plate'. Everybody will sit in one

room, and the plate will move in the direction of the man who stole the

sandals."

MASTER (with a smile): "How does the plate move? By itself?"

RATAN: "No. A man presses it to the ground."

A DEVOTEE: "It is a kind of sleight of hand. It is a clever trick."

MASTER: "The real cleverness is the cleverness by which one realizes

God. That trick is the best of all tricks."

As the conversation went on, several Bengali gentlemen entered the room

and, after saluting the Master, sat down. One of them was already known to

Sri Ramakrishna.

These gentlemen followed the cult of Tantra. The Master knew that one of

them indulged in immoral acts in the name of religion. The Tantra rituals,

under certain conditions, allow the mixing of men and women devotees.

But Sri Ramakrishna regarded all women, even prostitutes, as

manifestations of the Divine Mother. He addressed them all as "Mother".

MASTER (with a smile): "Where is Achalananda? My ideal is different

from that of Achalananda and his disciples. As for myself, I look on all

women as my mother."

The visiting gentlemen sat silent.

Master's attitude toward women

MASTER: "Every woman is a mother to me. Achalananda used to stay here

now and then. He would drink a great deal of consecrated wine. Hearing

about my attitude toward women, he stubbornly justified his own views. He

insisted again and again: 'Why should you not recognize the attitude of a

"hero" toward women? Won't you admit the injunctions of Śiva? Śiva

Himself is the author of the Tantra, which prescribes various disciplines,

including the "heroic".' I said to him: 'But, my dear sir, I don't know. I don't

like these ideas. To me every woman is a mother.'

"Achalananda did not support his own children. He said to me, 'God will

support them.' I said nothing. But this is the way I felt about it: 'Who will

support your children? I hope your renunciation of wife and children is not

a way of earning money. People will think you are a holy man because you

have renounced everything: so they will give you money. In that way you

will earn plenty of money.'

"Spiritual practice with a view to winning a lawsuit and earning money, or

to helping others win in court and acquire property, shows a very mean

understanding.

Good use of money

"Money enables a man to get food and drink, build a house, worship the

Deity, serve devotees and holy men, and help the poor when he happens to

meet them. These are the good uses of money. Money is not meant for

luxuries or creature comforts or for buying a position in society.

"People practise various Tantrik disciplines to acquire supernatural powers.

How mean such people are! Krishna said to Arjuna, 'Friend, by acquiring

one of the eight siddhis you may add a little to your power, but you will not

be able to realize Me.' One cannot get rid of maya as long as one exercises

supernatural powers. And maya begets egotism.

"Body and wealth are impermanent. Why go to so much trouble for their

sakes? Just think of the plight of the hathayogis. Their attention is fixed on

one ideal only-longevity. They do not aim at the realization of God at all.

They practise such exercises as washing out the intestines, drinking milk

through a tube, and the like, with that one aim in view.

"There was once a goldsmith whose tongue suddenly turned up and stuck to

his palate.

He looked like a man in samādhi. He became completely inert and

remained so a long time. People came to worship him. After several years,

his tongue suddenly returned to its natural position, and he became

conscious of things as before. So he went back to his work as a goldsmith.

(All laugh.)

"These are physical things and have nothing to do with God. There was a

man who knew eighty-two postures and talked big about yoga-samādhi. But

inwardly he was drawn to 'woman and gold'. Once he found a bank-note

worth several thousand rupees.

He could not resist the temptation, and swallowed it, thinking he would get

it out somehow later on. The note was got out of him all right, but he was

sent to jail for three years. In my guilelessness I used to think that the man

had made great spiritual progress. Really, I say it upon my word!

Master's renunciation of money

"Mahendra Pal of Sinthi once gave Ramlal five rupees. Ramlal told me

about it after he had gone. I asked him what the gift was for, and Ramlal

said that it was meant for me.

I thought it might enable me to payoff some of my debt for milk. That night

I went to bed and, if you will believe me, I suddenly woke up with a pain. I

felt as if a cat were scratching inside my chest. I at once went to Ramlal and

asked him: 'For whom did Mahendra give this money? Was it for your

aunt?'7 'No,' said Ramlal, 'it is meant for you.' I said to him, 'Go and return

the money at once, or I shall have no peace of mind.'

Ramlal returned the money early in the morning and I felt relieved.

"Once a rich man came here and said to me: 'Sir, you must do something so

that I may win my lawsuit. I have heard of your reputation and so I have

come here.' 'My dear sir,'

I said to him, 'you have made a mistake. I am not the person you are

looking for; Achalananda is your man.'

"A true devotee of God does not care for such things as wealth or health. He

thinks: 'Why should I practise spiritual austerities for creature comforts,

money, or name and fame? These are all impermanent. They last only a day

or two.' "

The visiting gentlemen took leave of the Master after saluting him. When

they had departed, Sri Ramakrishna smiled and said to M., "You can never

make a thief listen to religion. (All laugh.)

"Well, what do you think of Narendra?"

M: "He is splendid."

MASTER: "Yes. His intelligence is as great as his learning. Besides, he is

gifted in music, both as a singer and player. Then too, he has control over

his passions. He says he will never marry."

M: "You once said that one who constantly talks of his sin really becomes a

sinner; he cannot extricate himself from sin. But if a man has firm faith that

he is the son of God, then he makes rapid strides in spiritual life."

MASTER: "Yes, faith. What tremendous faith Krishnakishore had! He used

to say: 'I have spoken the name of God once. That is enough. How can I

remain a sinner? I have become pure and stainless.' One day Haladhāri said:

'Even Ajamila had to perform austerities to gratify God. Can one receive the

grace of God without austerities? What will one gain by speaking the name

of Narayana only once?' At these remarks Krishnakishore's anger knew no

bounds. The next time he came to this garden to pick flowers he wouldn't

even look at Haladhāri.

"Haladhāri's father was a great devotee. At bathing-time he would stand

waist-deep in the water and meditate on God, uttering the sacred mantra;

then the tears would flow from his eyes.

Krishnakishore's faith in God

"One day a holy man came to the bathing-place on the Ganges at Ariadaha.

We talked about seeing him. Haladhāri said, 'What shall we gain by seeing

the body of a man, a mere cage made of the five elements?' Krishnakishore

heard about it and said: 'What?

Did Haladhāri ask what would be gained by visiting a holy man? By

repeating the name of Krishna or Rāma a man transforms his physical body

into a spiritual body. To such a man everything is the embodiment of Spirit.

To him Krishna is the embodiment of Spirit, and His sacred Abode is the

embodiment of Spirit.' He also said, 'A man who utters the name of Krishna

or Rāma even once reaps the result of a hundred sandhyas.'

"One of his sons chanted the name of Rāma on his death-bed.

Krishnakishore said, 'He has nothing to worry about; he has chanted the

name of Rāma.' But now and then he wept. After all, it was the death of his

own son.

Nothing whatsoever is achieved by the performance of worship, japa, and

devotions, without faith. Isn't that so?"

M: "Yes, sir. That is true."

MASTER: "I see people coming to the Ganges to bathe. They talk their

heads off about everything under the sun. The widowed aunt says: 'Without

me they cannot perform the Durga Puja. I have to look after even the

smallest detail. Again, I have to supervise everything when there is a

marriage festiva1 in the family, even the bed of the bride and groom.'"

M: "Why should we blame them? How else will they pass the time?"

MASTER (with a smile): "Some people have their shrine rooms in their

attics. The women arrange the offerings and flowers and make the sandal-

paste. But, while doing so, they never say a word about God. The burden of

the conversation is: 'What shall we cook today? I couldn't get good

vegetables in the market. That curry was delicious yesterday. That boy is

my cousin. Hello there! Have you that job still? Don't ask me how I am. My

Hari is no more.' Just fancy! They talk of such things in the shrine room at

the time of worship!"

M: "Yes, sir, it is so in the majority of cases. As you say, can one who has

passionate yearning for God continue formal worship and devotions for

long?"

Sri Ramakrishna and M. were now conversing alone.

M: "Sir, if it is God Himself who has become everything, then why do

people have so many different feelings?"

MASTER: "Undoubtedly God exists in all beings as the All-pervading

Spirit, but the manifestations of His Power are different in different beings.

In some places there is a manifestation of the power of Knowledge; in

others, of the power of ignorance. In some places there is a greater

manifestation of power than in others. Don't you see that among human

beings there are cheats and gamblers, to say nothing of men who are like

tigers. I think of them as the 'cheat God', the 'tiger God'."

M. (with a smile): "We should salute them from a distance. If we go near

the 'tiger God'

and embrace him, he may devour us."

MASTER: "He and His Power, Brahman and Its Power-nothing else exists

but this. In a hymn to Rāma, Nārada said: 'O Rāma, You are Śiva, and Sita

is Bhagavati; You are Brahma, and Sita is Brahmani; You are Indra, and

Sita is Indrani; You are Narayana, and Sita is Lakshmi. O Rāma, You are

the symbol of all that is masculine, and Sita of all that is feminine.' "

M: "Sir, what is the Spirit-form of God like?"

Sri Ramakrishna reflected a moment and said softly: "Shall I tell you what

it is like? It is like water. . . . One understands all this through spiritual

discipline.

"Believe in the form of God. It is only after attaining Brahmajnana that one

sees non-duality, the oneness of Brahman and Its Śakti. Brahman and Śakti

are identical, like fire and its power to burn. When a man thinks of fire, he

must also think of its power to burn. Again, when he thinks of the power to

burn, he must also think of fire. Further, Brahman and Śakti are like milk

and its whiteness, water and its wetness.

Vijnāna or Transcendental Knowledge

"But there is a stage beyond even Brahmajnana. After jnāna comes vijnāna.

He who is aware of knowledge is also aware of ignorance. The sage

Vasishtha was stricken with grief at the death of his hundred sons. Asked by

Lakshmana why a man of knowledge should grieve for such a reason, Rāma

said, 'Brother, go beyond both knowledge and ignorance.' He who has

knowledge has ignorance also. If a thorn has entered your foot, get another

thorn and with its help take out the first; then throwaway the second also."

M: "Should one throwaway both knowledge and ignorance?"

MASTER: "Yes. That is why one should acquire vijnāna. You see, he who

is aware of light is also aware of darkness. He who is aware of happiness is

also aware of suffering.

He who is aware of virtue is also aware of vice. He who is aware of good is

also aware of evil. He who is aware of holiness is also aware of unholiness.

He who is aware of 'I' is also aware of 'you'.

"What is vijnāna? It is knowing God in a special way. The awareness and

conviction that fire exists in wood is jnāna, knowledge. But to cook rice on

that fire, eat the rice, and get nourishment from it is vijnāna. To know by

one's inner experience that God exists is jnāna. But to talk to Him, to enjoy

Him as Child, as Friend, as Master, as Beloved, is vijnāna. The realization

that God alone has become the universe and all living beings is vijnāna.

"According to one school of thought, God cannot be seen. Who sees whom?

Is God outside you, that you can see Him? One sees only oneself. Having

once entered the 'black waters' of the ocean, the ship does not come back

and so cannot describe what it experiences."

M: "It is true, sir. As you say, having climbed to the top of the monument,

one becomes unaware of what is below: horses and carriages, men and

women, houses, shops and offices, and so on."

MASTER: "I don't go to the Kāli temple nowadays. Is that an offence? At

one time Narendra used to say, 'What? He still goes to the Kāli temple!' "

M: "Every day you are in a new state of mind. How can you ever offend

God?"

MASTER: "Someone said to Sen, about Hriday: 'He is very ill. Please bring

two pieces of cloth and a couple of shirts for him. We will send them to his

village.' Sen offered only two rupees. How do you explain that? He has so

much money, and yet he is so miserly!

What do you say to that?"

M: "Those who seek God cannot behave that way-I mean those whose goal

is the attainment of Knowledge."

MASTER: "God alone is the Reality and all else is unreal."

Saturday, September 22, 1883

Sri Ramakrishna was seated in the drawing-room of Adhar's house in

Calcutta, with Rākhāl , Adhar, M., Ishan, and other devotees. Many

gentlemen of the neighbourhood were also present. It was afternoon.

The Master was very fond of Ishan. He had been a superintendent in the

Accountant General's office, and later on his children also occupied high

government positions. One of them was a classmate of Narendra. Ishan's

purse was always open for the poor and needy. When he retired from

service, he devoted his time to spiritual practices and charity. He often

visited Sri Ramakrishna at Dakshineswar.

MASTER (to Ishan): "Please tell us the story of the boy who posted the

letter."

ISHAN (with a smile): "A boy once heard that God is our Creator. So he

wrote a letter to God, setting forth his prayers, and posted it. The address he

put on the envelope was 'Heaven'."

MASTER (with a smile): "Did you hear that story? One succeeds in

spiritual life when one develops a faith like that boy's. (To Ishan) Tell us

about the renunciation of activities."

ISHAN: "After the attainment of God, religious duties such as the sandyha

drop away.

One day some people were sitting on the bank of the Ganges performing the

sandyha.

But one of them abstained from it. On being asked the reason, he said: 'I am

observing asoucha. I cannot perform the sandyha ceremony.8 In my case

the defilement is due to both a birth and a death. My mother, Ignorance, is

dead, and my son, Self-Knowledge, has been born.'"

MASTER: "Tell us, also, how caste distinctions drop away when one attains

Self-Knowledge."

ISHAN: "Sankaracharya was once climbing the steps after finishing his

bath in the Ganges, when he saw just in front of him an untouchable who

had a pack of dogs with him. 'You have touched me!' said Sankara. 'Revered

sir,' said the pariah, 'I have not touched you, nor have you touched me. The

Self is the Inner Ruler of all beings and cannot be contaminated. Is there

any difference between the sun's reflection in wine and its reflection in the

Ganges?' "

MASTER (with a smile): "And about harmony: how one can realize God

through all paths."

Ishan (smiling): "Both Hari and Hara are derived from the same root. The

difference is only in the pratyaya. In reality, He who is Hari is also Hara. If

a man has faith in God, then it doesn't matter whom he worships."

MASTER: "And please tell us also how the heart of the sādhu is the

greatest of all."

ISHAN: "This earth is the largest thing we see anywhere around us. But

larger than the earth is the ocean, and larger than the ocean is the sky. But

Vishnu, the Godhead, has covered earth, sky, and the nether world with one

of His feet. And that foot of Vishnu is enshrined in the sādhu's heart.

Therefore the heart of a holy man is the greatest of all."

The devotees were delighted with Ishan's words.

Ishan intended to retire to a solitary place and practise a special discipline

of the Gayatri, through which Brahman is invoked. But the Master said that

the Knowledge of Brahman was not possible without the complete

destruction of worldliness. Further, he said that it was impossible for a man

totally to withdraw his mind from the objects of the senses in the Kaliyuga,

when his life was dependent on food. That is why the Master discouraged

people from attempting the Vedic worship of Brahman and asked them to

worship Śakti, the Divine Mother, who is identical with Brahman.

MASTER (to Ishan): "Why do you waste your time simply repeating 'Neti,

neti'? Nothing whatsoever can be specified about Brahman, except that It

exists.

"Whatever we see or think about is the manifestation of the glory of the

Primordial Energy, the Primal Consciousness. Creation, preservation, and

destruction, living beings and the universe, and further, meditation and the

meditator, bhakti and prema-all these are manifestations of the glory of that

Power.

"But Brahman is identical with Its Power. On returning from Ceylon,

Hanuman praised Rāma, saying: 'O Rāma, You are the Supreme Brahman,

and Sita is Your Śakti. You and She are identical' Brahman and Śakti are

like the snake and. its wriggling motion.

Thinking of the snake, one must think of its wriggling motion, and thinking

of its wriggling motion, one must think of the snake. Or they are like milk

and its whiteness.

Thinking of milk, one has to think of its colour, that is, whiteness, and

thinking of the whiteness of milk, one has to think of milk itself. Or they are

like water and its wetness. Thinking of water, one has to think of its

wetness, and thinking of the wetness of water, one has to think of water.

"This Primal Power, Mahamaya, has covered Brahman. As soon as the

covering is withdrawn, one realizes: 'I am what I was before', 'I am Thou;

Thou art I'.

"As long as that covering remains, the Vedantic formula 'I am He', that is,

man is the Supreme Brahman, does not rightly apply. The wave is part of

the water, but the water is not part of the wave. As long as that covering

remains, one should call on God as Mother. Addressing God, the devotee

should say, 'Thou art the Mother and I am Thy child; Thou art the Master

and I am Thy servant.' It is good to have the attitude of the servant toward

the master. From this relationship of master and servant spring up other

attitudes: the attitude of serene love for God, the attitude of friend toward

friend, and so forth. When the master loves his servant, he may say to him,

'Come, sit by my side; there is no difference between you and me.' But if

the servant comes forward of his own will to sit by the master, will not the

master be angry?

"God's play on earth as an Incarnation is the manifestation of the glory of

the ChitŚakti, the Divine Power. That which is Brahman is also Rāma,

Krishna, and Śiva."

ISHAN: "Yes, sir. Both Hari and Hara are derived from the same root. The

difference lies only in the pratyaya."

MASTER: "Yes, there is only One without a second. The Vedas speak of It

as 'Om Satchidananda Brahma', the Puranas as 'Om Satchidananda Krishna,'

and the Tantra as 'Om Satchidananda Śiva'.

"The ChitŚakti, as Mahamaya, has deluded all with ignorance. It is said in

the Adhyātma Rāmāyana that when the rishis saw Rāma, they prayed to

Him in these words only: 'O

Rāma, please do not delude us with Your world-bewitching maya.' "

ISHAN: "What is this maya?"

MASTER: "Whatever you see, think, or hear is maya. In a word, 'woman

and gold' is the covering of maya.

"There is no harm in chewing betel-leaf, eating fish, smoking, or rubbing

the body with oil. What will one achieve by renouncing only these things?

The one thing needful is the renunciation of 'woman and gold'. That

renunciation is the real and supreme renunciation. Householders should go

into solitude now and then, to practise spiritual discipline in order to

cultivate devotion to God; they should renounce mentally. But the sannyasi

should renounce both mentally and physically.

"I once said to Keshab, 'How can a typhoid patient be cured if he remains in

a room where a pitcher of water and a jar of pickles are kept?' Now and

then one should live in solitude ".

A DEVOTEE: "Sir, what do you think of the Navavidhan? It seems to me

like a hotchpotch of everything."

MASTER: "Some say it is a modern thing. That sets me wondering: 'Then

is the God of the Brahmo Samaj a new God?' The Brahmos speak of their

cult as the Navavidhan, as a New Dispensation. Well, it may be so. Who

knows? There are six systems of philosophy; so perhaps it is like one of

these.

"But do you know where those who speak of the formless God make their

mistake? It is where they say that God is formless only, and that those who

differ with them are wrong.

"But I know that God is both with and without form. And He may have

many more aspects. It is possible for Him to be everything.

(To Ishan) "The ChitŚakti, Mahamaya, has become the twenty-four cosmic

principles.

One day as I was meditating, my mind wandered away to Rashke's house.

He is a scavenger. I said to my mind, 'Stay there, you rogue!' The Divine

Mother revealed to me that the men and women in this house were mere

masks; inside them was the same Divine Power, Kundalini, that rises up

through the six spiritual centres of the body.

"Is the Primal Energy man or woman? Once at Kamarpukur I saw the

worship of Kāli in the house of the Lahas. They put a sacred thread.11 on

the image of the Divine Mother. One man asked, 'Why have they put the

sacred thread on the Mother's person?'

The master of the house said: 'Brother, I see that you have rightly

understood the Mother. But I do not yet know whether the Divine Mother is

male or female.'

"It is said that Mahamaya swallowed Śiva. When the six centres in Her

were awakened, Śiva came out through Her thigh. Then Śiva created the

Tantra philosophy.

"Take refuge in the ChitŚakti, the Mahamaya."

ISHAN: "Please bestow your grace on me."

MASTER: "Say to God with a guileless heart, 'O God, reveal Thyself to

me.' And weep. Pray to God, 'O God, keep my mind away from "woman,

and gold".' And dive deep. Can a man get pearls by floating or swimming

on the surface? He must dive deep.

Faith in the guru

"One must get instruction from a guru. Once a man was looking for a stone

image of Śiva. Someone said to him: 'Go to a certain river. There you will

find a tree. Near it is a whirlpool. Dive into the water there, and you will

find the image of Śiva.' So I say that one must get instruction from a

teacher."

ISHAN: "That is true, sir."

MASTER: "It is Satchidananda that comes to us in the form of the guru. If a

man is initiated by a human guru, he will not achieve anything if he regards

his guru as a mere man. The guru should be regarded as the direct

manifestation of God. Only then can the disciple have faith in the mantra

given by the guru. Once a man has faith he, achieves all. The sudra

Ekalavya learnt archery in the forest before a clay image of Drona; He

worshipped the image as the living Drona; that by itself enabled him to

attain mastery in archery.

"Don't mix intimately with brahmin pundits. Their only concern is to earn

money. I have seen brahmin priests reciting the Chandi while performing

the swastyayana. It is hard to tell whether they are reading the sacred book

or something else. They turn half the pages without reading them. (All

laugh.)

"A nail-knife suffices to kill oneself. One needs sword and shield to kill

others. That is the purpose of the sastras.

"One doesn't really need to study the different scriptures. If one has no

discrimination, one doesn't achieve anything through mere scholarship,

even though one studies all the six systems of philosophy. Call on God,

crying to Him secretly in solitude. He will give all that you need."

Sri Ramakrishna had heard that Ishan was building a house on the bank of

the Ganges for the practice of spiritual discipline. He asked Ishan eagerly:

"Has the house been built? Let me tell you that the less people know of

your spiritual life, the better it will be for you. Devotees endowed with

sattva meditate in a secluded corner or in a forest, or withdraw into the

mind. Sometimes they meditate inside the mosquito net."

Now and then Ishan invited Hazra to his house. Hazra had a craze for

outward purity.

Sri Ramakrishna often discouraged him in this.

MASTER (to Ishan): "Let me tell you another thing. Don't be over-

fastidious about outward purity. Once a sādhu felt very thirsty. A water-

carrier was carrying water in his skin water-bag, and offered the water to

the holy man. The sādhu asked if the skin was clean. The carrier said:

'Revered sir; my skin bag is perfectly clean. But inside your skin are all

sorts of filthy things. That is why I can ask you to drink water from my

skin. It won't injure you.' By 'your skin', the carrier meant the body, the

belly, and so forth.

"Have faith in the name of God. Then you won't need even to go to holy

places."

Sri Ramakrishna sang, intoxicated with divine fervour: Why should I go to

Ganga or Gaya, to Kasi, Kanchi, or Prabhas, So long as I can breathe my

last with Kāli's name upon my lips?

Ishan remained silent.

MASTER (to Ishan): "Tell me if you have any more doubts."

ISHAN: "You said everything when you spoke of faith."

MASTER: "God can be realized by true faith alone. And the realization is

hastened if you believe everything about God. The cow that picks and

chooses its food gives milk only in dribblets, but if she eats all kinds of

plants, then her milk flows in torrents.

"Once I heard a story. A man heard the command of God that he should see

his Ideal Deity in a ram. He at once believed it. It is God who exists in all

beings.

"A guru said to his disciple, 'It is Rāma alone who resides in all bodies.' The

disciple was a man of great faith. One day a dog snatched a piece of bread

from him and started to run away. He ran after the dog, with a jar of butter

in his hand, and cried again and again: 'O Rāma, stand still a minute. That

bread hasn't been buttered.'

"What tremendous faith Krishnakishore had! He used to say, 'By chanting

"Om Krishna, Om Rāma", one gets the result of a million sandhyas.' Once

he said to me secretly, 'I don't like the sandhya and other devotions any

more; but don't tell anyone.'

"Sometimes I too feel that way. The Mother reveals to me that She Herself

has become everything. One day I was coming from the pine-grove toward

the Panchavati. A dog followed me. I stood still for a while near the

Panchavati. The thought came to my mind that the Mother might say

something to me through that dog.

"You were absolutely right when you said that through faith alone one

achieves all."

ISHAN: "But we are householders."

MASTER: "What if you are? Through His grace even the impossible

becomes possible.

Ramprasad sang, 'This world is a mere framework of illusion.' Another man

composed a song by way of reply:

This very world is a mansion of mirth;

Here I can eat, here drink and make merry.

Janaka's might was unsurpassed;

What did he lack of the world or the Spirit?

Holding to one as well as the other,

He drank his milk from a brimming cup!

"One should first realize God through spiritual discipline in solitude, and

then live in the world. Only then can one be a King Janaka. What can you

achieve otherwise?

"Further, take the case of Śiva. He has everything-Kartika, Ganesa,

Lakshmi, and Sarasvati. Still, sometimes He dances in a state of divine

fervour, chanting the name of Rāma, and sometimes He is absorbed in

samādhi."

--------------------

Chapter 14

INSTRUCTION TO VAISHNAVĀS AND BRĀHMOS

Sunday, September 23, 1883

SRI RAMAKRISHNA was sitting in his room at Dakshineswar with

Rākhāl , M., and other devotees. Hazra sat on the porch outside. The Master

was conversing with the devotees.

MASTER (to a devotee): "Narendra doesn't like even you, nowadays. (To

M.) Why didn't he come to see me at Adhar's house?

Eulogy of Narendra

"How versatile Narendra is! He is gifted in singing, in playing on

instruments, and in studies. He is independent and doesn't care about

anybody. The other day he was returning to Calcutta with Captain in his

carriage. Captain begged Narendra to sit beside him, but he took a seat

opposite. He didn't even look at Captain.

"What can a man achieve through mere scholarship? What is needed is

prayer and spiritual discipline. Gauri of Indesh was both a scholar and a

devotee. He was a worshipper of the Divine Mother. Now and then he

would be overpowered with spiritual fervour. When he chanted a hymn to

the Mother, the pundits would seem like earthworms beside him. I too

would be overcome with ecstasy.

"At first he was a bigoted worshipper of Śakti. He used to pick up tulsi

leaves with a couple of sticks, so as not to touch them with his fingers. (All

laugh.) Then he went home. When he came back he didn't behave that way

any more. He gave remarkable interpretations of Hindu mythology. He

would say that the ten heads of Ravana represented the ten organs.

Kumbhakarna was the symbol, of tamas, Ravana of rajas, and Bibhishana

of sattva. That was why Bibhishana obtained favour with Rāma."

After the Master's midday meal, while he was resting, Ram, Tārak, and

some other devotees arrived from Calcutta.

Nityagopal, Tārak, and several others were staying with Ram, a

householder disciple of the Master. Nityagopal was always in an exalted

spiritual mood. Tārak's mind, too, was always indrawn; he seldom

exchanged words with others. Ram looked after their physical needs.

Rākhāl now and then spent a few days at Adhar's house.

RAM (to the Master): "We have been taking lessons on the drum."

MASTER (to Ram): "Nityagopal too?"

RAM: "No, sir. He plays a little."

MASTER: "And Tārak?"

RAM: "He knows a good deal."

MASTER: "Then he won't keep his eyes on the ground so much. If the

mind is much directed to something else, it doesn't dwell deeply on God."

RAM: "I have been studying the drum only to accompany the kirtan."

MASTER (to M.): "I hear that you too are taking singing lessons. Is that

so?"

M: "No, sir. I just open my mouth now and then."

MASTER: "Have you practised that song: 'O Mother, make me mad with

Thy love'? If you have, please sing it. The song expresses my ideal

perfectly."

The conversation turned to Hazra's hatred for certain people, which Sri

Ramakrishna did not like.

MASTER (to the devotees): "I used frequently to visit a certain house at

Kamarpukur.

The boys of the family were of my age. The other day they came here and

spent two or three days with me. Their mother, like Hazra, used to hate

people. Then something happened to her foot, and gangrene set in. On

account of the foul smell, no one could enter her room. I told the incident to

Hazra and asked him not to hate anyone."

Master in spiritual mood

Toward evening, as Sri Ramakrishna was standing in the northwest corner

of the courtyard, he went into samādhi. In those days the Master remained

almost always in an ecstatic state. He would lose consciousness of the

world at the slightest suggestion from outside. But for scant conversation

with visiting devotees, he remained in an indrawn mood and was unable to

perform his daily worship and devotions.

Coming down to the relative world, he began to talk to the Divine Mother,

still standing where he was. "O Mother," he said, "worship has left me, and

japa also. Please see, Mother, that I do not become an inert thing. Let my

attitude toward God be that of the servant toward the master. O Mother, let

me talk about Thee and chant Thy holy name.

I want to sing Thy glories. Give me a little strength of body that I may

move about, that I may go to places where Thy devotees live, and sing Thy

name."

In the morning Sri Ramakrishna had been to the Kāli temple to offer

flowers at the Mother's feet.

Continuing, the Master said: "O Mother, I offered flowers at Thy feet this

morning. I thought: 'That is good. My mind is again going back to formal

worship.' Then why do I feel like this now? Why art Thou turning me into a

sort of inert thing?"

The moon had not yet risen. It was a dark night. The Master, still in an

abstracted mood, sat on the small couch in his room and continued his talk

with the Divine Mother.

He said: "Why this special discipline of the Gayatri? Why this jumping

from this roof to that? Who told him to do it? Perhaps he is doing it of his

own accord. . . . Well, he will practise a little of that discipline."

The previous day Sri Ramakrishna had discouraged Ishan about Vedic

worship, saying that it was not suitable for the Kaliyuga. He had asked

Ishan to worship God as the Divine Mother.

The Master said to M., "Are these all my fancies, or are they real?" M.

remained silent with wonder at the Master's intimate relationship with the

Divine Mother. He thought She must be within us as well as without.

Indeed She must be very near us; or why should the Master speak to Her in

a whisper?

Wednesday, September 26, 1883

There were very few devotees with the Master, for most of them came on

Sundays.

Rākhāl and Lātu were living with him the greater part of the time. M.

arrived in the afternoon and found the Master seated on the small couch.

The conversation turned to Narendra.

MASTER (to M.): "Have you seen Narendra lately? (With a smile) He said

of me: 'He still goes to the Kāli temple, But he will not when he truly

understands.' His people are very much dissatisfied with him because he

comes here now and then. The other day he came here in a hired carriage,

and Surendra paid for it. Narendra's aunt almost had a row with Surendra

about it."

The Master left the couch and went to the northeast verandah, where Hazra,

Kishori, Rākhāl , and a few other devotees were sitting.

MASTER (to M.): "How is it that you are here today? Have you no

school?"

M: "Our school closed today at half past one."

MASTER: "Why so early?"

M: "Vidyasagar visited the school. He owns the school. So the boys get a

half holiday whenever he comes."

Efficacy of truthfulness

MASTER: “Why doesn't Vidyasagar keep his word? ‘If one who holds to

truth and looks on woman as his mother does not realize God, then Tulsi is

a liar.' If a man holds to truth he will certainly realize God. The other day

Vidyasagar said he would come here and visit me. But he hasn't kept his

word.”

Difference between scholar and holy man "There is a big difference

between a scholar and a holy man. The mind of a mere scholar is fixed on

'woman and gold', but the sādhu's mind is on the Lotus Feet of Hari.

A scholar says one thing and does another. But it is quite a different matter

with a sādhu. The words and actions of a man who has given his mind to

the Lotus Feet of God are altogether different. In Benares I saw a young

sannyasi who belonged to the sect of Nanak.. He was the same age as you.

He used to refer to me as the 'loving monk'. His sect has a monastery in

Benares. I was invited there one day. I found that the mohant was like a

housewife. I asked him, 'What is the way?' 'For the Kaliyuga', he said, 'the

path of devotion as enjoined by Nārada.' He was reading a book. When the

reading was over, he recited: 'Vishnu is in water, Vishnu is on land, Vishnu

is on the mountain top; the whole world is pervaded by Vishnu.' At the end

he said, 'Peace! Peace! Abiding Peace!'

Path of love suited to modern times

"One day he was reading the Gitā. He was so strict about his monastic rules

that he would not read a holy book looking at a worldly man. So he turned

his face toward me and his back on Mathur, who was also present. It was

this holy man who told me of Nārada's path of devotion as suited to the

people of the Kaliyuga."

M: "Are not sādhus of his class followers of the Vedānta?"

MASTER: "Yes, they are. But they also accept the path of devotion. The

fact is that in the Kaliyuga one cannot wholly follow the path laid down in

the Vedas. Once a man said to me that he would perform the Purascharana

of the Gayatri. I said: 'Why don't you do that according to the Tantra? In the

Kaliyuga the discipline of Tantra is very efficacious.'

"It is extremely difficult to perform the rites enjoined in the Vedas. Further,

at the present time people lead the life of slaves It is said that those who

serve others for twelve years or so become slaves. They acquire the traits of

those they serve. While serving their masters they acquire the rajas, the

tamas, the spirit of violence, the love of luxury, and the other traits of their

masters. Not only do they serve their masters, but they also enjoy a pension

after their term of service is over.

Description of various monks

"Once a Vedantic monk came here. He used to dance at the sight of a cloud.

He would go into an ecstasy of joy over a rain-storm. He would get very

angry if, anyone went near him when he meditated. One day I came to him

while he was meditating, and that made him very cross. He discriminated

constantly, 'Brahman alone is real and the world is illusory.' Since the

appearance of diversity is due to maya, he walked about with a prism from

a chandelier in his hand. One sees different colours through the prism; in

reality there is no such thing as colour. Likewise, nothing exists, in reality,

except Brahman. But there is an appearance of the manifold because of

maya, egoism. He would not look at an object more than once, lest he

should be deluded by maya and attachment. He would discriminate, while

taking his bath, at the sight of birds flying in the. sky. He knew grammar.

He stayed here for three days. One day he heard the sound of a flute near

the embankment and said that a man who had realized Brahman would go

into samādhi at such a sound."

While talking about the monk, the Master showed his devotees the manners

and movements of a paramahamsa: the gait of a child, face beaming with

laughter, eyes swimming in joy, and body completely naked. Then he again

took his seat on the small couch and poured out his soul-enthralling words.

MASTER (to M.): "I learnt Vedānta from Nangta: 'Brahman alone is real;

the world is illusory.' The magician performs his magic. He produces a

mango-tree which even bears mangoes. But this is all sleight of hand. The

magician alone is real."

M: "It seems that the whole of life is a long sleep. This much I understand,

that we are not seeing things rightly. We perceive the world with a mind by

which we cannot comprehend even the nature of the sky. So how can our

perceptions be correct?"

MASTER: "There is another way of looking at it. We do not see the sky

rightly. It looks as if the sky were touching the ground at the horizon. How

can a man see correctly? His mind is delirious, like the mind of a typhoid

patient."

The Master sang in his sweet voice:

What a delirious fever is this that I suffer from!

O Mother, Thy grace is my only cure. . . .

Continuing, the Master said: "Truly it is a state of delirium. Just see how

worldly men quarrel among themselves. No one knows what they quarrel

about. Oh, how they quarrel! 'May such and such a thing befall you!' How

much shouting! How much abuse!"

M: "I said to Kishori: The box is empty; there is nothing inside. But two

men pull at it from either side, thinking the box contains money.' Well, the

body alone is the cause of all this mischief, isn't it? The jnanis see all this

and say to themselves, 'What a relief one feels when this pillow-case of the

body drops off.'"

The Master and M. went toward the Kāli temple.

MASTER: "Why should you say such things? This world may be a 'frame

work of illusion', but it is also said that it is a 'mansion of mirth'. Let the

body remain. One can also turn this world into a mansion of mirth."

M: "But where is unbroken bliss in this world?"

MASTER: "Yes, where is it?"

Sri Ramakrishna stood in front of the shrine of Kāli and prostrated himself

before the Divine Mother. M. followed him. Then the Master sat on the

lower floor in front of the shrine room, facing the blissful image, and leaned

against a pillar of the natmandir. He wore a red-bordered cloth, part of

which was on his shoulder and back. M. sat by his side.

M: "Since there is no unbroken happiness in the world, why should one

assume a body at all? I know that the body is meant only to reap the results

of past action. But who knows what sort of action it is performing now?

The unfortunate part is that we are being crushed."

MASTER: "If a pea falls into filth, it grows into a pea-plant none the less."

M: "But still there are the eight bonds."

Divine grace removes bondage

MASTER: "They are not eight bonds, but eight fetters. But what if they

are? These fetters fall off in a moment, by the grace of God. Do you know

what it is like? Suppose a room has been kept dark a thousand years. The

moment a man brings a light into it, the darkness vanishes. Not little by

little. Haven't you seen the magician's feat? He takes string with many

knots, and ties one end to something, keeping the other in his hand. Then he

shakes the string once or twice, and immediately all the knots come undone.

But another man cannot untie the knots however he may try. All the knots

of ignorance come undone in the twinkling of an eye, through the guru's

grace.

"Well, can you tell me why Keshab Sen has changed so much lately? He

used to come here very often. He learnt here how to bow low before a holy

man. One day I told him that one should not salute a holy man as he had

been doing. Harish says rightly: 'All the cheques must be approved here.

Only then will they be cashed in the bank.'"

(Laughter.)

M. listened to these words breathlessly. He began to realize that

Satchidananda, in the form of the guru, passes the "cheque".

MASTER: "Do not reason. Who can ever know God? I have heard it from

Nangta, once for all, that this whole universe is only a fragment of

Brahman.

"Hazra is given to too much calculation. He says, 'This much of God has

become the universe and this much is the balance.' My head aches at his

calculations. I know that I know nothing. Sometimes I think of God as

good, and sometimes as bad. What can I know of Him?"

M: "It is true, sir. Can anyone ever know God? Each thinks, with his little

bit of intelligence, that he has understood all of God. As you say, an ant

went to a sugar hill and, finding that one grain of. sugar filled its stomach,

thought that the next time it would take the entire hill into its hole."

Surrender to the Divine Mother

MASTER: "Who can ever know God? I don't even try. I only call on Him

as Mother. Let Mother do whatever She likes. I shall know Her if it is Her

will; but I shall be happy to remain ignorant if She wills otherwise. My

nature is that of a kitten. It only cries, 'Mew, mew!' The rest it leaves to its

mother. The mother cat puts the kitten sometimes in the kitchen and

sometimes on the master's bed. The young child wants only his mother. He

doesn't know how wealthy his mother is, and he doesn't even want to know.

He knows only, 'I have a mother; why should I worry?' Even the child of the

maidservant knows that he has a mother. If he quarrels with the son of the

master, he says: 'I shall tell my mother. I have a mother.' My attitude, too, is

that of a child."

Suddenly Sri Ramakrishna caught M.'s attention and said, touching his own

chest: "Well, there must be something here. Isn't that so?"

M. looked wonderingly at the Master. He said to himself: "Does the Mother

Herself dwell in the Master's heart? Is it the Divine Mother who has

assumed this human body for the welfare of humanity?"

Sri Ramakrishna was praying to the Divine Mother: "O Mother! O

Embodiment of Om!

Mother, how many things people say about Thee! But I don't understand

any of them. I don't know anything, Mother. I have taken refuge at Thy feet.

I have sought protection in Thee. O Mother, I pray only that I may have

pure love for Thy Lotus Feet, love that seeks no return. And Mother, do not

delude me with Thy world-bewitching maya. I seek Thy protection. I have

taken refuge in Thee."

The evening worship in the temples was over. Sri Ramakrishna was again

seated in his room with M.

M. had been visiting the Master for the past two years and, had received his

grace and blessings. He had been told that God was both with form and

without form, that He assumed forms for the sake of His devotees. To the

worshipper of the formless God, the Master said: "Hold to your conviction,

but remember that all is possible with God. He has form, and again, He is

formless. He can be many things more."

MASTER (to M.): "You have accepted an ideal, that of God without form-

isn't that so?"

M: "Yes, sir. But I also believe what you say-that all is possible with God. It

is quite possible for God to have forms.

MASTER: "Good. Remember further that, as Consciousness, He pervades

the entire universe of the living and non-living."

M: "I think of Him as the consciousness in conscious beings."

MASTER: "Stick to that ideal now. There is no need of tearing down and

changing one's attitude. You will gradually come to realize that the

consciousness in conscious beings is the Consciousness of God. He alone is

Consciousness.

"Let me ask you one thing. Do you feel attracted to money and treasures?"

M: "No, sir. But I think of earning money in order to be free from anxiety,

to be able to think of God without worry."

MASTER: "Oh, that's perfectly natural."

M: "Is it greed? I don't think so."

MASTER: "You are right. Otherwise, who will look after your children?

What will become of them if you feel that you are not the doer?"

M: "I have heard that one cannot attain Knowledge as long as one has the

consciousness of duty. Duty is like the scorching sun."

MASTER: "Keep your present attitude. It will be different when the

consciousness of duty drops away of itself."

They remained silent a few minutes.

M: "To enter the world after attaining partial knowledge! Why, it is like

dying in full consciousness, as in cholera!"

MASTER: "Oh, Ram! Ram!"

The idea in M.'s mind was that just as a cholera patient feels excruciating

pain at the time of death, because of retaining consciousness, so also a Jnāni

with partial knowledge must feel extremely miserable leading the life of the

world, which he knows to be illusory.

M: "People who are completely ignorant are like typhoid patients, who

remain unconscious at the time of death and so do not feel the pain."

MASTER: "Tell me, what does one attain through money? Jaygopal Sen is

such a wealthy man; but he complains that his children don't obey him."

M: "Is poverty the only painful thing in the world? There are the six

passions besides.

Then disease and grief."

MASTER: "And also name and fame, the desire to win people's

recognition. Well, what do you think my attitude is?"

M: "It is like that of a man just awakened from sleep. He becomes aware of

himself.

You are always united with God."

MASTER: "Do you ever dream of me?"

M: "Yes, sir. Many times."

MASTER: "How? Did you dream of me as giving you instruction?"

M. remained silent.

MASTER: "If you ever see me instructing you, then know that it is

Satchidananda Himself that does so."

M. related his dream experiences to Sri Ramakrishna, who listened to them

attentively.

MASTER (to M.): "That is very good. Don't reason any more. You are a

follower of Śakti."

Wednesday, October 10, 1883

Visit to Adhar's house

Adhar had invited the Master to come to his house on the occasion of the

Durga Puja festival. It was the third day of the worship of the Divine

Mother. When Sri Ramakrishna arrived at Adhar's house, he found Adhar's

friend Sarada, Balarām's father, and Adhar's neighbours and relatives

waiting for him.

The Master went into the worship hall to see the evening worship. When it

was over, he remained standing there in an abstracted mood and sang in

praise of the Divine Mother: Glories of the Divine Mother

Out of my deep affliction rescue me, O Redeemer!

Terrified by the threats of the King of Death am I!

Left to myself, I shall perish soon;

Save me, oh, save me now, I pray!

Mother of all the worlds! Thou, the Support of mankind!

Thou, the Bewitcher of all, the Mother of all that has life!

Vrindāvan's charming Radha art Thou,

Dearest playmate of Braja's Beloved.

Blissful comrade of Krishna, well-spring of Krishna's lila, Child of

Himālaya, best of the gopis, beloved of Govinda!

Sacred Ganga, Giver of moksha!

Śakti! The universe sings Thy praise.

Thou art the Spouse of Śiva, the Ever-blessed, the All; Sometimes Thou

takest form and sometimes art absolute.

Eternal Beloved of Mahādeva,

Who can fathom Thine infinite glories?

The Master went to Adhar's drawing-room on the second floor and took a

seat, surrounded by the guests. Still in a mood of divine fervour, he said:

"Gentlemen, I have eaten. Now go and enjoy the feast." Was the Master

hinting that the Divine Mother had partaken of Adhar's offering? Did he

identify himself with the Divine Mother and therefore say, "I have eaten"?

Then, addressing the Divine Mother, he continued: "Shall I eat, O Mother?

Or will You eat? O Mother, the very Embodiment of the Wine of Divine

Bliss!" Did the Master look on himself as one with the Divine Mother? Had

the Mother incarnated Herself as the Son to instruct mankind in the ways of

God? Was this why the Master said, "I have eaten"?

In that state of divine ecstasy Sri Ramakrishna saw the six centres in his

body, and the Divine Mother dwelling in them. He sang a song to that

effect.

Again he sang:

My mind is overwhelmed with wonder,

Pondering the Mother's mystery;

Her very name removes

The fear of Kala, Death himself;

Beneath Her feet lies Maha-Kala.

Why should Her hue be kala, black?

Many the forms of black, but She

Appears astoundingly black;

When contemplated in the heart,

She lights the lotus that blossoms there.

Her form is black, and She is named

Kāli, the Black One. Blacker than black

Is She! Beholding Her,

Man is bewitched for evermore;

No other form can he enjoy.

In wonderment asks Ramprasad:

Where dwells this Woman so amazing?

At Her mere name, his mind

Becomes at once absorbed in Her,

Though he has never yet beheld Her.

The fear of the devotees flies away if they but seek shelter at the feet of the

Divine Mother. Was that why the Master sang the following song?: I have

surrendered my soul at the fearless feet of the Mother; Am I afraid of Death

any more?

Unto the tuft of hair on my head

Is tied the almighty mantra, Mother Kāli's name.

My body I have sold in the marketplace of the world And with it have

bought Sri Durga's name.

Deep within my heart I have planted the name of Kāli, The Wish-fulfilling

Tree of heaven;

When Yama, King of Death, appears,

To him I shall open my heart and show it growing there.

I have cast out from me my six unflagging foes; Ready am I to sail life's sea,

Crying, "To Durga, victory!"

Sarada was stricken with grief on account of his son's death. So Adhar had

taken him to Dakshineswar to visit the Master. Sarada was a devotee of Sri

Chaitanya. Sri Ramakrishna looked at him and was inspired with the ideal

of Gaurānga.

He sang:

Why has My body turned so golden? It is not time for this to be: Many the

ages that must pass, before as Gaurānga I appear.

Here in the age of Dwapara My sport is not yet at an end; How strange this

transformation is!

The peacock glistens, all of gold; arid golden, too, the cuckoo gleams!

Everything around Me here has turned to gold! Naught else appears

But gold, whichever way I look.

What can it mean, this miracle, that everything I see is gold?

Ah, I can guess its meaning now:

Radha has come to Mathura, and that is why My skin is gold.

For she is like the bhramara, and so has given Me her hue.

Dark blue My body was but now; yet in the twinkling of an eye It turned to

gold. Have I become Radha by contemplating her?

I cannot imagine where I am-in Mathura or Navadvip.

But how could this have come to pass?

Not yet is Balarama born as Nitai, nor has Nārada Become Srivas, nor

Yaśoda as Mother Sachi yet returned.

Then why should I, among them all, alone assume a golden face?

Not yet is Father Nanda born as Jagannath; then why should I Be thus

transmuted into gold?

Perhaps because in Mathura sweet Radha has appeared, My skin

Has borrowed Gaurānga's golden hue.

Sri Ramakrishna sang again, still overpowered with the ideal of Gaurānga:

Surely Gaurānga is lost in a state of blissful ecstasy; In an exuberance of

joy, he laughs and weeps and dances and sings.

He takes a wood for Vrindāvan, the Ganges for the blue Jamuna;

Loudly he sobs and weeps. Yet, though he is all gold without, He is all black

within-black with the blackness of Krishna!

The Master continued to sing, assuming the attitude of a woman devotee

infatuated with love for Gaurānga:

Why do my neighbours raise such a scandal?

Why do they cast aspersions upon me

Simply because of Gaurānga?

How can they understand my feelings?

How can I ever explain?

Can I ever explain at all?

Alas, to whom shall I explain it?

Ah, but they make me die of shame!

Once on a time, at the house of Srivas,

Gora was loudly singing the kirtan,

When, on the ground of the courtyard,

Falling, he rolled in an ecstasy.

I, who was standing near him,

Seeing him where he lay entranced.

Was suddenly lost to outward sense.

Until the wife of Srivas revived me.

Another day, in the bhaktas' procession,

Gora was sweetly singing the kirtan;

Clasping the outcastes to him,

He softened the unbelievers' hearts.

Through Nadia's marketplace

He chanted Lord Hari's holy name.

I followed the throng, and from close by

Caught a glimpse of his golden feet.

Once by the Ganges' bank he stood,

His body bright as the sun and moon

Charming all with his beauty.

I too had come, to fetch some water,

And, as I looked from one side,

My water-jar slipped and fell to the ground.

My sister-in-law, the gossip, saw me,

And now she is spreading it everywhere.

Balarām's father was a Vaishnava; hence the Master also sang of the divine

love of the gopis for their beloved Krishna:

I have not found my Krishna, O friend! How cheerless my home without

Him!

Ah, if Krishna could only be the hair upon my head, Carefully I should

braid it then, and deck it with bakul-flowers; Carefully I should fashion the

braids out of my Krishna-hair.

Krishna is black, and black is my hair; black would be one with black!

Ah, if Krishna could only be the ring I wear in my nose, Always from my

nose He would hang, and my two lips could touch Him.

But it can never be, alas! Why should I idly dream?

Why should Krishna care at all to be the ring in my nose?

Ah, if Krishna could only be the bracelets on my arms, Always He would

cling to my wrists, and proudly I should walk, Shaking my bracelets to make

them sound, shaking my arms to show them;

Down the king's highway I should walk, wearing my Krishna-bracelets.

Balarām's father was a wealthy man with estates in different parts of Orissa.

An orthodox member of the Vaishnava sect, he had built temples and

arranged for distribution of food to the pilgrims at various holy places. He

had been spending the last years of his life in Vrindāvan. The Vaishnavas,

for the most part, are bigoted in their religious views. Some of them harbour

malicious feelings toward the followers of the Tantra and Vedānta. But Sri

Ramakrishna never encouraged such a narrow outlook.

According to his teachings, through earnestness and yearning all lovers of

God will ultimately reach the same goal. The Master began the

conversation in order to broaden the religious views of Balarām's father.

Master's harmony of religions

MASTER (to M.): "Once I thought, 'Why should I be one-sided?' Therefore

I was initiated into Vaishnavism in Vrindāvan and took the garb of a

Vaishnava monk. I spent three days practising the Vaishnava discipline.

Again, at Dakshineswar I was initiated into the mystery of Rāmā worship. I

painted my forehead with a long mark and put on a string with a diamond

round my neck. But after a few days I gave them up.

"A certain man had a tub. People would come to him to have their clothes

dyed. The tub contained a solution of dye. Whatever colour a man wanted

for his cloth, he would get by dipping the cloth in the tub. One man was

amazed to see this and said to the dyer, 'Please give me the dye you have in

your tub.' "

Was the Master hinting that people professing different religions would

come to him and have their spiritual consciousness awakened according to

their own ideals?

MASTER (to Balarām's father): "Don't read books any more. But you may

read books on devotion, such as the life of Chaitanya.

"The whole thing is to love God and taste His sweetness. He is sweetness

and the devotee is its enjoyer. The devotee drinks the sweet Bliss of God.

Further, God is the lotus and the devotee the bee. The devotee sips the

honey of the lotus.

"As a devotee cannot live without God, so also God cannot live without His

devotee.

Then the devotee becomes the sweetness, and God its enjoyer. The devotee

becomes the lotus, and God the bee. It is the Godhead that has become

these two in order to enjoy Its own Bliss. That is the significance of the

episode of Radha and Krishna.

"At the beginning of spiritual life the devotee should observe such rites as

pilgrimage, putting a string of beads around his neck, and so forth. But

outward ceremonies gradually drop off as he attains the goal, the vision of

God. Then his only activity is the repetition of God's name, and

contemplation and meditation on Him.

"The pennies equivalent to sixteen rupees make a great heap. But sixteen

silver coins do not look like such a big amount. Again, the quantity

becomes much smaller when you change the sixteen rupees into one gold

mohur. And if you change the gold into a tiny piece of diamond, people

hardly notice it."

Orthodox Vaishnavas insist on the outer insignia of religion. They criticize

any devotee who does not wear these marks. Was that why the Master said

that, after the vision of God, a devotee becomes indifferent to outer marks,

giving up formal worship when the goal of spiritual life is attained?

MASTER (to Balarām's father): "The Kartabhajas group the devotees into

four classes: the pravartaka, the sadhaka, the siddha, and the siddha of the

siddha. The pravartaka, the beginner, puts the mark of his religion on his

forehead, wears a string of beads around his neck, and observes other outer

conventions. The sadhaka, the struggling devotee, does not care so much

for elaborate rites. An example of this class is the Baul. The siddha, the

perfect, firmly believes that God exists. The siddha of the siddha, the

supremely perfect, like Chaitanya, not only has realized God but also has

become intimate with Him and talks with Him all the time. This is the last

limit of realization.

Different classes of spiritual aspirants

"There are many kinds of spiritual aspirants. Those endowed with sattva

perform their spiritual practices secretly. They look like ordinary people,

but they meditate inside the mosquito net.

"Aspirants endowed with rajas exhibit outward pomp-a string of beads

around the neck, a mark on the forehead, an ochre robe, a silk cloth, a

rosary with a gold bead, and so on. They are like stall-keepers advertising

their wares with signboards.

"All religions and all paths call upon their followers to pray to one and the

same God.

Therefore one should not show disrespect to any religion or religious

opinion. It is God alone who is called Satchidananda Brahman in the Vedas,

Satchidananda Krishna in the Puranas, and Satchidananda Śiva in the

Tantras. It is one and the same Satchidananda.

"There are different sects of Vaishnavas. That which is called Brahman in

the Vedas is called Ālekh-Niranjan by one Vaishnava sect. 'Ālekh' means

That which cannot be pointed out or perceived by the sense-organs.

According to this sect, Radha and Krishna are only two bubbles of the

Ālekh.

"According to the Vedānta, there is no Incarnation of God. The Vedantists

say that Rāmā and Krishna are but two waves in the Ocean of

Satchidananda.

"In reality there are not two. There is only One. A man may call on God by

any name; if he is sincere in his prayer he will certainly reach Him. He will

succeed if he has longing."

As Sri Ramakrishna spoke these words to the devotees, he was

overwhelmed with divine fervour. Coming down to partial consciousness of

the world, he said to Balarām's father, "Are you the father of Balarām?"

All sat in silence. Balarām's aged father was silently telling his beads.

Futility of worship without yearning

MASTER (to M. and the others): "Well, these people practise so much japa

and go to so many sacred places, but why are they like this? Why, do they

make no progress? In their case it seems as if the year consists of eighteen

months.

"Once I said to Harish: 'What is the use of going to Benares if one does not

feel restless for God? And if one feels that longing, then this very place is

Benares.'

"They make so many pilgrimages and repeat the name of God so much, but

why do they not realize anything? It is because they have no longing for

God. God reveals Himself to the devotee if only he calls upon Him with a

longing heart.

"At the beginning of a yatra performance much light-hearted restlessness is

to be observed on the stage. At that time one does not see Krishna. Next the

sage Nārada enters with his flute and sings longingly, 'O Govinda! O my

Life! O my Soul!' Then Krishna can no longer remain away and appears

with the cowherd boys."

Tuesday, October 16, 1883

Sri Ramakrishna was in his room with Rākhāl , Balarām's father, Beni Pāl,

M., Mani Mallick, Ishan, Kishori, and other devotees.

MASTER: "Liberal-minded devotees accept all the forms of God: Krishna,

Kāli, Śiva, Rāmā, and so on."

BALARĀM'S FATHER: "Yes, sir. It is like a woman's recognizing her

husband, whatever clothes he wears."

Unwavering devotion to God

MASTER: "But again, there is a thing called nishtha, single-minded

devotion. When the gopis went to Mathura they saw Krishna with a turban

on His head. At this they pulled down their veils and said, 'Who is this

man? Where is our Krishna with the peacock feather on His crest and the

yellow cloth on His body?' Hanuman also had that unswerving devotion. He

came to Dwaraka in the cycle of Dwapara. Krishna said to Rukmini, His

queen, 'Hanuman will not be satisfied unless he sees the form of Rāmā.'

So, to please Hanuman, Krishna assumed the form of Rāma.

"But, my dear sir, I am in a peculiar state of mind. My mind constantly

descends from the Absolute to the Relative, and again ascends from the

Relative to the Absolute.

"The attainment of the Absolute is called the Knowledge of Brahman. But it

is extremely difficult to acquire. A man cannot acquire the Knowledge of

Brahman unless he completely rids himself of his attachment to the world.

When the Divine Mother was born as the daughter of King Himalaya, She

showed Her various forms to Her father.

The king said, 'I want to see Brahman.' Thereupon the Divine Mother said:

'Father, if that is your desire, then you must seek the company of holy men.

You must go into solitude, away from the world, and now and then live in

holy company.'

The many and the One

"The manifold has come from the One alone, the Relative from the

Absolute. There is a state of consciousness where the many disappears, and

the One, as well; for the many must exist as long as the One exists.

Brahman is without comparison. It is impossible to explain Brahman by

analogy. It is between light and darkness. It is Light, but not the light that

we perceive, not material light.

"Again, when God changes the state of my mind, when He brings my mind

down to the plane of the Relative, I perceive that it is He who has become

all these-the Creator, maya, the living beings, and the universe.

"Again, sometimes He shows me that He has created the universe and all

living beings.

He is the Master, and the universe His garden.

Knowledge and ignorance

"'He is the Master, and the universe and all its living beings belong to Him'-

that is Knowledge. And, 'I am the doer', 'I am the guru', 'I am the father'-that

is ignorance.

'This is my house; this is my family; this is my wealth; these are my

relatives'-this also is ignorance."

BALARĀM'S FATHER: "That is true, sir."

MASTER: "As long as you do not feel that God is the Master, you must

come back to the world, you must be born again and again. There will be no

rebirth when you can truly say, 'O God, Thou art the Master.' As long as you

cannot say, 'O Lord, Thou alone art real', you will not be released from the

life of the world. This going and coming, this rebirth, is inevitable. There

will be no liberation. Further, what can you achieve by saying, 'It is mine'?

The manager of an estate may say, 'This is our garden; these are our

couches and furniture.' But when he is dismissed by the master, he hasn't

the right to take away even a chest of worthless mango-wood given to him

for his use.

"The feeling of 'I and mine' has covered the Reality. Because of this we do

not see Truth. Attainment of Chaitanya, Divine Consciousness, is not

possible without the knowledge of Advaita, Non-duality. After realizing

Chaitanya one enjoys Nityananda, Eternal Bliss. One enjoys this Bliss after

attaining the state of a paramahamsa.

"Vedānta does not recognize the Incarnation of God. According to it,

Chaitanyadeva is only a bubble of the non-dual Brahman.

"Do you know what the vision of Divine Consciousness is like? It is like the

sudden illumination of a dark room when a match is struck.

"The Incarnation of God is accepted by those who follow the path of bhakti.

A woman belonging to the Kartabhaja sect observed my condition, and

remarked: 'You have inner realization. Don't dance and sing too much. Ripe

grapes must be preserved carefully in cotton. The mother-in-law lessens her

daughter-in-law's activities when the daughter-in-law is with child. One

characteristic of God-realization is that the activities of a man with such

realization gradually drop away. Inside this man [meaning Sri

Ramakrishna]

is the real Jewel.'

"Watching me eat, she remarked, 'Sir, are you yourself eating, or are you

feeding someone else?'

"The feeling of ego has covered the Truth. Narendra once said, 'As the "I"

of man recedes, the "I" of God approaches.' Kedār says, 'The more clay

there is in the jar, the less water it holds.'

"Krishna said to Arjuna: 'Brother, you will not realize Me if you possess

even one of the eight siddhis.' These give only a little power. With healing

and the like one may do only a little good to others. Isn't that true?

"Therefore I prayed to the Divine Mother for pure love only, a love that

does not seek any return. I never, asked for occult powers."

While talking thus, Sri Ramakrishna went into samādhi. He sat there

motionless, completely forgetful of the outer world. Then, coming down to

the sense world, he sang:

Ah, friend! I have not found Him yet, whose love has driven me mad. . . .

At the Master's request, Ramlal sang a song describing how Chaitanya

embraced the monastic life:

Oh, what a vision I have beheld in Keshab Bharati's hut!

Gora, in all his matchless grace,

Shedding tears in a thousand streams!

Like a mad elephant

He dances in ecstasy and sings,

Drunk with an overwhelming love.

Rolling flat upon the ground and swimming in his tears, He weeps and

shouts Lord Hari's name,

Piercing the very heavens with his cries,

Loud as a lion's roar;

Then most humbly he begs men's love,

To feel himself the servant of Cod.

Shorn of his locks, he has put on the yogi's ochre robe; Even the hardest

heart must melt

To see his pure and heavenly love.

Smitten by man's deep woe,

He has abandoned everything

And pours out love unstintingly.

Oh, would that Premdas were his slave and, passing from door to door,

Might sing Gaurānga's endless praise!

The Master asked Mani Mallick to quote the words of Tulsidas to the effect

that one who had developed love of God could not observe caste

distinctions.

MANI: "The throat of the chatak bird is pierced with thirst. All around are

the waters of the Ganges, the Jamuna, the Saraju, and of innumerable other

rivers and lakes; but the bird will not touch any of these. It only looks up

expectantly for the rain that falls when the star Svati is in the ascendant."

MASTER: "That means that love for the Lotus Feet of God is alone real,

and all else illusory."

MANI: "Tulsi also said: 'At the touch of the philosopher's stone, the eight

metals become gold. Likewise all castes, even the butcher and the

untouchable, become pure by repeating Hari's name. Without Hari's name

the people of the four castes are but butchers.'"

MASTER: "The hide that the scriptures forbid one to touch can be taken

inside the temple after it has been tanned.

Chanting God's holy name

"Man becomes pure by repeating the name of God. Therefore one should

practise the chanting of God's name. I said to Jadu Mallick's mother: 'In the

hour of death you will think only of worldly things-of family, children,

executing the will, and so forth. The thought of God will not come to your

mind. The way to remember God in the hour of death is to practise, now,

the repetition of His name and the chanting of His glories. If one keeps up

this practice, then in the hour of death one will repeat the name of God.

When the cat pounces upon the bird, the bird only squawks and does not

say, 'Rāma, Rāma, Hare-Krishna'.

"It is good to prepare for death. One should constantly think of God and

chant His name in solitude during the last years of one's life. If the elephant

is put into the stable after its bath it is not soiled again by dirt and dust."

Balarām's father, Mani Mallick, and Beni Pāl were all elderly men. Did the

Master give this instruction especially for their benefit?

MASTER: "Why do I ask you to think of God and chant His name in

solitude? Living in the world day and night, one suffers from worries.

Haven't you noticed brother killing brother for a foot of land? The Sikhs

said to me, 'The cause of all worry and confusion is these three: land,

woman, and money.'

"You are leading a householder's life. Why should you be afraid of the

world? When Rāma said to Dasaratha that He was going to renounce the

world, it worried His father, and the king sought counsel of Vasishtha.

Vasishtha said to Rāma: 'Rāma, why should You give up the world? Reason

with me; Is this world outside God? What is there to renounce and what is

there to accept? Nothing whatever exists but God. It is Brahman alone that

appears as Isvara, maya, living beings, and the universe.' "

BALARĀM'S FATHER: "It is very difficult, sir."

MASTER: "The aspirant, while practising spiritual discipline, looks upon

the world as a 'framework of illusion'. Again, after the attainment of

Knowledge, the vision of God, this very world becomes to him a 'mansion

of mirth'.

"It is written in the books of the Vaishnavas: 'God can be attained through

faith alone; reasoning pushes Him far away.' Faith alone!

"What faith Krishnakishore had! At Vrindāvan a low-caste man drew water

for him from a well. Krishnakishore said to him, 'Repeat the name of Śiva.'

After the man had repeated the name of Śiva, Krishnakishore unhesitatingly

drank the water. He used to say, 'If a man chants the name of God, does he

need to spend money any more for the atonement of his sins? How foolish!'

He was amazed to see people worshipping God with the sacred tulsi-leaf in

order to get rid of their illnesses. At the bathing-ghat here he said to us,

'Please bless me, that I may pass my days repeating Rāma's holy name.'

Whenever I went to his house he would dance with joy at the sight of me.

Rāma said to Lakshmana, 'Brother, whenever you find people singing and

dancing in the ecstasy of divine love, know for certain that I am there.'

Chaitanya is an example of such ecstatic love. He laughed and wept and

danced and sang in divine ecstasy. He was an Incarnation. God incarnated

Himself through Chaitanya."

Sri Ramakrishna sang a song describing the divine love of Chaitanya. Then

Balarām's father, Mani Mallick, Beni Pāl, and several other devotees took

leave of the Master.

In the evening, devotees from Kansaritola, Calcutta, arrived. The Master

danced and sang with them in a state of divine fervour. After dancing, he

went into a spiritual mood and said, "I shall go part of the way myself."

Kishori came forward to massage his feet, but the Master did not allow

anyone to touch him.

Ishan arrived. The Master was seated, still in a spiritual mood. After a while

he became engaged in talk with Ishan. It was Ishan's desire to practise the

Purascharana of the Gayatri.

MASTER (to Ishan): "Follow your own intuition. I hope there is no more

doubt in your mind. Is there any? The path of the Vedas is not meant for the

Kaliyuga. The path of Tantra is efficacious."

ISHAN: "I have almost resolved to perform an atonement ceremony."

MASTER: "Do you mean to say that one cannot follow the path of Tantra?

That which is Brahman is also Śakti, Kāli. Knowing the secret that Kāli is

one with the highest Brahman, I have discarded, once for all, both

righteousness and sin."

ISHAN: "It is mentioned in a hymn in the Chandi that Brahman alone is the

Primal Energy. Brahman is identical with Śakti."

MASTER: "It will not do simply to express that idea in words. Only when

you assimilate it will all be well with you.

"When the heart becomes pure through the practice of spiritual discipline,

then one rightly feels that God alone is the Doer. He alone has become

mind, life, and intelligence. We are only His instruments. Thou it is that

holdest the elephant in the mire; Thou, that helpest the lame man scale the

loftiest hill.

"When your heart becomes pure, then you will realize that it is God who

makes us perform such rites as the Purascharana.

Thou workest Thine own work; men only call it theirs.

"All doubts disappear after the realization of God. Then the devotee meets

the favourable wind. He becomes free from worry. He is like the boatman

who, when the favourable wind blows, unfurls the sail, holds the rudder

lightly, and enjoys a smoke."

Ishan took his leave and Sri Ramakrishna talked with M. No one else was

present. He asked M. what he thought of Narendra, Rākhāl , Adhar, and

Hazra, and whether they were guileless. "And", asked the Master, "what do

you think of me?".

M. said: "You are simple and at the same time deep. It is extremely difficult

to understand you."

Sri Ramakrishna laughed.

November 26, 1883

It was the day of the annual festival of the Sinduriapatti Brahmo Samaj. The

ceremony was to be performed in Manilal Mallick's house. The worship

hall was beautifully decorated with flowers, wreaths, and evergreens, and

many devotees were assembled, eagerly awaiting the worship. Their

enthusiasm had been greatly heightened by the news that Sri Ramakrishna

was going to grace the occasion with his presence. Keshab, Vijay,

Shivanath, and other leaders of the Brahmo Samaj held him in high respect.

His God intoxicated state of mind, his intense love of spiritual life, his

burning faith, his intimate communion with God, and his respect for

women, whom he regarded as veritable manifestations of the Divine

Mother, together with the unsullied purity of his character, his complete

renunciation of worldly talk, his love and respect for all religious faiths, and

his eagerness to meet devotees of all creeds, attracted the members of the

Brahmo Samaj to him. Devotees came that day from far-off places to join

the festival, for it would give them a chance to get a glimpse of the Master

and listen to his inspiring talk.

Sri Ramakrishna arrived at the house before the worship began, and became

engaged in conversation with Vijaykrishna Goswami and the other

devotees. The lamps were lighted and the divine service was about to begin.

The Master asked if Shivanath would come to the festival. A Brahmo

devotee said that he had other important things to do and was not coming.

Truthfulness leads to God

MASTER: "I feel very happy when I see Shivanath. He always seems to be

absorbed in the bliss of bhakti. Further, a man who is respected by so many

surely possesses some divine power. But he has one great defect: he doesn't

keep his word. Once he said to me that, he would come to Dakshineswar,

but he neither came nor sent me word. That is not good. It is said that

truthfulness alone constitutes the spiritual discipline of the Kaliyuga. If a

man clings tenaciously to truth he ultimately realizes God. Without this

regard for truth, one gradually loses everything. If by chance I say that I

will go to the pine-grove, I must go there even if there is no further need of

it, lest I lose my attachment to truth. After my vision of the Divine Mother,

I prayed to Her, taking a flower in my hands: 'Mother, here is Thy

knowledge and here is Thy ignorance. Take them both, and give me only

pure love. Here is Thy holiness and here is Thy unholiness. Take them both,

Mother, and give me pure love. Here is Thy good and here is Thy evil. Take

them both, Mother, and give me pure love. Here is Thy righteousness, and

here is Thy unrighteousness. Take them both, Mother, and give me pure

love.' I mentioned all these, but I could not say: 'Mother, here is Thy truth

and here is Thy falsehood. Take them both.' I gave up everything at Her feet

but could not bring myself to give up truth."

Soon the service began according to the rules of the Brahmo Samaj. The

preacher was seated on the dais. After the opening prayer he recited holy

texts of the Vedas and was joined by the congregation in the invocation to

the Supreme Brahman. They chanted in chorus: "Brahman is Truth,

Knowledge, and Infinity. It shines as Bliss and Immortality.

Brahman is Peace, Blessedness, the One without a Second; It is pure and

unstained by sin." The minds of the devotees were stilled, and they closed

their eyes in meditation.

The Master went into deep samādhi. He sat there transfixed and speechless.

After some time he opened his eyes, looked around, and suddenly stood up

with the words "Brahma! Brahma!" on his lips. Soon the devotional music

began, accompanied by drums and cymbals. In a state of divine fervour the

Master began to dance with the devotees. Vijay and the other Brahmos

danced around him. The guests and the devotees were enchanted. Many of

them drank the sweet bliss of God's name and forgot the world. The

happiness of the material world appeared bitter to them, at least for the time

being.

After the kirtan all sat around the Master, eager to hear his words.

Advice to householders

MASTER: "It is difficult to lead the life of a householder in a spirit of

detachment. Once Pratap said to me: 'Sir, we follow the example of King

Janaka. He led the life of a householder in a detached spirit. We shall follow

him.' I said to him: 'Can one be like King Janaka by merely wishing it?

How many austerities he practised in order to acquire divine knowledge! He

practised the most intense form of asceticism for many years and only then

returned to the life of the world.'

"Is there, then, no hope for householders? Certainly there is. They must

practise spiritual discipline in solitude for some days. Thus they will

acquire knowledge and devotion. Then it will not hurt them to lead the life

of the world. But when you practise discipline in solitude, keep yourself

entirely away from your family. You must not allow your wife, son,

daughter, mother, father, sister, brother, friends, or relatives near you.

While thus practising discipline in solitude, you should think: 'I have no one

else in the world. God is my all.' You must also pray to Him, with tears in

your eyes, for knowledge and devotion.

"If you ask me how long you should live in solitude away from your family,

I should say that it would be good for you if you could spend even one day

in such a manner. Three days at a time are still better. One may live in

solitude for twelve days, a month, three months, or a year, according to

one's convenience and ability. One hasn't much to fear if one leads the life

of a householder after attaining knowledge and devotion.

"If you break a jackfruit after rubbing your hands with oil, then its sticky

milk will not smear your hands. While playing the game of hide-and-seek,

you are safe if you but once touch the 'granny'. Be turned into gold by

touching the philosopher's stone. After that you may remain buried

underground a thousand years; when you are taken out you will still be

gold.

"The mind is like milk. If you keep the mind in the world, which is like

water, then the milk and water will get mixed. That is why people keep milk

in a quiet place and let it set into curd, and then churn butter from it.

Likewise, through spiritual discipline practised in solitude, churn the butter

of knowledge and devotion from the milk of the mind. Then that butter can

easily be kept in the water of the world. It will not get mixed with the

world. The mind will float detached on the water of the world."

Vijay had just returned from Gaya, where he had spent a long time in

solitude and holy company. He had put on the ochre robe of a monk and

was in an exalted state of mind, always indrawn. He was sitting before the

Master with his head bent down, as if absorbed in some deep thought.

Casting his benign glance on Vijay, the Master said: "Vijay, have you found

your room?

"Let me tell you a parable: Once two holy men, in the course of their

wanderings, entered a city. One of them, with wondering eyes and mouth

agape, was looking at the marketplace, the stalls, and the buildings, when

he met his companion. The latter said: 'You seem to be filled with wonder at

the city. Where is your baggage?' He replied: 'First of all I found a room. I

put my things in it, locked the door, and felt totally relieved.

Now I am going about the city enjoying all the fun.'

"So I am asking you, Vijay, if you have found your room. (To M. and the

others) You see, the spring in Vijay's heart has been covered all these days.

Now it is open. . .

(To V ijay) "Well, Shivanath is always in trouble and turmoil. He has to

write for magzines and perform many other duties. Worldly duties bring

much worry and anxiety along with them.

"It is narrated in the Bhagavata that the Avadhuta had twenty-four gurus,

one of whom was a kite. In a certain place the fishermen were catching fish.

A kite swooped down and snatched a fish. At the sight of the fish, about a

thousand crows chased the kite and made a great noise with their cawing.

Whichever way the kite flew with the fish, the crows followed it. The kite

flew to the south and the crows followed it there. The kite flew to the north

and still the crows followed after it. The kite went east and west, but with

the same result. As the kite began to fly about in confusion, lo, the fish

dropped from its mouth. The crows at once let the kite alone and flew after

the fish. Thus relieved of its worries, the kite sat on the branch of a tree and

thought: 'That wretched fish was at the root of all my troubles. I have now

got rid of it and therefore I am at peace.'

"The Avadhuta learnt this lesson from the kite, that as long as a man has the

fish, that is, worldly desires, he must perform actions and consequently

suffer from worry, anxiety, and restlessness. No sooner does he renounce

these desires than his activities fall away and he enjoys peace of soul.

"But work without any selfish motive is good. It does not create any worry.

But it is very difficult to be totally unselfish. We may think that our work is

selfless, but selfishness comes, unknown to us, from no one knows where.

But if a man has already undergone great spiritual discipline, then as a

result of it he may be able to do work without any selfish motive. After the

vision of God a man can easily do unselfish work.

In most cases action drops away after the attainment of God. Only a few,

like Nārada, work to bring light to mankind.

"The Avadhuta accepted a bee as another teacher. Bees accumulate their

honey by days of hard labour. But they cannot enjoy their honey, for a man

soon breaks the comb and takes it away. The Avadhuta learnt this lesson

from the bees, that one should not lay things up. Sādhus should depend one

hundred per cent on God. They must not gather for the morrow. But this

does not apply to the householder. He must bring up his family; therefore it

is necessary for him to provide. Birds and monks do not hoard. Yet birds

also hoard after their chicks are hatched: they collect food in their beaks for

their young ones.

"Let me tell you one thing, Vijay. Don't trust a sādhu if he keeps bag, and

baggage with him and a bundle of clothes with many knots. I have seen

such sādhus under the banyan tree in the Panchavati. Two or three of them

were seated there. One was picking over lentils, some were sewing their

clothes, and all were gossiping about a feast they had enjoyed in a rich

man's house. They said among themselves, 'That rich man spent a hundred

thousand rupees on the feast and fed the sādhus sumptuously with cake,

sweets, and many such delicious things.' " (All laugh) VIJAY: "It is true, sir.

"I have seen such sādhus at Gaya. They are called the lotawalla sādhus of

Gaya."

MASTER (to Vijay): "When love of God is awakened, work drops away of

itself. If God makes some men work, let them work. It is now time for you

to give up everything.

Renounce all and say, 'O mind, may you and I alone behold the Mother,

letting no One else intrude.' "

Saying this, Sri Ramakrishna began to sing in his soul-enthralling voice:

Cherish my precious Mother Syama

Tenderly within, O mind;

May you and I alone behold Her,

Letting no one else intrude.

O mind, in solitude enjoy Her,

Keeping the passions all outside;

Take but the tongue, that now and again

It may cry out, "O Mother! Mother!"

Suffer no breath of base desire

To enter and approach us there,

But bid true knowledge stand on guard,

Alert and watchful evermore.

The Master said to Vijay: "Surrender yourself completely to God, and set

aside all such things as fear and shame. Give up such feelings as, 'What will

people think of me if I dance in the ecstasy of God's holy name?' The

saying, 'One cannot have the vision of God as long as one has these three-

shame, hatred, and fear', is very true. Shame, hatred, fear, caste, pride,

secretiveness, and the like are so many bonds. Man is free when he is

liberated from all these.

"When bound by ties one is jiva, and when free from ties one is Śiva.

Prema, ecstatic love of God, is a rare thing.

Steps of bhakti

"First of all one acquires bhakti. Bhakti is single-minded devotion to God,

like the devotion a wife feels for her husband. It is very difficult to have

unalloyed devotion to God. Through such devotion one's mind and soul

merge in Him.

"Then comes bhava, intense love. Through bhava a man becomes

speechless. His nerve currents are stilled. Kumbhaka comes by itself. It is

like the case of a man whose breath and speech stop when he fires a gun.

"But prema, ecstatic love, is an extremely rare thing. Chaitanya had that

love. When one has prema one forgets all outer things. One forgets the

world. One even forgets one's own body, which is so dear to a man."

The Master began to sing:

Oh, when will dawn the blessed day

When tears of joy will flow from my eyes

As I repeat Lord Hari's name?

Oh, when will dawn the blessed day

When all my craving for the world

Will vanish straightway from my heart,

And with the thrill of His holy name

All of my hair will stand on end?

Oh, when will dawn that blessed day?

So the talk of divine things was proceeding, when some invited Brahmo

devotees entered the room. There were among them a few pundits and high

government officials.

Sri Ramakrishna had said that bhava stills the nerve currents of the devotee.

He continued: "When Arjuna was about to shoot at the target, the eye of a

fish, his eyes were fixed on the eye of the fish, and on nothing else. He

didn't even notice any part of the fish except the eye. In such a state the

breathing stops and one experiences kumbhaka.

"Another characteristic of God-vision is that a great spiritual current rushes

up along the spine and goes toward the brain. If then the devotee goes into

samādhi, he sees God."

Looking at the Brahmo devotees who had just arrived, the Master said:

"Mere pundits, devoid of divine love, talk incoherently. Pundit Samadhyayi

once said, in the course of his sermon: 'God is dry. Make Him sweet by

your love and devotion.' Imagine! To describe Him, as dry, whom the Vedas

declare as the Essence of Bliss! It makes one feel that the pundit didn't

know what God really is. That was why his words were so incoherent.

"A man once said, 'There are many horses in my uncle's cowshed.' From

that one could know that the man had no horses at all. No one keeps a horse

in a cowshed.

Transitoriness of earthly things

"Some people pride themselves on their riches and power-their wealth,

honour, and social position. But these are only transitory. Nothing will

remain with you in death.

"There is a song that runs:

Remember this, O mind! Nobody is your own:

Vain is your wandering in this world.

Trapped in the subtle snare of maya as you are, Do not forget the Mother's

name.

Only a day or two men honour you on earth

As lord and master; all too soon

That form, so honoured now, must needs be cast away, When Death, the

Master, seizes you.

Even your beloved wife, for whom, while yet you live, You fret yourself

almost to death,

Will not go with you then; she too will say farewell, And shun your corpse

as an evil thing.

"One must not be proud of one's money. If you say that you are rich, then

one can remind you that there are richer men than you, and others richer

still, and so on. At dusk the glowworm comes out and thinks that it lights

the world. But its pride is crushed when the stars appear in the sky. The

stars feel that they give light to the earth. But when the moon rises the stars

fade in shame. The moon feels that the world smiles at its light and that it

lights the earth. Then the eastern horizon becomes red, and the sun rises.

The moon fades and after a while is no longer seen.

"If wealthy people would think that way, they would get rid of their pride in

their wealth."

Manilal had provided a sumptuous feast in celebration of the festival. He

entertained the Master and the other guests with great love and attention. It

was late at night when they returned to their homes.

-----------------------

Chapter 15

LAST VISIT TO KESHAB

Wednesday, November 28, 1883

AT TWO O'CLOCK in the afternoon, M. was pacing the footpath of the

Circular Road in front of the Lily Cottage, where Keshab Chandra Sen

lived. He was eagerly awaiting the arrival of Sri Ramakrishna. Keshab's

illness had taken a serious turn, and there was very little chance of his

recovery. Since the Master loved Keshab dearly, he was coming from

Dakshineswar to pay him a visit.

On the east side of the Circular Road was Victoria College, where the ladies

of Keshab's Brahmo Samaj and their daughters received their education. To

the north of the college was a spacious garden house inhabited by an

English family. M. noticed that there was a commotion in the house and

wondered what was going on. Presently a hearse arrived with the drivers

dressed in black, and the members of the household appeared, looking very

sad. There had been a death in the family.

"Whither does the soul go, leaving behind this mortal body?" Pondering the

age-old question, M. waited, watching the carriages that came from the

north.

Master's visit to Keshab

About five o'clock a carriage stopped in front of the Lily Cottage and Sri

Ramakrishna got out with Lātu and several other devotees, including

Rākhāl . He was received by Keshab's relatives, who led him and the

devotees upstairs to the verandah south of the drawing-room. The Master

seated himself on a couch.

After a long wait he became impatient to see Keshab. Keshab's disciples

said that he was resting and would be there presently. Sri Ramakrishna

became more and more impatient and said to Keshab's disciples: "Look

here, what need is there of his coming to me? Why can't I go in and see

him?"

PRASANNA (humbly): "Sir, he will come in a few minutes."

MASTER: "Go away! It is you who are making all this fuss. Let me go in."

Prasanna began to talk about Keshab in order to divert the Master's

attention. He said: "Keshab is now an altogether different person. Like you,

sir, he talks to the Divine Mother. He hears what the Mother says, and

laughs and cries."

When he was told that Keshab talked to the Divine Mother and laughed and

cried, the Master became ecstatic. Presently he went into samādhi.

It was winter and the Master was wearing a green flannel coat with a shawl

thrown over it. He sat straight, with his eyes fixed, deep in ecstasy. A long

time passed in this way.

There was no indication of his returning to the normal plane of

consciousness.

Gradually it became dark. Lamps were lighted in the drawing-room, where

the Master was now to go. While he was slowly coming down to the plane

of ordinary consciousness, he was taken there, though with great difficulty.

The room was well furnished. At the sight of the furniture, the Master

muttered to himself, "These things were necessary before, but of what use

are they now?" Seeing Rākhāl, he said, "Oh, hello! Are you here?" Then,

seating himself on a couch, he again lost consciousness of the outer world,

and, looking around as if seeing someone, he said: "Hello, Mother! I see

that You too have come. How You are showing off in Your Benares sari!

Don't bother me now, please. Sit down and be quiet."

The Master was in a state of intense divine intoxication. In the well-lighted

room the Brahmo devotees sat around the Master; Lātu, Rākhāl, and M.

remained near him. He was saying to himself, still filled with divine

fervour: "The body and the soul! The body was born and it will die. But for

the soul there is no death. It is like the betel-nut.

When the nut is ripe it does not stick to the shell. But when it is green it is

difficult to separate it from the shell. After realizing God, one does not

identify oneself any more with the body. Then one knows that body and

soul are two different things."

Keshab's serious illness

At this moment Keshab entered the room. He came through the east door.

Those who remembered the man who had preached in the Town Hall or the

Brahmo Samaj temple were shocked to see this skeleton covered with skin.

He could hardly stand. He walked holding to the wall for support. With

great difficulty he sat down in front of the couch.

In the mean time Sri Ramakrishna had got down from the couch and was

sitting on the floor. Keshab bowed low before the Master and remained in

that position a long time, touching the Master's feet with his forehead. Then

he sat up. Sri Ramakrishna was still in a state of ecstasy. He muttered to

himself. He talked to the Divine Mother.

Raising his voice, Keshab said: "I am here, sir. I am here." He took Sri

Ramakrishna's left hand and stroked it gently. But the Master was in deep

samādhi, completely intoxicated with divine love. A stream of words came

from his lips as he talked to himself, and the devotees listened to him

spellbound.

Brahman manifesting Itself as the universe

MASTER: "As long as a man associates himself with upadhis, so long he

sees the manifold, such as Keshab, Prasanna, Amrita, and so on; but on

attaining Perfect Knowledge he sees only one Consciousness everywhere.

The same Perfect Knowledge, again, makes him realize that the one

Consciousness has become the universe and its living beings and the

twenty-four cosmic principles. But the manifestations of Divine Power are

different in different beings. It is He, undoubtedly, who has become

everything; but in some cases there is a greater manifestation than in others.

"Vidyasagar once asked me, 'Can it be true that God has endowed some

with greater power and some with less?' I replied: 'If that were not so, how

is it that one man may be stronger than fifty? If that were not the case,

again, how is it that we have all come here to see you?'

"The soul through which God sports is endowed with His special power.

The landlord may reside in any part of his estate, but he is generally to be

found in a particular drawing-room. The devotee is God's drawing-room.

God loves to sport in the heart of His devotee. It is there that His special

power is manifest.

Signs of a true devotee

"What is the sign of such a devotee? When you see a man doing great

works, you may know that God's special power is manifested through him.

Identity of Brahman and Śakti

"The Primordial Power and the Supreme Brahman are identical. You can

never think of the one without the other. They are like the gem and its

brilliance. One cannot think of the brilliance without the gem, or of the gem

without its brilliance. Again, it is like the snake and its wriggling motion.

One cannot think of the wriggling motion without the snake, or of the snake

without its wriggling motion.

"It is the Primordial Power that has become the universe and its living

beings and the twenty-four cosmic principles. It is a case of involution and

evolution.

Master's love for pure-souled disciples

"Why do I feel so restless for Rākhāl , Narendra, and the other youngsters?

Hazra once asked me, 'When will you think of God if you are always

anxious about these boys?'

(Keshab and the others smile.) That worried me greatly. I prayed to the

Divine Mother: 'Mother, see what a fix I am in! Hazra scolds me because I

worry about these young men.' Afterwards I asked Bholanath about it. He

said to me that such a state of mind is described in the Mahabharata. How

else will a man established in samādhi occupy his mind in the phenomenal

world, after coming down from samādhi? That is why he seeks the

company of devotees endowed with sattva. I gave a sigh of relief when

Bholanath told me of the Mahabharata.

"Hazra is not to blame. During the period of struggle one should follow the

method of discrimination-'Not this, not this'-and direct the whole mind to

God. But the state of perfection is quite different. After reaching God one

reaffirms what formerly one denied. To extract butter you must separate it

from the buttermilk. Then you discover that butter and buttermilk are

intrinsically related to one another. They belong to the same stuff. The

butter is not essentially different from the buttermilk, nor the buttermilk

essentially different from the butter. After realizing God one knows

definitely that it is He who has become everything. In some objects He is

manifested more clearly, and in others less clearly.

"When a flood comes from the ocean, all the land is deep under water.

Before the flood, the boat could have reached the ocean only by following

the winding course of the river.

But after the flood, one can row straight to the ocean. One need not take a

roundabout course. After the harvest has been reaped, one need not take the

roundabout course along the balk of the field. One can cross the field at any

point.

"After the realization of God, He is seen in all beings. But His greater

manifestation is in man. Again, among men, God manifests Himself more

clearly in those devotees who are sattvic, in those who have no desire

whatever to enjoy 'woman and gold'. Where can a man of samādhi rest his

mind, after coming down from the plane of samādhi? That is why he feels

the need of seeking the company of pure-hearted devotees, endowed with

sattva and free from attachment to 'woman and gold'. How else could such a

person occupy himself in the relative plane of consciousness?

"He who is Brahman is the Ādyāśakti, the Primal Energy. When inactive He

is called Brahman, the Purusha; He is called Śakti, or Prakriti, when

engaged in creation, preservation, and destruction. These are the two

aspects of Reality: Purusha and Prakriti. He who is the Purusha is also

Prakriti. Both are the embodiment of Bliss.

"If you are aware of the Male Principle, you cannot ignore the Female

Principle: He who is aware of the father must also think of the mother. (

Keshab laughs ) He who knows darkness also knows light. He who knows

night also knows day. He who knows happiness also knows misery. You

understand this, don't you?"

KESHAB: "Yes, sir. I do."

MASTER: "My Mother! Who is my Mother? Ah, She is the Mother of the

Universe. It is She who creates and preserves the world, who always

protects Her children, and who grants whatever they desire: dharma, artha,

kama, moksha. A true son cannot live away from his mother. The Mother

knows everything. The child only eats, drinks, and makes merry; he doesn't

worry himself about the things of the world."

KESHAB: "Yes, sir. It is quite true."

While talking, Sri Ramakrishna regained the normal consciousness of the

world. With a smile on his face he conversed with Keshab. The roomful of

men watched them eagerly, and listened to their words. Everybody was

amazed to find that neither Keshab nor the Master inquired about each

other's health. They talked only of God.

Meditating on God and not on His glories

MASTER (to Keshab): "Why do the members of the Brahmo Samaj dwell

so much on God's glories? Is there any great need of repeating such things

as 'O God, Thou hast created the moon, the sun, and the stars'? Most people

are filled with admiration for the garden only. How few care to see its

owner! Who is greater, the garden or its owner?

"After a few drinks at a tavern, do I care to Know how many gallons of

wine are stored there? One bottle is enough for me.

"When I met Narendra, I never asked him 'Who is your father? How many

houses does he own?'

"Shall I tell you the truth? Man loves his own riches, and so he thinks that

God loves His, too. He thinks that God will be pleased if we glorify His

riches. Once Sambhu said to me, 'Please bless me, that I may die leaving

my riches at the Lotus Feet of God.' I answered: 'These are riches only to

you. What riches can you offer God? To Him these are mere dust and straw.'

"Once a thief broke into the temple of Vishnu and robbed the image of its

jewels.

Mathur Babu and I went to the temple to see what was the matter.

Addressing the image, Mathur said bitterly: 'What a shame, Lord! You are

so worthless! The thief took all the ornaments from Your body, and You

couldn't do a thing about it.' Thereupon I said to Mathur: 'Shame on you!

How improper your words are! To God, the jewels you talk so much about

are only lumps of clay. Lakshmi, the Goddess of Fortune, is His Consort.

Do you mean to say that He should spend sleepless nights because a thief

has taken your few rupees? You mustn't say such things.'

"Can one ever bring God under control through wealth? He can be tamed

only through love. What does He want? Certainly not wealth! He wants

from His devotees love, devotion, feeling, discrimination, and renunciation.

Different classes worshippers

"One looks on God exactly according to one's own inner feeling. Take, for

instance, a devotee with an excess of tamas. He thinks that the Divine

Mother eats goat. So he slaughters one for Her. Again, the devotee endowed

with rajas cooks rice and various other dishes for the Mother. But the sattvic

devotee doesn't make any outer show of his worship. People don't even

know he is worshipping. If he has no flowers, he worships God with mere

Ganges water and the leaves of the bel-tree. His food offering to the Deity

consists of sweetened puffed rice or a few candies. Occasionally he cooks a

little rice pudding for the Deity

"There is also another class of devotees, those who are beyond the three

gunas. They have the nature of a child. Their worship consists in chanting

God's name-just His name.

Meaning of Keshab's illness

(To Keshab, with a smile) "Why is it that you are ill? There is a reason for

it. Many spiritual feelings have passed through your body; therefore it has

fallen ill. At the time an emotion is aroused, one understands very little

about it. The blow that it delivers to the body is felt only after a long while.

I have seen big steamers going by on the Ganges, at the time hardly

noticing their passing. But oh, my! What a terrific noise is heard after a

while, when the waves splash against the banks! Perhaps a piece of the

bank breaks loose and falls into the water.

"An elephant entering a hut creates havoc within and ultimately shakes it

down. The elephant of divine emotion enters the hut of this body and

shatters it to pieces.

"Do you know what actually happens? When a house is on fire, at first a

few things inside burn. Then comes the great commotion. Just so, the fire of

Knowledge at first destroys such enemies of spiritual life as passion, anger,

and so forth. Then comes the turn of ego. And lastly a violent commotion is

seen in the physical frame.

"You may think that everything is going to be over. But God will not release

you as long as the slightest trace of your illness is left. You simply cannot

leave the hospital if your name is registered there. As long as the illness is

not perfectly cured, the doctor won't give you a permit to go. Why did you

Master's own illness

Keshab laughed again and again at the Master's allusion to the hospital.

Then Sri Ramakrishna spoke of his own illness. (To Keshab) "Hriday used

to say, 'Never before have I seen such ecstasy for God, and never before

have I seen such illness.' I was then sriously ill with stubborn diarrhoea. It

was as if millions of ants were gnawing at my brain. But all the same,

spiritual talk went on day and night. Dr. Rāma of Natagore was called in to

see me. He found me discussing spiritual truth. 'What a madman!' he said.

'Nothing is left of him but a few bones, and still he is reasoning like that!' "

MASTER (to Keshab): "All depends on God's will.

O Mother, all is done after Thine own sweet will; Thou art in truth self-

willed, Redeemer of mankind!

Thou workest Thine own work; men only call it theirs.

"In order to take full advantage of the dew, the gardener removes the soil

from the Basra rose down to the very root. The plant thrives better on

account of the moisture.

Perhaps that is why you too are being shaken to the very root. (Keshab and

the Master laugh.) It may be that you will do tremendous things when you

come back.

"Whenever I hear that you are ill I become extremely restless. After hearing

of your last illness I, used to weep to the Divine Mother in the small hours

of the morning. I prayed to Her, 'O Mother, if anything happens to Keshab,

with whom, then, shall I talk in Calcutta?' Coming to Calcutta, I offered

fruits and sweets to the Divine Mother with a prayer for your well-being."

The devotees were deeply touched to hear of Sri Ramakrishna's love for

Keshab and his longing for the Brahmo leader.

MASTER: "But this time, to tell the truth, I didn't feel anxious to that

extent. Only for two or three days did I feel a little worried."

Keshab's venerable mother came to the east door of the room, the same

door through which Keshab had entered. Umanath said aloud to the Master,

"Sir, here is mother saluting you."

Sri Ramakrishna smiled. Umanath said again, "Mother asks you to bless

Keshab that he may be cured of his illness."

MASTER (to Keshab's mother): "Please pray to the Divine Mother, who is

the Bestower of all bliss. She will take away your troubles.

(To keshab) "Don't spend long hours in the inner apartments. You will sink

down and down in the company of women. You will feel better if you hear

only talk of God."

The Master uttered these words in a serious voice and then began to laugh

like a boy.

He said to Keshab, "Let me see your hand." He weighed it playfully, like a

child. At last he said: "No, your hand is light. Hypocrites have heavy

hands."(All laugh.) .

Umanath again said to the Master from the door. "Mother asks you to bless

Keshab."

MASTER (gravely): "What can I do? God alone, blesses all. 'Thou workest

Thine, own work; men only call it theirs.'

"God laughs on two occasions. He laughs when two brothers divide land

between them.

They put a string across the land and say to each other, 'This side is mine,

and that side is yours. God laughs and says to Himself, 'Why, this whole

universe is Mine; and about a little clod they say, "This side is mine, and

that side is yours"!'

"God laughs again when the physician says to the mother weeping bitterly

because of her child's desperate illness: 'Don't be afraid, mother. I shall cure

your child.' The physician does not know that no one can save the child if

God wills that he should die."

(All are silent.)

Just then Keshab was seized with a fit of coughing, which lasted for a long

time. The sight of his suffering made everyone, sad. He became exhausted

and could stay no longer. He bowed low before the Master and left the

room, holding to the wall as before.

Some refreshments had been arranged for the Master. Keshab's eldest son

was seated near him. Amrita introduced the boy and requested Sri

Ramakrishna to bless him. The Master said, "It is not given to me to bless

anyone." With a sweet smile he stroked the boy's body gently.

AMRITA (with a smile): "All right, then do as you please."

MASTER (to the devotees): " I cannot say such a thing as 'May you be

healed.' I never ask the Divine Mother to give me the power of healing. I

pray to Her only for pure love.

Master praises Keshab

"Is Keshab a small person? He is respected by all, seekers after wealth as

well as holy men. Once I visited Dayananda, who was then staying at a

garden house. I saw he was extremely anxious about Keshab's coming; he

went out every few minutes to see whether he had arrived. I learnt later on

that Keshab had made an appointment with him that day. Keshab, I

understood, had no faith in the sacrifices and the deities mentioned in the

Vedas. Referring to this, Dayananda said: 'Why, the Lord has created so

many things. Could He not make deities as well?' "

Continuing, the Master said: "Keshab is free from the pride of a small

minded religious teacher. To many people he has said, 'If you have any

doubts, go there2 to have them solved.' It is my way, too, to say: 'What shall

I do with people's respect? Let Keshab's virtues increase a millionfold.'

Keshab is certainly a great man. Everyone respects him, seekers after

wealth as well as holy men." Thus did Sri Ramakrishna praise Keshab

before the latter's disciples.

After partaking of the refreshments the Master was ready to leave. The

Brahmo devotees accompanied him to the cab, which was standing in the

street. While coming down the stairs the Master noticed that there was no

light on the ground floor. He said to Amrita and Keshab's other disciples:

"These places should be well lighted. A house without light becomes

stricken with poverty. Please see that it doesn't happen again."

Then Sri Ramakrishna left for Dakshineswar with one or two devotees.

On his way to Dakshineswar from Keshab's cottage Sri Ramakrishna

stopped at Jaygopal Sen's house. It was about seven o'clock in the evening.

In the drawing-room, Jaygopal's relatives and neighbours had gathered.

Vaikuntha, Jaygopal's brother, said to the Master: "Sir, we are worldly

people. Please give us some advice."

Advice to the worldly-minded

MASTER: "Do your duty to the world after knowing God. With one hand

hold to the Lotus Feet of the Lord and with the other do your work."

VAIKUNTHA: "Is the world unreal?"

MASTER: "Yes, it is unreal as long as one has not realized God. Through

ignorance man forgets God and speaks always of 'I' and 'mine'. He sinks

down and down, entangled in maya, deluded by 'woman and gold'. Maya

robs him of his knowledge to such an extent that he cannot find the way of

escape, though such a way exists.

"Listen to a song:

When such delusion veils the world, through Mahamaya's spell, That

Brahma is bereft of sense

And Vishnu loses consciousness,

What hope is left for men? . .

"You all know from your experience how impermanent the world is. Look

at it this way.

How many people have come into the world and again passed away! People

are born and they die. This moment the world is and the next it is not. It is

impermanent. Those you think to be your very own will not exist for you

when you close your eyes in death.

Again, you see people who have no immediate relatives, and yet for the

sake of a grandson they will not go to Benares to lead a holy life. 'Oh, what

will become of my Haru then?' they argue.

The narrow channel first is made, and there the trap is set; But open though

the passage lies,

The fish, once safely through the gate, Do not come out again.

Yet even though a way leads forth,

Encased within its own cocoon,

The worm remains to die.

This kind of world is illusory and impermanent."

A NEIGHBOUR: "Why, sir, should one hold to God with one hand and to

the world with the other? Why should one even stretch out one hand to hold

to the world, if it is impermanent?"

MASTER: "The world is not impermanent if one lives there after knowing

God. Listen to another song:

O mind, you do not know how to farm!

Fallow lies the field of your life.

If you had only worked it well,

How rich a harvest you might reap!

Hedge it about with Kāli's name

If you would keep your harvest safe;

This is the stoutest hedge of all,

For Death himself cannot come near it. . . .

"Did you listen to the song?

Hedge it about with Kāli's name

If you would keep your harvest safe.

Surrender yourself to God and you will achieve everything.

This is the stoutest hedge of all,

For Death himself cannot come near it.

Ideal householder's life

"Yes, it is a strong hedge indeed. If you but, realize God, you won't see the

world as unsubstantial. He who has realized God knows that God Himself

has become the world and all living beings. When you feed your child, you

should feel that you are feeding God. You should look on your father and

mother as veritable manifestations of God and the Divine Mother, and serve

them as such. If a man enters the world after realizing God, he does not

generally keep up physical relations with his wife. Both of them are

devotees; they love to talk only of God and pass their time in spiritual

conversation.

They serve other devotees of God, for they know that God alone has

become all living beings; and, knowing this, they devote their lives to the

service of others."

NEIGHBOUR: "But, sir, such a husband and wife are not to be found

anywhere."

MASTER: "Yes, they can be found, though they may be very rare. Worldly

people cannot recognize them. In order to lead such a life both husband and

wife must be spiritual. It is possible to lead such a life if both of them have

tasted the Bliss of God. God's special grace is necessary to create such a

couple; otherwise there will always be misunderstanding between them. In

that case the one has to leave the other. Life becomes very miserable if

husband and wife do not agree. The wife will say to her husband day and

night: 'Why did my father marry me to such a person? I can't get enough to

eat or to feed my children. I haven't clothes enough to cover my body or to

give to my children. I haven't received a single piece of jewelry from you.

How happy you have made me! Ah! You keep your eyes closed and mutter

the name of God! Now do give up all these crazy ideas.' "

DEVOTEE: "There are such obstacles, certainly. Besides, the children may

be disobedient. There is no end of difficulties. Now, sir, what is the way?"

Solitude and holy company

MASTER: "It is extremely difficult to practise spiritual discipline and at the

same time lead a householder's life. There are many handicaps: disease,

grief, poverty, misunderstanding with one's wife, and disobedient, stupid,

and stubborn children. I don't have to give you a list of them.

"But still there is a way out. One should pray to God, going now and then

into solitude, and make efforts to realize Him."

NEIGHBOUR: "Must one leave home then?"

MASTER: "No, not altogether. Whenever you have leisure, go into solitude

for a day or two. At that time don't have any relations with the outside

world and don't hold any conversation with worldly people on worldly

affairs. You must live either in solitude or in the company of holy men."

NEIGHBOUR: "How can one recognize a holy man?"

MASTER: "He who has surrendered his body, mind, and innermost self to

God is surely a holy man. He who has renounced 'woman and gold' is

surely a holy man. He is a holy man who does not regard woman with the

eyes of a worldly person. He never forgets to look upon a woman as his

mother, and to offer her his worship if he happens to be near her. The holy

man constantly thinks of God and does not indulge in any talk except about

spiritual things. Furthermore, he serves all beings, knowing that God resides

in everybody's heart. These, in general, are the signs of a holy man."

NEIGHBOUR: "Must one always live in solitude?"

MASTER: "Haven't you seen the trees on the footpath along a street? They

are fenced around as long as they are very young; otherwise cattle destroy

them. But there is no longer any need of fences when their trunks grow

thick and strong. Then they won't break even if an elephant is tied to them.

Just so, there will be no need for you to worry and fear if you make your

mind as strong as a thick tree-trunk. First of all try to acquire

discrimination. Break the jackfruit open only after you have rubbed your

hands with oil; then its sticky milk won't smear them."

NEIGHBOUR: "What is discrimination?"

MASTER: "Discrimination is the reasoning by which one knows that God

alone is real and all else is unreal. Real means eternal, and unreal means

impermanent. He who has acquired discrimination knows that God is the

only Substance and all else is non-existent. With the awakening of this

spirit of discrimination a man wants to know God.

On the contrary, if a man loves the unreal-such things as creature comforts,

name, fame, and wealth, then he doesn't want to know God, who is of the

very nature of Reality. Through discrimination between the Real and the

unreal one seeks to know God.

"Listen to a song:

Come, let us go for a walk, O mind, to Kāli, the Wish-fulfilling Tree,

And there beneath It gather the four fruits of life.

Of your two wives, Dispassion and Worldliness, Bring along Dispassion

only, on your way to the Tree, And ask her son Discrimination about the

Truth. . . .

"By turning the mind within oneself one acquires discrimination, and

through discrimination one thinks of Truth. Then the mind feels the desire

to go for a walk to Kāli, the Wish-fulfilling Tree. Reaching that Tree, that is

to say, going near to God, you can without any effort gather four fruits,

namely, dharma, artha, kama, and moksha.

Yes, after realizing God, one can also get, if one so desires, dharma, artha,

and kama, which are necessary for leading the worldly life."

NEIGHBOUR: "Then why should one call the world maya?"

God and the world

MASTER: "As long as one has not realized God, one should renounce the

world, following the process of 'Neti, neti.' But he who has attained God

knows that it is God who has become all this. Then he sees that God, maya,

living beings, and the universe form one whole. God includes the universe

and its living beings. Suppose you have separated the shell, flesh, and seeds

of a bel-fruit and someone asks you the weight of the fruit. Will you leave

aside the shell and the seeds, and weigh only the flesh? Not at all. To know

the real weight of the fruit, you must weigh the whole of it-the shell, the

flesh, and the seeds. Only then can you tell its real weight. The shell may be

likened to the universe, and the seeds to living beings. While one is engaged

in discrimination one says to oneself that the universe and the living beings

are non-Self and unsubstantial. At that time one thinks of the flesh alone as

the substance, and the shell and seeds as unsubstantial. But after

discrimination is over, one feels that all three parts of the fruit together form

a unity. Then one further realizes that the stuff that has produced the flesh

of the fruit has also produced the shell and seeds. To know the real nature of

the bel-fruit one must know all three.

"It is the process of evolution and involution. The world, after its

dissolution, remains involved in God; and God, at the time of creation,

evolves as the world. Butter goes with buttermilk, and buttermilk goes with

butter. If there is a thing called buttermilk, then butter also exists; and if

there is a thing called butter, then buttermilk also exists.

If the Self exists, then the non-Self must also exist.

"The phenomenal world belongs to that very Reality to which the Absolute

belongs; again, the Absolute belongs to that very Reality to which the

phenomenal world belongs. He who is realized as God has also become the

universe and its living beings.

One who knows the Truth knows that it is He alone who has become father

and mother, child and neighbour, man and animal, good and bad, holy and

unholy, and so forth."

Virtue and vice

NEIGHBOUR: "Then is there no virtue and no sin?"

MASTER: "They both exist and do not exist. If God keeps the ego in a

man, then He keeps in him the sense of differentiation and also the sense of

virtue and sin. But in a rare few He completely effaces the ego and these go

beyond virtue and sin, good and bad. As long as a man has not realized

God, he retains the sense of differentiation and the knowledge of good and

bad. You may say: 'Virtue and sin are the same to me. I am doing only as

God bids me.' But you know in your heart of hearts that those are mere

words. No sooner do you commit an evil deed than you feel a palpitation in

your heart.

Even after God has been realized, He keeps in the mind of the devotee, if

He so desires, the feeling of the 'servant ego'. In that state the devotee says,

'O God, Thou art the Master and I am Thy servant.' Such a devotee enjoys

only spiritual talk and spiritual deeds. He does not enjoy the company of

ungodly people. He does not care for any work that is not of a holy nature.

So you see that God keeps the sense of differentiation even in such a

devotee."

NEIGHBOUR: "You ask us, sir, to live in the world after knowing God.

Can God really be known?"

MASTER: "God cannot be known by the sense-organs or by this mind; but

He can be known by the pure mind, the mind that is free from worldiy

desires."

NEIGHBOUR: "Who can know God?"

MASTER: "Right. Who can really know Him? But as for us, it is enough to

know as much of Him as we need. What need have I of a whole well of

water? One jar is more than enough for me. An ant went to a sugar hill. Did

it need the entire hill? A grain or two of sugar was more than enough."

NEIGHBOUR: "Sir, we are like typhoid patients. How can we be satisfied

with one jar of water? We feel like knowing, the whole of God."

MASTER: "That's true. But there is also medicine for typhoid."

NEIGHBOUR: "What is that medicine, sir?"

MASTER: "The company of holy men, repeating the name of God and

singing His glories, and unceasing prayer. I prayed to the Divine Mother:

'Mother, I don't seek knowledge.

Here, take Thy knowledge, take Thy ignorance. Give me only pure love for

Thy Lotus Feet.' I didn't ask for anything else.

"As is the disease, so must the remedy be. The Lord says in the Gitā: 'O

Arjuna, take refuge in Me. I shall deliver you from all sins.' Take shelter at

His feet: He will give you right understanding. He will take entire

responsibility for you. Then you will get rid of the typhoid. Can one ever

know God with such a mind as this? Can one pour four seers of milk into a

oneseer pot? Can we ever know God unless He lets us know Him?

Therefore I say, take shelter in God. Let Him do whatever He likes. He is

self-willed.

What power is there in a man?"

--------------------

Chapter 16

WITH THE DEVOTEES AT DAKSHINESWAR (II)

Sunday, December 9, 1883

Chaitanya's exalted state

SRI RAMAKRISHNA was seated on the small couch in his room with

Adhar, Manomohan, Rākhāl , M., Harish, and other devotees. It was about

two o' clock in the afternoon. The Master was describing to them the

exalted state of Sri Chaitanya.

MASTER: "Chaitanya experienced three states of mind. First, the conscious

state, when his mind dwelt on the gross and the subtle. Second, the semi-

conscious state, when his mind entered the causal body and was absorbed in

the bliss of divine intoxication. Third, the inmost state, when his mind was

merged in the Great Cause.

This agrees very well with the five koshas, or 'sheaths', described in the

Vedānta. The gross body corresponds to the annamayakosha and the

pranamayakosha, the subtle body to the manomayakosha and the

vijnanamayakosha, and the causal body to the Ānandamayakosha. The

Mahakarana, the Great Cause, is beyond the five sheaths.

When Chaitanya's mind merged in That, he would go into samādhi. This is

called the nirvikalpa or jada samādhi.

"While conscious of the outer world, Chaitanya sang the name of God;

while in the state of partial consciousness, he danced with the devotees; and

while in the inmost state of consciousness, he remained absorbed in

samādhi."

M. (to himself): "Is the Master hinting at the different states of his own

mind? There is much similarity between Chaitanya and the Master."

MASTER: "Chaitanya was Divine Love incarnate. He came down to earth

to teach people how to love God. One achieves everything when one loves

God. There is no need of hathayoga."

Practice of Hathayoga

A DEVOTEE: "Sir, what is hathayoga like?"

MASTER: "A man practising hathayoga dwells a great deal on his body. He

washes his intestines by means of a bamboo tube through his anus. He

draws ghee and milk through his sexual organ. He learns how to manipulate

his tongue by performing exercises. He sits in a fixed posture and bow and

then levitates. All these are actions of prana. A magician was performing

his feats when his tongue turned up and clove to the roof of his mouth.

Immediately his body became motionless. People thought he was dead. He

was buried and remained many years in the grave. After a long time the

grave somehow broke open. Suddenly the man regained consciousness of

the world and cried out, 'Come delusion! Come confusion!' (All laugh.) All

these are actions of prana.

"The Vedantists do not accept hathayoga. There is also rajayoga. Rajayoga

describes how to achieve union with God through the mind by means of

discrimination and bhakti.

This yoga is good. Hathayoga is not good. The life of a man in the Kaliyuga

is dependent on food."

Sri Ramakrishna was standing in the road by the side of the nahabat. He

was on his way to his room, having come from the pine-grove. He saw M.

seated on the verandah of the nahabat, behind the fence, absorbed in

meditation.

MASTER: "Hello! You are here? You will get results very soon. If you

practise a little, then someone will come forward to help you."

M. looked up at the Master, startled; he remained sitting on the floor.

MASTER: "The time is ripe for you. The mother bird does not break the

shell of the egg until the right time arrives. What I told you is indeed your

Ideal."

Sri Ramakrishna again mentioned to M. his spiritual Ideal.

MASTER: "It is not necessary for all to practise great austerity. But I went

through great suffering. I used to lie on the ground with my head resting on

a mound for a pillow. I hardly noticed the passing of the days. I only called

on God and wept, 'O Mother! O

Mother!'"

M. had been visiting Sri Ramakrishna for the past two years. Since he had

been educated along English lines, he had acquired a fondness for Western

philosophy and science, and had liked to hear Keshab and other scholars

lecture. Sri Ramakrishna would address him now and then as the

"Englishman". Since coming to Sri Ramakrishna, M. had lost all relish for

lectures and for books written by English scholars. The only thing that

appealed to him now was to see the Master day and night, and hear the

words that fell from his blessed lips. M. constantly dwelt on certain of Sri

Ramakrishna's sayings. The Master had said, "One can certainly see God

through the practice of spiritual discipline", and again, "The vision of God

is the only goal of human life."

MASTER (to M.): "If you practise only a little, someone will come forward

to tell you the right path. Observe the ekadasi.

Master's intimate relationship with disciples

"You are my very own, my relative; otherwise, why should you come here

so frequently?

While listening to the kirtan, I had a vision of Rākhāl in the midst of Sri

Krishna's companions in Vrindāvan. Narendra belongs to a very high level.

Hirananda too; how childlike his nature is! What sweet disposition he has! I

want to see him too.

"Once I saw the companions of Chaitanya, not in a trance but with these

very eyes.

Formerly I was in such an exalted state of mind that I could see all these

things with my naked eyes; but now I see them in samādhi. I saw the

companions of Chaitanya with these naked eyes. I think I saw you there,

and Balarām too, You must have noticed that when I see certain people I

jump up with a start. Do you know why? A man feels that way when he

sees his own people after a long time.

"I used to pray to the Mother, crying: 'Mother, if I do not find the devotees

I'll surely die. Please bring them to me immediately.' In those days whatever

desire arose in my mind would come to pass. I planted a tulsi-grove in the

Panchavati in order to practise japa and meditation. I wanted very much to

fence it around with bamboo sticks. Soon afterwards a bundle of bamboo

sticks and some string were carried by the flood-tide of the Ganges right in

front of the Panchavati. A temple servant noticed them and joyfully told

me.

"In that state of divine exaltation I could no longer perform the formal

worship.

'Mother,' I said, 'who will look after me? I haven't the power to take care of

myself. I want to listen only to talk about Thee. I want to feed Thy

devotees. I want to give a little help to those whom I chance to meet. How

will all that be possible, Mother? Give me a rich man to stand by me.' That

is why Mathur Babu did so much to serve me.

"I said further, 'Certainly I shall not have any children, Mother. But it is my

desire that a boy with sincere love for God should always remain with me.

Give me such a boy.' That is the reason Rākhāl came here. Those whom I

think of as my own are part and parcel of me."

The Master started again for the Panchavati accompanied by M. No one

else was with them. Sri Ramakrishna with a smile narrated to him various

incidents of the past years of his life.

MASTER: "You see, one day I. saw a strange figure covering the whole

space from the Kāli temple to the Panchavati. Do you believe this?"

M. remained silent with wonder. He plucked one or two leaves from a

branch in the Panchavati and put them in his pocket.

MASTER: "See there-that branch has been broken. I used to sit under it."

M: "I took a young twig from that tree-I have it at home."

MASTER (with a smile): "Why?"

M: "I feel happy when I look at it. After all this is over, this place will be

considered very holy."

MASTER (smiling): "What kind of holy place? Like Panihati?"

Almost every year, for some time past, the Master had been attending the

religious festival at Panihati.

It was evening. Sri Ramakrishna was sitting on the small couch in his room,

absorbed in meditation on the Divine Mother. The evening worship in the

temples began, with the music of gong and conchshell. M. was going to

spend the night with the Master.

Ater a time Sri Ramakrishna asked M. to read from the Bhaktamala, a book

about the Vaishnava saints.

Story of a Vaishnava devotee

M. read: “There was a king named Jayamal who loved Krishna with all his

heart. He followed with unfailing devotion all the rites and ceremonies

associated with the adoration of Krishna, whom he worshipped under the

name of Syamalasundara.

Completely satisfied with his own Ideal Deity, he never directed his

attention to any other god or goddess. One of the inflexible rules of his

devotions was to worship the Deity daily till almost midday. He would

never deviate from this practice, even at the risk of his wealth or his

kingdom. Learning this secret, an enemy king invaded the kingdom during

the morning hours. Jayamal's soldiers could not fight without his command;

so they watched the invasion silently. Slowly the enemy surrounded the

moat of the capital; yet Jayamal did not come out of his shrine room. His

mother came to him and wept bitterly, trying to persuade the king to fight.

He said to her calmly: "Why are you worried? Syamalasundara gave me

this kingdom. What can I do if He has decided to take it away? On the other

hand, none will be able to do me harm if He protects me. Our own efforts

are vain! "

And actually, in the mean time, Syamalasundara, the Deity Himself, had

taken the king's horse from the stable and had ridden fully armed to the

field. Alone He faced the hostile king and alone destroyed his army. Having

crushed the enemy forces, the Deity returned to the temple and fastened the

horse near by.

Jayamal, on completing his worship, came out and discovered the horse

there, panting and covered with sweat. "Who has been riding my horse?" he

demanded. "Who brought it to the temple?" The officers declared they

knew nothing about it. In a pensive mood the king proceeded to the

battlefield with his army and there found the enemy, with the exception of

their leader, lying dead. He was staring uncomprehendingly at the scene,

when the enemy king approached, worshipped him, and said: "Please

permit me to tell you something. How could I fight? You have a warrior

who could conquer the entire world. I do not want your wealth or your

kingdom; indeed, I will gladly give you my own, if you will tell me about

that Blue Warrior, your friend. No sooner did I turn my eyes on him than he

cast a spell on my heart and soul."

Jayamal then realized it had been none other than Syamalasundara that had

appeared on the battlefield. The enemy king understood too. He worshipped

Jayamal and through his blessings received Krishna's grace.

MASTER: "Do you believe all that? Do you believe Krishna rode on that

horse and killed Jayamal's enemies?"

M: "I believe that Jayamal, Krishna's devotee, prayed to Him with a

yearning heart. But I don't know whether the enemy really saw Him coming

to the battlefield on a horse.

Krishna might have come there riding the horse, but I do not know whether

they really saw Him."

MASTER (with a smile): "The book contains nice stories about devotees.

But it is one-sided. Also, it abuses those who differ with its views."

The following morning the Master and M. were talking in the garden.

M: "Then I shall stay here."

MASTER: "Well, you all come here so often. What does it mean? People

visit a holyman once at the most. But you all come here so often. What is

the significance of that?"

M. remained silent. The Master himself gave the reply.

MASTER: "Could you come here unless you belonged to my inner circle?

That means you all are my own relatives, my own people-like father and

son, brother and sister.

"I do not tell you everything. If I did, would you come here any more?

"Once Sukadeva went to Janaka to be instructed in the Knowledge of

Brahman; Janaka said, 'First give me my fee.' 'But', said Sukadeva, 'why

should I give you the fee before receiving the instruction?' Janaka laughed

and said: 'Will you be conscious of guru and disciple after attaining

Brahmajnana? That is why I asked you to give me the fee first.' "

It was night. The moon rose, flooding all the quarters with its silvery light.

M. was walking alone in the garden of the temple. On one side of the path

stood the Panchavati, the bakul-grove, the nahabat, and the Master's room,

and on the other side flowed the Ganges, reflecting millions of broken

moons on its rippling surface.

M. said to himself: "Can one really see God? The Master says it is possible.

He says that, if one makes a little effort, then someone comes forward and

shows the way. Well, I am married. I have children. Can one realize God in

spite of all that?"

M. reflected awhile and continued his soliloquy: "Surely one can.

Otherwise, why should the Master say so? Why shouldn't it be possible

through the grace of God?

"Here is the world around me-the sun, moon, stars, living beings, and the

twenty-four cosmic principles. How did they come into existence? Who is

their Creator? What am I to Him? Life is indeed vain without this

knowledge.

"Sri Ramakrishna is certainly the best of men. In all my life I have not seen

another great soul like him. He must have seen God. Otherwise, how could

he talk with God day and night, addressing Him so intimately as 'Mother'?

Otherwise, how could he love God so intimately? Such is his love for God

that he forgets the outer world. He goes into samādhi and remains like a

lifeless thing. Again, in the ecstasy of that love, he laughs and cries and

dances and sings."

Friday, December 14, 1883

At nine o'clock in the morning Sri Ramakrishna was standing on the

southeast verandah near the door of his room, with Ramlal by his side.

Rākhāl and Lātu were moving about. M. arrived and prostrated himself

before the Master. Sri Ramakrishna said to him affectionately: "You have

come. That's very good. Today is an auspicious day."

It was the last day of the Bengali month and the day of the full moon. M.

was going to spend a few days with the Master practising spiritual

discipline. The Master had said to him, "If an aspirant practises a little

spiritual discipline, then someone comes forward to help him."

The Master had said to M: "You should not eat every day at the guesthouse

of the Kāli temple. The guesthouse is intended to supply free food to monks

and the destitute.

Bring your own cook with you." M. had accordingly done so. The Master

arranged a place for the man to cook and he asked Ramlal to speak to the

milkman about milk.

A little later Ramlal began to read from the Adhyātma Rāmāyana. The

Master and M.

listened while he read:

Rāma had married Sita after breaking the great bow of Śiva. On the way to

Ayhodhya with His bride, Rāma was confronted by the warrior sage

Parasurama, who was about to make trouble for Him. Parasurama threw a

bow at Rāma and challenged Him to string it. Dasaratha, Rāma's father, was

seized with fear. With a smile, Rāma took the bow in His left hand and

strung it. Then twanging the bow-string, He fixed an arrow and asked

Parasurama where to shoot it. That curbed the pride of the warrior sage.

Prostrating himself before Rāma, Parasurama worshipped Him as the

Supreme Brahman.

As Sri Ramakrishna listened to Parasurama's hymn, he went into a spiritual

mood and now and then chanted the name of Rāma in his melodious voice.

Then the Master asked Ramlal to read about Guhaka. Ramlal read: Guhaka,

the pariah, was chief of the untouchables and an intimate friend of Rāma.

When Rāma, Sita, and Lakshmana were starting into the forest to redeem

Dasaratha's pledge, Guhaka ferried them across the river. Rāma embraced

Guhaka tenderly and told him He was going to spend fourteen years in

exile, wearing the bark of trees and eating herbs, fruits, and roots that grew

in the woods. He promised to visit Guhaka again on His way back to

Ayhodhya after the period of exile was over. The pariah king waited

patiently. But when the fourteenth year had run out and Rāma had not

returned, Guhaka lighted a funeral pyre. He was on the point of entering it

when Hanuman arrived as Rāma's messenger. In a celestial chariot Rāma

and Sita soon appeared, and Guhaka's joy was unbounded.

After the midday meal Sri Ramakrishna lay down on his bed to rest. M. was

seated on the floor. Presently Dr. Shyama and a few devotees arrived. The

Master sat up on the bed and began to converse with them.

Work and worship

MASTER: "It is by no means necessary for a man always to be engaged in

his duties.

Actions drop away when one realizes, God, as the flower drops of itself

when the fruit appears.

"He who has realized God no longer performs religious duties such as the

sandhya. In his case the sandhya merges in the Gayatri. When that happens,

it is enough for a person to repeat just the Gayatri mantra. Then the Gayatri

merges in Om. After that one no longer chants even the Gayatri; it is

enough then to chant simply Om. How long should a man practise such

devotions as the sandhya? As long as he does not feel a thrill in his body

and shed tears of joy while repeating the name of Rāma or of Hari. People

worship God to win money or a lawsuit. That is not good."

A DEVOTEE: "We find that everyone strives after money. Even Keshab

Sen married his daughter to a prince."

MASTER: "Keshab's case is quite different. God provides everything for a

genuine devotee, even without his making any effort. The son of a real king

gets his monthly allowance. I am not talking of lawyers and men of that

sort, who go through suffering in order to earn money, and who become

slaves of others to that end. I am speaking of a real prince. A true devotee

has no desire. He does not care for money. Money comes to him of itself.

The Gitā describes such a devotee as 'content with what comes to him

without effort'. A good brahmin, without any personal motive, can accept

food even from the house of an untouchable. He does not desire it; it comes

of its own accord."

How to live in the world

A DEVOTEE: "Sir, how should one live in the world?"

MASTER: "Live in the world as the mud fish lives in the mud. One

develops love of God by going away from the world into solitude, now and

then, and meditating on God. After that one can live in the world

unattached. The mud is there, and the fish has to live in it, but its body is

not stained by the mud. Such a man can lead the life of a householder in a

spirit of detachment"

The Master noticed that M. was listening to his words with great attention.

MASTER (looking at M.): "One can realize God if one feels intense

dispassion for worldly things. A man with such dispassion feels that the

world is like a forest on fire. He regards his wife and children as a deep

well. If he really feels that kind of dispassion, he renounces home and

family. It is not enough for him to live in the world in a spirit of

detachment.

"'Woman and gold' alone is maya. If maya is once recognized, it feels

ashamed of itself and takes to flight. A man put on a tiger skin and tried to

frighten another man. But the latter said: 'Ah! I have recognized you! You

are our Hare.' At that the man dressed in the skin went away smiling to

frighten someone else.

Women as embodiments of the Divine Mother

"All women are the embodiments of Śakti. It is the Primal Power that has

become women and appears to us in the form of women. It is said in the

Adhyātma Rāmāyana that Nārada and others praised Rāma, saying: 'O

Rāma, Thou alone art all that we see as male, and Sita, all that we see as

female. Thou art Indra, and Sita is Indrani; Thou art Śiva and Sita is Sivani;

Thou art man, and Sita is woman. What more need I say?

Thou alone dost exist wherever there is a male, and Sita wherever there is a

female.'

(To the devotees) "One cannot renounce by the mere wish. There are

prarabdha karma-inherited tendencies-and the like. Once a yogi said to a

king, 'Live with me in the forest and think of God.' The king replied: 'That I

cannot very well do. I could live with you, but I still have the desire for

enjoyment. If I live in this forest, perhaps I shall create a kingdom even

here. I still have desires.'

"Natabar Panja used to look after his cows in this garden during his

boyhood. He had many desires. Hence he has established a castor-oil

factory and earned a great deal of money. He has a prosperous castor-oil

business at Alambazar.

"There is one sect that prescribes spiritual discipline in company with

women. I was once taken to the women belonging to the Kartabhaja sect.

They all sat around me. I addressed them as 'mother'. At that they

whispered among themselves: 'He is still a pravartaka. He doesn't know the

way.' According to that sect the pravartaka is the beginner. Then comes the

sadhaka, the struggling aspirant, and last of all the siddha of the siddha, the

supremely perfect. A woman walked over to Vaishnavcharan and sat near

him. Asked about it, he answered, 'She feels just like a young girl.' One

quickly strays from the religious path by looking on woman as wife: But to

regard her as mother is a pure attitude."

Some of the devotees took leave of the Master, saying that they were going

to visit the temple of Kāli and several of the other temples.

M. went walking alone in the Panchavati and other places in the temple

garden. He thought about the Master's assurance that God can be easily

realized, and about his exhortation to lead a life of intense renunciation, and

his saying that maya, when recognized, takes to flight.

Image worship

At half past three in the afternoon M. again entered the Master's room and

sat on the floor. A teacher from the Broughton Institution had come with

several students to pay a visit to Sri Ramakrishna. They were conversing

together. Now and then the teacher asked questions. The conversation was

about the worship of images.

MASTER (to the teacher): "What is wrong with image worship? The

Vedānta says that Brahman manifests Itself where there is 'Existence, Light,

and Love'. Therefore nothing exists but Brahman.

"How long do small girls play with their dolls? As long as they are not

married and do not live with their husbands. After marriage they put the

dolls away in a box. What further need is there of worshipping the image

after the vision of God?"

God-vision through yearning

The Master glanced at M. and said: "One attains God when one feels

yearning for Him.

An intense restlessness is needed. Through it the whole mind goes to God.

"A man had a daughter who became a widow when she was very young.

She had never known her husband: She noticed the husbands of other girls

and said one day to her father, 'Where is my husband?' The father replied:

'Govinda is your husband. He will come to you if you call Him.' At these

words the girl went to her room, closed the door, and cried to Govinda,

saying: 'O Govinda, corne to me! Show Yourself to me! Why don't You

come?' God could not resist the girl's piteous cry and appeared before her.

"One must have childlike faith-and the intense yearning that a child feels to

see its mother. That yearning is like the red sky in the east at dawn. After

such a sky the sun must rise. Immediately after that yearning one sees God.

"Let me tell you the story of a boy named Jatila. He used to walk to school

through the woods, and the journey frightened him; One day he told his

mother of his fear. She replied: 'Why should you be afraid? Call

Madhusudana.' 'Mother,' asked the boy, 'who is Madhusudana?' The mother

said, 'He is your Elder Brother.' One day after this, when the boy again felt

afraid in the woods, he cried out, 'O Brother Madhusudana!' But there was

no response. He began to weep aloud: 'Where are You, Brother

Madhusudana? Come to me. I am afraid.' Then God could no longer stay

away. He appeared before the boy and said: 'Here I am. Why are you

frightened?' And so, saying He took the boy out of the woods and showed

him the way to school. When He took leave of the boy, God said: 'I will

come whenever you call Me. Do not be afraid.' One must have this faith of

a child, this yearning.

"A brahmin used to worship his Family Deity daily with food offerings.

One day he had to go away on business. As he was about to leave the

house, he said to his young son: 'Give the offering to the Deity today. See

that God is fed.' The boy offered food in the shrine, but the image remained

silent on the altar. It would neither talk nor eat. The boy waited a long time,

but still the image did not move. But the boy firmly believed that God

would come down from His throne, sit on the floor, and partake of the food.

Again and again he prayed to the Deity, saying: 'O Lord, come down and

eat the food.

It is already very late. I cannot sit here any longer.' But the image did not

utter a word.

The boy burst into tears and cried: 'O Lord, my father asked me to feed

You. Why won't You come down? Why won't You eat from my hands?' The

boy wept for some time with a longing soul. At last the Deity, smiling,

came down from the altar and sat before the meal and ate it. After feeding

the Deity, the boy came out of the shrine room. His relatives said: 'The

worship is over. Now bring away the offering.' 'Yes,' said the boy, 'the

worship is over. But God has eaten everything.' 'How is that?' asked the

relatives.

The boy replied innocently, 'Why, God has eaten the food.' They entered the

shrine and were speechless with wonder to see that the Deity had really

eaten every bit of the offering."

Late in the afternoon Sri Ramakrishna was talking to M. They were

standing on the south side of the nahabat. Since it was winter the Master

was wrapped in his woolen shawl.

MASTER: "Where will you sleep? In the hut in the Panchavati?"

M: "Won't they let me have the room on the upper floor of the nahabat?"

M. selected the nahabat because he had a poetic temperament. From there

he could see the sky, the Ganges, the moonlight, and the flowers in the

garden.

MASTER: "Oh, they'll let you have it. But I suggested the Panchavati

because so much contemplation and meditation have been practised there

and the name of God has been chanted there so often."

It was evening. Incense was burning in the Master's room. He was sitting on

the small couch, absorbed in meditation. M. was sitting on the floor with

Rākhāl, Lātu, and Ramlal.

Singing of devotional songs

The Master said to M., "The sum and substance of the whole thing is to

cultivate devotion for God and love Him." At Sri Ramakrishna's request

Ramlal sang a few songs, the Master himself singing the first line of each.

Ramlal sang:

Oh, what a vision I have beheld in Keshab Bharati's hut!

Gora, in all his matchless grace,

Shedding tears in a thousand streams!

Like a mad elephant

He dances in ecstasy and sings,

Drunk with an overwhelming love. . . .

Then he sang:

Though I am never loath to grant salvation,

I hesitate indeed to grant pure love.

Whoever wins pure love surpasses all;

He is adored by men;

He triumphs over the three worlds. . . .

Sri Ramakrishna said to Ramlal, “ Sing that one- 'Gaur and Nitai, ye

blessed brothers' . "

Ramlal began the song and the Master joined him:

Gaur and Nitai, ye blessed brothers!

I have heard how kind you are,

And therefore I have come to you.

When I visited Benares,

Śiva, Lord of Kasi, told me

Of the Parabrahman's birth,

As man, in Mother Sachi's home.

O Brahman, Thee I recognize!

Many a sādhu have I seen,

But never one so kind as you.

Once at Braja you were born

As Kanai and Balai, His brother;

Now, once more, in Nadia,

As Gaur and Nitai do you appear,

Hiding the shapes that then you wore.

In Braja's pastures running freely,

Once you frolicked; now, for play,

You roll on the ground in Nadia,

Chanting aloud Lord Hari's name.

Laughing, shouting, once you played

At Braja with your cowherd friends;

And now you chant Lord Hari's name.

O Gaur, how cleverly you hide

The dark-blue form you wore at Braja!

But your slanting eyes betray you.

Through the blessing of your name

The sinner is set free, they say;

And so my soul is filled with hope.

Now with eager heart I hasten

To your feet: Lord! I implore you,

Keep me safe within their shadow.

You redeemed Jagai and Madhai,

Wretched sinners though they were;

I pray you, do the same for me.

I have heard that you embrace

All men as brothers, even the outcaste,

Whispering in the ears of all

Lord Hari's life-renewing name.

Late at night M. sat alone in the nahabat. The sky, the river, the garden, the

steeples of the temples; the trees, and the Panchavati were flooded with

moonlight. Deep silence reigned everywhere, broken only by the melodious

murmuring of the Ganges. M. was meditating on Sri Ramakrishna.

At three o'clock in the morning M. left his seat. He proceeded toward the

Panchavati as Sri Ramakrishna had suggested. He did not care for the

nahabat any more and resolved to stay in the hut in the Panchavati.

Suddenly he heard a distant sound, as if someone were wailing piteously,

"Oh, where art Thou, Brother Madhusudana?" The light of the full moon

streamed through the thick foliage of the Panchavati, and as he proceeded

he saw at a distance one of the Master's disciples sitting alone in the grove,

crying helplessly, "Oh, where art Thou, Brother Madhusudana?"

Silently M. watched him.

Saturday, December 15, 1883

Story of Prahlada

M. had been staying at Dakshineswar with Sri Ramakrishna. The Master

was sitting in his room, listening to the life of Prahlada, which Ramlal was

reading from the Bhaktamala. M. was sitting on the floor. Rākhāl, Lātu, and

Harish were also in the room, and Hazra was on the verandah. While

listening to the story of Prahlada's love for God, Sri Ramakrishna went into

an ecstatic mood.

Hiranyakasipu, the king of the demons and father of Prahlada, had put his

son to endless torture to divert the boy's mind from the love of God. But

through divine grace all the king's attempts to kill Prahlada were

ineffective. At last God appeared, assuming the form of Nrisimha, the

Manlion, and killed Hiranyakasipu. The gods were frightened at the rage

and roaring of the Manlion and thought that the destruction of the world

was imminent.

They sent Prahlada to pacify the Deity. The boy sang a hymn to Him in

words of love, and the Manlion, moved by affection, licked Prahlada's body.

Still in an ecstatic mood, the Master said, "Ah! Ah! What love for the

devotee!" The Master went into deep samādhi. He sat there motionless. A

tear-drop could be seen at the corner of each of his eyes.

Master admonishes M.

The Master came down to the plane of the sense world and spoke to M.,

expressing his abhorrence for those who, while practising spiritual

discipline, enjoyed sex-life.

MASTER: "Aren't you ashamed of yourself? You have children, and still

you enjoy intercourse with your wife. Don't you hate yourself for thus

leading an animal life? Don't you hate yourself for dallying with a body

which contains only blood, phlegm, filth, and excreta? He who

contemplates the Lotus Feet of God looks on even the most beautiful

woman as mere ash from the cremation ground. To enjoy a body which will

not last and which consists of such impure ingredients as intestines, bile,

flesh, and bone! Aren't you ashamed of yourself?"

M. sat there silently, hanging his head in shame.

MASTER: "A man who has tasted even a drop of God's ecstatic love looks

on 'woman and gold' as most insignificant. He who has tasted syrup made

from sugar candy regards a drink made from treacle as a mere trifle. One

gradually obtains that love for God if one but prays to Him with a yearning

heart and always chants His name and glories."

The Master was in an ecstasy of love. He began to dance about the room

and sing:

Who is singing Hari's name upon the sacred Ganges' bank?

Is it Nitai that has come, the giver of heavenly love?

It was ten o'clock in the morning. Ramlal had finished the daily worship in

the Kāli temple. The Master went to the temple accompanied by M.

Entering the shrine, the Master sat before the image. He offered a flower or

two at the feet of the Divine Mother. Then he put a flower on his own head

and began to meditate. He sang a song to the Divine Mother:

Thy name, I have heard, O Consort of Śiva, is the destroyer of our fear,

And so on Thee I cast my burden: Save me! Save me, O kindly Mother!

Sri Ramakrishna returned from the Kāli temple and sat on the southeast

verandah of his room. He ate some refreshments which had been offered at

the temple, and the devotees also received a share.

Rākhāl sat by the Master and read about Lord Erskine from Self-Help by

Smiles.

MASTER (to M.): "What does the book say?"

M: "It says that Lord Erskine performed his duty without desiring any result

for himself.

Disinterested duty."

MASTER: "That is very good. But the characteristic of a man of Perfect

Knowledge is that he doesn't keep a single book with him. He carries all his

Knowledge on the tip of his tongue. There's the instance of Sukadeva.

Books-I mean the scriptures-contain a mixture of sand and sugar. The sādhu

takes the sugar, leaving aside the sand. He takes only the essence."

Vaishnavcharan, the musician, arrived and sang a few devotional songs.

M. spent the night in the nahabat.

Sunday, December 16, 1883

Sri Ramakrishna was seated with M. on the semicircular porch of his room

at about ten o'clock in the morning. The fragrance of gardenias, jasmines,

oleanders, roses, and other flowers filled the air. The Master was singing

looking at M: Thou must save me, sweetest Mother! Unto Thee I come for

refuge,

Helpless as a bird imprisoned in a cage.

I have done unnumbered wrongs, and aimlessly I roam about, Misled by

maya's spell, bereft of wisdom's light, Comfortless as a mother cow whose

calf has wandered far away.

MASTER: "But why? Why should I live like a 'bird imprisoned in a cage'?

Fie! For shame!"

As the Master said these words he went into an ecstatic mood. His body

became motionless and his mind stopped functioning; tears streamed down

his cheeks. After a while he said, "O Mother, make me like Sita, completely

forgetful of everything-body and limbs-, totally unconscious of hands, feet,

and sense-organs-only the one thought in her mind, 'Where is Rāma?' "

Was the Master inspired by the ideal of Sita to teach M. the yearning that a

devotee should feel for God? Sita's very life was centred in Rāma.

Completely absorbed in the thought of Rāma, Sita forgot even the body,

which is so dear to all.

At four o'clock in the afternoon Mr. Mukherji, a relative of Prankrishna,

arrived in the company of a brahmin well versed in the scriptures.

MUKHERJI: "I am very happy to meet you, sir."

MASTER: "God dwells in all beings. He is the gold in all. In some places it

is more clearly manifest than in others. God dwells in the worldly-minded,

no doubt, but He is hidden there, like gold under deep layers of clay."

MUKHERJI: "Sir, what is the difference between worldly and other-

worldly things?"

Brahman and the world

MASTER: "While striving for the realization of God, the aspirant has to

practise renunciation, applying the logic of 'Neti, neti'-'Not this, not this',

But after attaining the vision of God, he realizes that God alone has become

all things.

"At one time Rāma was overpowered by the spirit of renunciation.

Dasaratha, worried at this, went to the sageVasishtha and begged him to

persuade Rāma not to give up the world. The sage came to Rāma and found

him in a gloomy mood. The fire of intense renunciation had been raging in

the Prince's mind. Vasishtha said: 'Rāma, why should You renounce the

world? Is the world outside God? Reason with me.' Rāma realized that the

world had evolved from the Supreme Brahman. So, He said nothing.

"Buttermilk is made from the same substance as butter. One who realizes

this knows that butter goes with buttermilk and buttermilk with butter. After

separating the butter with great effort-that is to say, after attaining

Brahmajnana-you will realize that as long as butter exists, buttermilk also

must exist. Wherever there is butter there must be buttermilk as well. As

long as one feels that Brahman exists, one must also be aware that the

universe, living beings, and the twenty-four cosmic principles exist as well.

Nature of Brahman

"What Brahman is cannot be described in words. Everything has been

polluted, like food that has touched the tongue-that is, everything has been

described in words. But no one has been able to describe Brahman. It is

therefore unpolluted. I said this to Vidyasagar and he was delighted.

"But the Knowledge of Brahman cannot be realized if the aspirant is

worldly-minded even in the slightest degree. He succeeds in acquiring this

Knowledge only when his mind is totally free from 'woman and gold'.

Parvati once said to Her father, 'Father, seek the company of holy men if

you want the Knowledge of Brahman.' "

Addressing Mr. Mukherji, Sri Ramakrishna said: "You are rich, and still you

call on God.

That is very good indeed. It is said in the Gitā that those who fall from the

path of yoga are born in their next birth as devotees of God in rich

families."

Mr. Mukherji quoted the line from the Gitā.

MASTER: "God, if He so desires, can keep a Jnāni in the world too. The

world and all living beings have been created by His will. But He is self-

willed."

MUKHERJI (with a smile): "How can God have any will? Does He lack

anything?"

MASTER (with a smile): "What's wrong in that? Water is water whether it

is still or in waves. The snake is a snake whether it is coiled up motionless

or wriggles along. A man is the same man whether sitting still or engaged in

action.

"How can you eliminate from the Reality the universe and its living beings?

If you do that, It will lack Its full weight. You cannot find out the total

weight of the bel-fruit if you eliminate the seeds and shell.

"Brahman is unattached. One finds good and bad smells in the air, but the

air itself is untainted. Brahman and Śakti are identical. It is the Primordial

Power that has become the world and all living beings."

MUKHERJI: "Why does one deviate from the path of yoga?"

MASTER: "As the saying goes: 'In my mother's womb I was in a state of

yoga; coming into the world, I have eaten its clay. The midwife has cut one

shackle, the navel cord; but how shall I cut the shackle of maya?'

"Woman and gold"

"Maya is nothing but 'woman' and 'gold'. A man attains yoga when he has

freed his mind from these two. The Self-the Supreme Self-is the magnet;

the individual self is the needle. The individual self experiences the state of

yoga when it is attracted by the Supreme Self to Itself. But the magnet

cannot attract the needle if the needle is covered with clay; it can draw the

needle only when the clay is removed. The clay of 'woman'

and 'gold' must be removed."

MUKHERJI: "How can one remove it?"

MASTER: "Weep for God with a longing heart. Tears shed for Him will

wash away the clay. When you have thus freed yourself from impurity, you

will be attracted by the magnet. Only then will you attain yoga."

MUKHERJI: "Priceless words!"

MASTER: "If a man is able to weep for God, he will see Him. He will go

into samādhi.

Perfection in yoga is samādhi. A man achieves kumbhaka without any

yogic exercise if he but weeps for God. The next stage is samādhi.

"There is another method -that of meditation. In the Sahasrara, Śiva

manifests Himself in a special manner. The aspirant should meditate on

Him. The body is like a tray; the mind and buddhi are like water. The Sun

of Satchidananda is reflected in this water.

Meditating on the reflected sun, one sees the Real Sun through the grace of

God.

"But the worldly man must constantly live in the company of holy men. It is

necessary for all, even for sannyasis. But it is especially necessary for the

householder. His disease has become chronic because he has to live

constantly in the midst of 'woman and gold'."

MUKHERJI: "Yes, sir. The disease has indeed become chronic"

MASTER: "Give God the power of attorney. Let Him do whatever He

wants. Be like a kitten and cry to Him with a fervent heart. The mother cat

puts the kitten wherever she wants to. The kitten doesn't know anything. It

is left sometimes on the bed and sometimes near the hearth."

MUKHERJI: "It is good to read sacred books like the Gitā."

MASTER: "But what will you gain by mere reading? Some have heard of

milk, some have seen it, and there are some, besides, who have drunk it.

God can indeed be seen; what is more, one can talk to Him.

Different stages of spiritual progress

"The first stage is that of the beginner. He studies and hears. Second is the

stage of the struggling aspirant. He prays to God, meditates on Him, and

sings His name and glories. The third stage is that of the perfect soul. He

has seen God, realized Him directly and immediately in his inner

Consciousness. Last is the stage of the supremely perfect, like Chaitanya.

Such a devotee establishes a definite relationship with God, looking on Him

as his Son or Beloved."

M., Rākhāl, Jogin, Lātu, and the other devotees were entranced by these

words of divine realization.

Mr. Mukherji and his friend were taking leave of the Master. After saluting

him, they stood up. The Master also stood up to show them courtesy.

MUKHERJI (smiling): "That you should stand up or sit down!"

MASTER (smiling): "But what's the harm? Water is water whether it is

placid or in waves. I am like a cast-off leaf in the wind. The wind blows that

leaf wherever it lists. I am the machine and God is its Operator."

Mr. Mukherji and his friend left the room. M. thought: "According to the

Vedānta all is like a dream. Are all these-the ego, the universe, and the

living beings-unreal then?"

M. had studied a little of the Vedānta. He also had read the German

philosophers, such as Kant and Hegel, whose writings are only a faint echo

of the Vedānta. But Sri Ramakrishna did not arrive at his conclusions by

reasoning, as do ordinary scholars. It was the Divine Mother of the

Universe who revealed the Truth to him. These were the thoughts that

passed through M.'s mind.

A little later Sri Ramakrishna and M. were conversing on the porch west of

the Master's room. No one else was there. It was a late winter afternoon,

and the sun had not yet gone below the horizon.

Is the world unreal?

M: "Is the world unreal?"

MASTER: "Why should it be unreal? What you are asking is a matter for

philosophical discussion.

"In the beginning, when a man reasons following the Vedantic method of

'Not this, not this', he realizes that Brahman is not the living beings, not the

universe, not the twenty-four cosmic principles. All these things become

like dreams to him. Then comes the affirmation of what has been denied,

and he feels that God Himself has become the universe and all living

beings.

"Suppose you are climbing to the roof by the stairs. As long as you are

aware of the roof, you are also aware of the stairs. He who is aware of the

high is also aware of the low. But after reaching the roof you realize that the

stairs are made of the same materials-brick, lime, and brick-dust-as the roof.

"Further, I have given the illustration of the bel-fruit. Both changeability

and unchangeability belong to one and the same Reality.

"The ego cannot be done away with. As long as 'I-consciousness' exists,

living beings and the universe must also exist. After realizing God, one sees

that, it is He Himself who has become the universe and the living beings.

But one cannot realize this by mere reasoning.

"Śiva has two states of mind. First, the state of samādhi, when He is

transfixed in the Great Yoga. He is then Ātmārāma, satisfied in the Self.

Second, the state when He descends from samādhi and keeps a trace of ego.

Then He dances about, chanting, 'Rāma, Rāma!'"

Did the Master describe Śiva to hint at his own state of mind?

It was evening. Sri Ramakrishna was meditating on the Divine Mother and

chanting Her holy name. The devotees also went off to solitary places and

meditate on their Chosen Ideals. Evening worship began at the temple

garden in the shrines of Kāli, Radha-Krishna, and Śiva.

It was the second day of the dark fortnight of the moon. Soon the moon rose

in the sky, bathing temples, trees, flowers, and the rippling surface of the

Ganges in its light. The Master was sitting on the couch and M. on the floor.

The conversation turned to the Vedānta.

MASTER (to M.): "Why should the universe be unreal? That is a

speculation of the philosophers. After realizing God, one sees that it is God

Himself who has become the universe and all living beings.

Divine Mother is the Universal Consciousness

"The Divine Mother revealed to me in the Kāli temple that it was She who

had become everything. She showed me that everything was full of

Consciousness. The Image was Consciousness, the altar was

Consciousness, the water-vessels were Consciousness, the door-sill was

Consciousness, the marble floor was Consciousness-all was Consciousness.

"I found everything inside the room soaked, as it were, in Bliss-the Bliss of

Satchidananda. I saw a wicked man in front of the Kāli temple; but in him

also I saw the Power of the Divine Mother vibrating.

"That was why I fed a cat with the food that was to be offered to the Divine

Mother. I clearly perceived that the Divine Mother Herself had become

everything-even the cat.

The manager of the temple garden wrote to Mathur Babu saying that I was

feeding the cat with the offering intended for the Divine Mother. But

Mathur Babu had insight into the state of my mind. He wrote back to the

manager: 'Let him do whatever he likes.

You must not say anything to him.'

"After realizing God, one sees all this aright-that it is He who has become

the universe, living beings, and the twenty-four cosmic principles. But what

remains when God completely effaces the ego cannot be described in

words. As Ramprasad said in one of his songs, 'Then alone will you know

whether you are good or I am good!' I get into even that state now and then.

"A man sees a thing in one way through reasoning and in an altogether

different way when God Himself shows it to him."

Monday, December 17, 1883

It was about eight o'clock in the morning. Sri Ramakrishna was in his room

with M., when Dr. Madhu arrived and sat down beside the Master on the

small couch. He was an elderly man and full of wit. He used to visit the

Master when the latter felt indisposed.

MASTER: "The whole thing, in a nutshell is that one must develop ecstatic

love for Satchidananda. What kind of love? How should one love God?

Gauri used to say that one must become like Sita to understand Rāma; like

Bhagavati, the Divine Mother, to understand Bhagavan, Śiva. One must

practise austerity, as Bhagavati did, in order to attain Śiva. One must

cultivate the attitude of Prakriti in order to realize Purusha-the attitude of a

friend, a handmaid, or a mother.

"I saw Sita in a vision. I found that her entire mind was concentrated on

Rāma. She was totally indifferent to everything-her hands, her feet, her

clothes, her jewels. It seemed that Rāma had filled every bit of her life and

she could not remain alive without Rāma."

M: "Yes, sir. She was mad with love for Rāma."

MASTER: "Mad! That's the word. One must become mad with love in

order to realize God. But that love is not possible if the mind dwells on

'woman and gold'. Sex-life with a woman! What happiness is there in that?

The realization of God gives ten million times more happiness. Gauri used

to say that when a man attains ecstatic love of God all the pores of the skin,

even the roots of the hair, become like so many sexual organs, and in every

pore the aspirant enjoys the happiness of communion with the Ātman.

"One must call on God with a longing heart. One must learn from the guru

how God can be realized. Only if the guru himself has attained Perfect

Knowledge can he show the way.

"A man, gets rid of all desires when he has Perfect Knowledge. He becomes

like a child five years old. Sages like Dattatreya and Jadabharata had the

nature of a child."

M: "One hears about them. But there were many others like them that the

world doesn't hear about."

MASTER: "Yes. The Jnāni gets rid of all desire if any is left, it does not

hurt him. At the touch of the philosopher's stone the sword is transformed

into gold. Then that sword cannot do any killing. Just so, the Jnāni keeps

only a semblance of anger and passion.

They are anger and passion only in name and cannot injure him."

M: "Yes, sir. The Jnāni goes beyond the three gunas, as you say. He is not

under the control of any of the gunas-sattva, rajas, or tamas. All these three

are so many robbers, as it were."

MASTER: "Yes, one must assimilate that."

M: "In this world there are perhaps not more than three or four men of

Perfect Knowledge."

MASTER: "Why do you say that? One sees many holy men and sannyasis

in the monasteries of upper India."

M: "Well, I too can become a sannyasi like one of those."

The Master fixed his gaze on M. and said, "By renouncing everything?"

M: "What can a man achieve unless he gets rid of maya? What will a man

gain by merely being a sannyasi, if he cannot subdue maya?"

Both remained silent a few minutes.

M: "Sir, what is the nature of the divine love transcending the three gunas?"

MASTER: "Attaining that love, the devotee sees everything full of Spirit

and Consciousness. To him 'Krishna is Consciousness, and His sacred

Abode is also Consciousness'. The devotee, too, is Consciousness.

Everything is Consciousness. Very few people attain such love."

DR. MADHU: "The love transcending the three gunas means, in other

words, that the devotee is not under the control of any of the gunas."

MASTER (smiling): "Yes, that's it. He becomes like a child five years old,

not under the control of any of the gunas."

The Master was resting after his noon meal. Mani Mallick arrived and

saluted him. Sri Ramakrishna remained lying on the couch and said a word

or two to Mani.

MANI: "I hear you visited Keshab Sen."

MASTER: "Yes. How is he now?"

MANI: "He hasn't recovered to any extent from his illness."

MASTER: "I found him to be very rajasic. I had to wait a long time before I

could see him."

The Master sat up on the couch and continued his conversation with the

devotees.

MASTER (to M.): "I became mad for Rāma. I used to walk about carrying

an image of Ramlala given to me by a monk. I bathed it, fed it, and laid it

down to sleep. I carried it wherever I went. I became mad for Ramlala."

--------------------

Chapter 17

M. AT DAKSHINESWAR (I)

Tuesday, December 18, 1883

SRI RAMAKRISHNA was seated in his room with his devotees. He spoke

highly of Devendranath Tagore's love of God and renunciation, and then

said, pointing to Rākhāl and the other young devotees, "Devendra is a good

man; but blessed indeed are those young aspirants who, like Sukadeva,

practise renunciation from their very boyhood and think of God day and

night without being involved in worldly life.

Nature of worldly people

"The worldly man always has some desire or other, though at times he

shows much devotion to God. Once Mathur Babu was entangled in a

lawsuit. He said to me in the shrine of Kāli, 'Sir, please offer this flower to

the Divine Mother.' I offered it unsuspectingly, but he firmly believed that

he would attain his objective if I offered the flower.

"What devotion Rati's mother had! How often she used to come here and

how much she served me! She was a Vaishnava. One day she noticed that I

ate the food offered at the Kāli temple, and that stopped her coming. Her

devotion to God was one-sided. It isn't possible to understand a person right

away."

It was a winter morning, and the Master was sitting near the east door of his

room, wrapped in his moleskin shawl. He looked at the sun and suddenly

went into samādhi.

His eyes stopped blinking and he lost all consciousness of the outer world.

After a long time he came down to the plane of the sense world. Rākhāl,

Hazra, M., and other devotees were seated near him.

MASTER (to Hazra): "The state of samādhi is certainly inspired by love.

Once, at Syambazar, they arranged a kirtan at Natavar Goswami's house.

There I had a vision of Krishna and the gopis of Vrindāvan. I felt that my

subtle body was walking at Krishna's heels.

"I went into samādhi when similar devotional songs were sung at the Hari

Sabha in Jorashanko in Calcutta. That day they feared I might give up the

body."

After the Master had finished his bath, he again spoke of the ecstatic love of

the gopis.

He said to M. and the other devotees: "One should accept the fervent

attachment of the gopis to their beloved Krishna. Sing songs like this:

Tell me, friend, how far is the grove

Where Krishna, my Beloved, dwells?

His fragrance reaches me even here;

But I am tired and can walk no farther."

Again he sang:

I am not going home, O friend,

For there it is hard for me to chant my Krishna's name. . . .

Sri Ramakrishna had vowed to offer green coconut and sugar to

Siddhesvari, the Divine Mother, for Rākhāl's welfare. He asked M. whether

he would pay for the offerings.

That afternoon the Master, accompanied by M., Rākhāl, and some other

devotees, set out in a carriage for the temple of Siddhesvari in Calcutta. On

the way the offerings were purchased. On reaching the temple, the Master

asked the devotees to offer the fruit and sugar to the Divine Mother. They

saw the priests and their friends playing cards in the temple. Sri

Ramakrishna said: "To play cards in a temple! One should think of God

here."

From the temple the Master went to Jadu Mallick's house. Jadu was

surrounded by his admirers, well-dressed dandies. He welcomed the Master.

MASTER ((with a smile): "Why do you keep so many clowns and flatterers

with you?"

JADU (smiling): "That you may liberate them." (Laughter.) MASTER:

"Flatterers think that the rich man will loosen his purse-strings for them.

But it is very difficult to get anything from him. Once a jackal saw a

bullock and would not give up his company. The bullock roamed about and

the jackal followed him. The jackal thought: 'There hang the bullock's

testicles. Some time or other they will drop to the ground and I shall eat

them.' When the bullock slept on the ground, the jackal lay down too, and

when the bullock moved about, the jackal followed him. Many days passed

in this way, but the bullock's testicles still clung to his body. The jackal

went away disappointed. (All laugh.) That also happens to flatterers."

Jadu and his mother served refreshments to Sri Ramakrishna and the

devotees.

Wednesday, December 19, 1883

It was nine o'clock in the morning. Sri Ramakrishna was talking to M. near

the bel-tree at Dakshineswar. This tree, under which the Master had

practised the most austere sadhana, stood in the northern end of the temple

garden. Farther north ran a high wall, and just outside was the government

magazine. West of the bel-tree was a row of tall pines that rustled in the

wind. Below the trees flowed the Ganges, and to the south could be seen the

sacred grove of the Panchavati. The dense trees and underbrush hid the

temples. No noise of the outside world reached the bel-tree.

MASTER (to M.): "But one cannot realize God without renouncing 'woman

and gold'."

M: "Why? Did not Vasishtha say to Rāma, 'O Rāma, You may renounce the

world if the world is outside God'?"

MASTER (smiling): "He said that to Rāma so that Rāma might destroy

Ravana. Rāma accepted the life of a householder and married to fulfil that

mission."

M. stood there like a log, stunned and speechless.

Sri Ramakrishna went to the Panchavati on his way back to his room. M.

accompanied him. It was then about ten o'clock.

Path of the Impersonal God

M: "Sir, is there no spiritual discipline leading to realization of the

Impersonal God?"

MASTER: "Yes, there is. But the path is extremely difficult. After intense

austerities the rishis of olden times realized God as their inner most

consciousness and experienced the real nature of Brahman. But how hard

they had to work! They went out of their dwellings in the early morning and

all day practised austerities and meditation.

Returning home at nightfall, they took a light supper of fruit and roots.

"But an aspirant cannot succeed in this form of spiritual discipline if his

mind is stained with worldliness even in the slightest degree. The mind

must withdraw totally from all objects of form, taste, smell, touch, and

sound. Only thus does it become pure. The Pure Mind is the same as the

Pure Ātman. But such a mind must be altogether free from 'woman and

gold'. When it becomes pure, one has another experience. One realizes:

'God alone is the Doer, and I am His instrument.' One does not feel oneself

to be absolutely necessary to others either in their misery or in their

happiness.

"Once a wicked man beat into unconsciousness a monk who lived in a

monastery. On regaining consciousness he was asked by his friends, 'Who is

feeding you milk?' The monk said, 'He who beat me is now feeding me.' "

M: "Yes, sir. I know that story."

Obstacles to samādhi

MASTER: "It is not enough to know it. One must assimilate its meaning. It

is the thought of worldly objects that prevents the mind from going into

samādhi. One becomes established in samādhi when one is completely rid

of worldliness. It is possible for me to give up the body in samādhi; but I

have a slight desire to enjoy the love of God and the company of His

devotees. Therefore I pay a little attention to my body.

"There is another kind of samādhi, called unmana samādhi. One attains it

by suddenly gathering the dispersed mind. You understand what that is,

don't you?"

M: "Yes, sir."

MASTER: "Yes. It is the sudden withdrawal of the dispersed mind to the

Ideal. But that samādhi does not last long. Worldly thoughts intrude and

destroy it. The yogi slips down from his yoga.

"At Kamarpukur I have seen the mongoose living in its hole up in the wall.

It feels snug there. Sometimes people tie a brick to its tail; then the pull of

the brick makes it come out of its hole. Every time the mongoose tries to be

comfortable inside the hole, it has to come out because of the pull of the

brick. Such is the effect of brooding on worldly objects that it makes the

yogi stray from the path of yoga.

"Worldly people may now and then experience samādhi. The lotus blooms,

no doubt, when the sun is up; but its petals close again when the sun is

covered by a cloud.

Worldly thought is the cloud."

M: "Isn't it possible to develop both jnāna and bhakti by the practice of

spiritual discipline?"

MASTER: "Through the path of bhakti a man may attain them both. If it is

necessary, God gives him the Knowledge of Brahman. But a highly

qualified aspirant may develop both jnāna and bhakti at the same time. Such

is the case with the Isvarakotis-Chaitanya for example. But the case of

ordinary devotees is different.

"There are five kinds of light: the light of a lamp, the light of various kinds

of fire, the light of the moon, the light of the sun, and lastly the combined

light of the sun and the moon. Bhakti is the light of the moon, and jnāna the

light of the sun.

"Sometimes it is seen that the sun has hardly set when the moon rises in the

sky. In an Incarnation of God one sees, at the same time, the sun of

Knowledge and the moon of Love.

"Can everyone, by the mere wish, develop Knowledge and Love at the

same time? It depends on the person. One bamboo is more hollow than

another. Is it possible for all to comprehend the nature of God? Can a one

seer pot hold five seers of milk?"

M: "But what about the grace of God? Through His grace a camel can pass

through the eye of a needle."

MASTER: "But is it possible to obtain God's grace just like that? A beggar

may get a penny, if he asks for it. But suppose he asks you right off for his

train fare: How about that?"

M. stood silent. The Master, too, remained silent. Suddenly he said: "Yes, it

is true.

Through the grace of God some may get both jnāna and bhakti."

M. saluted the Master and went back to the bel-tree.

At midday, finding that M. had not yet returned, Sri Ramakrishna started

toward the bel-tree; but on reaching the Panchavati he met M. carrying his

prayer carpet and water-jug. M. saluted the Master.

Sri Ramakrishna said to M: "I was coming to look for you. Because of your

delay I thought you might have scaled the wall and run away. I watched

your eyes this morning and felt apprehensive lest you should go away like

Narayan Shastri. Then I said to myself: 'No, he won't run away. He thinks a

great deal before doing anything.' "

The same night the Master talked to M., Rākhāl , Lātu, Harish, and a few

other devotees.

MASTER (to M.): "Some people give a metaphysical interpretation of the

Vrindāvan episode of Sri Krishna's life. What do you say about it?"

M: "There are various opinions. What if there are? You have told us the

story of Bhishmadeva's weeping, on his bed of arrows, because he could not

understand anything of God's ways.

"Again, you have told us that Hanuman used to say: 'I don't know any thing

about the day of the week, the position of the stars, and so forth. I only

meditate on Rāma.'

"Further, you have said to us that in the last analysis there are two things

only.

Brahman and Its Power. You have also said that, after the attainment of

Brahmajnana, a man realizes these two to be One, the One that has no two"

MASTER: "Yes, that is true. Your ideal is to reach the goal. You may reach

it by going either through a thorny forest or along a good road.

"Diverse opinions certainly exist. Nangta used to say that the monks could

not be feasted because of the diversity of their views. Once a feast was

arranged for the sannyasis. Monks belonging to many sects were invited.

Everyone claimed that his sect should be fed first, but no conclusion could

be arrived at. At last they all went away and the food had to be given to the

prostitutes."

M: "Totapuri was indeed a great soul."

MASTER: "But Hazra says he was an ordinary man. There's no use in

discussing these things. Everyone says that his watch alone gives the

correct time.

"You see, Narayan Shastri developed a spirit of intense renunciation. He

was a great scholar. He gave up his wife and went away. A man attains yoga

when he completely effaces 'woman and gold' from his mind. With some,

the characteristics of the yogi are well marked.

"I shall have to tell you something of the six centres. The mind of the yogi

passes through these, and he realizes God through His grace. Have you

heard of the six centres?"

M: "These are the 'seven planes' of the Vedānta."

MASTER: "Not the Vedānta, but the Vedas. Do you know what the six

centres are like?

They are the 'lotuses' in the subtle body. The yogis see them. They are like

the fruits and leaves of a wax tree."

M: "Yes, sir. The yogis can perceive them. I have read that there is a kind of

glass through which a tiny object looks very big. Likewise, through yoga

one can see those subtle lotuses."

Following Sri Ramakrishna's direction, M. spent the night in the hut at the

Panchavati.

In the early hours of the morning he was singing alone: I am without the

least benefit of prayer and austerity, O Lord!

I am the lowliest of the lowly; make me pure with Thy hallowed touch.

One by one I pass my days in hope of reaching Thy Lotus Feet, But Thee,

alas, I have not found. . . .

Suddenly M. glanced toward the window and saw the Master standing

there. Sri Ramakrishna's eyes became heavy with tears as M. sang the line:

I am the lowliest of the lowly; make me pure with Thy hallowed touch.

M. sang again:

I shall put on the ochre robe and ear-rings made of conchshell; Thus, in the

garb of a yogini, from place to place I shall wander,

Till I have found my cruel Hari. . . .

M. saw that the Master was walking with Rākhāl.

Friday, December 21, 1883

In the morning the Master and M. were conversing alone under the bel-tree.

The Master told him many secrets of spiritual discipline, exhorting him to

renounce "woman and gold". He further said that the mind at times

becomes one's guru.

After his midday meal the Master went to the Panchavati wearing a

beautiful yellow robe. Two or three Vaishnava monks were there, clad in the

dress of their sect.

In the afternoon a monk belonging to the sect of Nanak arrived. He was a

worshipper of the formless God. Sri Ramakrishna asked him to meditate as

well on God with form.

The Master said to him: "Dive deep; one does not get the precious gems by

merely floating on the surface. God is without form, no doubt; but He also

has form. By meditating on God with form one speedily acquires devotion;

then one can meditate on the formless God. It is like throwing a letter away,

after learning its contents, and then setting out to follow its instructions."

Saturday, December 22, 1883

Rākhāl, Harish, M., and Lātu had been staying with Sri Ramakrishna at

Dakshineswar.

About nine o'clock in the morning the Master was sitting with them on the

southeast verandah of his room, when Balarām's father and Devendra

Ghosh of Syampukur arrived.

A DEVOTEE: "Sir, how does one obtain love for God?"

MASTER: "Go forward. The king dwells beyond the seven gates. You can

see him only after passing through all the gates.

"At the time of the installation of Annapurna at Chanak, I said to Dwarika

Babu: 'Large fish live in the deep water of a big lake. Throw some spiced

bait into the water; then the fish will come, attracted by its smell; now and

then they will make the water splash.

Devotion and ecstatic love are like the spiced bait.

Divine Incarnations

"God sports in the world as man. He incarnates Himself as man-as in the

case of Krishna, Rāma, and Chaitanya. Once I said to Keshab: 'The greatest

manifestation of God is in man. There are small holes in the balk of a field,

where crabs and fish accumulate in the rainy season. If you want to find

them you must seek them in the holes. If you seek God, you must seek Him

in the Incarnations.'

"The Divine Mother of the Universe manifests Herself through this three-

and-a-half cubit man. There is a song that says:

O Mother, what a machine is this that Thou hast made!

What pranks Thou playest with this toy

Three and a half cubits high!

"One needs spiritual practice in order to know God and recognize Divine

Incarnations.

Big fish live in the large lake, but to see them one must throw spiced bait in

the water.

There is butter in milk, but one must churn the milk to get it. There is oil in

mustard-seed, but one must press the seed to extract the oil."

DEVOTEE: "Has God form, or is He formless?"

MASTER:"Wait, wait! First of all you must go to Calcutta; then only will

you know where the Maidan, the Asiatic Society, and the Bengal Bank are

located. If you want to go to the brahmin quarter of Khardaha, you must

first of all go to Khardaha.

"Why should it not be possible to practice the discipline of the formless

God? But it is very difficult to follow that path. One cannot follow it

without renouncing 'woman and gold'. There must be complete

renunciation, both inner and outer. You cannot succeed in this path if you

have the slightest trace of worldliness.

"It is easy to worship God with form. But it is not easy as all that.

"One should not discuss the discipline of the Impersonal God or the path of

knowledge with a bhakta. Through great effort perhaps he is just cultivating

a little devotion. You will injure it if you explain away everything as a mere

dream.

"Kabir was a worshipper of the Impersonal God. He did not believe in Śiva,

Kāli, or Krishna. He used to make fun of them and say that Kāli lived on

the offerings of rice and banana, and that Krishna danced like a monkey

when the gopis clapped their hands. ( All laugh).

"One who worships God without form perhaps sees at first the deity with

ten arms, then the deity with four arms, then the Baby Krishna with two

arms. At last he sees the Indivissible Light and merges in It.

"It is said that sages like Dattatreya and Jadabharata did not return to the

relative plane after having the visition of Brahman. According to some

people Sukadeva tasted only a drop of that Ocean of Brahman-

Consciousness. He saw and heard the rumbling of the waves of that Ocean,

but did not dive into It.

"A brahmachari once said to me, 'One who goes beyond Kedār cannot keep

his body alive.' Likewise, a man cannot preserve his body after attaining

Brahmajnana.1 The body drops off in twenty-one days.

"There was an infinite field beyond a high wall. Four friends tried to find

out what was beyond the wall. Three of them, one after the other, climbed

the wall, saw the field, burst into loud laughter, and dropped to the other

side. These three could not give any information about the field. Only the

fourth man came back and told people about it.

He is like those who retain their bodies, even after attaining Brahmajnana,

in order to teach others. Divine Incarnations belong to this class.

"Parvati was born as the daughter of King Himalaya. After Her birth She

revealed to the king Her various divine forms. The father said: 'Well,

Daughter, You have shown me all these forms. That is nice. But You have

another aspect, which is Brahman. Please show me that.' 'Father,' replied

Parvati, 'if you seek the Knowledge of Brahman, then renounce the world

and live in the company of holy men.' But King Himalaya insisted.

Thereupon Parvati revealed Her Brahman-form, and immediately the king

fell down unconscious.

"All that I have just said belongs to the realm of reasoning. Brahman alone

is real and the world illusory-that is reasoning. And everything but

Brahman is like a dream. But this is an extremely difficult path. To one who

follows it even the divine play in the world becomes like a dream and

appears unreal; his 'I' also vanishes. The followers of this path do not accept

the Divine Incarnation. It is a very difficult path. The lovers of God should

not hear much of such reasoning.

"That is why God incarnates Himself as man and teaches people the path of

devotion.

He exhorts people to cultivate self-surrender to God. Following the path of

devotion, one realizes everything through His grace both Knowledge and

Supreme Wisdom.

"God sports in this world. He is under the control of His devotee. 'Syama,

the Divine Mother, is Herself tied by the cord of the love of Her devotee.'

"Sometimes God becomes the magnet and the devotee the needle, and

sometimes the devotee becomes the magnet and God the needle. The

devotee attracts God to him.

God is the Beloved of His devotee and is under his control.

"According to one school, the gopis of Vrindāvan, like Yaśoda, had

believed in the formless God in their previous births; but they did not derive

any satisfaction from this belief. That is why later on they enjoyed so much

bliss in the company of Sri Krishna in the Vrindāvan episode of His life.

One day Krishna said to the gopis: 'Come along. I shall show you the

Abode of the Eternal. Let us go to the Jamuna for a bath.' As they dived into

the water of the river, they at once saw Goloka. Next they saw the

Indivisible Light. Thereupon Yaśoda exclaimed: 'O Krishna, we don't care

for these things any more. We would like to see You in Your human form. I

want to take You in my arms and feed You.'

God and His devotee

"So the greatest manifestation of God is through His Incarnations. The

devotee should worship and serve an Incarnation of God as long as He lives

in a human body. 'At the break of day He disappears into the secret chamber

of His House.'

God manifesting Himself as living beings

"Not all, by any means, can recognize an Incarnation of God. Assuming a

human body, the Incarnation falls victim to disease, grief, hunger, thirst, and

all such things, like ordinary mortals. Rāma wept for Sita. 'Brahman weeps,

entrapped in the snare of the five elements.'

"It is said in the Purana that God, in His Incarnation as the Sow, lived

happily with His young ones even after the destruction of Hiranyāksha. As

the Sow, He nursed them and forgot all about His abode in heaven. At last

Śiva killed the sow body with his trident, and God, laughing aloud, went to

His own abode."

In the afternoon Bhavanath arrived. Rākhāl , M., Harish, and other devotees

were in the room.

MASTER ( to Bhavanath): "To love an Incarnation of God-that is enough.

Ah, what ecstatic love the gopis had for Krishna!"

Sri Ramakrishna began to sing, asuming the attitude of the gopis:

O Krishna! You are the Soul of my soul...

Then he sang:

I am not going home, O friend,

For there it is hard for me to chant my Krishna's name...

And again:

O Friend, that day I stood at my door as You were going to the woods...

Continuing, the Master said: "When Krishna suddenly disappeared in the

act of dancing and playing with gopis, they were beside themselves with

grief. Looking at tree, they said: 'O tree, you must be a great hermit. You

must have seen Krishna. Otherwise, why do you stand there motionless, as

if absorbed in samādhi?' Looking at the earth covered with green grass, they

said" 'O earth, you must have seen Kirshna. Otherwise, why does your hair

stand on end? you must have enjoyed the thrill of His touch.'

Looking at the madhavi creeper, they said, 'O madhavi, give us back our

Madhava!' The gopis were intoxicated with ecstatic love for Krishna.

Akrura came to Vrindāvan to take Krishna and Balarama to Mathura. When

they mounted the chariot, the gopis clung to the wheels. They would not let

the chariot move."

Saying this, Sri Ramakrishna sang, assuming the attitude of Akrura: Hold

not, hold not the chariot's wheels!

Is it the wheels that make it move?

The Mover of its wheels is Krishna,

By whose will the worlds are moved....

MASTER: " 'Is it the wheels that make it move?' 'By whose will the worlds

are moved.' 'The driver moves the chariot at His Master's bidding.' I feel

deeply touched by these lines."

Sunday, December 23, 1883

At nine o'clock in the morning Sri Ramakrishna was seated on the

southwest porch of his room, with Rākhāl , Lātu, M., Harish, and some

other devotees. M. had now been nine days with the Master at

Dakshineswar. Earlier in the morning Manomohan had arrived from

Konnagar on this way to Calcutta. Hazra, too, was present.

A Vaishnava was singging. Referring to one of the songs, Sri Ramakrishna

said: "I didn't enjoy that song very much. The songs of the earlier writers

seem to me to have more of the right spirit. Once I sang for Nangta at the

Panchavati: 'To arms! To arms, O

man! Death storms your house in battle array.' I sang another: 'O Mother, I

have no one else to blame: Alas! I sink in the well these very hands have

dug.'

"Nangta, the Vedantist, was a man of profound knowledge. The song moved

him to tears though he didn't understand its meaning. Padmalochan also

wept when I sang the songs of Ramprasad about the Divine Mother. And he

was truly a great pundit."

After the midday meal Sri Ramakrishna rested a few minutes in his room.

M. was sitting on the floor. The Master was delighted to hear the music that

was being played in the nahabat. He then explained to M. that Brahman

alone has become the universe and all living beings.

MASTER: "Referring to a certain place, someone once said to me: 'Nobody

sings the name of God there. It has no holy atmosphere.' No sooner did he

say this than I perceived that it was God alone who had become all living

beings. They appeared as countless bubbles, or reflections in the Ocean of

Satchidananda.

"Again, I find sometimes that living beings are like so many pills made of

Indivisible Consciousness. Once I was on my way to Burdwan from

Kamarpukur. At one place I ran to the meadow to see how living beings are

sustained. I saw ants crawling there. It appeared to me that every place was

filled with Consciousness."

Hazra entered the room and sat on the floor.

MASTER: "Again, I perceive that living beings are like different flowers

with various layers of petals. They are also revealed to me as bubbles, some

big, some small."

Master's childlike mood

While describing in this way the vision of different divine forms, the Master

went into an ecstatic state and said, "I have become! I am here!" Uttering

these words he went into samādhi. His body was motionless. He remained

in that state a long time and then gradually regained partial consciousness

of the world. He began to laugh like a boy and pace the room. His eyes

radiated bliss as if he had seen a wondrous vision. His gaze was not fixed

on any particular object, and his face beamed with joy. Still pacing the

room, the Master said: "I saw the paramahamsa who stayed under the

banyan tree walking thus with just such a smile. Am I too in that state of

mind?"

He sat on the small couch and engaged in conversation with the Divine

Mother.

MASTER: "I don't even care to know. Mother, may I have pure love for

Thy Lotus Feet!

(To M.) "One attains this state immediately after freeing oneself of all grief

and desire.

(To the Divine Mother) "Mother, Thou hast done away with my worship.

Please see, Mother, that I don't give up all desire. Mother, the paramahamsa

is but a child. Doesn't a child need a mother? Therefore Thou art the Mother

and I am the child. How can the child live without the Mother?"

Sri Ramakrishna was talking to the Divine Mother in a voice that would

have melted even a stone. Again he addressed Her, saying: "mere

knowledge of Advaita! I spit on it! Thou doest exist as long as Thou dost

keep the ego in me. The paramahamsa is but a child. Doesn't a child need a

mother?"

M. sat there speechless and looked at the divine manifestation in the Master.

He said to himself: "The Master is an ocean of mercy that knows no motive.

He has kept himself in the state of a paramahamsa that he might, as teacher,

awaken the spiritual consciousness of myself and other earnest souls."

M. further thought: "The Master says, 'Advaita-Chaitanya-Nitayananda';

that is to say, through the knowledge of the Non-dual Brahman one attains

Consciousness and enjoys Eternal Bliss. The master has not only attained

the knowledge of non-duality but is in a state of Eternal Blisss. He is always

drunk with ecstatic love for the Mother of the Universe."

With folded hands Hazara looked at the Master and said every now and

they:"How blessed you are! How blessed you are!"

MASTER ( to Hazra): "But you have hardly any faith; you simply live here

to add to the play, like Jatila and Kutila."

In the afternoon M. paced the temple garden alone. He was deeply absorbed

in the thought of the Master and was pondering the Master's words

concerning the attainment of the exalted state of the paramahamsa, after the

elimination of grief and desire. M.

said to himself: "Who is this Sri Ramakrishna, acting as my teacher? Has

God embodied Himself for our welfare? The master himself says that none

but an Incarnation can come down to the phenomenal plane from the state

of nirvikalpa samādhi."

Monday, December 24, 1883

At eight o'clock in the morning Sri Ramakrishna and M. were talking

together in the pine-grove at the northern end of the temple garden. This

was the eleventh day of M.'s stay with the Master.

It was winter. The sun had just risen. The river was flowing north with the

tide. Not far off could be seen the bel-tree where the Master had practised

great spiritual austerities. Sri Ramakrishna faced the east as he talked to his

disciple and told him about the Knowledge of Brahman.

MASTER: "The formless God is real, and equally real is God with form.

Nangta used to instruct me about the nature of Satchidananda Brahman. He

would say that It is like an infinite ocean-water everywhere, to the right,

left, above, and below. Water enveloped in water. It is the Water of the

Great Cause, motionless. Waves spring up when It becomes active. Its

activities are creation, preservation and destruction.

"Again, he ued to say that Brahman is where reason comes to stop. There is

the instance of camphor. Nothing remains after it is burnt-not even a trace

of ash.

"Brahman is beyond mind and speech. A salt doll entered the ocean to

measure its depth; but it did not return to tell others how deep the ocean

was. It melted in the ocean itself.

"The rishis once said to Rāma: 'O Rāma, sages like Bharadvaja may very

well call you an Incarnation of God, but we cannot do that. We adore the

Word-Brahman. 3 We do not want the human form of God.' Rāma smiled

and went away, pleased with their adoration.

Different manifestations of the Absolute

"But the Nitya and the Lila are the two aspects of the same Reality. As I

have said before, it is like the roof and the steps leading to it. The Absolute

plays in many ways: 397

as Isvara, as the gods, as man, and as the universe. The Incarnation is the

play of the Absolute as man. Do you know how the Absolute plays as man?

It is like the rushing down of water from a big roof through a pipe; the

power of Satchidananda-nay, Satchidananda Itself-descends through the

conduit of a human form as water descends through the pipe. Only twelve

sages, Bharadvaja and the others, recognized Rāma as an Incarnation of

God. Not everyone can recognize an Incarnation.

"It is God alone who incarnates Himself as man to teach people the ways of

love and knowledge. Well, what do you think of me?

"Once my father went to Gaya. There Raghuvir said to him in a dream, 'I

shall be born as your son.' Thereupon my father said to Him: 'O Lord, I am

a poor brahmin. How shall I be able to serve You?' 'Don't worry about it',

Raghuvir replied. 'It will be taken care of.'

"My sister, Hriday's mother, used to worship my feet with flowers and

sandal-paste. One day I placed my foot on her head and said to her, 'You

will die in Benares.'

"Once Mathur Babu said to me: 'Father, there is nothing inside you but God.

Your body is like an empty shell. It may look from outside like a pumpkin,

but inside there is nothing-neither flesh nor seed. Once I saw you as

someone moving with a veil on.'

Master's vision of Gaurānga

(To M.) "I am shown everything beforehand. Once I saw Gaurānga and his

devotees singing kirtan in the Panchavati. I think I saw Balarām there and

you too.

"I wanted to know the experiences of Gaurānga and was shown them at

Syambazar in our native district. A crowd gathered; they even climbed the

trees and the walls; they stayed with me day and night. For seven days I had

no privacy whatever. Thereupon I said to the Divine Mother, 'Mother, I

have had enough of it.'

"I am at peace now. I shall have to be born once more. Therefore I am not

giving all knowledge to my companions. (With a smile) Suppose I give you

all knowledge; will you then come to me again so willingly?

"I recognized you on hearing you read the Chaitanya Bhagavat. You are my

own.

The same substance, like father and son. All of you are coming here again.

When you pull one part of the kalmi creeper, all the branches come toward

you. You are all relatives-like brothers. Suppose Rākhāl, Harish, and the

others had gone to Puri, and you were there too. Would you live separately?

Parable of the grass-eating tiger

"Before you came here, you didn't know who you were. Now you will

know. It is God who, as the guru, makes one know.

"Nangta told the story of the tigress and the herd of goats. Once a tigress

attacked a herd of goats. A hunter saw her from a distance and killed her.

The tigress was pregnant and gave birth to a cub as she expired. The cub

began to grow in the company of the goats. At first it was nursed by the

she-goats, and later on, as it grew bigger, it began to eat grass and bleat like

the goats. Gradually the cub became a big tiger; but still it ate grass and

bleated. When atached by other animals, it would run away, like the goats.

One day a fierce-looking tiger attacked the herd. It was amazed to see a

tiger in the herd eating grass and running away with the goats at its

approach.

It lef the goats and caught hold of the grass-eating tiger, which began to

bleat and tried to run away. But the fierce tiger dragged it to the water and

said: 'Now look at your face in the water. You see, you have the pot-face of

a tiger; it is exactly like mine.'

Next it pressed a piece of meat into its mouth. At first the grass-eating tiger

refused to eat the meat. Then it got the taste of the meat and relished it. At

last the fierce tiger said to the grass-eater: 'What a disgrace! You lived with

goats and ate grass like them!'

And the other was really ashamed of itself.

"Eating grass is like enjoying 'woman and gold'. To bleat and run away like

a goat is to behave like an ordinary man. Going away with the new tiger is

like taking shelter with the guru, who awakens one's spiritual

consciousness, and recognizing him alone as one's relative. To see one's

face rightly is to know one's real Self."

Sri Ramakrishna stood up. There was silence all around, distrubed only the

by the gentle rustling of the pine-needless and the murmuring of the

Ganges. The Master went to the Panchavati and then to his room, talking all

the while with M. The disciple followed him, fascinated. At the Panchavati

Sri Ramakrishan touched with his forehead the raised platform around the

banyan-tree. This was the place of his intense spiritual discipline, where he

had wept bitterly for the vision of the Divine Mother, where he had held

intimate communion with Her, and where he had seen many divine forms.

The maser and M. passed the cluster of bakul-tress and came to the nahabat.

Hazara awas there. The master said to him:" Don't eat too much, and give

up this craze for outer cleanliness. People with a craze do not attain

Knowledge. Follow conventions only as much as necessary. Don't go to

excess." The Master entered his room and sat on the couch.

Sri Ramakrishna was resting after his midday meal when Surendra, Ram,

and other devotees arrived from Calcutta. It was about one o'clock. While

M. was strolling alone under the pine-tress, Harish came there and told him

that the Master wanted him in his room. Someone was going to read from

the 'Śiva Samhita, a book containing instructions about yoga and six

centres.

M. entered the room and saluted the Master. The devotees were seated on

the floor, but no one was reading the book. Sri Ramakrishna was talking to

the devotees.

MASTER:"The gopis cherished escstatic love for Krishna. There are two

elements in such love: 'I-ness' and 'my-ness'. 'I-ness' is the feeling that

Krishna will be ill if 'I' do not serve Him. In this attitude the devotee does

not look upon his Ideal as God.

"'My-ness' is to feel that the Beloved is 'my' own. The gopis had such a

feeling of 'my-ness' toward Krishna that they would place their subtle

bodies under His feet lest His soles should get hurt.

"Yaśoda remarked: 'I don't understand your Chintamani Krishna. To me He

is simply Gopala.' The gopis also said: 'Oh, where is Krishna, our Beloved?

Where is Krishna, our Sweetheart?' They were not conscious of His being

God.

"It is like a small child saying 'my daddy'. If someone says to the child, 'No,

he is not your daddy', the child says, 'Yes, he is my daddy.'

God, incarnated as man, acts like a man

"God, incarnating Himself as man, behave exactly like a man. That is why

it is difficult to recognize an Incarnation. When God becomes man, He is

exactly like man. He has the same hunger, thirst, disease, grief, and

sometimes even fear. Rāma was stricken with grief for Sita. Krishna carried

on His head the shoes and wooden stool of His father Nanda.

"In the theatre, when an actor comes on the stage in the role of a holy man,

he behaves like one, and not like the actor who is taking the part of the

king. He plays his own role.

"Once an impersonator dressed himself as a world-renouncing monk.

Pleased with the correctness of his disguise, some rich people offered him a

rupee. He did not accept the money but went away shaking his head.

Afterwards he removed his disguise and appeared in his usual dress. Then

he said to the rich people, 'Please give me the rupee.'

They replied: 'Why, you went away refusing our present. Why do you ask

for it now?'

The man said: 'But then I was in the role of a holy man. I could not accept

money.'

Likewise, when God becomes man He behaves exactly like a man.

"At Vrindāvan one sees many places associated with Krishna's life."

SURENDRA: "We were there during the holidays. Visitors were

continually pestered for money. The priests and others asked for it

continually. We told them that we were going to leave for Calcutta the next

day, but we fled from Vrindāvan that very night."

MASTER: "What is that? Shame! You said you would leave the place the

next day and ran away that very day. What a shame!"

SURENDRA (embarrassed): "Here and there we saw the babajis in the

woods practising spiritual discipline in solitude."

MASTER: "Did you give them anything?"

SURENDRA: "No, sir."

MASTER: "That was not proper of you. One should give something to

monks and devotees. Those who have the means should help such persons

when they meet them.

Master's reminiscences of Mathura and Vrindāvan "I went to Vrindāvan

with Mathur Babu. The moment I came to the Dhruva Ghat at Mathura, in a

flash I saw Vasudeva crossing the Jamuna with Krishna in his arms.

"One evening I was taking a stroll on the beach of the river. There were

small thatched huts on the beach and big plum-trees. It was the 'cow-dust'

hour. The cows were returning from the pasture, raising dust with their

hoofs. I saw them fording the river.

Then came some cowherd boys crossing the river with their cows. No

sooner did I behold this scene than I cried out, 'O Krishna, whre are You?'

and becam unconscious.

"I wanted to visit Syamakunda and Radhakunda; so Mathur Babu sent me

there in a palanquin. We had a long way to go. Food was put in the

palanquin. While going over the meadow I was overpowerd with emotion

and wept: 'O Krishna, I find everything the same; only You are not here.

This is the very meadow where You tended the cows.'

Hriday followed me on foot. I was bathed in tears. I couldn't ask the bearers

to stop the palanquin.

"At Syamakunda and Radhakunda I saw the holy men living in small mud

huts. Facing away from the road lest their eyes should fall on men, they

were engaged in spiritual discipline. One should visit the 'Twelve Grove'.

"I went in to samdhi at the sight of the image of Bankuvihari. In that state I

wanted to touch it. I did not want to visit Govindaji twice. At Mathura I

dreamt of Krishna as the cowherd boy. Hriday dnd Mathur Babu had the

same dream.

(To Surendra) "You have both-yoga and bhoga. There are different classes

of sages: the brahmarshi, the devarshi, and the rajarshi. Sukadeva is an

example of the brahmarshi. He didn't keep even one book with him. An

example of the devarhi is Nārada. Janaka was a rajarshi, devoted to selfless

work.

"The devotee of the Divine Mother attains dharma and moksha. He enjoys

artha and kama as well. Once I saw you in a vision as the child of the

Divine Mother. You have both-yoga and bhoga; otherwise your

countenance would look dry.

"The man who renounces all looks dry. Once I saw a devotee of the Divine

Mother at the bathing-ghat on the Ganges. He was eating his meal and at

the same time worhipping the Mother. He looked on himself as the Mother's

child.

"But it isn't good to have much money. I find that Jadu Mallick is drowned

in worldliness. It is because he has too much money. Nabin Niyogi, too, has

both yoga and bhoga. I saw him and his son waving the fan before the

image of the Divine Mother at the time of the Durga Puja."

SURENDRA:"Sir, why can't I meditate?"

MASTER:"You remember God and think of Him, don't you?"

SURENDRA:"Yes, sir. I go to sleep repeating the word 'Mother'."

MASTER:"That is very good. It will be enough if you remember God and

think of Him."

Sri Ramakrishna had taken Surendra's responsibilities on himself. Why

should Surendra worry about anything?

It was evening. The Master was sitting on the floor of this room with the

devotees. He was talking to them about yoga and the six centes. These are

described in the Śiva Samhita.

MASTER:"Ida, Pingala, and Sushumna are the three principal nerves. All

the lotuses are located in the Sushumna. They are formed of Consciousness,

like a tree made of wax-the branches, twigs, fruits, and so forth all of wax.

The Kundalini lies in the lotus of the Muladhara. That lotus has four petals.

The Primordial Energy resides in all bodies as the Kundalini. She is like a

sleeping snake coiled up-'of the form of a sleeping snake, having the

Muladhara for Her abode'. (To M.) The Kundalini is speedily awakened if

one follows the path of bhakti. God cannot be seen unless She is awakened.

Sing earnestly and secretly in solitude:

Waken, O Mother! O Kundalini, whose nature is Bliss Eternal!

Thou art the serpent coiled in sleep, in the lotus of the Muladhara.

"Ramprasad achieved perfection through singing. One obtains the vision of

God if one sings with yearning heart."

M: "Grief and distress of mind disappear if one has these experiences but

once."

Proper time for spiritual unfoldment

MASTER: "That is true. Distress of mind disappears for ever. I shall tell

you a few things about yoga. But you see, the mother bird doesn't break the

shell until the chick inside the egg is matured. The egg is hatched in the

fullness of time. It is necessary to practise some spiritual discipline. The

guru no doubt does everything for the disciple; but at the end he makes the

disciple work a little himself. When cutting down a big tree, a man cuts

almost through the trunk; then he stands aside for a moment, and the tree

falls down with a crash.

"The farmer brings water to his field through a canal from the river. He

stands aside when only a little digging remains to be done to connect the

field with the water. Then the earth becomes soaked and falls of itself, and

the water of the river pours into the canal in torrents.

"A man is able to see God as soon as he gets rid of ego and other

limitations. He sees God as soon as he is free from such feelings as 'I am a

scholar', 'I am the son of such and such a person', 'I am wealthy', 'I am

honourable', and so forth.

"'God alone is real and all else unreal; the world is illusory'-that is

discrimination. One cannot assimilate spiritual instruction without

discrimination.

"Through the practice of spiritual discipline one attains perfection, by the

grace of God.

But one must also labour a little. Then one sees God and enjoys bliss. If a

man hears that a jar filled with gold is buried at a certain place, he rushes

there and begins to dig.

He sweats as he goes on digging. After much digging he feels the spade

strike something. Then he throws away the spade and looks for the jar. At

the sight of the jar he dances for joy. Then he takes up the jar and pours out

the gold coins. He takes them into his hand, counts them, and feels the

ecstasy of joy. Vision-touch-enjoyment. Isn't it so?"

M: "Yes, sir."

The Master was silent a moment and then went on.

MASTER: "Those who are my own will come here even if I scold them.

Look at Narendra's nature! At first he used to abuse my Mother Kāli very

much. One day I said to him sharply, 'Rascal! Don't come here any more.'

He slowly left the room and prepared a smoke. He who is one's own will

not be angry even if scolded. What do you say?"

M: "That is true, sir."

MASTER: "Narendra is perfect from his very birth. He is devoted to the

ideal of the formless God."

M. ( smiling): "Whenever he comes here he brings along great excitement."

Sri Ramakrishna smiled and said, "Yes, excitement indeed."

The following day was Tuesday, the ekadasi day of the lunar fortnight. It

was eleven o'clock in the morning and the Master had not yet taken his

meal. M., Rākhāl, and other devotees were sitting in the Master's room.

MASTER (to M.): "One should fast on the eleventh day of the lunar

fortnight. That purifies the mind and helps one to develop love of God. Isn't

that so?"

M: "Yes, sir."

MASTER: "But you may take milk and puffed rice. Don't you think so?"

--------------------

Chapter 18

M. AT DAKSHINESWAR (II)

December 26, 1883

SRI RAMAKRISHNA, accompanied by Manilal Mallick, M., and several

other devotees, was in a carriage on his way to Ram's new garden.

The garden, which Ram had recently purchased, was next to Surendra's.

Ram adored the Master as an Incarnation of God. He visited Sri

Ramakrishna frequently at Dakshineswar. Manilal Mallick was a member

of the Brahmo Samaj. The Brahmos do not believe in Divine Incarnations.

MASTER (to Manilal): "In order to meditate on God, one should try at first

to think of Him as free from upadhis, limitations. God is beyond upadhis.

He is beyond speech and mind. But it is very difficult to achieve perfection

in this form of meditation.

"But it is easy to meditate on an Incarnation-God born as man. Yes, God in

man. The body is a mere covering. It is like a lantern with a light burning

inside, or like a glass case in which one sees precious things."

Arriving at the garden, the Master got out of the carriage and accompanied

Ram and the other devotees to the sacred tulsi-grove. Standing near it, he

said: "How nice! It is a fine place. You can easily meditate on God here."

Sri Ramakrishna sat down in the house, which stood to the south of the

lake. Ram offered him a plate of fruit and sweets which he enjoyed with the

devotees. After a short time he went around the garden.

Next Sri Ramakrishna proceeded toward Surendra's garden. He walked on

foot a little distance and saw a sādhu sitting on a couch under a tree. At

once he went up to the holy man and joyfully began a conversation with

him.

MASTER: "To which order of monks do you belong? Have you any title-

Giri, Puri, or the like?"

SĀDHU: "People call me a paramahamsa."

Brahman and Śakti identical

MASTER: "That is good. 'I am Śiva'-that is a good attitude. But I must tell

you something else. The process of creation, preservation, and destruction

that is going on day and night is due to Śakti, the Power of God. This

Primal Power and Brahman are one and the same. Śakti cannot exist

without Brahman, just as waves cannot exist without water. There cannot be

any instrumental music without an instrument.

"As long as God keeps us in His relative world, so long we feel that there

are two. If one accepts Śakti, one accepts Brahman as well. If one is aware

of night, one is also aware of day. If one is aware of knowledge, one is also

aware of ignorance.

"But there is another state in which God reveals to His devotee that

Brahman is beyond both knowledge and ignorance. It cannot be described

in words. What exists, exists."

After a pleasant conversation with the sādhu, the Master returned to the

carriage, the holy man walking with him. Sri Ramakrishna looked upon him

as a friend of long acquaintance, and they walked arm in arm.

The Master arrived at Surendra's garden. The very first thing he talked

about was the sādhu.

MASTER: "He is a very nice man. (To Ram) Bring him to Dakshineswar

when you come.

He is really a good man. There is a line in a song to the effect that a man

cannot recognize a holy person unless he is holy himself.

Many forms of divine manifestation

"The sādhu believes in God without form. That is good. God is both

formless and endowed with form. He is many things more. The Absolute

and the Relative belong to one and the same Reality. What is beyond speech

and mind is born in the flesh, assuming various forms and engaging in

various activities. From that one Om have sprung 'Om Śiva', 'Om Kāli', and

'Om Krishna'. Suppose the master of a house has sent out a small boy of the

family to invite people to a feast. All look on the boy with great fondness

and affection because he is the son or grandson of a prominent man."

The Master took refreshments at Surendra's garden house and then set out

for Dakshineswar with the devotees.

Thursday, December 27, 1883

The temple garden was filled with the sweet music of the dawn service;

which mingled with the morning melody from the nahabat. Leaving his bed,

Sri Ramakrishna chanted the names of God in sweet tones. Then he bowed

before the pictures of the different deities in his room and went to the west

porch to salute the Ganges.

Some of the devotees who had spent the night at the temple garden came to

the Master's room and bowed before him. Rākhāl was staying with the

Master, and Baburam had come the previous evening. M. had been staying

there two weeks.

Sri Ramakrishna said to M.: "I have been invited to Ishan's this morning.

Baburam will accompany me, and you too." M. made ready to go with the

Master.

At eight o'clock the carriage hired for the Master stood waiting in front of

the nahabat.

On all sides plants and trees were in flower, and the river sparkled in the

sunlight of the bright winter's day. The Master bowed once more before the

pictures. Then, still chanting the name of the Divine Mother, he got into the

carriage, followed by M. and Baburam. The devotees took with them Sri

Ramakrishna's woolen shawl, woolen cap, and small bag of spices.

Sri Ramakrishna was very happy during the trip and enjoyed it like a child.

About nine o'clock the carriage stopped at the door of Ishan's house.

Ishan and his relatives greeted the Master and led him to the parlour on the

first floor.

Shrish, Ishan's son, was introduced to Sri Ramakrishna. The young man

practised law at Alipur. He had been a brilliant student, having stood first in

two of the university examinations, but he was extremely modest.

MASTER (to Shrish): "What is your profession?"

SHRISH: "I am practising law at Alipur."

MASTER (to M.): "For such a man to be a lawyer! (To Shrish) Well, have

you any questions to ask? Perhaps you want to know how to live unattached

in the world. Isn't that so?"

SHRISH: "Under the pressure of duties people do many unrighteous things

in the world.

Further, some are engaged in good work, and some in evil. Is this due to

their actions in previous births? Is that why they act this way?"

Duties and ceremonial devotions

MASTER: "How long should a man perform his duties? As long as he has

not attained God. Duties drop away after the realization of God. Then one

goes beyond good and evil. The flower drops off as soon as the fruit

appears. The flower serves the purpose of begetting the fruit.

"How long should a devotee perform daily devotions such as the sandhya?

As long as his hair does not stand on end and his eyes do not shed tears at

the name of God. These things indicate that the devotee has realized God.

From these one knows that he has attained pure love of God. Realizing God

one goes beyond virtue and vice.

I bow my head, says Prasad, before desire and liberation; Knowing the

secret that Kāli is one with the highest Brahman, I have discarded, once for

all, both righteousness and sin.

"The more you advance toward God, the less He will give you worldly

duties to perform."

SHRISH: "It is extremely difficult to proceed toward God while leading the

life of a householder."

Practice of God-communion

MASTER: "Why so? What about the yoga of practice? At Kamarpukur I

have seen the women of the carpenter families selling flattened rice. Let me

tell you how alert they are while doing their business. The pestle of the

husking-machine that flattens the paddy constantly falls into the hole of the

mortar. The woman turns the paddy in the hole with one hand and with the

other holds her baby on her lap as she nurses it. In the mean time customers

arrive. The machine goes on pounding the paddy, and she carries on her

bargains with the customers'. She says to them, 'Pay the few pennies you

owe me before you take anything more.' You see, she has all these things to

do at the same time-nurse the baby, turn the paddy as the pestle pounds it,

take the flattened rice out of the hole, and talk to the buyers. This is called

the yoga of practice. Fifteen parts of her mind out of sixteen are fixed on

the pestle of the husking-machine, lest it should pound her hand. With only

one part of her mind she nurses the baby and talks to the buyers. Likewise,

he who leads the life of a householder should devote fifteen parts of his

mind to God; otherwise he will face ruin and fall into the clutches of Death.

He should perform the duties of the world with only one part of his mind.

"A man may lead the life of a householder after attaining Knowledge. But

he must attain Knowledge first. If the milk of the mind is kept in the water

of the world, they get mixed. Therefore he should turn the milk into curd

and extract butter from it by churning it in solitude; then he may keep the

butter in the water of the world.

Therefore, you see, spiritual discipline is necessary. When the Aśwattha tree

is a mere sapling, it must be enclosed by a fence; otherwise the cattle will

eat it. But the fence may be taken away when the trunk grows thick and

strong. Then even an elephant tied to the tree cannot harm it.

Necessity of spiritual discipline

"Therefore at the beginning the aspirant should go into solitude now and

then. Spiritual discipline is necessary. You want to eat rice; suppose you sit

down somewhere and say, 'Wood contains fire and fire cooks rice.' Can

saying it cook the rice? You must get two pieces of wood and by rubbing

them together bring out the fire.

"By eating siddhi one becomes intoxicated and feels happy. But suppose

you haven't eaten the stuff or done anything else with it; you simply sit

down somewhere and mutter, 'Siddhi! siddhi!' Will that intoxicate you or

make you happy?

"You may learn a great deal from books; but it is all futile if you have no

love for God and no desire to realize Him. A mere pundit, without

discrimination and renunciation, has his attention fixed on 'woman and

gold'. The vulture soars very high but its eyes are fixed on the charnel-pit.

"That alone is knowledge through which one is able to know God. All else

is futile. Well, what is your idea about God?"

SHRISH: "Sir, I feel that there is an All-knowing Person. We get an

indication of His Knowledge by looking at His creation. Let me give an

illustration. God has made devices to keep fish and other aquatic animals

alive in cold regions. As water grows colder, it gradually shrinks. But the

amazing thing is that, just before turning into ice, the water becomes light

and expands. In the freezing cold, fish can easily live in the water of a lake:

the surface of the lake may be frozen, but the water below is all liquid.

If a very cool breeze blows, it is obstructed by the ice. The water below

remains warm."

MASTER: "That God exists may be known by looking at the universe. But

it is one thing to hear of God, another thing to see God, and still another

thing to talk to God. Some have heard of milk, some have seen it, and some,

again, have tasted it. You feel happy when you see milk; you are nourished

and strengthened when you drink it. You will get peace of mind only when

you have seen God. You will enjoy bliss and gain strength only when you

have talked to Him."

SHRISH: "We do not have time to pray to God."

MASTER (with a smile): "That is true. Nothing comes to pass except at the

right time.

Going to bed, a child said to his mother, 'Mother, please wake me up when I

feel the call of nature.' 'My son,' said the mother, 'that urge itself will wake

you up. I don't have to wake you.'

"It is all decided beforehand by God what each one shall receive. A mother-

in-law used to measure rice with a dish for her daughters-in-law. But it was

not enough for them.

One day the dish was broken and that made the girls happy. But the mother-

in-law said to them, 'Children, you may shout and dance, but I can measure

the rice with the palm of my hand.'

Self-surrender to God

(To Shrish): "Surrender everything at the feet of God. What else can you

do? Give Him the power of attorney. Let Him do whatever He thinks best.

If you rely on a great man, he will never injure you.

Illustration of monkey and kitten

"It is no doubt necessary to practise spiritual discipline; but there are two

kinds of aspirants. The nature of the one kind is like that of the young

monkey, and the nature of the other kind is like that of the kitten. The young

monkey, with great exertion, somehow clings to its mother. Likewise, there

are some aspirants who think that in order to realize God they must repeat

His name a certain number of times, meditate on Him for a certain period,

and practise a certain amount of austerity. An aspirant of this kind makes

his own efforts to catch hold of God. But the kitten, of itself, cannot cling to

its mother. It lies on the ground and cries, 'Mew, mew!' It leaves everything

to its mother. The mother cat sometimes puts it on a bed, sometimes on the

roof behind a pile of wood. She carries the kitten in her mouth hither and

thither. The kitten doesn't know how to cling to the mother. Likewise, there

are some aspirants who cannot practise spiritual discipline by calculating

about japa or the period of meditation. All that they do is cry to God with

yearning hearts. God hears their cry and cannot keep Himself away. He

reveals Himself to them."

At noon the host wished to feed the Master and the devotees. Sri

Ramakrishna was smilingly pacing the room. Now and then he exchanged a

few words with the musician.

MUSICIAN: "It is God alone who is both the 'instrument' and the 'cause'.

Duryodhana said to Krishna: 'O Lord, Thou art seated in my heart. I act as

Thou makest me act.'"

MASTER (with a smile): "Yes, that is true. It is God alone who acts through

us. He is the Doer, undoubtedly, and man is His instrument. But it is also

true that an action cannot fail to produce its result. Your stomach will

certainly burn if you eat hot chilli. It is God who has ordained that chilli

will burn your stomach. If you commit a sin, you must bear its fruit. But

one who has attained perfection, realized God, cannot commit sin. An

expert singer cannot sing a false note. A man with a trained voice sings the

notes correctly: sa, re, ga, ma, pa, dha, ni."

The meal was ready. The Master and the devotees went to the inner court,

where they were treated to a generous feast.

About. three o'clock in the afternoon the Master was seated again in Ishan's

drawing-room with M. and Shrish. He resumed his conversation with

Shrish.

MASTER: "What is your attitude toward God? 'I am He', or 'Master and

servant'? For the householder it is very good to look on God as the Master.

The householder is conscious of doing the duties of life himself. Under such

conditions how can he say, 'I am He'? To him who says, 'I am He' the world

appears to be a dream. His mind, his body, even his ego, are dreams to him.

Therefore he cannot perform worldly duties. So it is very good for the

householder to look on himself as the servant and on God as the Master.

"Hanuman had the attitude of a servant. He said to Rāma: 'O Rāma,

sometimes I meditate on You as the whole and on myself as the part.

Sometimes I feel that You are the Master and I am the servant. But when I

have the Knowledge of Reality, I see that I am You and You are I.'

"In the state of Perfect Knowledge one may feel, 'I am He'; but that is far

beyond the ordinary man's experience."

SHRISH: "That is true, sir. The attitude of a servant relieves a man of all his

worries.

The servant depends entirely upon his master. A dog is devoted to its

master. It depends upon him and is at peace."

God with form and the formless Deity

MASTER: "Well, what suits your taste-God with form or the formless

Reality? But to tell you the truth, He who is formless is also endowed with

form. To His bhaktas He reveals Himself as having a form. It is like a great

ocean, an infinite expanse of water, without any trace of shore. Here and

there some of the water has been frozen. Intense cold has turned it into ice.

Just so, under the cooling influence, so to speak, of the bhakta's love, the

Infinite appears to take a form. Again, the ice melts when the sun rises; it

becomes water as before. Just so, one who follows the path of knowledge -

the path of discrimination-does not see the form of God any more. To him

everything is formless.

The ice melts into formless water with the rise of the Sun of Knowledge.

But mark this: form and formlessness belong to one and the same Reality."

At dusk the Master was ready to start for Dakshineswar. He stood on the

south porch of the drawing-room, talking to Ishan. Someone remarked that

the chanting of God's holy name did not always produce results. Ishan said:

"How can you say that? The seeds of an Aśwattha tree are no doubt tiny,

but in them lie the germs of big trees. It may take a very long time for them

to grow."

"Yes, Yes!" said the Master. "It takes a long time to see the effect."

Next to Ishan's was his father-in-law's house. Sri Ramakrishna stood at the

door of this house, ready to get into the carriage. Ishan and his friends stood

around to bid him adieu. Sri Ramakrishna said to Ishan: "You are living in

the world as a mudfish lives in the mud. It lives in the mud but its body is

not stained.

"There are both vidyā and avidyā in this world of maya. Who may be called

a paramahamsa? He who, like a swan, can take the milk from a mixture of

milk and water, leaving aside the water. He who, like an ant, can take the

sugar from a mixture of sugar and sand, leaving aside the sand."

It was evening. The Master stopped at Ram's house on his way to

Dakshineswar. He was taken to the drawing-room and there he engaged in

conversation with Mahendra Goswami. Mahendra belonged to the

Vaishnava sect and was Ram's neighbour. Sri Ramakrishna was fond of

him.

MASTER: "The worshippers of Vishnu and the worshippers of Śakti will

all ultimately reach one and the same goal; the ways may be different. The

true Vaishnavas do not criticize the Saktas."

GOSWAMI (smiling): "Śiva and Parvati are our Father and Mother." Sri

Ramakrishna, out of his stock of a dozen English words, said sweetly,

"Thank you!" Then he added, "Yes, Father and Mother!"

GOSWAMI: "Besides, it is a sin to criticize anyone, especially a devotee of

God. All sins may be forgiven, but not the sin of criticizing a devotee."

MASTER: "But this idea of sin does not by any means affect all. For

instance, the Isvarakotis, such as Incarnations of God, are above sin. Sri

Chaitanya is an example.

"A child, walking on a narrow ridge and holding to his father, may slip into

the ditch. But that can never happens if the father holds the child by the

hand.

The Master's prayer for pure love

"Listen. I prayed to the Divine Mother for pure love. I said to Her: 'Here is

Thy righteousness, here is Thy unrighteousness. Take them both and give

me pure love for Thee. Here is Thy purity, here is Thy impurity. Take them

both and give me pure love for Thee. O Mother, here is Thy virtue, here is

Thy vice. Take them both and give me pure love for Thee.' "

GOSWAMI: "Yes, sir. That is right."

Unswerving devotion to God

MASTER: "You should undoubtedly bow before all views. But there is a

thing called unswerving devotion to one ideal. True, you should salute

everyone. But you must love one ideal with your whole soul. That is

unswerving devotion.

"Hanuman could not take delight in any other form than that of Rāma. The

gopis had such single-minded love for the cowherd Krishna of Vrindāvan

that they did not care to see the turbaned Krishna of Dwaraka.

"A wife may serve her husband's brothers by fetching water, or in other

ways, but she cannot serve them in the way she does her husband. With him

she has a special relationship."

Ram treated the Master to sweets.

Sri Ramakrishna was ready to start for

Dakshineswar. He put on his woolen shawl and cap, and got into the

carriage with M.

and the other devotees. Ram and his friends saluted the Master.

Saturday, December 29, 1883

It was the day of the new moon, auspicious for the worship of the Divine

Mother. At one o'clock in the afternoon Sri Ramakrishna got into a carriage

to visit the temple of Kāli at Kalighat. He intended to stop at Adhar's house

on the way, since Adhar was to accompany him to the temple. While the

carriage was waiting near the north porch of the Master's room, M. went to

the Master and said, "Sir, may I also go with you?"

MASTER: "Why?"

M: "I should like to visit my home in Calcutta."

Sri Ramakrishna reflected a moment and said: "Must you go home? Why?

You are quite all right here."

M. wanted to see his people a few hours, but evidently the Master did not

approve.

Sunday, December 30, 1883

At three o'clock in the afternoon, while M. was walking up and down under

a tree, a devotee came to him and said that the Master had sent for him. M.

went to Sri Ramakrishna's room and found a number of devotees there. He

saluted the Master.

Ram, Kedār, and others had arrived from Calcutta. Ram had brought with

him the Vedantist monk whom the Master had visited near his garden a few

days earlier. On that occasion Sri Ramakrishna had asked him to bring the

sādhu to Dakshineswar.

The monk was sitting on the small couch with the Master. They were

talking happily in Hindusthani.

MASTER: "What do you feel about all this?"

MONK: "It is all like a dream."

MASTER: "Brahman alone is real and the world illusory. Well sir, what is

Brahman?"

MONK: "Brahman is the Sound. It is Om."

MASTER: "But there must be something indicated by the sound. Isn't that

so?"

MONK: "That Itself is the thing indicated as well as the indicator."

At these words Sri Ramakrishna went into samādhi and sat motionless. The

monk and the devotees looked wonderingly at him in his ecstatic condition.

Kedār said to the monk: "Look at him, sir. This is samādhi."

The monk had read of samādhi but had never seen it before. After a few

minutes the Master began gradually to come down to the normal plane of

consciousness. He said to the Divine Mother: "Mother, I want to be normal.

Please don't make me unconscious. I should like to talk to the sādhu about

Satchidananda. Mother, I want to be merry talking about Satchidananda."

The monk was amazed to see the Master's condition and to hear these

words. Sri Ramakrishna said to him: "Please do away with your 'I am He'.

Let us now keep 'I' and 'Thou' to enjoy the fun."

A little later the Master was walking in the Panchavati with Ram, Kedār,

M., and the other devotees.

MASTER (to Kedār, with a smile): "What did you think of the sādhu?"

KEDĀR: "It is all dry knowledge. The pot has just been put on the fire, but

as yet there is no rice in it."

MASTER: "That may be true. But he has renounced everything. He who

has renounced the world has already made great progress. The sādhu

belongs to the stage of the beginner. Nothing can be achieved without the

realization of God. When a man is intoxicated with ecstatic love of God, he

dosn't take delight in anything else. Then-Cherish my precious Mother

Syama Tenderly within, O mind;

May you and I alone behold Her,

Letting no one else intrude."

Kedār repeated the words of a song in keeping with the Master's feeling:

How shall I open my heart, O friend?

It is forbidden me to speak.

I am about to die, for lack of a kindred soul

To understand my misery. . . .

Sri Ramakrishna returned to his room. About four o'clock the door of the

Kāli temple was opened, and the Master walked to the temple with the

monk; M. accompanied them. Entering the inner chamber, the Master

prostrate himself reverently before the image. The monk, with folded hands,

also bowed his head repeatedly before Kāli.

MASTER: "What do you think of Kāli?"

MONK (with devotion): "Kāli is supreme."

MASTER: "Kāli and Brahman are identical. Is that not so?"

MONK: "As long as one's mind is turned to the outer world, one must

accept Kāli. As long as a man sees the outer world, and discriminates

between good and evil, he must accept good and reject evil. To be sure, all

names and forms are illusory; but as long as the mind sees the outer world,

the aspirant must give up woman. The ideas of good and evil are applied to

one who is still a student on the path; otherwise he will stray from the path

of righteousness.

Thus conversing, the Master and the monk returned from the temple.

MASTER (to M.): "Did you notice that the sādhu bowed before Kāli?"

M: "Yes, sir."

Monday, December 31, 1883

At four o'clock in the afternoon the Master was sitting in his room with M.,

Rākhāl, Lātu, Harish, and other devotees.

Addressing M. and Balarām, the Master said: "Haladhāri followed the path

of knowledge.

Day and night he used to study the Upanishads, the Adhyātma Rāmāyana,

and similar books on Vedānta. He would turn up his nose at the mention of

the forms of God. Once I ate from the leaf-plates of the beggars. At this

Haladhāri said to me, 'How will you be able to marry your children?' I said:

'You rascal! Shall I ever have children? May your mouth that repeats words

from the Gitā and the Vedānta be blighted!' Just fancy! He declared that the

world was illusory and, again, would meditate in the temple of Vishnu with

turned-up nose."

In the evening Balarām and the other devotees returned to Calcutta. The

Master remained in his room, absorbed in contemplation of the Divine

Mother: After a while the sweet music of the evening worship in the

temples was heard.

A little later the Master began to talk to the Mother in a tender voice that

touched the heart of M., who was seated on the floor. After repeating, "Hari

Om! Hari Om! Om!", the Master said: "Mother, don't make me unconscious

with the Knowledge of Brahman.

Mother, I don't want Brahmajnana. I want to be merry. I want to play."

Again he said: "Mother, I don't know the Vedānta; and Mother, I don't even

care to know. The Vedas and the Vedānta remain so far below when Thou

art realized, O Divine Mother!" Then he said: "O Krishna, I shall say to

Thee, 'Eat, my Child! Take this, my Child!' O Krishna, I shall say to Thee,

'My Child, Thou hast assumed this body for my sake.' "

Wednesday, January 2, 1884

Rākhāl , Lātu, Harish, Ramlal, and M. had been staying with Sri

Ramakrishna at the temple garden. About three o'clock in the afternoon M.

found the Master on the west porch of his room engaged in conversation

with a Tantrik devotee. The Tantrik was wearing an ochre cloth. Sri

Ramakrishna asked M. to sit by his side. Perhaps the Master intended to

instruct him through his talk with the Tantrik devotee. Mahima Chakravarty

had sent the latter to the Master.

MASTER (to the Tantrik): "It is a part of the Tantrik discipline to drink

wine from a human skull. This wine is called 'karana'. Isn't that so?"

TANTRIK: "Yes, sir."

MASTER: "But I cannot touch wine at all."

TANTRlK: "You have spontaneous Divine Bliss. One who enjoys that Bliss

wants nothing else."

MASTER: "I don't care for japa and austerity. But I have constant

remembrance and consciousness of God.

"Tell me, when they speak of the six centres, what do they mean?"

TAN'TRIK: "These are like different holy places. In each of the centres

dwell Śiva and Śakti. One cannot see them with the physical eyes. One

cannot take them out by cutting open the body."

M. listened silently to the conversation. Looking at him, the Master asked

the Tantrik devotee, "Can a man attain perfection without the help of a vija

mantra, a sacred word from the guru?"

TANTRIK: "Yes, he can if he has faith-faith in the words of the guru."

The Master turned to M. and said, drawing his attention, "Faith!"

After the Tantrik devotee had taken his leave, Jaygopal Sen, a member of

the Brahmo Samaj, arrived. The Master talked with him.

MASTER (to Jaygopal): "One should not harbour malice toward any person

or any opinion. The believers in the formless God and the worshippers of

God with form are all, without exception, going toward God alone. The

Jnāni, the yogi, the bhakta-all, without exception, are seeking Him alone.

The follower of the path of knowledge calls Him 'Brahman'. The yogi calls

Him 'Ātman' or 'Paramatman'. The bhakta calls Him 'Bhagavan'. Further, it

is said that there is the Eternal Lord and His Eternal Servant."

JAYGOPAL: "How can we know that all paths are true?"

MASTER: "A man can reach God if he follows one path rjghtly. Then he

can learn about all the other paths. It is like reaching the roof by some

means or other. Then one is able to climb down by the wooden or stone

stairs, by a bamboo pole, or even by a rope.

"A devotee can know everything when God's grace descends on him. If you

but realize Him, you will be able to know all about Him. You should

somehow meet the master of a house and become acquainted with him; then

he himself will tell you how many houses he owns and all about his gardens

and government seurities."

How to receive God's grace

JAYGOPAL: "How does one receive the grace of God?"

MASTER: "Constantly you have to chant the name and glories of God and

give up worldly thoughts as much as you can. With the greatest effort you

may try to bring water into your field for your crops, but it may all leak out

through holes in the ridges. Then all your efforts to bring the water by

digging a canal will be futile.

"You will feel restless for God when your heart becomes pure and your

mind free from attachment to the things of the world. Then alone will your

prayer reach God. A telegraph wire cannot carry messages if it has a break

or some other defect.

"I used to cry for God all alone, with a longing heart. I used to weep, 'O

God, where art Thou?' Weeping thus, I would lose all consciousness of the

world. My mind would merge in the Mahāvāyu.

Renunciation of worldly attachment

"How can one attain yoga? By completely renouncing attachment to

worldly things. The mind must be pure and without blemish, like the

telegraph wire that has no defect.

Unselfish love of God

"One must not cherish any desire whatever. The devotion of a man who has

any desire is selfish. But desireless devotion is love for its own sake. You

may love me or not, but I love you: this is love for its own sake.

"The thing is that one must love God. Through intense love one attains the

vision of Him. The attraction of the husband for the chaste wife, the

attraction of the child for its mother, the attraction of worldly possessions

for the worldly man-when a man can blend these three into one, and direct

it all to God, then he gets the vision of God."

Jaygopal was a man of the world. Was this why the Master gave instruction

suited to him?

At eight o'clock that evening the Master was sitting in his room with Rākhāl

and M. It was the twenty-first day of M.'s stay with Sri Ramakrishna. The

Master had forbidden him to indulge in reasoning.

Futility of reasoning

MASTER (to Rākhāl): "It is not good to reason too much. First comes God,

and then the world. Realize God first; then you will know all about His

world. (To M. and Rākhāl ) If first one is introduced to Jadu Mallick, then

one can know everything about him-the number of his houses, gardens,

government securities, and so on. For this reason the rishi Nārada advised

Valmiki1 to repeat the word 'mara'. 'Ma' means God, and 'ra' the world. First

comes God, and then the world. Krishnakishore said that the word 'mara' is

a holy mantra because it was given to Valmiki by the rishi. 'Ma' means God,

and 'rā' the world.

"Therefore, like Valmiki, one should at first renounce everything and cry to

God in solitude with a longing heart. The first thing necessary is the vision

of God; then comes reasoning-about the scriptures and the world.

(To M.) "That is why I have been telling you not to reason any more. I came

from the pine-grove to say that to you. Through too much reasoning your

spiritual life will be injured; you will at last become like Hazra. I used to

roam at night in the streets, all alone, and cry to the Divine Mother, 'O

Mother, blight with Thy thunderbolt my desire to reason!' Tell me that you

won't reason any more."

M: "Yes, sir. I won't reason any more."

MASTER: "Everything can be achieved through bhakti alone. Those who

want the Knowledge of Brahman will certainly achieve that also by

following the trail of bhakti.

"Can a man blessed with the grace of God ever lack Knowledge? At

Kamarpukur I have seen grain-dealers measuring paddy. As one heap is

measured away another heap is pushed forward to be measured. The

Mother supplies the devotees with the 'heap' of Knowledge. .

"After attaining God, one looks on a pundit as mere straw and dust.

Padmalochan said to me: 'What does it matter if I accompany you to a

meeting at the house of a fisherman? With you I can dine even at the house

of a pariah.'

"Everything can be realized simply through love of God. If one is able to

love God, one does not lack anything. Kartika and Ganesa were seated near

Bhagavati, who had a necklace of gems around Her neck. The Divine

Mother said to them, 'I will present this necklace to him who is the first to

go around the universe.' Thereupon Kartika, without losing a moment, set

out on the peacock, his carrier. Ganesa, on the other hand, in a leisurely

fashion went around the Divine Mother and prostrated himself before Her.

He knew that She contained within Herself the entire universe. The Divine

Mother was pleased with him and put the necklace around his neck. After a

long while Kartika returned and found his brother seated there with the

necklace on.

The Master's visions

"Weeping, I prayed to the Mother: 'O Mother, reveal to me what is

contained in the Vedas and the Vedānta. Reveal to me what is in the Purana

and the Tantra.' One by one She has revealed all these to me.

"Yes, She has taught me everything. Oh, how many things she has shown

me! One day She showed me Śiva and Śakti everywhere. Everywhere I saw

the comunion of Śiva and Śakti. Śiva and Śakti existing in all living things-

men, animals, trees, plants. I saw them in the communion of all male and

female elements.

"Another day I was shown heaps of human heads, mountain high. Nothing

else existed, and I was seated alone in their midst.

"Still another day She showed me an ocean. Taking the form of a salt doll, I

was going to measure its depth. While doing this, through the grace of the

guru I was turned to stone. Then I saw a ship and at once got into it.

The helmsman was the guru. I hope you pray every day to Satchidananda,

who is the Guru. Do you?"

M: "Yes, sir."

MASTER: "The guru was the helmsman in that boat. I saw that 'I' and 'you'

were two different things. Again I jumped into the ocean, and was changed

into a fish. I found myself swimming joyfully in the Ocean of

Satchidananda.

"These are all deep mysteries. What can you understand through reasoning?

You will realize everything when God Himself teaches you. Then you will

not lack any knowledge."

Friday, January 4, 1884

Sri Ramakrishna was sitting in his room. M. was still staying with the

Master, devoting his time to the practice of spiritual discipline. He had been

spending a great part of each day in prayer and meditation under the bel-

tree, where the Master had performed great austerities and had seen many

wonderful visions of God.

Master exhorts M. not to reason & Different attitudes toward God

MASTER (to M.): "Don't reason any more. In the end, reasoning only

injures the aspirant. One should assume a particular attitude toward God

while praying to Him-the attitude of friend or servant or son or 'hero'.

"I assume the attitude of a child. To me every woman is my mother. The

divine Maya, seeing this attitude in an aspirant, moves away from his path

out of sheer shame.

"The attitude of 'hero' is extremely difficult. The Saktas and the Bauls

among the Vaishnavas follow it, but it is very hard to keep one's spiritual

life pure in that attitude.

One can assume other attitudes toward God as well the attitude in which the

devotee serenely contemplates God as the Creator, the attitude of service to

Him, the attitude of friendship, the attitude of motherly affection, or the

attitude of conjugal love. The conjugal relationship, the attitude of a woman

to her husband or sweetheart, contains all the rest-serenity, service,

friendship, and motherly affection. (To M.) Which one of these appeals to

your mind?"

M: "I like them all."

MASTER: "When one attains perfection one takes delight in all these

relationships. In that state a devotee has not the slightest trace of lust. The

holy books of the Vaishnavas speak of Chandidas and the washerwoman.

Their love was entirely free from lust.

"In that state a devotee looks on himself as a woman. He does not regard

himself as a man. Sanatana Goswami refused to see Mirabai because she

was a woman. Mira informed him that at Vrindāvan the only man was

Krishna and that all others were His handmaids. 'Was it right of Sanatana to

think of himself as a man?' Mira inquired."

Master and the Brahmo Samaj

At dusk M. was sitting at the Master's feet. Sri Ramakrishna had been told

that Keshab's illness had taken a turn for the worse. He was talking about

Keshab and incidentally about the Brahmo Samaj.

MASTER (to M.): "Do they only give lectures in the Brahmo Samaj? Or do

they also meditate? I understand that they call their service in the temple

'upasana'.

"Keshab at one time thought a great deal of Christianity and the Christian

views. At that time, and even before, he belonged to Devendranath Tagore's

organization."

M: "Had Keshab Babu come here from the very beginning, he would not

have been so preoccupied with social reform. He would not have been so

busy with the abolition of the caste system, widow remarriage, intercaste

marriage, women's education, and such social activities."

MASTER: "Keshab now believes in Kāli as the Embodiment of Spirit and

Consciousness, the Primal Energy. Besides, he repeats the holy name of the

Mother and chants Her glories.

"Do you think the Brahmo Samaj will develop in the future into a sort of

social-reform organization?"

M: "The soil of this country is different. Only what is true survives here."

MASTER: "Yes, that is so. The Sanatana Dharma, the Eternal Religion

declared by the rishis, will alone endure. But there will also remain some

sects like the Brahmo Samaj.

Everything appears and disappears through the will of God."

Earlier in the afternoon several devotees from Calcutta had visited the

Master and had sung many songs. One of the songs contained the following

idea: "O Mother, You have cajoled us with red toys. You will certainly

come running to us when we throw them away and cry ourselves hoarse for

You."

MASTER (to M.): "How well they sang about the red toys!"

M: "Yes, sir. You once told Kesbab about the red toys."

MASTER: "Yes. I also told him about the Chidakasa, the Inner

Consciousness, and about many other things. Oh, how happy we were! We

used to sing and dance together."

Saturday, January 5, 1884

It was the twenty-third day of M.'s stay with Sri Ramakrishna. M. had

finished his midday meal about one o'clock and was resting in the nahabat

when suddenly he heard someone call his name three or four times. Coming

out, he saw Sri Ramakrishna calling to him from the verandah north of his

room.

M. saluted the Master and they conversed on the south verandah.

MASTER: "I want to know how you meditate. When I meditated under the

bel-tree I used to see various visions clearly. One day I saw in front of me

money, a shawl, a tray of sandesh and two women. I asked my mind, 'Mind,

do you want any of these?' I saw the sandesh to be mere filth. One of the

women had a big ring in her nose. I could see both their inside and outside-

entrails, filth, bone, flesh, and blood. The mind did not want any of these-

money, shawl, sweets, or women. It remained fixed at the Lotus Feet of

God.

"A small balance has two needles, the upper and the lower. The mind is the

lower needle. I was always afraid lest the mind should move away from the

upper needle-God. Further, I would see a man always sitting by me with a

trident in his hand. He threatened to strike me with it if the lower needle

moved away from the upper one.

"But no spiritual progress is possible without the renunciation of 'woman

and gold'. I renounced these three: land, wife, and wealth. Once I went to

the Registry Office to register some land, the title of which was in the name

of Raghuvir. The officer asked me to sign my name; but I didn't do it,

because I couldn't feel that it was 'my' land. I was shown much respect as

the guru of Keshab Sen. They presented me with mangoes, but I couldn't

carry them home. A sannyasi cannot lay things up.

"How can one expect to attain God without renunciation? Suppose one

thing is placed upon another; how can you get the second without removing

the first?

"One must pray to God without any selfish desire. But selfish worship, if

practised with perseverance, is gradually turned into selfless worship.

Dhruva practised tapasya to obtain his kingdom, but at last he realized God.

He said, 'Why should a man give up gold if he gets it while searching for

glass beads?'

Master and philanthropy

"God can be realized when a man acquires sattva. Householders engage in

philanthropic work, such as charity, mostly with a motive. That is not good.

But actions without motives are good. Yet it is very difficult to leave

motives out of one's actions.

"When you realize God, will you pray to Him, 'O God, please grant that I

may dig reservoirs, build roads, and found hospitals and dispensaries'?

After the realization of God all such desires are left behind.

"Then mustn't one perform acts of compassion, such as charity to the poor?

I do not forbid it. If a man has money, he should give it to remove the

sorrows and sufferings that come to his notice. In such an event the wise

man says, 'Give the poor something.'

But inwardly he feels: 'What can I do? God alone is the Doer. I am nothing.'

"The great souls, deeply affected by the sufferings of men, show them the

way to God.

Sankaracharya kept the 'ego of Knowledge' in order to teach mankind. The

gift of knowledge and devotion is far superior to the gift of food. Therefore

Chaitanyadeva distributed bhakti to all, including the outcaste. Happiness

and suffering are the inevitable characteristics of the body. You have come

to eat mangoes. Fulfil that desire. The one thing needful is jnāna and bhakti.

God alone is Substance; all else is illusory.

"It is God alone who does everything. You may say that in that case man

may commit sin. But that is not true. If a man is firmly convinced that God

alone is the Doer and that he himself is nothing, then he will never make a

false step.

Meaning of free will

"It is God alone who has planted in man's mind what the 'Englishman' calls

free will.

People who have not realized God would become engaged in more and

more sinful actions if God had not planted in them the notion of free will.

Sin would have increased if God had not made the sinner feel that he alone

was responsible for his sin.

"Those who have realized God are aware that free will is a mere

appearance. In reality man is the machine and God its Operator, man is the

carriage and God its Driver."

It was about four o'clock. Rākhāl and several other devotees were listening

to a kirtan by M. in the hut at the Panchavati. Rākhāl went into a spiritual

mood while listening to the devotional song. After a while the Master came

to the Panchavati accompanied by Baburam and Harish. Other devotees

followed.'

RĀKHĀL: "How well he [referring to M.] sang kirtan for us! He made us

all very happy."

The Master sang in an ecstatic mood:

O friends, how great is my relief

To hear you chanting Krishna's name! . . .

To the devotees he said, "Always sing devotional songs" Continuing, he

said: "To love God and live in the company of the devotees: that is all.

What more is there?" He said, again: "When Krishna went to Mathura,

Yaśoda came to Radha, who was absorbed in meditation. Afterwards Radha

said to Yaśoda: 'I am the Primordial Energy. Ask a boon of Me.' 'What other

boon shall I ask of You?' said Yaśoda. Only bless me that I may serve God

with my body, mind, and tongue; that I may behold His devotees with these

eyes, that I may meditate on Him with this mind, and that I may chant His

name and glories with this tongue.'

"But those who are firmly established in God may do as well without the

devotees. This is true of those who feel the presence of God both within and

without. Sometimes they don't enjoy the devotees' company. You don't

whitewash a wall inlaid with mother of pearl-the lime won't stick."

The Master returned presently from the Panchavati, talking to M.

MASTER: "You have the voice of a woman. Can't you practise a song such

as this?

Tell me, friend, how far is the grove

Where Krishna, my Beloved, dwells?

(To M., pointing to Baburam) "You see, my own people have become

strangers; Ramlal and my other relatives seem to be foreigners. And

strangers have become my own.

Don't you notice how I tell Baburam to go and wash his face? The devotees

have become relatives.

(Looking at the Panchavati) "I used to sit there. In course of time I became

mad. That phase also passed away. Kala, Śiva, is Brahman. That which

sports with Kala is Kāli, the Primal Energy. Kāli moves even the

Immutable."

Saying this, the Master sang:

My mind is overwhelmed with wonder,

Pondering the Mother's mystery;

Her very name removes

The fear of Kala, Death himself;

Beneath Her feet lies Maha-Kala. . . .

Then he said to M.: "Today is Saturday. Go to the temple of Kāli."

As the Master came to the bakul-tree he spoke to M. again: "Chidatma and

ChitŚakti.

The Purusha is the Chidatma and Prakriti the ChitŚakti. Sri Krishna is the

Chidatma and Sri Radha the ChitŚakti. The devotees are so many forms of

the ChitŚakti. They should think of themselves as companions or

handmaids of the ChitŚakti, Sri Radha. This is the whole gist of the thing.'"

After dusk Sri Ramakrishna went to the Kāli temple and was pleased to see

meditating there.

The evening worship was over in the temples. The Master returned to his

room and sat on the couch, absorbed in meditation on the Divine Mother.

M. sat on the floor. There was no one else in the room.

The Master was in samādhi. He began to come gradually down to the

normal plane. His mind was still filled with the consciousness of the Divine

Mother. In that state he was speaking to Her like a small child making

importunate demands on his mother. He said in a piteous voice: "Mother,

why haven't You revealed to me that form of Yours, the form that bewitches

the world? I pleaded with You so much for it. But You wouldn't listen to

me. You act as You please."

The voice in which these words were uttered was very touching.

He went on: "Mother, one needs faith. Away with this wretched reasoning!

Let it be blighted! One needs faith-faith in the words of the guru, childlike

faith. The mother says to her child, 'A ghost lives there'; and the child is

firmly convinced that the ghost is there. Again, the mother says to the child,

'A holy man is there', and the child is sure of it. Further, the mother says,

pointing to a man, 'He is your elder brother', and the child believes that the

man is one hundred and twenty-five per cent his brother. One needs faith.

But why should I blame them, Mother? What can they do? It is necessary to

go through reasoning once. Didn't You see how much I told him about it the

other day? But it all proved useless."

Master's prayer to the Divine Mother

The Master was weeping and praying to the Mother in a voice choked with

emotion. He prayed to Her with tearful eyes for the welfare of the devotees:

"Mother, may those who come to You have all their desires fulfilled! But

please don't make them give up everything at once, Mother. Well, You may

do whatever You like in the end. If You keep them in the world, Mother,

then please reveal Yourself to them now and then.

Otherwise, how will they live? How will they be encouraged if they don't

see You once in a while? But You may do whatever You like in the end."

Advice to M

The Master was still in the ecstatic mood. Suddenly he said to M: "Look

here, you have had enough of reasoning. No more of it. Promise that you

won't reason any more."

M. (with folded hands): "Yes, sir. I won't."

MASTER: "You have had enough of it. When you came to me the first

time, I told you your spiritual Ideal. I know everything about you, do I

not?"

M. (with folded hands): "Yes, sir."

MASTER: "Yes, I know everything: what your Ideal is, who you are, your

inside and outside, the events of your past lives, and your future. Do I not?"

M. (with folded hands): "Yes, sir."

MASTER: "I scolded you on learning that you had a son. Now go home

and live there.

Let them know that you belong to them. But you must remember in your

heart of hearts that you do not belong to them nor they to you."

M. sat in silence. The Master went on instructing him.

MASTER: "You have now learnt to fly. But keep your loving relationship

with your father. Can't you prostrate yourself before him?"

M. (with folded hands): "Yes, sir. I can."

MASTER: "What more shall I say to you? You, know everything. You

understand, don't you?"

M. sat there without uttering a word.

MASTER: "You have understood, haven't you?"

M: "Yes, sir, I now understand a little."

MASTER: "No, you understand a great deal. Rākhāl 's father is pleased

about his staying here."

M. remained with folded hands.

MASTER: "Yes, what you are thinking will also come to pass."

Sri Ramakrishna now came down to the normal state of mind. Rākhāl and

Ramlal entered the room. At the Master's bidding Ramlal sang: Who is the

Woman yonder who lights the field of battle?

Darker Her body gleams even than the darkest storm-cloud And from Her

teeth there Bash the lightning's blinding flames…

He sang again:

Who is this terrible Woman, dark as the sky at midnight?

Who is this Woman dancing over the field of battle?...

MASTER: "The Divine Mother and the earthly mother. It is the Divine

Mother who exists in the form of the universe and pervades everything as

Consciousness. The earthly mother gives birth to this body. I used to go into

samādhi uttering the word 'Ma'. While repeating the word I would draw the

Mother of the Universe to me, as it were, like the fishermen casting their

net and after a while drawing it in. When they draw in the net they find big

fish inside it.

"Gauri once said that one attains true Knowledge when one realizes the

identity of Kāli and Gaurānga. That which is Brahman is also Śakti, Kāli. It

is That, again, which, assuming the human form, has become Gaurānga."

At the Master's request, Ramlal sang again, this time about Gaurānga.

MASTER (to M.): "The Nitya and the Lila are the two aspects of the

Reality. God, plays in the world as man for the sake of His devotees. They

can love God only if they see Him in a human form; only then can they

show their affection for Him as their Brother, Sister, Father, Mother, or

Child.

"It is just for this love of the devotees that God contracts Himself into a

human form and descends on earth to play His lila."

--------------------

Chapter 19

THE MASTER AND HIS INJURED ARM

Saturday, February 2, 1884

IT WAS THREE O'CLOCK in the afternoon. Sri Ramakrishna had been

conversing with Rākhāl , Mahimacharan, Hazra, and other devotees, when

M. entered the room and saluted him. He brought with him splint, pad, and

lint to bandage the Master's injured arm.

Master's injured arm

One day, while going toward the pine-grove, Sri Ramakrishna had fallen

near the railing and dislocated a bone in his left arm. He had been in an

ecstatic mood at the time and no one had been with him.

MASTER (to M.): "Hello! What was ailing you? Are you quite well now?"

M: "Yes, sir, I am all right now."

MASTER (to Mahima): "Well, if I am the machine and God is its operator,

then why should this have happened to me?"

The Master was sitting on the couch, listening to the story of

Mahimacharan's pilgrimage. Mahima had visited several holy places twelve

years before.

MAHlMA: "I found a brahmachari in a garden at Sicrole in Benares. He

said he had been living there for twenty years but did not know its owner.

He asked me if I worked in an office. On my answering in the negative, he

said, 'Then are you a wandering holy man?'

I saw a sādhu on the bank of the Narmada. He repeated the Gayatri

mentally. It so thrilled him that the hair on his body stood on end. And

when he repeated the Gayatri and Om aloud, it thrilled those who sat near

him and caused their hair to stand on end."

The Master was in the mood of a child. Being hungry he said to M., "What

have you brought for me?" Looking at Rākhāl he went into samādhi.

He was gradually coming down to the normal plane. To bring his mind back

to the consciousness of the body, he said: "I shall eat some jilipi. I shall

drink some water."

Weeping like a child, he said to the Divine Mother: "O Brahmamayi! O

Mother! Why hast Thou done this to me? My arm is badly hurt. (To the

devotees) Will I be all right again?"

They consoled him, as one would a child, and said: "Surely. You will be

quite well again."

MASTER (to Rākhāl): "You aren't to blame for it, though you are living

here to look after me; for even if you had accompanied me, you certainly

wouldn't have gone up to the railing."

The Master again went into a spiritual mood and said: "Om! Om! Om!

Mother, what is this that I am saying? Don't make me unconscious, Mother,

with the Knowledge of Brahman. Don't give me Brahmajnana. I am but Thy

child. I am easily worried and frightened. I want a Mother. A million

salutations to the Knowledge of Brahman! Give it to those who seek it. O

Ānandamayi! O Blissful Mother!"

Uttering loudly the word "Ānandamayi", he burst into tears and said:

Mother, this is the grief that sorely grieves my heart.

That even with Thee for Mother, and though I am wide awake, There should

be robbery in my house.

Again he said to the Divine Mother: "What wrong have I done, Mother? Do

I ever do anything? It is Thou, Mother, who doest everything. I am the

machine and Thou art its Operator.

(To Rākhāl, smiling) "See that you don't fall! Don't be piqued and cheat

yourself."

Again addressing the Mother, Sri Ramakrishna said: "Do I weep because I

am hurt? Not at all:

Mother, this is the grief that sorely grieves my heart, That even with Thee

for Mother, and though I am wide awake, There should be robbery in my

house."

The Master was again talking and laughing, like a child who, though ailing,

sometimes forgets his illness and laughs and plays about.

MASTER (to the devotees): "It will avail you nothing unless you realize

Satchidananda.

There is nothing like discrimination and renunciation. The worldly man's

devotion to God is momentary―like a drop of water on a redhot frying-pan.

Perchance he looks at a flower and exclaims, 'Ah, what a wonderful

creation of God!'

Yearning for God

"One must be restless for God. If a son clamours persistently for his share

of the property, his parents consult with each other and give it to him even

though he is a minor. God will certainly listen to your prayers if you feel

restless for Him. Since He has begotten us, surely we can claim our

inheritance from Him. He is our own Father, our own Mother. We can force

our demand on Him. We can say to him, 'Reveal Thyself to me or I shall cut

my throat with a knife!' "

Sri Ramakrishna taught the devotees how to call on the Divine Mother.

Master's prayer to the Divine Mother MASTER: "I used to pray to Her

in this way: 'O Mother! O Blissful One! Reveal Thyself to me. Thou must!'

Again, I would say to Her: 'O Lord of the lowly! O Lord of the universe!

Surely I am not outside Thy universe. I am bereft of knowledge. I am

without discipline. I have no devotion. I know nothing. Thou must be

gracious and reveal Thyself to me.' "

Thus the Master taught the devotees how to pray. They were deeply

touched. Tears filled Mahimacharan's eyes.

Sri Ramakrishna looked at him and sang:

Cry to your Mother Syama with a real cry, O mind!

And how can She hold Herself from you?

How can Syama stay away?

Several devotees arrived from Shibpur. Since they had come from a great

distance the Master could not disappoint them. He told them some of the

essentials of spiritual life.

MASTER: "God alone is real, and all else illusory. The garden and its

owner. God and His splendour. But people look at the garden only. How

few seek out the owner!"

Prayer and discrimination

A DEVOTEE: "Sir, what is the way?"

MASTER: "Discrimination between the Real and the unreal. One should

always discriminate to the effect that God alone is real and the world unreal.

And one should pray with sincere longing."

DEVOTEE: "But, sir, where is our leisure for these things?"

MASTER: "Those who have the time must meditate and worship. But those

who cannot possibly do so must bow down whole-heartedly to God twice a

day. He abides in the hearts of all; He knows that worldly people have many

things to do. What else is possible for them? You don't have time to pray to

God; therefore give Him the power of attorney. But all is in vain unless you

attain God and see Him."

ANOTHER DEVOTEE: "Sir, to see you is the same as to see God."

MASTER: "Don't ever say that again. The waves belong to the Ganges, not

the Ganges to the waves. A man cannot realize God unless he gets rid of all

such egotistic ideas as 'I am such an important man' or 'I am so and so'.

Level the mound of 'I' to the ground by dissolving it with tears of devotion."

DEVOTEE: "Why has God put us in the world?"

MASTER: "To perpetuate His creation. It is His will, His maya. He has

deluded man with 'woman and gold'."

DEVOTEE: "Why has He deluded us? Why has He so willed?"

MASTER: "If but once He should give man a taste of divine joy, then man

would not care to lead a worldly life. The creation would come to an end.

"The grain-dealer stores rice in huge bags in his warehouse. Near them he

puts some puffed rice in a tray. This is to keep the rats away. The puffed

rice tastes sweet to the rats and they nibble at it all night; they do not seek

the rice itself. But just think! One seer of rice yields fourteen seers of puffed

rice. How infinitely superior is the joy of God to the pleasure of 'woman

and gold'! To one who thinks of the beauty of God, the beauty of even

Rambha and Tilottama appears as but the ashes of a funeral pyre."

DEVOTEE: "Why do we not feel intense restlessness to realize Him?"

MASTER: "A man does not feel restless for God until all his worldly

desires are satisfied.

He does not remember the Mother of the Universe until his share of the

enjoyment of 'woman and gold' is completed. A child absorbed in play does

not seek his mother. But after his play is over, he says, 'Mother! I must go to

my mother.' Hriday's son was playing with the pigeons, calling to them,

'Come! Ti, ti!' When he had had enough of play he began to cry. Then a

stranger came and said: 'Come with me. I will take you to your mother.'

Unhesitatingly he climbed on the man's shoulders and was off.

"Those who are eternally free do not have to enter worldly life. Their desire

for enjoyment has been satisfied with their very birth."

At five o'clock in the afternoon Dr. Madhusudan arrived. While he prepared

the bandage for the Master's arm, Sri Ramakrishna laughed like a child and

said, "You are the Madhusudan of both this world and the next!"

DR. MADHUSUDAN (smiling): "I only labour under the weight of my

name."

The power of God's name

MASTER (smiling): "Why, is the name a trifling thing? God is not different

from His name. Satyabhama tried to balance Krishna with gold and

precious stones, but could not do it. Then Rukmini put a tulsi-leaf with the

name of Krishna on the scales. That balanced the Lord."

The doctor was ready to bandage the Master's arm. A bed was spread on the

floor and the Master, laughing, lay down upon it. He said, intoning the

words: "Ah! This is Radha's final stage. But Brinde says, 'Who knows what

is yet to be?' "

The devotees were sitting around the Master. He sang: The gopis all were

gathered about the shore of the lake.

Sri Ramakrishna laughed and the devotees laughed with him.

After his arm was bandaged he said: "I haven't very much faith in your

Calcutta physicians. When Sambhu became delirious, Dr. Sarvadhikari said:

'Oh, it is nothing.

It is just grogginess from the medicine. And a little while after, Sambhu

breathed his last."

It was evening and the worship in the temples was over. A few minutes later

Adhar arrived from Calcutta to see the Master. Mahimacharan, Rākhāl , and

M. were in the room.

ADHAR: "How are you?"

MASTER (affectionately): "Look here. How my arm hurts! (Smiling) You

don't have to ask how I am!"

Adhar sat on the floor with the devotees. The Master said to him, "Please

stroke here gently." Adhar sat on the end of the couch and gently stroked Sri

Ramakrishna's feet.

The Master conversed with Mahimācharan.

MASTER: "It will be very good if you can practise unselfish love for God.

A man who has such love says: 'O Lord, I do not seek salvation, fame,

wealth, or cure of disease. None of these do I seek. I want only Thee.' Many

are the people who come to a rich man with various desires. But if someone

comes to him simply out of love, not wanting any favour, then the rich man

feels attracted to him. Prahlada had this unselfish love, this pure love for

God without any worldly end."

Mahimacharan sat silent. The Master turned to him.

Ego separates one from Brahman

MASTER: "Now let me tell you something that will agree with your mood.

According to the Vedānta one has to know the real nature of one's own Self.

But such knowledge is impossible without the renunciation of ego. The ego

is like a stick that seems to divide the water in two. It makes you feel that

you are one and I am another. When the ego disappears in samādhi, then

one knows Brahman to be one's own inner consciousness.

"One must renounce the 'I' that makes one feel, 'I am Mahima Chakravarty',

'I am a learned man', and so on. But the 'ego of Knowledge' does not injure

one.

Sankaracharya retained the 'ego of Knowledge' in order to teach mankind.

Warning about lust

"One cannot obtain the Knowledge of Brahman unless one is extremely

cautious about women. Therefore it is very difficult for those who live in

the world to get such Knowledge. However clever you may be, you will

stain your body if you live in a sooty room. The company of a young

woman evokes lust even in a lustless man.

"But it is not so harmful for a householder who follows the path of

knowledge to enjoy conjugal happiness with his own wife now and then. He

may satisfy his sexual impulse like any other natural impulse. Yes, you may

enjoy a sweetmeat once in a while.

(Mahimacharan laughs.) It is not so harmful for a householder.

Hard discipline for sannyasi

"But it is extremely harmful for a sannyasi. He must not look even at the

portrait of a woman. A monk enjoying a woman is like a man swallowing

the spittle he has already spat out. A sannyasi must not sit near a woman

and talk to her, even if she is intensely pious. No, he must not talk to a

woman even though he may have controlled his passion.

"A sannyasi must renounce both 'woman' and 'gold'. As he must not look

even at the portrait of a woman, so also he must not touch gold, that is to

say, money. It is bad for him even to keep money near him, for it brings in

its train calculation, worry, insolence, anger, and such evils. There is an

instance in the sun: it shines brightly; suddenly a cloud appears and hides it.

"That is why I didn't agree to the Mārwāri's depositing money for me with

Hriday. I said: 'No, I won't allow even that. If I keep money near me, it will

certainly raise clouds.'

"Why all these strict rules for a sannyasi? It is for the welfare of mankind as

well as for his own good. A sannyasi may himself lead an unattached life

and may have controlled his passion, but he must renounce 'woman and

gold' to set an example to the world.

"A man will have the courage to practise renunciation if he sees one

hundred percent renunciation in a sannyasi. Then only will he try to give up

'woman and gold'. If a sannyasi does not set this example, then who will?

"One may lead a householder's life after realizing God. It is like churning

butter from milk and then keeping the butter in water. Janaka led the life of

a householder after attaining Brahmajnana.

"Janaka fenced with two swords, the one of jnāna and the other of karma.

The sannyasi renounces action; therefore he fences with one sword only,

that of knowledge. A householder, endowed with knowledge like Janaka's,

can enjoy fruit both from the tree and from the ground. He can serve holy

men, entertain guests, and do other things like that. I said to the Divine

Mother, 'O Mother, I don't want to be a dry sādhu.'

"After attaining Brahmajnana one does not have to discriminate even about

food. The rishis of olden times, endowed with the Knowledge of Brahman

and having experienced divine bliss, ate everything, even pork.

(To Mahima) "Generally speaking there are two kinds of yoga: karmayoga

and manoyoga, that is to say, union with God through work and through the

mind.

Four stages of life

"There are four stages of life: brahmacharya, garhasthya, Vanaprastha, and

sannyas.

During the first three stages a man has to perform his worldly duties. The

sannyasi carries only his staff, water-pot, and begging-bowl. He too may

perform certain nityakarma, but his mind is not attached to it; he is not

conscious of doing such work.

Some sannyasis perform nityakarma to set an example to the world. If a

householder or a man belonging to the other stages of life performs action

without attachment, then he is united with God through such action.

"In the case of a paramahamsa, like Sukadeva, all karmas-all puja, japa,

tarpan, sandhya, and so forth-drop away. In this state a man communes with

God through the mind alone. Sometimes he may be pleased to perform

outward activities for the welfare of mankind. But his recollection and

contemplation of God remain uninterrupted."

It was about eight o'clock in the evening. Sri Ramakrishna asked

Mahimacharan to recite a few hymns from the scriptures. Mahima read the

first verse of the Uttara Gitā, describing the nature of the Supreme

Brahman:

He, Brahman, is one, partless, stainless, and beyond the ether; Without

beginning or end, unknowable by mind or intelligence.

Finally he came to the seventh verse of the third chapter, which reads: The

twice-born worships the Deity in fire,

The munis contemplate Him in the heart,

Men of limited wisdom see Him in the image,

And the yogis who have attained samesightedness Behold Him everywhere.

No sooner did the Master hear the words "the yogis who have attained

samesightedness"

than he stood up and went into samādhi, his arm supported by the splint and

bandage.

Speechless, the devotees looked at this yogi who had himself attained the

state of samesightedness.

After a long time the Master regained consciousness of the outer world and

took his seat. He asked Mahima to recite verses describing the love of God.

The latter recited from the Nārada Pancharatra:

What need is there of penance if God is worshipped with love?

What is the use of penance if God is not worshipped with love?

What need is there of penance if God is seen within and without?

What is the use of penance if God is not seen within and without?

O Brahman! O my child! Cease from practising further penances.

Hasten to Sankara, the Ocean of Heavenly Wisdom; Obtain from Him the

love of God, the pure love praised by devotees,

Which snaps in twain the shackles that bind you to the world.

MASTER: "Ah! Ah!"

On hearing these verses the Master was about to go again into an ecstatic

mood, but he restrained himself with effort.

Mahima read from the Yati–Panchaka:

I am She, the Divine Mother, in whom the illusion of the universe of

animate and inanimate things is seen, as in magic, and in whom the

universe shines, being the play of Her mind. I am She, the Embodiment of

Consciousness, who is the Self of the universe, the only Existence,

Knowledge, and Bliss.

When the Master heard the line, "I am She, the Embodiment of

Consciousness", he said with a smile, "Whatever is in the microcosm is also

in the macrocosm."

Next Mahima read the Six Stanzas of Nirvāna: Om. I am neither mind,

intelligence, ego, nor chitta, Neither ears nor tongue nor the senses of smell

and sight; Nor am I ether, earth, fire, water, or air:

I am Pure Knowledge and Bliss: I am Śiva! I am Śiva!

I am neither the prana, nor the five vital breaths, Neither the seven elements

of the body nor its five sheaths, Nor hands nor feet nor tongue, nor the

organs of sex and voiding:

I am Pure Knowledge and Bliss: I am Śiva! I am Śiva!

Neither loathing nor liking have I, neither greed nor delusion; No sense

have I of ego or pride, neither dharma nor moksha; Neither desire of the

mind nor object for its desiring: I am Pure Knowledge and Bliss: I am Śiva!

I am Śiva!

Neither right nor wrong doing am I, neither pleasure nor pain, Nor the

mantra, the sacred place, the Vedas, the sacrifice; Neither the act of eating,

the eater, nor the food: I am Pure Knowledge and Bliss: I am Śiva! I am

Śiva!

Death or fear I have none, nor any distinction of caste; Neither father nor

mother nor even a birth have I; Neither friend nor comrade, neither disciple

nor guru: I am Pure Knowledge and Bliss: I am Śiva! I am Śiva!

I have no form or fancy; the All-pervading am I; Eyerywhere I exist, yet I

am beyond the senses; Neither salvation am I, nor anything that may be

known: I am Pure Knowledge and Bliss: I am Śiva! I am Śiva!

Each time Mahima repeated: "I am Śiva! I am Śiva!", the Master rejoined

with a smile: "Not I! Not I! Thou art Knowledge Absolute."

Mahima read a few more verses and also a description of the six psychic

centres of the body. He said that in Benares he had witnessed the death of a

yogi in the state of yoga.

MAHIMA: "There are fine passages in the Rāma Gitā."

MASTER: "You are speaking of the Rāma Gitā. Then you must be a

staunch Vedantist.

How many books of that kind the sādhus used to read here!"

Mahima recited the description of Om:

It is like the unceasing flow of oil; like the long peal of a bell.

About the characteristics of samādhi he read: "The man established in

samādhi sees the upper region filled with Ātman, the nether region filled

with Ātman, the middle region filled with Ātman. He sees all filled with

Ātman."

Adhar and Mahima saluted the Master and departed.

At noon the following day, after his midday meal, Sri Ramakrishna was

sitting on the small couch, when Ram, Surendra, and a few other devotees

arrived from Calcutta.

They were worried about the Master's injured arm. The arm was bandaged.

was present.

MASTER (to the devotees): "The Mother has put me in such a state of mind

that I cannot hide anything from anyone. Mine is the condition of a child.

Rākhāl doesn't understand it. He covers my injured arm, wrapping my body

with a cloth lest others should see my injury and criticize me. He took Dr.

Madhu aside and reported my illness. But I shouted and said: 'Hello! Where

are you, Madhusudan? Come and see. My arm is broken!'

"I used to sleep in the same room with Mathur and his wife. They took care

of me as if I were their own child. I was then passing through a state of

divine madness. Mathur would ask me, 'Father, do you hear our

conversation?' 'Yes', I would reply.

"Once Mathur's wife became suspicious of his movements and said to him,

'If you go anywhere, he must accompany you.' One day Mathur went to a

certain place and asked me to wait downstairs. He returned after half an

hour and said to me: 'Come, father, let us go now. The carriage is waiting.'

When Mathur's wife asked me about it, I reported the thing correctly. I said

to her: 'We went to a certain house. He told me to stay downstairs and

himself went upstairs. He came down after half an hour and we left the

place.' Of course she understood the thing in her own way.

"A partner of Mathur's estate used to take fruits and vegetables stealthily

from the temple garden. When the other partners asked me about it, I told

them the exact truth."

Sunday, February 24, 1884

Sri Ramakrishna was resting in his room after his midday meal, and Mani

Mallick was sitting on the floor beside him, when M. arrived. M. saluted the

Master and sat down beside Mani. The Master's injured arm was bandaged.

MASTER (to M.): "How did you come?"

M: "I came as far as Alambazar in a carriage and from there I walked."

MANILAL: "Oh, he is so hot!"

MASTER (with a smile): "This makes me think that all these are not mere

fancies of my brain. Otherwise why should these 'Englishmen' take so much

trouble to come here?"

Sri Ramakrishna began to talk to them about his health and his injured arm.

Master's childlike impatience

MASTER: "Now and then I become impatient about my arm. I show it to

this or that man and ask him whether I shall get well again. That makes

Rākhāl angry. He doesn't understand my mood. Now and then I say to

myself, 'Let him go away.' Again I say to the Mother: 'Mother, where will

he go? Why should he burn himself in the frying-pan of the world?'

"This childlike impatience of mine is nothing new. I used to ask Mathur

Babu to feel my pulse and tell me whether I was ill.

"Well, where then is my faith in God? Once I was going to Kamarpukur in a

bullock-cart, when several persons came up to the cart with clubs in their

hands. They looked like highwaymen. I began to chant the names of the

gods. Sometimes I repeated the names of Rāma and Durga, and some times

'Om Tat Sat', so that in case one failed another would work.

(To M.) "Can you tell me why I am so impatient?"

M: "Your mind, sir, is always absorbed in samādhi. You have kept a fraction

of it on your body for the welfare of the devotees. Therefore you feel

impatient now and then for your body's safety."

MASTER: "That is true. A little of the mind is attached to the body. It

wants to enjoy the love of God and the company of the devotees."

Mani Mallick told the Master about an exhibition that was being held in

Calcutta. He described a beautiful image of Yaśoda with the Baby Krishna

on her lap. Sri Ramakrishna's eyes filled with tears. On hearing about

Yaśoda, the embodiment of maternal love, his spiritual consciousness was

kindled and he wept.

MANILAL: "If you were not unwell, you could visit the exhibition in the

Maidan."

MASTER (to M. and the others): "I shan't be able to see everything even if

I go. Perhaps my eyes will fall on some certain thing and I shall become

unconscious. Then I shall not be able to see the rest. I was taken to the

Zoological Garden. I Went into samādhi at the sight of the lion, for the

carrier of the Mother awakened in my mind the consciousness of the

Mother Herself. In that state who could see the other animals? I had to

return home after seeing only the lion. Hence Jadu Mallick's mother first

suggested that I should go to the exhibition and then said I should not."

Mani Mallick, about sixty-five years old, had been a member of the Brahmo

Samaj for many years, and Sri Ramakrishna gave him instruction that

would agree with his mood.

MASTER: "Pundit Jaynarayan had very liberal views. I visited him once

and liked his attitude. But his sons wore high boots. He told me he intended

to go to Benares and live there, and at last he carried out his intention; for

later on he did live in Benares and die there. When one grows old one

should retire, like Jaynarayan, and devote oneself to the thought of God.

What do you say?"

MANILAL: "True, sir. I don't relish the worries and troubles of the world."

MASTER: "Gauri used to worship his wife with offerings of flowers. All

women are manifestations of the Divine Mother. (To Manilal) Please tell

them that little story of yours."

MANILAL (smiling): "Once several men were crossing the Ganges in a

boat. One of them, a pundit, was making a great display of his erudition,

saying that he had studied various books-the Vedas, the Vedānta, and the six

systems of philosophy. He asked a fellow passenger, 'Do you know the

Vedānta?' 'No, revered sir.' 'The Samkhya and the Patanjala?' 'No, revered

sir.' 'Have you read no philosophy whatsoever?' 'No, revered sir.' The pundit

was talking in this vain way and the passenger sitting in silence, when a

great storm arose and the boat was about to sink. The passenger said to the

pundit, 'Sir, can you swim?' 'No', replied the pundit. The passenger said, 'I

don't know the Samkhya or the Patanjala, but I can swim.' "

MASTER (smiling): "What will a man gain by knowing many scriptures?

The one thing needful is to know how to cross the river of the world. God

alone is real, and all else illusory.

"While Arjuna was aiming his arrow at the eye of the bird, Drona asked

him: 'What do you see? Do you see these kings?' 'No, sir', replied Arjuna.

'Do you 'See me'?' 'No.' 'The tree?' 'No.' 'The bird on the tree?' 'No.' 'What

do you see then?' 'Only the eye of the bird.'

"He who sees only the eye of the bird can hit the mark. He alone is clever

who sees that God is real and all else is illusory. What need have I of other

information? Hanuman once remarked: 'I don't know anything about the

phase of the moon or the position of the stars. I only contemplate Rāma.'

(To M.) "Please buy a few fans for our use here.

(To Manilal) "Look here, pay a visit to his [meaning M.'s] father. The sight

of a devotee will inspire you.

God's manifestation as man

(To M.) "Since my arm was injured a deep change has come over me. I now

delight only in the Naralila, the human manifestation of God. Nitya and

Lila. The Nitya is the Indivisible Satchidananda, and the Lila, or Sport,

takes various forms, such as the Lila as God, the Lila as the deities, the Lila

as man, and the Lila as the universe.

"Vaishnavcharan. used to say that one has attained Perfect Knowledge if

one believes in God sporting as man. I wouldn't adopt it then. But now I

realize that he was right.

Vaishnavcharan liked pictures of man expressing tenderness and love.

(To Manilal) "It is God Himself who is sporting in the form of man. It is He

alone, who has become Mani Mallick. The Sikhs teach: 'Thou art

Satchidananda.'

"Now and then man catches a glimpse of his real Self and becomes

speechless with wonder. At such times he swims in an ocean of joy. It is

like suddenly meeting a dear relative. (To M.) The other day as I was

coming here in a carriage, I felt like that at the sight of Baburam. When

Śiva realizes His own Self, He dances about in joy exclaiming, 'What am I!

What am I!'

"The same thing has been described in the Adhyātma Rāmāyana. Nārada

said, 'O Rāma, all men are Thy forms, and it is Sita who has become all

women.' On looking at the actors in the Ramlila, I felt that Narayana

Himself had taken these human forms. The genuine and the imitation

appeared to be the same.

"Why do people worship virgins? All women are so many forms of the

Divine Mother.

But Her manifestation is greatest in pure-souled virgins.

(To M.) "Why do I become impatient when I am ill? Because the Mother

has placed me in the state of a child. The child depends entirely on its

mother. The child of the maidservant, when he quarrels with the child of the

master, says, 'I shall tell my mother.'

"I was taken to Radhabazar to be photographed. It had been arranged that I

should go to Rajendra Mitra's house that day. I heard that Keshab would be

there. I planned to tell them certain things, but I forgot it all when I went to

Radhabazar. I said: 'O Mother, Thou wilt speak. What shall I say?'

"I have not the nature of a Jnāni. He considers himself great. He says,

'What? How can I be ill?'

"Koar Singh once said to me, 'You still worry about your body.' But it is my

nature to believe that my Mother knows everything. It was She who would

speak at Rajendra Mitra's house. Hers are the only effective words. One ray

of light from the Goddess of Wisdom stuns a thousand scholars.

"The Mother has kept me in the state of a bhakta, a vijnāni. That is why I

joke with Rākhāl and the others. Had I been in the condition of a Jnāni I

couldn't do that.

"In this state I realize that it is the Mother alone who has become

everything. I see Her everywhere. In the Kāli temple I found that the

Mother Herself had become everything-even the wicked, even the brother

of Bhagavat Pundit.

"Once I was about to scold Ramlal's mother, but I had to restrain myself. I

saw her to be a form of the Divine Mother. I worship virgins because I see

in them the Divine Mother. My wife strokes my feet, but I salute her

afterwards.

"You salute me by touching my feet. But had Hriday been here, who would

have dared to touch them? He wouldn't have allowed anyone to do it. I have

to return your salutes because the Mother has placed me in a state in which

I see God in everything.

"You see, one cannot exclude even a wicked person. A tulsi-leaf, however

dry or small, can be used for worship in the temple."

Sunday, March 2, 1884

Trailokya's songs

Sri Ramakrishna was sitting on the small couch in his room, listening to

devotional music by Trailokya Sannyal of the Brahmo Samaj. He had not

yet recovered from the effects of the injury to his arm, which was still

supported by a splint. Many devotees, including, Narendra, Srendra, and

M., were sitting on the floor.

Narendra's father, a lawyer of the High Court of Calcutta, had passed away

suddenly.

He had not been able to make provision for the family, which consequently

faced grave financial difficulties. The members of the family sometimes

had to go without food.

Narendra was therefore passing his days in great anxiety.

Trailokya sang about the Divine Mother:

O Mother, I hide myself in Thy loving bosom;

I gaze at Thy face and cry out, "Mother! Mother!"

I sink in the Sea of Bliss and am lost to sense In yoga-sleep; I gaze with

unwinking eyes

Upon Thy face, powerless to turn away.

O Mother, I am terrified by this world;

My spirit trembles and cries out in fear.

Keep me, sweet Mother, in Thy loving bosom;

Cover me with the spreading skirt of Thy love.

The Master shed tears of love and cried out, "Ah me! Ah me!"

Trailokya sang again:

O Lord, Destroyer of my shame! Who but Thyself can save The honour of

Thy devotee?

Thou art the Ruler of my soul, my very life's Support, And I am Thy slave

for evermore. . . .

He continued:

Seeking a shelter at Thy feet,

I have forever set aside

My pride of caste and race, O Lord,

And turned my back on fear and shame.

A lonely pilgrim on life's way,

Where shall I go for succour now?

For Thy sake, Lord, I bear men's blame;

They rail at me with bitter words

And hate me for my love of Thee.

Both friends and strangers use me ill.

Thou art the Guardian of my name;

Thou mayest save or slay me, Lord!

Upon the honour of Thy servant

Rests, O Lord, Thy name as well;

Thou art the Ruler of my soul,

The glow of love within my heart;

Do with me as it pleases Thee!

Once more he sang:

Lord, Thou hast taken me from home and made me captive with Thy love;

Shield me for ever at Thy feet, O Thou Beloved One!

Upon the Nectar of Thy love, feed me both day and night, And save

Premdas, who is Thy slave.

The Master again shed tears of joy. He sang some lines from a song of

Ramprasad: Glory and shame, bitter and sweet, are Thine alone; This world

is nothing but Thy play.

Then why, O Blissful One, dost Thou cause a rift in it?

Addressing Trailokya, the Master said: "Ah! How touching your songs are!

They are genuine. Only he who has gone to the ocean can fetch its water."

Trailokya sang again:

Thou it is that dancest, Lord, and Thou that singest the song; Thou it is that

clappest Thy hands in time with the music's beat; But man, who is an

onlooker merely, foolishly thinks it is he.

Though but a puppet, man becomes a god if he moves with Thee;

Thou art the Mover of the machine, the Driver of the car; But man is

weighted down with woe, dreaming that he is free.

Thou art the Root of everything, Thou the Soul of our souls; Thou art the

Master of our hearts; through Thine unbounded grace

Thou turnest even the meanest sinner into the mightiest saint.

The singing came to an end. The Master engaged in conversation with the

devotees.

Process of negation and affirmation & God Himself has become

everything MASTER: "God alone is the Master, and again, He is the

Servant. This attitude indicates Perfect Knowledge. At first one

discriminates, 'Not this, not this', and feels that God alone is real and all else

is illusory. Afterwards the same person finds that it is God Himself who has

become all this-the universe, maya, and the living beings. First negation and

then affirmation. This is the view held by the Puranas. A vilwa-fruit, for

instance, includes flesh, seeds, and shell. You get the flesh by discarding the

shell and seeds. But if you want to know the weight of the fruit, you cannot

find it if you discard the shell and seeds. Just so, one should attain

Sarchidananda by negating the universe and its living beings. But after the

attainment of Satchidananda one finds that Satchidananda Itself has become

the universe and the living beings. It is of one substance that the flesh and

the shell and seeds are made, just like butter and buttermilk.

The world does not exist apart from God

"It may be asked, 'How has Satchidananda become so hard?' This earth does

indeed feel very hard to the touch. The answer is that blood and semen are

thin liquids, and yet out of them comes such a big creature as man.

Everything is possible for God. First of all reach the indivisible

Satchidananda, and then, coming down, look at the universe. You will then

find that everything is Its manifestation. It is God alone who has become

everything. The world by no means exists apart from Him.

"All elements finally merge in Ākāśa. Again, at the time of creation, Ākāśa

evolves into mahat and mahat into Ahamkāra. In this way the whole world-

system is evolved. It is the process of involution and evolution. A devotee

of God accepts everything. He accepts the universe and its created beings as

well as the indivisible Satchidananda.

"But the yogi's path is different. He does not come back after reaching the

Paramatman, the Supreme Soul. He becomes united with It.

"The 'partial knower' limits God to one object only. He thinks that God

cannot exist in anything beyond that.

Three classes of devotees

"There are three classes of devotees. The lowest one says, 'God is up there.'

That is, he points to heaven. The mediocre devotee says that God dwells in

the heart as the 'Inner Controller'. But the highest devotee says: 'God alone

has become everything. All that we perceive is so many forms of God.'

Narendra used to make fun of me and say: 'Yes, God has become all! Then

a pot is God, a cup is God!' (Laughter.)

Vision of God destroys doubts

"All doubts disappear when one sees God. It is one thing to hear of God,

but quite a different thing to see Him. A man cannot have one hundred per

cent conviction through mere hearing. But if he beholds God face to face,

then he is wholly convinced.

"Formal worship drops away after the vision of God. It was thus that my

worship in the temple came to an end. I used to worship the Deity in the

Kāli temple. It was suddenly revealed to me that everything is Pure Spirit.

The utensils of worship, the altar, the door-frame-all Pure Spirit. Men,

animals, and other living beings-all Pure Spirit. Then like a madman I

began to shower flowers in all directions. Whatever I saw I worshipped.

"One day, while worshipping Śiva, I was about to offer a bel-leaf on the

head of the image, when it was revealed to me that this Virat, this Universe,

itself is Śiva. After that my worship of Śiva through the image came to an

end. Another day I had been plucking flowers, when it was revealed to me

that the flowering plants were so many bouquets."

TRAILOKYA: "Ah! How beautiful is God's creation!"

MASTER: "Oh no, it is not that. It was revealed to me in a flash. I didn't

calculate about it. It was shown to me that each plant was a bouquet

adorning the Universal Form of God. That was the end of my plucking

flowers. I look on man in just the same way.

When I see a man, I see that it is God Himself who walks on earth, as it

were, rocking to and fro, like a pillow floating on the waves. The pillow

moves with the waves. It bobs up and down.

"The body has, indeed, only a momentary existence. God alone is real. Now

the body exists, and now it does not. Years ago, when I had been suffering

terribly from indigestion, Hriday said to me, 'Do ask the Mother to cure

you.' I felt ashamed to speak to Her about my illness. I said to Her:

'Mother, I saw a skeleton in the Asiatic Society Museum. It was pieced

together with wires into a human form. O Mother, please keep my body

together a little, like that, so that I may sing Thy name and glories.'

"Why this desire to live? After Ravana's death Rāma and Lakshmana

entered his capital and saw Nikasha, his old mother, running away.

Lakshmana was surprised at this and said to Rāma, 'All her children are

dead, but still life attracts her so much!' Rāma called Nikasha to His side

and said: 'Don't be afraid. Why are you running away?' She replied: 'Rāma,

it was not fear that made me flee from You. I have been able to see all these

wondrous actions of Yours simply because I am alive. I shall see many

more things like these if I continue to live. Hence I desire to live.'

"Without desires the body cannot live. (Smiling) I had one or two desires. I

prayed to the Mother, 'O Mother, give me the company of those who have

renounced "woman and gold".' I said further: 'I should like to enjoy the

society of Thy jnanis and bhaktas. So give me a little strength that I may

walk hither and thither and visit those people.' But She did not give me the

strength to walk."

TRAlLOKYA (smiling): "Have all the desires been fulfilled?"

MASTER (smiling): "No, there are still a few left. (All laugh.) "The body is

really impermanent. When my arm was broken I said to the Mother,

'Mother, it hurts me very much.' At once She revealed to me a carriage and

its driver.

Here and there a few screws were loose. The carriage moved as the driver

directed it.

It had no power of its own.

"Why then do I take care of the body? It is to enjoy God, to sing His name

and glories, and to go about visiting His jnanis and bhaktas."

Master's sympathy for Narendra's suffering

Narendra was sitting on the floor in front of the Master.

MASTER (to Trailokya and the other devotees): "The joys and sorrows of

the body are inevitable. Look at Narendra. His father is dead, and his people

have been put to extreme suffering. He can't find any way out of it. God

places one sometimes in happiness and sometimes in misery."

TRAILOKYA: "Revered sir, God will be gracious to Narendra."

MASTER (with a smile): "But when? It is true that no one starves at the

temple of Annapurna in Benares; but some must wait for food till evening.

"Once Hriday asked Sambhu Mallick for some money. Sambhu held the

views of 'Englishmen' on such matters. He said to Hriday: 'Why should I

give you money? You can earn your livelihood by working. Even now you

are earning something. The case of a very poor person is different. The

purpose of charity is fulfilled if one gives money to the blind or the lame.'

Thereupon Hriday said: 'Sir, please don't say that. I don't need your money.

May God help me not to become blind or deaf or extremely poor! I don't

want you to give, and I don't want to receive.' "

The Master spoke as if piqued because God had not yet shown His kindness

to Narendra. Now and then he cast an affectionate glance at his beloved

disciple.

NARENDRA: "I am now studying the views of the atheists."

MASTER: "There are two doctrines: the existence and the non-existence of

God. Why don't you accept the first?"

SURENDRA: "God is just. He must look after His devotees."

MASTER: "It is said in the scriptures that only those who have been

charitable in their former births get money in this life. But to tell you the

truth, this world is God's maya.

And there are many confusing things in this realm of maya. One cannot

comprehend them.

God's ways are inscrutable

"The ways of God are inscrutable indeed. Bhishma lay on his bed of

arrows. The Pandava brothers visited him in Krishna's company. Presently

Bhishma burst into tears.

The Pandavas said to Krishna: 'Krishna, how amazing this is! Our grandsire

Bhishma is one of the eight Vasus. Another man as wise as he is not to be

found. Yet even he is bewildered by maya and weeps at death.' 'But', said

Krishna, 'Bhishma isn't weeping on that account. You may ask him about it.'

When asked, Bhishma said: 'O Krishna, I am unable to understand anything

of the ways of God; God Himself is the constant companion of the

Pandavas, and still they have no end of trouble. That is why I weep.

When I reflect on this, I realize that one cannot understand anything of

God's ways.'

"God has revealed to me that only the Paramatman, whom the Vedas

describe as the Pure Soul, is as immutable as Mount Sumeru, unattached,

and beyond pain and pleasure. There is much confusion in this world of His

maya. One can by no means say that 'this' will come after 'that' or 'this' will

produce 'that'."

SURENDRA (smiling): "If by giving away money in a. previous birth one

gets wealth in this life, then we should all give away money now."

MASTER: "Those who have money should give it to the poor and needy.

(To Trailokya) Jaygopal Sen is well-to-do. He should be charitable. That he

is not so is to his discredit. There are some who are miserly even though

they have money. There is no knowing who will enjoy their money

afterwards.

"Jaygopal came here the other day. He drove over here in a carriage. The

lamps were broken, the horse seemed to have been returned from the

charnel-house, and the coachman looked as if he had just been discharged

from the Medical College Hospital.

And he brought me two rotten pomegranates!" (All laugh.) SURENDRA:

"Jaygopal Babu belongs to the Brahmo Samaj. I understand that now there

is not one worth-while man in Keshab's organization. Vijay Goswami,

Shivanath, and other notables have organized the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj."

MASTER (smiling): "Govinda Adhikari, it is said, would not keep good

actors in his theatre lest they should claim a share of the profit. (All laugh.)

"The other day I saw a disciple of Keshab. A theatrical performance was

being given in Keshab's house, and I saw the disciple dancing on the stage

with a child in his arms. I understand that this man delivers 'lectures'. He

had better lecture to himself."

Trailokya sang:

Upon the Sea of Blissful Awareness waves of ecstatic love arise:

Rapture divine! Play of God's Bliss!

Oh, how enthralling!

Wondrous waves of the sweetness of God, ever new and ever enchanting,

Rise on the surface, ever assuming

Forms ever fresh.

Then once more in the Great Communion all are merged, as the barrier

walls

Of time and space dissolve and vanish:

Dance then, O mind!

Dance in delight, with hands upraised, chanting Lord Hari's holy name.

Sri Ramakrishna requested Trailokya to sing the song beginning, "O

Mother, make me mad with Thy love".

Trailokya sang:

O Mother, make me mad with Thy love!

What need have I of knowledge or reason?

Make me drunk with Thy love's Wine:

O Thou who stealest Thy bhaktas' hearts,

Drown me deep in the Sea of Thy love!

Here in this world, this madhouse of Thine

Some laugh, some weep, some dance for joy:

Jesus, Buddha, Moses, Gaurānga,

All are drunk with the Wine of Thy love.

O Mother, when shall I be blessed

By joining their blissful company?

--------------------

Chapter 20

RULES FOR HOUSEHOLDERS AND MONKS

Sunday, March 9, 1884

SRI RAMAKRISHNA was sitting in his room at Dakshineswar with many

devotees.

Among them were Mani Mallick, Mahendra Kaviraj, Balarām, M.,

Bhavanath, Rākhāl, Lātu, and Harish. The Master's injured arm was in a

splint. In spite of the injury he was constantly absorbed in samādhi or

instructing the devotees.

Mani Mallick and Bhavanath referred to the exhibition which was then

being held near the Asiatic Museum. They said: "Many maharajas have sent

precious articles to the exhibition-gold couches and the like. It is worth

seeing."

MASTER (to the devotees, with a smile): "Yes, you gain much by visiting

those things.

You realize that those articles of gold and the other things sent by maharajas

are mere trash. That is a great gain in itself. When I used to go to Calcutta

with Hriday, he would show me the Viceroy's palace and say: 'Look, uncle!

There is the Viceroy's palace with the big columns.' The Mother revealed to

me that they were merely clay bricks laid one on top of another.

God and His splendour

"God and His splendour. God alone is real; the splendour has but a two days

existence.

The magician and his magic. All become speechless with wonder at the

magic, but it is all unreal. The magician alone is real. The rich man and his

garden. People see only the garden; they should look for its rich owner."

MANI MALLICK (to the Master): "What a big electric light they have at

the exhibition! It makes us think how great He must be who has made such

an electric light."

God Himself has become everything

MASTER (to Mani): "But according to one view it is He Himself who has

become everything. Even those who say that are He. It is Satchidananda

Itself that has become all-the Creator, māyā, the universe, and living

beings."

The conversation turned to the museum.

Influence of company

MASTER (to the devotees): "I visited the museum once. I was shown

fossils. A whole animal has become stone! Just see what an effect has been

produced by company!

Likewise, by constantly living in the company of a holy man one verily

becomes holy."

MANI (smiling): "Had you visited the exhibition only once, we could

receive instruction for ten or fifteen years."

MASTER (with a smile): "How so? You mean illustrations?"

BALARĀM: "No, you shouldn't go. Your arm won't heal if you go here and

there."

MASTER: "I should like to have two pictures. One of a yogi seated before

a lighted log, and another of a yogi smoking hemp and the charcoal blazing

up as he pulls. Such pictures kindle my spiritual consciousness, as an

imitation fruit awakens the idea of a real one.

Obstacles to Yoga

"The obstacle to yoga is 'woman and gold'. Yoga is possible when the mind

becomes pure. The seat of the mind is between the eyebrows; but its look is

fixed on the navel and the organs of generation and evacuation, that is to

say, on 'woman and gold'. But through spiritual discipline the same mind

looks upward.

Spiritual discipline

"What are the spiritual disciplines that give the mind its upward direction?

One learns all this by constantly living in holy company. The rishis of olden

times lived either in solitude or in the company of holy persons; therefore

they could easily renounce 'woman and gold' and 'fix their minds on God.

They had no fear nor did they mind the criticism of others.

Will-power needed for renunciation

"In order to be able to renounce, one must pray to God for the will power to

do so. One must immediately renounce what one feels to be unreal. The

rishis had this will-power.

Through it they controlled the sense-organs. If the tortoise once tucks in its

limbs, you cannot make it bring them out even by cutting it into four pieces.

Master denounces hypocrisy

"The worldly man is a hypocrite. He cannot be guileless. He professes to

love God, but he is attracted by worldly objects. He doesn't give God even a

very small part of the love he feels for 'woman and gold'. But he says that

he loves God. (To Mani Mallick) Give up hypocrisy."

MANI: "Regarding whom, God or man?"

MASTER: "Regarding everything-man as well as God. One must not be a

hypocrite.

"How guileless Bhavanath is! After his marriage he came to me and asked,

'Why do I feel so much love for my wife?' Alas, he is so guileless!

"Isn't it natural for a man to love his wife? This is due to the world

bewitching māyā of the Divine Mother of the Universe. A man feels about

his wife that he has no one else in the world so near and dear; that she is his

very own in life and death, here and hereafter.

"Again, how much a man suffers for his wife! Still he believes that there is

no other relative so near. Look at the sad plight of a husband. Perhaps he

earns twenty rupees a month and is the father of three children. He hasn't

the means to feed them well. His roof leaks, but he hasn't the wherewithal

to repair it. He cannot afford to buy new books for his son. He cannot invest

his son with the sacred thread. He begs a few pennies from his different

friends.

The ideal of a spiritual family

"But a wife endowed with spiritual wisdom is a real partner in life. She

greatly helps her husband to follow the religious path. After the birth of one

or two children they live like brother and sister. Both of them are devotees

of God-His servant and His handmaid.

Their family is a spiritual family. They are always happy with God and His

devotees.

They know that God alone is their own, from everlasting to everlasting.

They are like the Pandava brothers; they do not forget God in happiness or

in sorrow.

"The longing of the worldly-minded for God is momentary, like a drop of

water on a redhot frying-pan. The water hisses and dries up in an instant.

The attention of the worldly-minded is directed to the enjoyment of worldly

pleasure. Therefore they do not feel yearning and restlessness for God.

Different forms of austerity

"People may observe the ekadasi in three ways. First, the 'waterless'

ekadasi-they are not permitted to drink even a drop of water. Likewise, an

all-renouncing religious mendicant completely gives up all forms of

enjoyment. Second, while observing the ekadasi they take milk and

sandesh. Likewise, a householder devotee keeps in his house simple objects

of enjoyment. Third, while observing the ekadasi they eat luchi and chakka.

They eat their fill. They keep a couple of loaves soaking in milk, which

they will eat later on

"A man practises spiritual discipline, but his mind is on 'woman and gold'-it

is turned toward enjoyment. Therefore, in his case, the spiritual discipline

does not produce the right result.

"Hazra used to practise much japa and austerity here. But in the country he

has his wife, children, and land. Therefore along with his Spiritual

discipline he carried on the business of a broker. Such people cannot be true

to their word. One moment they say they will give up fish, but the next

moment they break their vow.

"Is there anything that a man will not do for money? He will even compel a

brahmin or a holy man to carry a load.

"In my room sweets would turn bad; still I could not give them away to the

worldly-minded. I could accept dirty water from others, but not even touch

the jar of a worldly person.

"At the sight of rich people Hazra would call them to him. He would give

them long lectures. He would say to them: 'You see Rākhāl and the other

youngsters. They do not practise any spiritual discipline. They simply

wander about merrily.'

"A man may live in a mountain cave, smear his body with ashes, observe

fasts; and practise austere discipline; but if his mind dwells on worldly

objects, on 'woman and gold', I say, 'Shame on him!' But I say that a man is

blessed indeed who eats, drinks, and roams about, but who keeps his mind

free from 'woman and gold'.

(Pointing to Mani Mallick) "There is no picture of a holy man at his house.

Divine feeling is awakened through such pictures."

MANILAL: "Yes, there is. In one room there is a picture of a pious

Christian woman engaged in prayer. There is another picture in which a

man holds to the Hill of Faith; below is an ocean of immeasurable depth. If

he gives up his hold on faith, he will drop into the bottomless water. There

is still a third picture. Several virgins are keeping vigil, feeding their lamps

with oil in expectation of the Bridegroom. A sleeping virgin is by their side.

She will not behold the Bridegroom when He arrives. God is described here

as the Bridegroom."

MASTER (smiling): "That's very nice."

MANILAL: "I have other pictures too-one of the 'Tree of Faith' and another

of 'Sin and Virtue'."

MASTER (to Bhavanath): "Those are good pictures. Go to his house and

see them."

The Master remained silent a few minutes.

Sin and repentance

MASTER: "Now and then I reflect on these ideas and find that I do not like

them. In the beginning of spiritual life a man should think about sin and

how to get rid of it. But when, through the grace of God, devotion and

ecstatic love are awakened in his heart, then he altogether forgets virtue and

sin. Then he leaves the scriptures and their injunctions far behind. Thoughts

of repentance and penance do not bother him at all.

"It is like going to your destination along a winding river. This requires

great effort and a long time. But when there is a flood all around, then you

can go straight to your destination in a short time. Then you find the land

lying under water deep as a bamboo pole.

"In the beginning of spiritual life one goes by a roundabout way. One has to

suffer a great deal. But the path becomes very easy when ecstatic love is

awakened in the heart. It is like going over the paddy-field after the harvest

is over. You may then walk in any direction. Before the harvest you had to

go along the winding balk, but now you can walk in any direction. There

may be stubble in the field, but you will not be hurt by it if you walk with

your shoes on. Just so, an aspirant does not suffer if he has discrimination,

dispassion, and faith in the guru's words."

Rules for concentration

MANILAL (to the Master): "Well, what is the rule for concentration?

Where should one concentrate?"

MASTER: "The heart is a splendid place. One can meditate there or in the

Sahasrara.

These are rules for meditation given in the scriptures. But you may meditate

wherever you like. Every place is filled with Brahman-Consciousness. Is

there any place where It does not exist? Narayana, in Vali's presence,

covered with two steps the heavens, the earth, and the interspaces. Is there

then any place left uncovered by God? A dirty place is as holy as the bank

of the Ganges. It is said that the whole creation is the Virat, the Universal

Form of God.

Two forms of meditation

"There are two kinds of meditation, one on the formless God and the other

on God with form. But meditation on the formless God is extremely

difficult. In that meditation you must wipe out all that you see or hear. You

contemplate only the nature of your Inner Self. Meditating on His Inner

Self, Shiva dances about. He exclaims, 'What am I! What am I!' This is

called the Shiva yoga'. While practising this form of meditation, one directs

one's look to the forehead. It is meditation on the nature of one's Inner Self

after negating the world, following the Vedantic method of 'Neti, neti'.

"There is another form of meditation, known as the 'Vishnu yoga', The eyes

are fixed on the tip of the nose. Half the look is directed inward and the

other half outward. This is how one meditates on God with form.

Sometimes Shiva meditates on God with form, and dances. At that time he

exclaims, 'Rāma! Rāma!' and dances about."

Meaning of Om

Sri Ramakrishna then explained the sacred Word "Om" and the true

Knowledge of Brahman and the state of mind after the attainment of

Brahmajnana.

MASTER: "The sound Om is Brahman. The rishis and sages practised

austerity to realize that Sound-Brahman. After attaining perfection one

hears the sound of this eternal Word rising spontaneously from the navel.

"'What will you gain', some sages ask, 'by merely hearing this sound?' You

hear the roar of the ocean from a distance. By following the roar you can

reach the ocean. As long as there is the roar, there must also be the ocean.

By following the trail of Om you attain Brahman, of which the Word is the

symbol. That Brahman has been described by the Vedas as the ultimate

goal. But such vision is not possible as long as you are conscious of your

ego. A man realizes Brahman only when he feels neither 'I' nor 'you',

neither 'one' nor 'many'.

"Think of the sun and of ten jars filled with water. The sun is reflected in

each jar. At first you see one real sun and ten reflected ones. If you break

nine of the jars, there will remain only the real sun and one reflection. Each

jar represents a jiva. Following the reflection one can find the real sun.

Through the individual soul one can reach the Supreme Soul. Through

spiritual discipline the individual soul can get the vision of the Supreme

Soul. What remains when the last jar is broken cannot be described.

Ignorance, knowledge, and Supreme Wisdom

"The jiva at first remains in a state of ignorance. He is not conscious of

God, but of the multiplicity. He sees many things around him. On attaining

Knowledge he becomes conscious that God dwells in all beings. Suppose a

man has a thorn in the sole of his foot. He gets another thorn and takes out

the first one. In other words, he removes the thorn of ajnāna, ignorance, by

means of the thorn of jnāna, knowledge. But on attaining vijnāna, he

discards both thorns, knowledge and ignorance. Then he talks intimately

with God day and night. It is no mere vision of God.

"He who has merely heard of milk is 'ignorant'. He who has seen milk has

'knowledge'.

But he who has drunk milk and been strengthened by it has attained

vijnāna."

Thus the Master described his own state of mind to the devotees. He was

indeed a vijnāni.

MASTER (to the devotees): "There is a difference between, a Sādhu

endowed with jnāna and one endowed with vijnāna. The Jnāni Sādhu has a

certain way of sitting. He twirls his moustache and asks the visitor, 'Well,

sir! Have you any question to ask?' But the man who always sees God and

talks to Him intimately has an altogether different nature. He is sometimes

like an inert thing, sometimes like a ghoul, sometimes like a child, and

sometimes like a madman.

"When he is in samādhi, he becomes unconscious of the outer world and

appears inert.

He sees everything to be full of Brahman-Consciousness; therefore he

behaves like a ghoul. He is not conscious of the holy and the unholy. He

does not observe any formal purity. To him everything is Brahman. He is

not aware of filth as such. Even rice and other cooked food after a few days

become like filth.

"Again, he is like a madman. People notice his ways and actions and think

of him as insane. Or sometimes he is like a child-no bondage, no shame, no

hatred, no hesitation, or the like.

"One reaches this state of mind after having the vision of God. When a boat

passes by a magnetic hill, its screws and nails become loose and drop out.

Lust, anger, and the other passions cannot exist after the vision of God.

"Once a thunderbolt struck the Kāli temple. I noticed that it flattened the

points of the screws.

"It is no longer possible for the man who has seen God to beget children

and perpetuate the creation. When a grain of paddy is sown it grows into a

plant; but a grain of boiled paddy does not germinate.

"He who has seen God retains his 'I' only in name. No evil can be done by

that 'I'. It is a mere appearance, like the mark left on the coconut tree by its

branch. The branch has fallen off. Only the mark remains.

The two egos

"I said to Keshab Sen, 'Give up the ego that makes you feel, "I am the doer;

I am teaching people." 'Keshab said to me, 'Sir, then I cannot keep the

organization.'

Thereupon I said to him, 'Give up the "wicked ego".' One doesn't have to

renounce the ego that makes one feel, 'I am the servant of God; I am His

devotee.' One doesn't develop the 'divine ego' as long as one retains the

'wicked ego'. If a man is in charge of the store-room, the master of the

house doesn't feel responsible for it.

God's manifestation through man

(To the devotees) "You see, my nature is changing on account of this injury

to my arm.

It is being revealed to me that there is a greater manifestation of God in man

than in other created beings. God is telling me, as it were: 'I dwell in men.

Be merry with men.' Among men God manifests Himself in a still greater

degree in pure-souled devotees. That is why I feel great longing for

Narendra, Rākhāl, and other such youngsters.

"One often sees small holes along the edge of a lake. Fish and crabs

accumulate there.

Just so, there is a greater accumulation of divinity in man. It is said that man

is greater than the salagram. Man is Narayana Himself. If God can manifest

Himself through an image, then why not through man also?

"God is born as man for the purpose of sporting as man. Rāma, Krishna,

and Chaitanya are examples. By meditating on an incarnation of God one

meditates on God Himself."

Bhagavan Das, a Brahmo devotee, arrived.

The Eternal Religion

MASTER (to Bhagavan Das): "The Eternal Religion, the religion of the

rishis, has been in existence from time out of mind and will exist eternally.

There exist in this Sanatana Dharma all forms of worship-worship of God

with form and worship of the Impersonal Deity as well. It contains all

paths-the path of knowledge, the path of devotion, and so on. Other forms

of religion, the modern cults, will remain for a few days and then

disappear."

March 23, 1884

Sri Ramakrishna was sitting in his room after his midday meal, with

Rākhāl, Ram, and some other devotees. He was not quite well. The injured

arm was still bandaged.

But in spite of his illness, his room was a veritable mart of joy and he the

centre of it.

Devotees thronged there daily to see the Master. Spiritual talk went on

incessantly, and, the very air of the room vibrated with bliss. Sometimes the

Master would sing the name and glories of God, and sometimes he would

go into samādhi, the devotees being amazed at the ease with which the

Master freed himself from the consciousness of the body.

RAM: "There is talk of Narendra's marrying Mr. R. Mitra's daughter.

Narendra has been offered a large dowry."

MASTER (smiling): "Yes, Narendra may thus become a leader of society or

something like that. He will be an outstanding man, whatever career he

follows."

The Master did not much encourage the conversation about Narendra.

MASTER (to Ram): "Well, can you tell me why I become so impatient

when I am ill?

Sometimes I ask this man and sometimes that man how I may be cured. You

see, one must either believe everyone or no one at all.

"It is God Himself who has become the physicians. Therefore one must

believe all of them. But one cannot have faith in them if one thinks of them

as mere men.

"Sambhu was fearfully delirious. Dr. Sarvadhikari said that the delirium

was due to the strong medicine. Haladhāri asked the doctor to feel his pulse.

The doctor said: 'Let me see your eyes. Oh, it is an enlargement of the

spleen!' Haladhāri said he had nothing of the sort. But Dr. Madhu gives

good medicine."

RAM: "The medicine by itself does no good, though it greatly helps

nature."

MASTER: "If that is so, why does opium cause constipation?"

Ram referred to Keshab Sen's death.

RAM: "You were quite right. You said that a gardener uncovers the roots of

a good rose-plant so that it may absorb the dew and grow stronger and

healthier. The words of a holy man have been fulfilled."

MASTER: "I don't know about that. I wasn't calculating when I said it. It is

you who say that."

RAM: "The Brahmos have published something about you in their

magazine."

MASTER: "Published about me? Why? Why should they write now? I eat

and drink and make merry. I don't know anything else.

Man teaches by God's power

"I once asked Keshab, 'Why have you written about me?' He said that it

would bring people here. But man cannot teach by his own power. One

cannot conquer ignorance without the power of God.

"At one time two men were engaged to wrestle. One of them was Hanuman

Singh and the other a Mussalman from the Punjab. The Mussalman was a

strong, stout man. He had eaten lustily of butter and meat for fifteen days

before the day of the wrestling-match, and even on that day. All thought he

would be the victor. Hanuman Singh, on the other hand, clad in a dirty

cloth, had eaten sparingly for some days before the day of the match and

devoted himself to repeating the holy name of Mahavir. On the day of the

match he observed a complete fast. All thought that he would surely be

defeated.

But it was he who won, while the man who had feasted for fifteen days lost

the fight.

"What is the use of printing and advertising? He who teaches men gets his

power from God. None but a man of renunciation can teach others. I am the

greatest of all fools!"

(All laugh.)

A DEVOTEE: "Then how is it that the Vedas and the Vedānta, and many

things besides, come out of your mouth?"

MASTER (smiling): "During my boyhood I could understand what the

Sādhus read at the Lahas' house at Kamarpukur, although I would miss a

little here and there. If a pundit speaks to me in Sanskrit I can follow him,

but I cannot speak it myself.

"To realize God is the one goal of life. While aiming his arrow at the mark,

Arjuna said, 'I see only the eye of the bird and nothing else-not the kings,

not the trees, not even the bird itself.'

"The realization of God is enough for me. What does it matter if I don't

know Sanskrit?

"The grace of God falls alike on all His children, learned and

illiterate―whoever longs for Him. The father has the same love for all his

children. Suppose a father has five children. One calls him 'Baba', some

'Ba', and some 'Pa'. These last cannot pronounce the whole word. Does the

father love those who address him as 'Baba' more than those who call him

'Pa'? The father knows that these last are simply too young to say 'Baba'

correctly.

"Since this injury to my arm a change has been coming over my mind. I

have been feeling much inclined to the Naralila. It is God Himself who

plays about as human beings. If God can be worshipped through a clay

image, then why not through a man?

"Once a merchant was shipwrecked. He floated to the shore of Ceylon,

where Bibhishana was the king of the monsters. Bibhishana ordered his

servants to bring the merchant to him. At the sight of him Bibhishana was

overwhelmed with joy and said: 'Ah! He looks like my Rāma. The same

human form!' He adorned the merchant with robes and jewels, and

worshipped him. When I first heard this story, I felt such joy that I cannot

describe it.

"Vaishnavcharan said to me, 'If a person looks on his beloved as his Ishta,

he finds it very easy to direct his mind to God.' The men and women of a

particular sect at Syambazar, near Kamarpukur, say to each other, 'Whom

do you love?' 'I love so-and-so.' 'Then know him to be your God.' When I

heard this, I said to them: 'That is not my way. I look on all women as my

mother.' I found out that they talked big but led immoral lives. The women

then asked me if they would have salvation. 'Yes,' I said, 'if you are

absolutely faithful to one man and look on him as your God. But you cannot

be liberated if you live with five men.' "

RAM: "I understand that Kedār Babu has recently visited the Kartabhajas'

place."

MASTER: "He gathers honey from various flowers. (To Ram, Nityagopal,

and the others) If a devotee believes one hundred per cent that his Chosen

Ideal is God, then he attains God and sees Him.

"People of bygone generations had tremendous faith. What faith Haladhāri's

father had!

Once he was on the way to his daughter's house when he noticed some

beautiful flowers and vilwa-leaves. He gathered them for the worship of the

Family Deity and walked back five or six miles to his own house.

"Once a theatrical troupe in the village was enacting the life of Rāma. When

Kaikeyi asked Rāma to go into exile in the forest, Haladhāri's father, who

had been watching the performance, sprang up. He went to the actor who

played Kaikeyi, crying out, 'You wretch!', and was about to burn the actor's

face with a torch. He was a very pious man.

After finishing his ablutions he would stand in the water and meditate on

the Deity, reciting the invocation: 'I meditate on Thee, of red hue and four

faces', while tears streamed down his cheeks.

"When my father walked along the lanes of the village wearing his wooden

sandals, the shopkeepers would stand up out of respect and say, 'there he

comes!' When he bathed in the Haldārpukur, the villagers would not have

the courage to get into the water.

Before bathing they would inquire if he had finished his bath.

"When my father chanted the name of Raghuvir, his chest would turn

crimson. This also happened to me. When I saw the cows at Vrindāvan

returning from the pasture, I was transported into a divine mood and my

body became red.

"Very strong was the faith of the people in those days. One hears that God

used to dance then, taking the form of Kāli, while the devotee clapped his

hands keeping time."

A hathayogi was staying in the hut at the Panchavati. Ramprasanna, the son

of Krishnakishore of Ariadāhā, and several other men had become his

devotees: The yogi needed twenty-five rupees a month for his milk and

opium; so Ramprasanna had requested Sri Ramakrishna to speak to his

devotees about the yogi and get some money. The Master said to several

devotees: "A hathayogi has come to the Panchavati.

Go and visit him. See what sort of man he is."

A young man of twenty-seven or twenty-eight, known as Thakur Dada,

entered the room with a few friends and saluted the Master. He lived at

Baranagore and was the son of a brahmin pundit. He was practising the

kathakata in order to earn money to meet his family's expenses. At one time

he had been seized with the spirit of renunciation and had gone away from

his family. Even now he practised spiritual discipline at home.

MASTER: "Have you come on foot? Where do you live?"

DADA: "Yes, sir, I have walked from home. I live at Baranagore."

MASTER: "Have you come here for any particular purpose?"

DADA: "I have come here to visit you. I pray to God. But why do I suffer

now and then from worries? For a few days I feel very happy. Why do I feel

restless afterwards?"

MASTER: "I see. Things have not been fitted quite exactly. The machine

works smoothly if the mechanic fits the cogs of the wheels correctly. In

your case there is an obstruction somewhere."

DADA: "Yes, sir. That must be so."

MASTER: "Are you initiated?"

DADA: "Yes, sir."

MASTER: "Do you have faith in your mantra?"

A friend of Thākur Dādā said that the latter could sing well. The Master

asked him to sing.

Thākur Dādā sang:

I shall become a yogi and dwell in Love's mountain cave; I shall be lost in

yoga beside the Fountain-head of Bliss.

I shall appease my hunger for Knowledge with the fruit of Truth;

I shall worship the feet of God with the flower of Dispassion.

I shall not seek a well to slake the burning thirst of my heart, But I shall

draw the water of Peace into the jar of my soul.

Drinking the glorious Nectar of Thy blessed Lotus Feet, I shall both laugh

and dance and weep and sing on the heights of Joy.

MASTER: "Ah, what a nice song! 'Fountain-head of Bliss'! 'Fruit of Truth'!

'Laugh and dance and weep and sing'! Your song tastes very sweet to me.

Why should you worry?

"Pleasure and pain are inevitable in the life of the world. One suffers now

and then from a little worry and trouble. A man living in a room full of soot

cannot avoid being a little stained."

DĀDĀ: "Please tell me what I should do now."

MASTER: "Chant the name of Hari morning and evening, clapping your

hands. Come once more when my arm is healed a bit."

Mahimacharan entered the room and saluted the Master. Sri Ramakrishna

said to him: "Ah! He has sung a nice song. Please sing it again." Thakur

Dada repeated the song.

MASTER (to Mahima): "Please recite that verse, the one about devotion to

Hari"

Mahimacharan recited, quoting from the Nārada Pancharatra: What need is

there of penance if God is worshipped with love?

What is the use of penance if God is not worshipped with love?

What need is there of penance if God is seen within and without?

What is the use of penance if God is not seen within and without?

MASTER: "Recite that part also-'Obtain from Him the love of God'."

Mahima recited:

O Brahman! O my child! Cease from practising further penances.

Hasten to Sankara, the Ocean of Heavenly Wisdom; Obtain from Him the

love of God, the pure love praised by devotees,

Which snaps in twain the shackles that bind you to the world.

MASTER: "Yes, Sankara will bestow the love of God."

MAHIMA: "One who is free from bondage is the eternal Shiva."

MASTER: "Shame, hatred, fear, hesitation-these are the shackles. What do

you say?"

MAHIMA: "Yes, sir. And also the desire to conceal, and shrinking before

praise."

Signs of Knowledge

MASTER: "There are two signs of knowledge. First, an unshakable buddhi.

No matter how many sorrows, afflictions, dangers, and obstacles one may

be faced with, one's mind does not undergo any change. It is like the

blacksmith's anvil, which receives constant blows from the hammer and still

remains unshaken. And second, manliness-very strong grit. If lust and anger

injure a man, he must renounce them once for all. If a tortoise once tucks in

its limbs, it won't put them out again though you may cut it into four pieces.

Two kinds of renunciation

(To Thakur Dada and the others) There are two kinds of renunciation:

intense and feeble. Feeble renunciation is a slow process; one moves in a

slow rhythm. Intense renunciation is like the sharp edge of a razor. It cuts

the bondage of māyā easily and at once.

"One farmer labours for days to bring water from the lake to his field. But

his efforts are futile because he has no grit. Another farmer, after labouring

for two or three days, takes a vow and says, 'I will bring water into my field

today, and not till then will I go home.' He puts aside all thought of his bath

or his meal. He labours the whole day and feels great joy when in the

evening he finds water entering his field with a murmuring sound. Then he

goes home and says to his wife: 'Now give me some oil. I shall take my

bath.' After finishing his bath and his meal he lies down to sleep with a

peaceful mind.

"A certain woman said to her husband: 'So-and-so has developed a spirit of

great dispassion for the world, but I don't see anything of the sort in you. He

has sixteen wives. He is giving them up one by one.' The husband, with a

towel in his shoulder, was going to the lake for his bath. He said to his wife:

'You are crazy! He won't be able to give up the world. Is it ever possible to

renounce bit by bit? I can renounce. Look! Here I go.' He didn't stop even to

settle his household affairs. He left home just as he was, the towel on his

shoulder, and went away. That is intense renunciation.

"There is another kind of renunciation, called 'Markata Vairāgya', 'monkey

renunciation'.

A man, harrowed by distress at home, puts on an ochre robe and goes away

to Benares. For many days he does not send home any news of himself.

Then he writes to his people: 'Don't be worried about me. I have got a job

here.'

"There is always trouble in family life. The wife may be disobedient.

Perhaps the husband earns only twenty rupees a month. He hasn't the means

to perform the 'rice-eating ceremony' for his baby. He cannot educate his

son. The house is dilapidated.

The roof leaks and he hasn't the money to repair it.

Advantage of a householder's life

"Therefore when the youngsters come here I ask them whether they have

anyone at home. (To Mahima) Why should householders renounce the

world? What great troubles the wandering monks pass through! The wife of

a certain man said to him: 'You want to renounce the world? Why? You will

have to beg morsels from eight different homes. But here you get all your

food at one place. Isn't that nice?'

"Wandering monks, while searching for a sadavrata, may have to go six

miles out of their way. I have seen them travelling along the regular road

after their pilgrimage to Puri and making a detour to find an eating-place.

"You are leading a householder's life. That is very good. It is like fighting

from a fort.

There are many disadvantages in fighting in an open field. So many

dangers, too.

Bullets may hit you.

"But one should spend some time in solitude and attain Knowledge. Then

one can lead the life of a householder. Janaka lived in the world after

attaining Knowledge. When you have gained it, you may live anywhere.

Then nothing matters."

MAHlMA: "Sir, why does a man become deluded by worldly objects?"

MASTER: "It is because he lives in their midst without having realized

God. Man never succumbs to delusion after he has realized God. The moth

no longer enjoys darkness if it has once seen the light.

Practice of continence

"To be able to realize God, one must practise absolute continence. Sages

like Sukadeva are examples of an urdhvareta. Their chastity was absolutely

unbroken. There is another class, who previously have had discharges of

semen but who later on have controlled them. A man controlling the

seminal fluid for twelve years develops a special power. He grows a new

inner nerve called the nerve of memory. Through that nerve he remembers

all, he understands all.

"Loss of semen impairs the strength. But it does not injure one if one loses

it in a dream. That semen one gets from food. What remains after nocturnal

discharge is enough. But one must not know a woman.

"The semen that remains after nocturnal discharge is very 'refined'. The

Lahas kept jars of molasses in their house. Every jar had a hole in it. After a

year they found that the molasses had crystallized like sugar candy. The

unnecessary watery part had leaked out through the hole.

Sannyasi's absolute self-control

"A sannyasi must absolutely renounce woman. You are already involved;

but that doesn't matter.

"A sannyasi must not look even at the picture of a woman. But this is too

difficult for an ordinary man. Sa, re, ga, ma, pa, dha, ni are the seven notes

of the scale. It is not possible to keep your voice on 'ni' a long time.

"To lose semen is extremely harmful for a sannyasi. Therefore he must live

so carefully that he will not have to see the form of a woman. He must keep

himself away from a woman even if she is a devotee of God. It is injurious

for him to look even at the picture of a woman. He will lose semen in a

dream, if not in the waking state.

"A sannyasi may have control over his senses, but to set an example to

mankind he should not talk with women. He must not talk to one very long,

even if she is a devotee of God. .

"Living as a sannyasi is like observing the ekadasi without drinking even a

drop of water. There are two other ways of observing the day. You may eat

fruit or take luchi and curry. With the luchi and curry you may also take

slices of bread soaked in milk.

(All laugh.)

(Smiling) "Absolute fasting is not possible for you.

"Once I saw Krishnakishore eating luchi and curry on an ekadasi day. I said

to Hriday, 'Hridu, I want to observe Krishnakishore's ekadasi!' (All laugh.)

And so I did one day. I ate my fill. The next day I had to fast." (Laughter.)

The devotees who had gone to the Panchavati to visit the hathayogi came

back.

MASTER (addressing them): "Well, what do you think of him? I dare say

you have measured him with your own tape."

Sri Ramakrishna saw that very few of the devotees were willing to give

money to the hathayogi.

MASTER: "You don't like a Sādhu if you have to give him money.

Rajendra Mitra draws a salary of eight hundred rupees a month. He had

been to Allahabad to see the kumbhamela. I asked him, 'Well, what kind of

Sādhus did you see at the fair?' Rajendra said: 'I didn't find any very great

Sādhu there. I noticed one, it is true. But even he accepted money.'

"I say to myself, 'If no one gives money to a Sādhu, then how will he feed

himself?'

There is no collection plate here; therefore all come. And I say to myself:

'Alas! They love their money. Let them have it.' "

The Master rested awhile. A devotee sat on the end of the small couch and

gently stroked his feet. The Master said to him softly: "That which is

formless again has form.

One should believe in the forms of God also. By meditating on Kāli the

aspirant realizes God as Kāli. Next he finds that the form merges in the

Indivisible Absolute. That which is the Indivisible Satchidananda is verily

Kāli."

Sri Ramakrishna was sitting on the semicircular porch west of his room,

talking with Mahima and other devotees about the hathayogi. The talk

drifted to Ramprasanna, the son of Krishnakishore. The Master was fond of

the young man.

MASTER: "Ramprasanna roams about aimlessly. The other day he came

here and sat in the room, but he did not speak a word. He pressed his

nostrils with his fingers, practising pranayama. I offered him something to

eat, but he wouldn't take it. On another occasion I had asked him to sit by

me. He squatted on the floor placing one leg upon the other. He was rather

discourteous to Captain. I weep at his mother's suffering.

(To Mahima) "Ramprasanna asked me to speak to you about the hathayogi.

The yogi's daily expenses are six and a half ānnās. But he won't tell you

about it himself."

MAHIMA: "Who will listen to him even if he does?"

Mani Sen of Panihati entered the room with several friends, one of whom

was a physician. Mani asked the Master about his injured arm. The doctor

did not approve of the medicine prescribed by Pratap Mazumdar. The

Master said to him: "Why should you say that? Pratap is no fool. "

Suddenly Lātu cried out, "Oh! The medicine bottle has dropped and

broken."

It was not yet dusk. The Master, seated on the couch, was talking to M.

Mahimacharan was on the semicircular porch engaged in a loud discussion

of the scriptures with the physician friend of Mani Sen. Sri Ramakrishna

heard it and with a smile said to M.: "There! He is delivering himself. That

is the characteristic of rajas. It stimulates the desire to 'lecture' and to show

off one's scholarship. But sattva makes one introspective. It makes one hide

one's virtues. But I must say that Mahima is a grand person. He takes such

delight in spiritual talk."

Adhar entered the room, saluted the Master, and sat by M.'s side. He had

not come for the past few days.

MASTER: "Hello! Why haven't you come all these days?"

ADHAR: "Sir, I have been busy with so many things. I had to attend a

conference of the school committee and various other meetings."

MASTER: "So you completely lost yourself in schools and meetings and

forgot everything else?"

ADHAR: "Everything else was hidden away in a corner of my mind. How

is your arm?"

MASTER: "Just look. It is not yet healed. I have been taking medicine

prescribed by Pratap."

After a time the Master suddenly said to Adhar: "Look here. All these are

unreal-meetings, school, office, and everything else. God alone is the

Substance, and all else is illusory. One should worship God with one's

whole mind."

Adhar sat without speaking a word.

MASTER: "All else is illusory. This moment the body is and the next

moment it is not.

One must make haste to worship God.

"But you don't have to renounce everything. Live in the world the way the

tortoise does. The tortoise roams about in the water but keeps its eggs on

land. Its whole mind is on the eggs.

"What a nice state of mind Captain has developed! He looks like a rishi

when he is seated to perform worship. He performs the Ārati with lighted

camphor and recites beautiful hymns. When he rises from his seat after

finishing the worship, his eyes are swollen from emotion, as if bitten by

ants. Besides, he always devotes himself to the study of the sacred books,

such as the Gitā and the Bhagavata. Once I used one or two English words

before him, and that made him angry. He said, 'English-educated people are

profane.' "

After a while Adhar said humbly to the Master: "Sir, you haven't been to

our place for a long time. The drawing-room smells worldly and everything

else appears to be steeped in darkness."

The Master was deeply touched by these words of his devotee. He suddenly

stood up and blessed M. and Adhar in an ecstatic mood, touching their

heads and hearts. In a voice choked with love the Master said: "I look upon

you as Narayana Himself. You are indeed my own."

Mahimacharan entered the room.

MASTER (to Mahima): "What I said about aspirants practising continence

is true.

Without chastity one cannot assimilate these teachings.

"Once a man said to Chaitanya: 'You give the devotees so much instruction.

Why don't they make much progress?' Chaitanya said: 'They dissipate their

powers in the company of women. That is why they cannot assimilate

spiritual instruction. If one keeps water in a leaky jar, the water escapes

little by little through the leak.' "

Mahima and the other devotees remained silent. After a time Mahima said,

"Please pray to God for us that we may acquire the necessary strength."

MASTER: "Be on your guard even now. It is difficult, no doubt, to check

the torrent in the rainy season. But a great deal of water has gone out. If you

build the embankment now it will stand.

--------------------

Chapter 21

A DAY AT DAKSHINESWAR

Saturday, April 5, 1884

IT WAS ABOUT EIGHT O'CLOCK in the morning when M. arrived at the

temple garden and found Sri Ramakrishna seated on the small couch in his

room. A few devotees were sitting on the floor. The Master was talking to

them. Prankrishna Mukherji was there.

Prankrishna belonged to an aristocratic family and lived in the northern part

of Calcutta.

He held a high post in an English business firm. He was very much devoted

to Sri Ramakrishna and, though a householder, derived great pleasure from

the study of Vedānta philosophy. He was a frequent visitor at the temple

garden. Once he invited the Master to his house in Calcutta and held a

religious festival. Every day, early in the morning, he bathed in the holy

water of the Ganges. Whenever it was convenient, he would come to

Dakshineswar in a hired country boat.

That morning he had hired a boat and invited M. to accompany him to

Dakshineswar.

The boat had hardly left shore when the river became choppy. M. had

become frightened and begged Prankrishna to put him back on land. In spite

of assurances, M.

had kept saying: "You must put me ashore. I shall walk to Dakshineswar."

And so M.

came on foot and found Sri Ramakrishna talking to Prankrishna and the

others.

How the Lord Himself is deluded by His own māyā

MASTER (to Prankrishna): "But there is a greater manifestation of God in

man. You may ask, 'How is it possible for God to be incarnated as a man

who suffers from hunger, thirst, and the other traits of an embodied being,

and perhaps also from disease and grief?' The reply is, 'Even Brahman

weeps, entrapped in the snare of the five elements.'

"Don't you know how Rāma had to weep, stricken with grief for Sita?

Further, it is said that the Lord incarnated Himself as a sow in order to kill

the demon Hiranyaksha.

Hiranyaksha was eventually killed, but God would not go back to His abode

in heaven.

He enjoyed His sow's life. He had given birth to several young ones and

was rather happy with them. The gods said among themselves: 'What does

this mean? The Lord doesn't care to return to heaven!' They all went to

Shiva and laid the matter before him.

Shiva came down and urged the Lord to leave the sow body and return to

heaven. But the sow only suckled her young ones. (Laughter.) Then Shiva

destroyed the sow body with his trident, and the Lord came out laughing

aloud and went back to His own abode."

The Anāhata sound

PRANKRISHNA (to the Master): "Sir, what is the Anāhata sound?"

MASTER: "It is a spontaneous sound constantly going on by itself. It is the

sound of the Pranava, Om. It originates in the Supreme Brahman and is

heard by yogis. People immersed in worldliness do not hear it. A yogi alone

knows that this sound originates both from his navel and from the Supreme

Brahman resting on the Ocean of Milk."

Reincarnation

PRANKRISHNA: "Sir, what is the nature of the life after death?"

MASTER: "Keshab Sen also asked that question. As long as a man remains

ignorant, that is to say, as long as he has not realized God, so long will, he

be born. But after attaining Knowledge he will not have to come back to

this earth or to any other plane of existence.

"The potter puts his pots in the sun to dry. Haven't you noticed that among

them there are both baked and unbaked ones? When a cow happens to walk

over them, some of the pots get broken to pieces. The broken pots that are

already baked, the potter throws away, since they are of no more use to him.

But the soft ones, though broken, he gathers up. He makes them into a lump

and out of this forms new pots. In the same way, so long as a man has not

realized God, he will have to come back to the Potter's hand, that is, he will

have to be born again and again.

"What is the use of sowing a boiled paddy grain? It will never bring forth a

shoot.

Likewise, if a man is boiled in the fire of Knowledge, he will not be used

for new creation. He is liberated.

The "ego of Devotion"

"According to the Puranas, the bhakta and the Bhagavan are two separate

entities. 'I'

am one and 'You' are another. The body is a plate, as it were, containing the

water of mind, intelligence, and ego. Brahman is like the sun. It is reflected

in the water.

Therefore the devotee sees the divine form.

The "ego of Knowledge"

"According to the Vedānta, Brahman alone is real and all else is māyā,

dreamlike and unsubstantial. The ego, like a stick, lies across the Ocean of

Satchidananda. (To M.) Listen to what I am saying. When this ego is taken

away, there remains only one undivided Ocean of Satchidananda. But as

long as the stick of ego remains, there is an appearance of two: here is one

part of the water and there another part. Attaining the Knowledge of

Brahman one is established in samādhi. Then the ego is effaced.

"But Sankaracharya retained the 'ego of Knowledge' in order to teach men.

The signs of a Jnāni

(To Prankrishna) But there are signs that distinguish the man of Knowledge.

Some people think they have Knowledge. What are the characteristics of

Knowledge? A Jnāni cannot injure anybody. He becomes like a child. If a

steel sword touches the philosopher's stone, it is transformed into gold.

Gold can never cut. It may seem from the outside that a Jnāni also has anger

or egotism, but in reality he has no such thing.

The ego of a Jnāni

"From a distance a burnt string lying on the ground may look like a real

one; but if you come near and blow at it, it disappears altogether. The anger

and egotism of a Jnāni are mere appearances; they are not real.

"A child has no attachment. He makes a play house, and if anyone touches

it, he will jump about and cry. The next moment he himself will break it.

This moment he may be very attached to his cloth. He says: 'My daddy has

given it to me. I won't part with it.'

But the next moment you can cajole him away from it with a toy. He will go

away with you, leaving the cloth behind.

"These are the characteristics of a Jnāni.

Perhaps he has many luxuries at

home―couch, chairs, paintings, and equipage. But any day he may leave

all these and go off to Benares.

Jnāni looks on the world as illusory

"According to Vedānta the waking state, too, is unreal. Once a wood-cutter

lay dreaming, when someone woke him up. Greatly annoyed, he said: 'Why

have you disturbed my sleep? I was dreaming that I was a king and the

father of seven children.

The princes were becoming well versed in letters and military arts. I was

secure on my throne and ruled over my subjects. Why have you demolished

my world of joy?' 'But that was a mere dream', said the other man. 'Why

should that bother you?' 'Fool!' said the wood-cutter. 'You don't understand.

My becoming a king in the dream was just as real as is my being a wood-

cutter. If being a wood-cutter is real, then being a king in a dream is real

also.' "

The state of a vijnāni

Prankrishna always talked about jnāna. Was this why the Master described

the state of the Jnāni? Now he proceeded to describe the state of the vijnāni.

MASTER: "Jnāna is the realization of Self through the process of 'Neti,

neti', 'Not this, not this'. One goes into samādhi through this process of

elimination and realizes the Ātman.

"But vijnāna means Knowledge with a greater fullness. Some have heard of

milk, some have seen milk, and some have drunk milk. He who has merely

heard of it is 'ignorant'.

He who has seen it is a Jnāni. But he who has drunk it has vijnāna, that is to

say, a fuller knowledge of it. After having the vision of God one talks to

Him as if He were an intimate relative. That is vijnāna.

"First of all you must discriminate, following the method of 'Neti, neti': 'He

is not the five elements, nor the sense-organs, nor the mind, nor the

intelligence, nor the ego. He is beyond all these cosmic principles.' You

want to climb to the roof; then you must eliminate and leave behind all the

steps one by one. The steps are by no means the roof. But after reaching the

roof you find that the steps are made of the same materials―brick, lime,

and brick-dust―as the roof. It is the Supreme Brahman that has become the

universe and its living beings and the twenty-four cosmic principles. That

which is Ātman has become the five elements. You may ask why the earth

is so hard, if it has come out of Ātman? All is possible through the will of

God. Don't you see that bone and flesh are made from blood and semen?

How hard 'sea-foam' becomes!

"After attaining vijnāna one can live in the world as well. Then one clearly

realizes that God Himself has become the universe and all living beings,

that He is not outside the world.

(To Prankrishna) "The fact is that one must have the 'spiritual eye'. You will

develop that eye as soon as your mind becomes pure. Take for instance the

Kumari Puja. I worshipped a virgin. The girl, to be sure, had all her human

imperfections; still I regarded her as the Divine Mother Herself.

"On one side is the wife and on the other the son. Love is bestowed on both,

but in different ways. Therefore it comes to this, that everything depends

upon the mind. The pure mind acquires a new attitude. Through that mind

one sees God in this world.

Therefore one needs spiritual discipline.

"Yes, spiritual discipline is necessary. You should know that a man becomes

easily attached to a woman. A woman naturally loves a man, and a man

also naturally loves a woman. Therefore both fall speedily from their

spiritual ideal. But it also must be said that there is a great advantage in

leading the life of a householder. In case of urgent necessity a man may live

with his wife.

(Smiling) "Well, M., why are you smiling?"

M. (to himself): "The Master makes this much allowance for householders

since they cannot renounce everything. Is complete and absolute continence

impossible for a householder?"

The hathayogi who had been living in the Panchavati entered the room. He

was in the habit of taking milk and opium. He did not eat rice or other food

and had no money to buy the milk and opium. The Master had talked with

him in the Panchavati. The hathayogi had told Rākhāl to ask the Master to

make some provision for him, and Sri Ramakrishna had promised to speak

about it to the visitors from Calcutta.

HATHAYOGI (to the Master): "What did you say to Rākhāl about me?"

MASTER: "I said that I would ask some rich visitors to help you. But (to

Prankrishna) you, perhaps, do not like these yogis?"

Prankrishna remained silent. The hathayogi left the room and the

conversation went on.

Master's adherence to truth

MASTER (to Prankrishna and the others): "If a man leads a householder's

life he must have unflagging devotion to truth. God can be realized through

truth alone. Formerly I was very particular about telling the truth, though

now my zeal has abated a little. If I said, 'I shall bathe', then I would get into

the water of the Ganges, recite the mantra, and sprinkle a little water over

my head. But still there would remain some doubt in me as to whether my

bath was complete. Once I went to Ram's house in Calcutta. I happened to

say, 'I shall not take any luchi.' When I sat down for the meal I felt hungry.

But I had said I would not eat the luchi; so I had to fill my stomach with

sweets. (All laugh.)

"But my zeal for truthfulness has abated a little now. Once I said I would go

to the pine-grove, but then I felt I had no particular urge to go. What was to

be done? I asked Ram about it. He said I didn't have to go. Then I reasoned

to myself: 'Well, everyone is Narayana. So Ram, too, is Narayana. Why

shouldn't I listen to him? The elephant is Narayana no doubt; but the mahut

is Narayana too. Since the mahut asked me not to go near the elephant, then

why shouldn't I obey him?' Through reasoning like this my zeal for

truthfulness is slightly less strong now than before.

"I find a change, coming over me. Years ago Vaishnavcharan said to me,

'One attains Perfect Knowledge when one sees God in man.' Now I see that

it is God alone who is moving about in various forms: as a holy man, as a

cheat, as a villain. Therefore I say, 'Narayana in the guise of the Sādhu,

Narayana in the guise of the cheat, Narayana in the guise of the villain,

Narayana in the guise of the lecher.'

"Now my problem is how I can feed all of you. I want to feed everyone. So

I keep one at a time with me and feed him."

Prankrishna (looking at M. and smiling): "A fine man, indeed! (To the

Master) He would not let us go till we put him ashore."

MASTER (smiling): "Why? What happened?"

PRANKRISHNA: "He was in our boat. Seeing that the river was slightly

rough, he insisted on being put ashore. (To M.) 'How did you come?"

M. (smiling): "On foot."

Sri Ramakrishna laughed.

PRANKRISHNA (to the Master): "Sir, I am thinking now of giving up my

work. One who is involved in activity cannot accomplish anything.

(Pointing to his companion) I am training him to do my work. After I

resign, he will relieve me. Work has become intolerable."

MASTER: "Yes, work is very troublesome. It is now good for you to

meditate on God for a few days in solitude. No doubt you say that you

would like to give up your work.

Captain said the same thing. Worldly people talk that way; but they don't

succeed in carrying out their intention.

"There are many pundits who speak words of wisdom. But they merely

talk; they don't live up to them. They are like vultures, which soar very high

but keep their gaze fixed on the charnel-pit. What I mean is that these

pundits are attached to the world, to 'woman and gold'. If I hear that pundits

are practising discrimination and dispassion, then I fear them. Otherwise I

look upon them as mere goats and dogs."

Prankrishna saluted the Master and took his leave. He said to M., "Will you

come with us?"

M: "No, sir! Catch me going with you again! Good-bye."

Prankrishna laughed and said, "I see you won't come in the boat."

M. took a little stroll near the Panchavati and bathed in the river. Then he

went to the temples of Radhakanta and Kāli and prostrated himself before

the images. He said to himself: "I have heard that God has no form. Then

why do I bow before these images?

Is it because Sri Ramakrishna believes in gods and goddesses with form? I

don't know anything about God, nor do I understand Him. The Master

believes in images; then why shouldn't I too, who am so insignificant a

creature, accept them?"

M. looked at the image of Kāli. He saw that the Divine Mother holds in Her

two left hands a man's severed head and a sword. With Her two right hands

She offers boons and reassurance to Her devotees. In one aspect She is

terrible, and in another She is the ever affectionate Mother of Her devotees.

The two ideals are harmonized in Her.

She is compassionate and affectionate to Her devotees: to those who are

submissive and helpless. It is also true that She is terrible, the "Consort of

Death". She alone knows why She assumes two aspects at the same time.

M. remembered this interpretation of Kāli given by the Master. He said to

himself, "I have heard that Keshab accepted Kāli in Sri Ramakrishna's

presence. Is this, as Keshab used to say, the Goddess, all Spirit and

Consciousness; manifesting Herself through a clay image?"

M. returned to the Master's room and sat on the floor. Sri Ramakrishna

offered him some fruit and sweets to eat. On account of trouble in the

family, M. had recently rented a house in another section of Calcutta near

his school, his father and brothers continuing to live in the ancestral home.

But Sri Ramakrishna wanted him to return to his own home, since a joint

family affords many advantages to one leading a religious life. Once or

twice the Master had spoken to M. to this effect, but unfortunately he had

not yet returned to his family. Sri Ramakrishna referred to the matter again.

MASTER: "Tell me that you are going to your ancestral home."

M: "I can never persuade myself to enter that place."

MASTER: "Why? Your father is making over the whole house."

M: "I have suffered too much there. I can by no means make up my mind to

go there."

MASTER: "Whom do you fear?"

M: "All of them."

MASTER (seriously): "Isn't that like your being afraid to get into the boat?"

The midday worship and the offering of food in the temples were over. The

bells, gongs, and symbals of the Ārati were being played, and the temple

garden was filled with joyful activity. Beggars, Sādhus, and guests hurried

to the guesthouse for the noonday meal, carrying leaf or metal plates in

their hands. M. also took some of the Prasad from the Kāli temple.

Sri Ramakrishna had been resting awhile after his meal when several

devotees, including Ram and Girindra, arrived. They sat down after saluting

the Master. The conversation turned to the New Dispensation Church of

Keshab Chandra Sen.

RAM (to the Master): "Sir, I don't think the Navavidhan has done people

any good. If Keshab Babu himself was a genuine man, why are his disciples

left in such a plight? I don't think there is anything at all in the New

Dispensation. It is like rattling some potsherds in a room and then locking it

up. People may take it to be the jingling of coins, but inside there is nothing

but potsherds. Outsiders don't know what is inside."

MASTER: "There must be some substance in it. Otherwise, why should so

many people respect Keshab? Why isn't Shivanath honoured as much as

Keshab? Such a thing cannot happen without the will of God.

A teacher must renounce the world

"But a man cannot act as an Āchārya without renouncing the world. People

won't respect him. They will say: 'Oh, he is a worldly man. He secretly

enjoys "woman and gold" himself but tells us that God alone is real and the

world unsubstantial, like a dream. 'Unless a man renounces everything his

teachings cannot be accepted by all.

Some worldly people may follow him. Keshab led the life of a householder;

hence his mind was directed to the world also. He had to safeguard his

family interests. That is why he left his affairs in such good order though he

delivered so many religious lectures. What an aristocratic man he married

his daughter to! Inside Keshab's inner apartments I saw many big bedsteads.

All these things gradually come to one who leads a householder's life. The

world is indeed a place for enjoyment."

RAM: "Keshab Sen inherited those bedsteads when his ancestral property

was divided.

And for Keshab to take part in the division of property! Whatever you may

say, sir, Vijay Babu told me that Keshab had said to him, 'I am a partial

manifestation of Christ and Gaurānga. I suggest that you declare yourself as

Advaita.' Do you know what else he said? He said that you too were a

follower of the New Dispensation." (All laugh.)

MASTER (laughing): "Who knows? But as for myself, I don't even know

what the term 'New Dispensation' means." (Laughter.)

RAM: "Keshab's disciples say that he was the first to harmonize jnāna and

bhakti."

Synthesis of jnāna and bhakti

MASTER (in surprise): "How is that? What then of the Adhyātma

Rāmāyana? It is written there that, while praying to Rāma, Nārada said: 'O

Rāma, Thou art the Supreme Brahman described in the Vedas. Thou

dwellest with us as a man; Thou appearest as a man. In reality Thou art not

a man; Thou art that Supreme Brahman.' Rāma said: 'Nārada, I am very

much pleased with you. Accept a boon from Me.' Nārada replied: 'What

boon shall I ask of Thee? Grant me pure love for Thy Lotus Feet, and may I

never be deluded by Thy world-bewitching māyā!' The Adhyātma

Rāmāyana is full of such statements regarding jnāna and bhakti."

The conversation turned to Amrita, a disciple of Keshab.

RAM: "Amrita Babu seems to be in very bad shape."

MASTER: "Yes, he looked very ill when I saw him the other day."

RAM: "Sir, let me tell you about the lectures of the New Dispensation.

While the drum is being played, the members cry out, 'Victory unto

Keshab!' You say that 'dal' grows only in a stagnant pool. So Amrita said

one day in the course of his sermon: 'The holy man has no doubt said that

'dal' grows in a stagnant pool. But, brothers, we want 'dal', we want a sect.

Really and truly, I tell you that we want a sect.' "

MASTER: "What nonsense! Shame on him! What kind of sermon is that?"

The conversation drifted to the desire of some people for praise.

MASTER: "They took me to Keshab's house to see a performance of the

Nimai-sannyās.

I heard, that day, someone speaking of Keshab and Pratap as Chaitanya and

Nityananda. Prasanna asked me, 'Who are you then?' Keshab looked at me

to see what I would say. I said to him, 'I am the servant of your servant, the

dust of the dust of your feet.' Keshab said with a smile, 'You can't catch

him!'"

RAM: "Sometimes Keshab used to say you were John the Baptist."

A DEVOTEE: "But Keshab also said you were the Chaitanya of the

nineteenth century [said in English]."

MASTER: "What does that mean?"

DEVOTEE: "That Chaitanya has been incarnated again in the present

century of the Christian era, and that you are he."

MASTER (absent-mindedly): "What of it? Can you tell me now how my

arm can be cured? This arm is worrying me so much."

They talked about Trailokya's music. Trailokya sang devotional songs in

Keshab's Brahmo Samaj.

MASTER: "Ah! How nice his songs are!"

RAM: "Do you think they are genuine?"

MASTER: "Yes, they are. Otherwise, why should I be so drawn to them?"

RAM: "He has composed his songs by borrowing your ideas. While

conducting the worship, Keshab Sen described your feelings and

realizations, and Trailokya Babu composed songs accordingly. Take this

song, for instance:

There is an overflow of Joy in the marketplace of Love; See how the Lord

sports with His own in the ecstasy of Bliss!

He saw you enjoying divine bliss in the company of devotees and wrote

songs like this."

MASTER (with a smile): "Stop! Don't torment me any more. Why should I

be involved in all this?" (All laugh.)

GIRINDRA: "The Brahmos say that the Paramahamsa Deva has no faculty

for organization [said in English]. "

MASTER: "What does that mean?"

M: "That you don't know how to lead a sect; that your intellect is rather

dull. They say things like that." (All laugh.)

MASTER (to Ram): "Now tell me why my arm was hurt. Stand up and

deliver a lecture on that. (Laughter.)

"The Brahmos insist that God is formless. Suppose they do. It is enough to

call on Him with sincerity of heart. If the devotee is sincere, then God, who

is the Inner Guide of all, will certainly reveal to the devotee His true nature.

Friction between different religious sects

"But it is not good to say that what we ourselves think of God is the only

truth and what others think is false; that because we think of God as

formless, therefore He is formless and cannot have any form; that because

we think of God as having form, therefore He has form and cannot be

formless. Can a man really fathom God's nature?

"This kind of friction exists between the Vaishnavas and the Shaktas. The

Vaishnava says, 'My Kesava is the only Saviour', whereas the Shakta insists,

'My Bhagavati is the only Saviour.'

"Once I took Vaishnavcharan to Mathur Babu. Now, Vaishnavcharan was a

very learned Vaishnava and an orthodox devotee of his sect. Mathur, on the

other hand, was a devotee of the Divine Mother. They were engaged in a

friendly discussion when suddenly Vaishnavcharan said, 'Kesava is the only

Saviour.' No sooner did Mathur hear this than his face became red with

anger and he blurted out, 'You rascal!' (All laugh.) He was a Shakta. Wasn't

it natural for him to say that? I gave Vaishnavcharan a nudge.

Harmony of religions

"I see people who talk about religion constantly quarrelling with one

another. Hindus, Mussalmans, Brahmos, Shaktas, Vaishnavas, Saivas, all

quarrel with one another. They haven't the intelligence to understand that

He who is called Krishna is also Shiva and the Primal Śakti, and that it is

He, again, who is called Jesus and Allah. There is only one Rāma and He

has a thousand names.'

"Truth is one; only It is called by different names. All people are seeking

the same Truth; the variance is due to climate, temperament, and name. A

lake has many ghats.

From one Ghat the Hindus take water in jars and call it 'jal'. From another

Ghat the Mussalmans take water in leather bags and call it 'pani'. From a

third the Christians take the same thing and call it 'water'. (All laugh.)

Suppose someone says that the thing is not 'jal' but 'pani', or that it is not

'pani' but 'water', or that it is not 'water' but 'jal'. It would indeed be

ridiculous. But this very thing is at the root of the friction among sects, their

misunderstandings and quarrels. This is why people injure and kill one

another, and shed blood, in the name of religion. But this is not good.

Everyone is going toward God. They will all realize Him if they have

sincerity and longing of heart.

(To M.) "This is for you. All scriptures-the Vedas, the Puranas, the Tantras-

seek Him alone and no one else, only that one Satchidananda. That which is

called Satchidananda Brahman in the Vedas is called Satchidananda Shiva

in the Tantra. Again it is He alone who is called Satchidananda Krishna in

the Puranas."

The Master was told that now and then Ram cooked his own food at home.

MASTER (to M.): "Do you too cook your own meals?"

M: "No, sir."

MASTER: "You may try it. With your meals take a little clarified butter

made from cow's milk. That will purify your body and mind."

A long conversation ensued about Ram's household affairs. Ram's father

was a devout Vaishnava and worshipped Krishna daily at home. He had

married a second time when Ram was quite young. Both the father and the

stepmother lived with Ram at Ram's house. But Ram was never happy with

his stepmother, and this sometimes created a misunderstanding between

himself and his father.

They were talking about this when Ram said, "My father has gone to the

dogs!"

MASTER (to the devotees): "Did you hear that? The father has gone to the

dogs and the son is all right!"

RAM: "There is no peace when my stepmother comes home. There is

always some trouble or other. Our family is about to break up. So I say, let

her live with her father."

GIRINDRA (to Ram): "Why don't you too keep your wife at her father's

home?" (Laughter.)

MASTER (smiling): "Are husband and wife like earthen pots or jars, that

you may keep the pot in one place and the lid in another? Shiva in one place

and Śakti in another?"

RAM: "Sir, we are quite happy. But when she comes the family is broken

up. If such is the case-"

Our duties to father and mother

MASTER: "Then build them a separate home. That will be a different

thing. You will defray their monthly expenses. How worthy of worship

one's parents are! Rākhāl asked me if he could take the food left on his

father's plate. 'What do you mean?' I said.

'What have you become that you cannot?' But it is also true that good

people won't give anyone, even a dog, the food from their plates."

GIRINDRA: "Sir, suppose one's parents are guilty of a terrible crime, a

heinous sin?"

MASTER: "What if they are? You must not renounce your mother even if

she commits adultery. The woman guru of a certain family became corrupt.

The members of the family said that they would like to make the son of the

guru their spiritual guide. But I said: 'How is that? Will you accept the shoot

and give up the yam? Suppose she is corrupt; still you must regard her as

your Ishta. ‘Though my guru visits the tavern, still to me he is the holy

Nityānanda.’ "

"Are father and mother mere trifles? No spiritual practice will bear fruit

unless they are pleased. Chaitanya was intoxicated with the love of God.

Still, before taking to the monastic life, for how many days did he try to

persuade his mother to give him her permission to become a monk! He said

to her: 'Mother, don't worry. I shall visit you every now and then.'

(To M., reproachfully) "And let me say this to you. Your father and mother

brought you up. You yourself are the father of several children. Yet you

have left home with your wife. You have cheated your parents. You have

come away with your wife and children, and you feel you have become a

holy man. Your father doesn't need any money from you; otherwise I should

have cried, 'Shame on you!'"

Everybody in the room became grave and remained silent.

MASTER: "A man has certain debts to pay: his debts to the gods and rishis,

and his debts to mother, father, and wife. He cannot achieve anything

without paying the debt he owes to his parents. A man is indebted to his

wife as well. Harish has renounced his wife and is living here. If he had left

her unprovided for, then I should have called him an abominable wretch.

"After attaining Knowledge you will regard that very wife as the

manifestation of the Divine Mother Herself. It is written in the Chandi, 'The

Goddess dwells in all beings as the Mother.' It is She who has become your

mother.

"All the women you see are only She, the Divine Mother. That is why I

cannot rebuke even Brinde, the maidservant. There are people who spout

verses from the scriptures and talk big, but in their conduct they are quite

different. Ramprasanna is constantly busy procuring opium and milk for the

hathayogi. He says that Manu enjoins it upon man to serve the Sādhu. But

his old mother hasn't enough to eat. She walks to the market to buy her own

groceries. It makes me very angry.

Through divine love man transcends his worldly duties "But here you

have to consider another thing. When a man is intoxicated with ecstatic love

of God, then who is his father or mother or wife? His love of God is so

intense that he becomes mad with it. Then he has no duty to perform. He is

free from all debts.

What is this divine intoxication? In this state a man forgets the world. He

also forgets his own body, which is so dear to all. Chaitanya had this

intoxication. He plunged into the ocean not knowing that it was the ocean.

He dashed himself again and again on the ground. He was not aware of

hunger, of thirst, or of sleep. He was not at all conscious of any such thing

as his body."

All at once Sri Ramakrishna exclaimed, "Ah, Chaitanya!" and stood up.

MASTER (to the devotees): "Chaitanya means 'Undivided Consciousness'.

Vaishnavcharan used to say that Gaurānga was like a bubble in the Ocean of

Undivided Consciousness.

(To the elder Gopal) "Do you intend to go on a pilgrimage now?"

GOPAL: "Yes, sir. I should like to wander about a little."

RAM (to Gopal): "He [meaning the Master] says that one becomes a

kutichaka after being a vahudaka. The Sādhu that visits many holy places is

called a vahudaka. He whose craving for travel has been satiated and who

sits down in one place is called a kutichaka.

"He also tells us a parable. Once a bird sat on the mast of a ship. When the

ship sailed through the mouth of the Ganges into the 'black waters' of the

ocean, the bird failed to notice the fact. When it finally became aware of the

ocean, it left the mast and flew north in search of land. But it found no limit

to the water and so returned. After resting awhile it flew south. There too it

found no limit to the water. Panting for breath the bird returned to the mast.

Again, after resting awhile, it flew east and then west. Finding no limit to

the Water in any direction, at last it settled down on the mast of the ship."

MASTER (to the elder Gopal and the other devotees): "As long as a man

feels that God is 'there', he is ignorant. But he attains Knowledge when he

feels that God is 'here'.

"A man wanted a smoke. He went to a neighbour's house to light his

charcoal. It was the dead of night and the household was asleep. After he

had knocked a great deal, someone came down to open the door. At sight of

the man he asked, 'Hello! What's the matter?' The man replied: 'Can't you

guess? You know how fond I am of smoking. I have come here to light my

charcoal.' The neighbour said: 'Ha! Ha! You are a fine man indeed! You

took the trouble to come and do all this knocking at the door! Why, you

have a lighted lantern in your hand!' (All laugh.)

"What a man seeks is very near him. Still he wanders about from place to

place."

RAM: "Sir, I now realize why a guru asks some of his disciples to visit the

four principal holy places of the country. Once having wandered about, the

disciple discovers that it is the same here as there. Then he returns to the

guru. All this wandering is only to create faith in the guru's words."

After this conversation had come to an end, Sri Ramakrishna extolled

Ram's virtues.

MASTER (to the devotees): "How many fine qualities Ram possesses! How

many devotees he serves and looks after! (To Ram) Adhar told me that you

showed him great kindness."

Adhar, a beloved householder devotee of the Master, had recently arranged

some religious music at his house. The Master and many devotees had been

present. But Adhar had forgotten to invite Ram, who was a very proud man

and had complained about it to his friends. So Adhar had gone to Ram's

house to express his regret for the mistake.

RAM: "It wasn't really Adhar's mistake. I have come to know that Rākhāl is

to blame.

Rākhāl was given charge-"

MASTER: "You mustn't find fault with Rākhāl. He's a mere child. Even

now you can bring out his mother's milk by squeezing his throat."

RAM: "Sir, why should you speak that way? It was such an occasion!"

MASTER: (interrupting): "Adhar simply didn't remember to invite you. He

is absent-minded. The other day he went with me to Jadu Mallick's house.

As we took our leave, I said to him, 'You haven't offered anything to the

Goddess in the chapel' 'Sir,' he said, 'I didn't know one should.'

(To Ram) "Suppose he didn't invite you to his house. Why such a fuss about

going to a place where the name of the Lord was sung? One may go

unasked to participate in religious music. One doesn't have to be invited."

--------------------

Chapter 22

ADVICE TO AN ACTOR

Saturday, May 24, 1884

SRI RAMAKRISHNA was sitting on the small couch in his room. Rākhāl ,

M., and, several other devotees were present. A special worship of Kāli had

been performed in the temple the previous night. In connection with the

worship a theatrical performance of the Vidyasundar had been staged in the

Natmandir. The Master had watched a part of it that morning. The actors

came to his room to pay him their respects. The Master, in a happy mood,

became engaged in conversation with a fair complexioned young man who

had taken the part of Vidyā and played his part very well.

MASTER (to the actor): "Your acting was very good. If a person excels in

singing, music, dancing, or any other art, he can also quickly realize God

provided he strives sincerely.

"Just as you practise much in order to sing, dance, and play on instruments,

so one should practise the art of fixing the mind on God. One should

practise regularly such disciplines as worship, japa, and meditation.

"Are you married? Any children?"

ACTOR: "Yes, sir. I had a girl who died. Another child has been born."

MASTER: "Ah! A death and a birth, and all so quickly! You are so young!

There is a saying: 'My husband died just after our marriage. There are so

many nights for me to weep!' You are no doubt realizing the nature of

worldly happiness. The world is like a hog plum. The hog plum has only pit

and skin, and after eating it you suffer from colic.

"You are an actor in the theatre. That's fine. But it is a very painful

profession. You are young now; so you have a full, round face. Afterwards

there will be hollows in your cheeks. Almost all actors become like that;

they get hollow cheeks and big bellies.

(Laughter.)

"Why did I stay to watch your performance? I found the rhythm, the music,

and the melody all correct. Then the Divine Mother showed me that it was

God alone who acted in the performance in the roles of the players."

ACTOR: "Sir, what is the difference between lust and desire?"

MASTER: "Lust is like the root of the tree, and desires are branches and

twigs.

Passions should be directed to God

"One cannot completely get rid of the six passions: lust, anger, greed, and

the like.

Therefore one should direct them to God. If you must have desire and

greed, then you should desire love of God and be greedy to attain Him. If

you must be conceited and egotistic, then feel conceited and egotistic

thinking that you are the servant of God, the child of God.

"A man cannot see God unless he gives his whole mind to Him. The mind

is wasted on 'woman and gold'. Take your own case. You have children and

are occupied with the theatre. The mind cannot be united with God on

account of these different activities.

"As long as there is bhoga, there will be less of yoga. Furthermore, bhoga

begets suffering. It is said in the Bhagavata that the Avadhuta chose a kite

as one of his twenty-four gurus. The kite had a fish in its beak; so it was

surrounded by a thousand crows. Whichever way it flew with the fish, the

crows pursued it crying, 'Caw! Caw!'

When all of a sudden the fish dropped from its beak, the crows flew after

the fish, leaving the kite alone.

"The 'fish' is the object of enjoyment. The 'crows' are worries and anxiety.

Worries and anxiety are inevitable with enjoyment. No sooner does one

give up enjoyment than one finds peace.

Money is the source of trouble

"What is more, money itself becomes a source of trouble. Brothers may live

happily, but they get into trouble when the property is divided. Dogs lick

one another's bodies; they are perfectly friendly. But when the householder

throws them a little food, they get into a scrap.

"Come here now and then. (Pointing to M. and the others) They come here

on Sundays and other holidays."

ACTOR: "We have holidays for three months, during the rainy and harvest

seasons. It is our good fortune to be able to visit you. On our way to

Dakshineswar we heard of two persons-yourself and Jnanarnava."

MASTER: "Be on friendly terms with your brothers. It looks well. You

must have noticed in your theatrical performance that if four singers sing

each in a different way, the play is spoiled."

Actor: "Yes, sir. Many birds are trapped in a net; if they all fly together and

drag the net in one direction, then many of them may be saved. But that

doesn't happen if they try to fly in different directions.

"One also sees in a theatrical performance a person keeping a pitcher of

water on his head and at the same time dancing about."

Do your duties and remember God

MASTER: "Live in the world but keep the pitcher steady on your head; that

is to say, keep the mind firmly on God.

"I once said to the sephoys from the barracks: 'Do your duty in the world

but remember that the "pestle of death" will some time smash your hand. Be

alert about it.'

"In Kamarpukur I have seen the women of carpenter families making

flattened rice with a husking-machine. One woman kicks the end of the

wooden beam, and another woman, while nursing her baby, turns the paddy

in the mortar dug in the earth. The second woman is always alert lest the

pestle of the machine should fall on her hand. With the other hand she fries

the soaked paddy in a pan. Besides, she is talking with customers; she says:

'You owe us so much money. Please pay it before you go.' Likewise, do

your different duties in the world, fixing your mind on God. But practice is

necessary, and one should also be alert. Only in this way can one safeguard

both―God and the world."

MASTER: "Proof? God can be seen. By practising spiritual discipline one

sees God, through His grace. The rishis directly realized the Self. One

cannot know the truth about God through science. Science gives us

information only about things perceived by the senses, as for instance: this

material mixed with that material gives such and such a result, and that

material mixed with this material gives such and such a result.

"For this reason a man cannot comprehend spiritual things with his ordinary

intelligence.

To understand them he must live in the company of holy persons. You learn

to feel the pulse by living with a physician."

ACTOR: "Yes, sir. Now I understand."

MASTER: "You must practise tapasya. Only then can you attain the goal. It

will avail you nothing even if you learn the texts of the scriptures by heart.

You cannot become intoxicated by merely saying 'siddhi' over and over.

You must swallow some.

"One cannot explain the vision of God to others. One cannot explain

conjugal happiness to a child five years old."

ACTOR: "How does One realize the Ātman?"

Just then Rākhāl was about to take his meal in the Master's room. He

hesitated at the sight of so many people. During those days the Master

looked on Rākhāl as Gopala and on himself as Mother Yaśoda.

MASTER (to Rākhāl): "Why don't you eat? Let the people stand aside if

you wish it. (To a devotee) Keep some ice for Rākhāl. (To Rākhāl) Do you

intend to go to Vanhooghly?

Don't go in this sun."

Rākhāl sat down to his meal. Sri Ramakrishna again spoke to the actor.

MASTER: "Why didn't all of you take your meal from the kitchen of the

Kāli temple? That would have been nice."

ACTOR: "All of us don't have the same opinion about food; so our food is

cooked separately. All don't like to eat in the guesthouse."

While Rākhāl was taking his meal, the Master and the devotees sat on the

porch and continued their conversation.

Means of Self-realization

MASTER (to the actor): "You asked me about Self-realization. Longing is

the means of realizing Ātman. A man must strive to attain God with all his

body, with all his mind, and with all his speech. Because of an excess of

bile one gets jaundice. Then one sees everything as yellow; one perceives

no colour but yellow. Among you actors, those who take only the roles of

women acquire the nature of a woman; by thinking of woman your ways

and thoughts become womanly. Just so, by thinking day and night of God

one acquires the nature of God.

"The mind is like white linen just returned from the laundry. It takes on the

colour you dip it in."

ACTOR: "But it must first be sent to the laundry."

MASTER: "Yes. First is the purification of the mind. Afterwards, if you

direct the mind to the contemplation of God, it will be coloured by God-

Consciousness. Again, if you direct the mind to worldly duties, such as the

acting of a play, it will be coloured by worldliness."

Sri Ramakrishna had rested on his bed only a few minutes when Hari,

Narayan, Narendra Bannerji, and other devotees arrived from Calcutta and

saluted him. Narendra Bannerji was the son of the professor of Sanskrit at

the Presidency College of Calcutta.

Because of friction with other members of the family, he had rented a

separate house where he lived with his wife and children. Narendra was a

very simple and guileless man.

He practised spiritual discipline and, at the time of meditation, heard

various sounds-the sound of a gong, and so on. He had travelled in different

parts of India and he visited the Master now and then.

Narayan was a school boy sixteen or seventeen years old. He often visited

the Master, who was very fond of him.

Hari lived with his brothers at their Baghbazar house. He had studied up to

the matriculation class in the General Assembly Institution. Then he had

given up his studies and devoted his time at home to the contemplation of

God, the reading of the scriptures, and the practice of yoga. He also visited

the Master now and then.

Sri Ramakrishna often sent for Hari when he went to Balarām's house in

Baghbazar.

MASTER (to the devotees): "I have heard a great deal about Buddha. He is

one of the ten Incarnations of God.2 Brahman is immovable, immutable,

inactive, and of the nature of Consciousness. When a man merges his

buddhi, his intelligence, in Bodha, Consciousness, then he attains the

Knowledge of Brahman; he becomes buddha, enlightened.

"Nangta used to say that the mind merges in the buddhi, and the buddhi in

Bodha, Consciousness.

"The aspirant does not attain the Knowledge of Brahman as long as he is

conscious of his ego. The ego comes under one's control after one has

obtained the Knowledge of Brahman and seen God. Otherwise the ego

cannot be controlled. It is difficult to catch one's own shadow. But when the

sun is overhead, the shadow is within a few inches of the body."

A DEVOTEE: "What is the vision of God like?"

MASTER: "Haven't you seen a theatrical performance? The people are

engaged in conversation, when suddenly the curtain goes up. Then the

entire mind of the audience is directed to the play. The people don't look at

other things any longer. Samādhi is to go within oneself like that. When the

curtain is rung down, people look around again.

Just so, when the, curtain of māyā falls, the mind becomes externalized.

(To Narendra Bannerji) "You have travelled a great deal. Tell us some thing

about the sādhus."

Narendra told the story of two yogis in Bhutan who used to drink daily a

pound of the bitter juice of neem-leaves. He had also visited the hermitage

of a holy man on the bank of the Narmada. At the sight of the Bengali Babu

dressed in European clothes, the sādhu had remarked, "He has a knife

hidden under his clothes, next to his belly."

Keeping the pictures of holy persons

MASTER: "One should keep pictures of holy men in one's room. That

constantly quickens divine ideas."

BANNERJI: "I have your picture in my room; also the picture of a sādhu

living in the mountains, blowing on a piece of lighted charcoal, in a bowl of

hemp."

MASTER: "It is true that one's spiritual feelings are awakened by looking at

the picture of a sādhu. It is like being reminded of the custard-apple by

looking at an imitation one, or like stimulating the desire for enjoyment by

looking at a young woman. Therefore I tell you that you should constantly

live in the company of holy men.

(To Bannerji) "You know very well the suffering of the world. You suffer

whenever you accept enjoyment. As long as the kite kept the fish in its

beak, it was tormented by the flock of crows.

"One finds peace of mind in the company of holy men. The alligator

remains under water a long time. But every now and then it rises to the

surface and breathes with a deep wheezing noise. Then it gives a sigh of

relief."

ACTOR: "Revered sir, what you have just said about enjoyment is very

true. One ultimately courts disaster if one prays to God for enjoyment.

Various desires come to the mind and by no means all of them are good.

God is the Kalpataru, the Wish-fulfilling Tree. A man gets whatever he asks

of God. Suppose it comes to his mind: 'God is the Kalpataru. Well, let me

see if a tiger will appear before me.' Because he thinks of the tiger, it really

appears and devours him."

MASTER: "Yes, you must remember that the tiger comes. What more shall

I tell you?

Keep your mind on God. Don't forget Him. God will certainly reveal

Himself to you if you pray to Him with sincerity. Another thing. Sing the

name of God at the end of each performance. Then the actors, the singers,

and the audience will go home with the thought of God in their minds."

The actors saluted the Master and took their leave.

Two ladies, devotees of Sri Ramakrishna, entered the room and saluted the

Master. They had been fasting in preparation for this visit. They were

sisters-in-law, the wives of two brothers, and were twenty-two or twenty-

three years old. They were mothers of children. Both of them had their

faces covered with veils.

MASTER (to the ladies): "Worship Śiva. This worship is described in a

book called the Nityakarma. Learn the rituals from it. In order to perform

the worship of God you will be preoccupied for a longtime with such

religious duties as plucking flowers, making sandal-paste, polishing the

utensils of worship, and arranging offerings. As you perform these duties

your mind will naturally be directed to God. You will get rid of meanness,

anger, jealousy, and so forth. When you two sisters talk to each other,

always talk about spiritual matters.

"The thing is somehow to unite the mind with God. You must not forget

Him, not even once. Your thought of Him should be like the flow of oil,

without any interruption. If you worship with love even a brick or stone as

God, then through His grace you can see Him.

"Remember what I have just said to you. One should perform such worship

as the Śiva Puja. Once the mind has become mature, one doesn't have to

continue formal worship for long. The mind then always remains united

with God; meditation and contemplation become a constant habit of mind."

ELDER SISTER-IN-LAW: "Will you please give us some instruction?"

MASTER (affectionately): "I don't give initiation. If a guru gives initiation

he must assume responsibility for the disciple's sin and suffering. The

Divine Mother has placed me in the state of a child. Perform the Śiva Puja

as I told you. Come here now and then.

We shall see what happens later on through the will of God. I asked you to

chant the name of Hari at home. Are you doing that?"

ELDER SISTER-IN-LAW: "Yes."

MASTER: "Why have you fasted? You should take your meal before you

come here.

Women are but so many forms of my Divine Mother. I cannot bear to see

them suffer; You are all images of the Mother of the Universe. Come here

after you have eaten, and you will feel happy."

Saying this, Sri Ramakrishna asked Ramlal to give the ladies some food.

They were given fruit, sweets, drinks, and other offerings from the temple.

The Master said: "You have eaten something. Now my mind is at peace. I

cannot bear to see women fast."

It was about five o'clock in the afternoon. Sri Ramakrishna was sitting on

the steps of the Śiva temples. Adhar, Dr. Nitai, M., and several other

devotees were with him.

MASTER (to the devotees): "I want to tell you something. A change has

been coming over my nature."

The Master came down a step and sat near the devotees. It seemed that he

intended to communicate some of his deeper experiences to them.

God in human forms

MASTER: "You are devotees. I have no hesitation in telling you this.

Nowadays I don't see the Spirit-form of God. He is revealed to me in human

form. It is my nature to see the form of God, to touch and embrace Him.

God is saying to me, 'You have assumed a body; therefore enjoy God

through His human forms.'

"God no doubt dwells in all, but He manifests Himself more through man

than through other beings. Is man an insignificant thing? He can think of

God, he can think of the Infinite, while other living beings cannot. God

exists in other living beings-animals, plants, nay, in all beings-, but He

manifests Himself more through man than through these others. Fire exists

in all beings, in all things; but its presence is felt more in wood.

Rāma said to Lakshmana: 'Look at the elephant, brother. He is such a big

animal, but he cannot think of God.'

Divine Incarnation

"But in the Incarnation there is a greater manifestation of God than in other

men. Rāma said to Lakshmana, 'Brother, if you see in a man ecstatic love of

God, if he laughs, weeps, and dances in divine ecstasy, then know for

certain that I dwell in him."

The Master remained silent. After a few minutes he resumed the

conversation.

Master and Keshab

MASTER: "Keshab Sen used to come here frequently. As a result he

changed a great deal. Of late he became quite a remarkable man. Many a

time he came here with his party; but he also wanted to come alone. In the

earlier years of his life Keshab didn't have much opportunity to live in the

company of holy men.

"I visited him at his house in Colootola Street. Hriday was with me. We

were shown into the room where Keshab was working. He was writing

something. After a long while he put aside his pen, got off his chair, and sat

on the floor with us. But he didn't salute us or show us respect in any other

way.

"He used to come here now and then. One day in a spiritual mood I said to

him: 'One should not sit before a sādhu with one leg over the other. That

increases one's rajas.' As soon as he and his friends would arrive, I would

salute them before they bowed to me.

Thus they gradually learnt to salute a holy man, touching the ground with

their foreheads.

"I said to Keshab: 'Chant the name of Hari. In the Kaliyuga one should sing

the name and glories of God.' After that they began to sing the name of God

with drums and cymbals.

"Do you know how my faith in the name of Hari was all the more

strengthened? Holy men, as you know, frequently visit the temple garden.

Once a sādhu from Multan arrived. He was waiting for a party going to

Gangasagar. (Pointing to M.) The sādhu was of his age. It was he who said

to me, 'The way to realize God in the Kaliyuga is the path of bhakti as

prescribed by Nārada.'

"One day Keshab came here with his followers. They stayed till ten at

night. We were all seated in the Panchavati. Pratap and several others said

they would like to spend the night here. Keshab said: 'No, I must go. I have

some work to do.' I laughed and said: 'Can't you sleep without the smell of

your fish-basket?

Once a fishwife was a guest in the house of a gardener who raised flowers.

She came there with her empty basket, after selling fish in the market, and

was asked to sleep in a room where flowers were kept. But, because of the

fragrance of the flowers, she couldn't get to sleep for a long time. Her

hostess saw her condition and said, "Hello! Why are you tossing from side

to side so restlessly?" The fishwife said: "I don't know, friend. Perhaps the

smell of the flowers has been disturbing my sleep. Can you give me my

fish-basket?

Perhaps that will put me to sleep."

The basket was brought to her. She sprinkled water on it and set it near her

nose. Then she fell sound asleep and snored all night.'

"At this story the followers of Keshab burst into loud laughter.

God, the scripture, and the devotee are identical "Keshab conducted the

prayer that evening at the bathing-ghat on the river. After the worship I said

to him: 'It is God who manifests Himself, in one aspect, as the scriptures;

therefore one should worship the sacred books, such as the Vedas, the

Puranas, and the Tantras. In another aspect He has become the devotee. The

heart of the devotee is God's drawing-room. One can easily find one's

master in the drawing-room. Therefore, by worshipping His devotee, one

worships God Himself.'

"Keshab and his followers listened to my words with great attention. It was

a full-moon night. The sky was flooded with light. We were seated in the

open court at the top of the stairs leading to the river. I said, 'Now let us all

chant, "Bhagavata-Bhakta-Bhagavan." '

All chanted in unison, 'Bhagavata-Bhakta-Bhagavan.' Next I said to them,

'Say, "Brahman is verily Śakti; Śakti is verily Brahman." ' Again they

chanted in unison.

'Brahman is verily Śakti; Śakti is verily Brahman.' I said to them: 'He whom

you address as Brahma is none other than She whom I call Mother. Mother

is a very sweet name.'

"Then I said to them, 'Say, "Guru-Krishna-Vaishnava."' At this Keshab said:

'We must not go so far, sir. If we do that, then all will take us for orthodox

Vaishnavas.'

Brahman and Śakti

"I used to tell Keshab now and then: 'He whom you address as Brahma is

none other than She whom I call Śakti, the Primal Energy. It is called

Brahman in the Vedas when it transcends speech and thought and is without

attributes and action. I call it Śakti, Ādyāśakti, and so forth, when I find it

creating, preserving, and destroying the universe.'

Difficulties of householder's life

"I said to Keshab: 'It is extremely difficult to realize God while leading a

worldly life. How can a typhoid patient be cured if he is kept in a room

where tamarind, pickle, and jars of water are kept? Therefore one should go

into solitude now and then to practise spiritual discipline. When the trunk of

a tree becomes thick and strong, an elephant can be tied to it; but a young

sapling is eaten by cattle.' That is why Keshab would say in his lectures,

'Live in the world after being strengthened in spiritual life.'

(To the devotees) "You see, Keshab was a great scholar. He lectured in

English. Many people honoured him. Queen Victoria herself talked to him.

But when Keshab came here he would be bare-bodied and bring some fruit,

as one should when visiting a holy man.

He was totally free from egotism.

(To Adhar) "You are a scholar and a deputy magistrate, but with all that you

are hen-pecked. Go forward. Beyond the forest of sandalwood there are

many more valuable things: silver-mines, gold-mines, diamonds, and other

gems. The wood-cutter was chopping wood in the forest; the brahmachāri

said to him, 'Go forward.' "

Sri Ramakrishna came down from the steps of the Śiva temples and went to

his own room through the courtyard. The devotees were with him. Just then

Ram Chatterji came and said that the Holy Mother's attendant had had an

attack of cholera.

RAM (to the Master): "I told you about it at ten o'clock this morning, but

you didn't pay any attention to me."

MASTER: "What could I do?"

RAM: "Yes, what could you do! But there were Rākhāl, Ramlal, and others.

Even they didn't pay any attention."

M: "Kishori has gone to Alambazar to get medicine."

MASTER: "Alone? Where will he get medicine?"

M: "Yes, alone. He will get it at Alambazar."

MASTER (to M.): "Tell the nurse what to do if the illness takes a turn for

the worse or if the patient feels better."

M: "Yes, sir."

The ladies mentioned before saluted the Master and were about to take their

leave. Sri Ramakrishna again said to them: "Perform the Śiva Puja

according to my instruction.

And have something to eat before you come here. Otherwise I shall feel

unhappy. Come another day."

Sri Ramakrishna sat down on the porch west of his room. Narendra

Bannerji, Hari, M., and others sat by his side. The Master knew about

Narendra's family difficulties.

MASTER: "You see, all these sufferings are 'because of a piece of loin

cloth'. A man takes a wife and begets children; therefore he must secure a

job. The sādhu is worried about his loincloth, and the householder about his

wife. Further, the householder may not live on good terms with his

relatives; so he must live separately with his wife. (With a laugh) Chaitanya

once said to Nityananda: 'Listen to me, brother. A man entangled in

worldliness can never be free.' "

M. (to himself): "Perhaps the Master is referring to the world of avidyā. It is

the world of avidyā that entangles a householder."

M. was still living in a separate house with his wife, on account of a

misunderstanding with the other members of his family.

MASTER (to Bannerji, pointing to M.): "He also lives in a separate house.

You two will get along very well. Once two men happened to meet. One

said to the other, 'Who are you?' 'Oh, I am away from my country', was the

other's reply. The second man then asked the first, 'And who are you, pray?'

'Oh, I am away from my beloved', was the answer. Both were in the same

plight; so they got along very well. (All laugh.) "But one need not have any

fear if one takes refuge in God. God protects His devotee."

HARI: "Well, why does it take many people such a long time to realize

Him?"

MASTER: "The truth is that a man doesn't feel restless for God unless he is

finished with his enjoyments and duties. The physician says, referring to the

patient: 'Let a few days pass first. Then a little medicine will do him good.'

"Nārada said to Rāma: 'Rāma, You are passing Your time in Ayhodhya.

How will Ravana be killed? You have taken this human body for that

purpose alone.' Rāma replied: 'Nārada, let the right time come. Let Ravana's

past actions begin to bear fruit. Then everything will be made ready for his

death.' "

HARI: "Why is there so much suffering in the world?"

MASTER: "This world is the līlā of God. It is like a game. In this game

there are joy and sorrow, virtue and vice, knowledge and ignorance, good

and evil. The game cannot continue if sin and suffering are altogether

eliminated from the creation.

"In the game of hide-and-seek one must touch the 'granny' in order to be

free. But the 'granny' is never pleased if she is touched at the very outset. It

is God's wish that the play should continue for some time. Then—

Out of a hundred thousand kites, at best but one or two break free;

And Thou dost laugh and clap Thy hands, O Mother, watching them!

In other words, after the practice of hard spiritual discipline, one or two

have the vision of God, through His grace, and are liberated. Then the

Divine Mother claps Her hands in joy and exclaims, 'Bravo! There they go!'

HARI: "But this play of God is our death."

MASTER (smiling): "Please tell me who you are. God alone has become all

this-māyā, the universe, living beings, and the twenty-four cosmic

principles. 'As the snake I bite, and as the charmer I cure.' It is God Himself

who has become both vidyā and avidyā. He remains deluded by the māyā of

avidyā, ignorance. Again, with the help of the guru, He is cured by the

māyā of vidyā, Knowledge.

"Ignorance, Knowledge, and Perfect Wisdom. The Jnāni sees that God

alone exists and is the Doer, that He creates, preserves, and destroys. The

vijnāni sees that it is God who has become all this.

"After attaining mahabhava and prema one realizes that nothing exists but

God. Bhakti pales before bhava. Bhāva ripens into mahabhava and prema.

(To Bannerji) "Do you still hear that gong-like sound at the time of

meditation?"

BANNERJI: "Yes, sir. Every day. Besides, I have visions of God's form. Do

such things stop after the mind has once experienced them?"

MASTER: "True. Once the wood catches fire, it cannot be put out. (To the

devotees) He knows many things about faith."

BANNERJI: "I have too much faith."

MASTER: "Bring the women of your family with those of Balarām's."

BANNERJI: "Who is Balarām?"

MASTER: "Don't you know Balarām? He lives at Bosepara."

Sri Ramakrishna loved guileless people. Narendra Bannerji was absolutely

guileless. The Master loved Niranjan because he, too, was without guile.

MASTER (to M.): "Why do I ask you to see Niranjan? It is to find out if he

is truly guileless."

Sunday, May 25, 1884

Sri Ramakrishna was sitting on the cement platform that encircled the trunk

of the old banyan-tree in the Panchavati. Vijay, Surendra, Bhavanath,

Rākhāl , and other devotees were present, a few of them sitting with the

Master on the platform, the rest on the ground below. The devotees had

thought of celebrating the Master's birthday, which had had to be put off

because of his illness. Since Sri Ramakrishna now felt much better, the

devotees wanted to have the celebration that day. A woman musician, a

famous singer of kirtan, was going to entertain them with devotional songs.

It was one o'clock in the afternoon. M. had been looking for Sri

Ramakrishna in the Master's room. When he did not find him there, he went

to the Panchavati and eagerly asked the devotees, "Where is he?" He was

standing right in front of the Master but in his excitement did not notice

him. The devotees laughed loudly. A moment later M. saw Sri Ramakrishna

and felt very much embarrassed. He prostrated himself before the Master,

who sat there facing the south and smiling happily. Kedār and Vijay were

sitting at his left. These two devotees had had a misunderstanding recently

when Kedār had cut off his connexion with the Brahmo Samaj.

MASTER (to M., with a smile): "You see how I have united them?" The

Master had brought a mādhavi creeper from Vrindāvan in the year 1868 and

had planted it in the Panchavati. The creeper had grown big and strong.

Some children were jumping and swinging from it. The Master observed

them and laughed. He said: "They are like young monkeys. They will not

give up swinging even though they sometimes fall to the ground." Noticing

that Surendra was standing before him, the Master said to him

affectionately: "Come up and sit with us on the platform. Then you can

dangle your feet comfortably." Surendra went up and took his seat.

Bhavanath had his coat on. Surendra said to him, "Are you going to

England?"

MASTER (smiling): "God is our England. Now and then I used to leave off

my clothes and joyfully roam about naked. Once Sambhu said to me: 'It is

very comfortable to walk about naked. That is why you do it. Once I did it

myself.' "

SURENDRA: "On returning from the office, as I put away my coat and

trousers, I say to the Divine Mother, 'O Mother, how tightly You have

bound me to the world!' "

MASTER: "There are eight fetters with which man is bound: shame; hatred,

fear, pride of caste, hesitation, the desire to conceal, and so forth."

Sri Ramakrishna sang:

Mother, this is the grief that sorely grieves my heart, That even with Thee

for Mother, and though I am wide awake, There should be robbery in my

house. . . .

He continued:

In the world's busy marketplace, O Syama, Thou art flying kites;

High up they soar on the wind of hope, held fast by māyā's string.

Their frames are human skeletons, their sails of the three gunas made;

But all their curious workmanship is merely for ornament.

Upon the kite-strings Thou hast rubbed the manja-paste of worldliness,

So as to make each straining strand all the more sharp and strong.

Out of a hundred thousand kites, at best but one or two break free;

And Thou dost laugh and clap Thy hands, O Mother, watching them!

On favouring winds, says Ramprasad, the kites set loose will speedily

Be borne away to the Infinite, across the sea of the world.

MASTER: "'Māyā's string' means wife and children.

Upon the kite-strings Thou hast rubbed the manja-paste of worldliness.

'Worldliness' means 'woman and gold'.

The three gunas

"The three gunas―sattva, rajas, and tamas―have men under their control.

They are like three brothers: As long as sattva exists, it calls on rajas for

help; and rajas can get help from tamas. The three gunas are so many

robbers. Tamas kills and rajas binds. Sattva no doubt releases man from his

bondage, but it cannot take him to God."

VIJAY (smiling): "It is because sattva, too, is a robber."

MASTER (smiling): "True. Sattva cannot take man to God, but it shows

him the way."

BHAVANATH: "These are wonderful words indeed."

MASTER: "Yes, This is a lofty thought."

Listening to these words of the Master, the devotees felt very happy.

The bondage of "woman and gold"

MASTER: "'Woman and gold' is the cause of bondage. 'Woman and gold'

alone constitutes samsara, the world. It is 'woman and gold' that keeps one

from seeing God.

(Holding the towel in front of his face) Do you see my face any more? Of

course not. The towel hides it. No sooner is the covering of 'woman and

gold' removed than one attains Chidananca, Consciousness and Bliss.

Corrupting influence of lust

"Let me tell you something. He who has renounced the pleasure of a wife

has verily renounced the pleasure of the world. God is very near to such a

person."

The devotees listened to these words in silence.

MASTER (to Kedār, Vijay, and the other devotees): "He who has

renounced the pleasure of a wife has verily renounced the pleasure of the

world. It is 'woman and gold' that hides God. You people have such

imposing moustaches, and yet you too are involved in 'woman and gold'.

Tell me if it isn't true. Search your heart and answer me."

VIJAY: "Yes, it is true."

Kedār remained silent.

MASTER: "I see that all are under the control of woman. One day I went to

Captain's house. From there I was to go to Ram's house. So I said to

Captain, 'Please give me my carriage hire.' He asked his wife about it. She

too held back and said: 'What's the matter? What's the matter?' At last

Captain said, 'Ram will take care of it.' You see, the Gitā, the Bhagavata,

and the Vedānta all bow before a woman! (All laugh.) "A man leaves his

money, his property, and everything in the hands of his wife. But he says

with affected simplicity, 'I have such a nature that I cannot keep even two

rupees with me.'

"A man went to an office in search of a job. There were many vacancies,

but the manager did not grant his request. A friend said to the applicant,

'Appeal to Golapi, and you will get the job.' Golapi was the manager's

mistress.

"Men do not realize how far they are dragged down by women. Once I went

to the Fort in a carriage, feeling all the while that I was going along a level

road. At last I found that I had gone four storeys down. It was a sloping

road.

"A man possessed by a ghost does not know he is under the ghost's control.

He thinks he is quite normal."

VIJAY (smiling): "But he can be cured by an exorcist if he finds one."

In answer to Vijay Sri Ramakrishna only said, "That depends on the will of

God." Then he went on with his talk about women.

MASTER: "Everyone I talk to says, 'Yes, sir, my wife is good.' Nobody

says that his wife is bad. (All laugh.) Those who constantly live with

'woman and gold' are so infatuated with it that they don't see things

properly. Chess-players oftentimes cannot see the right move for their

pieces on the board. But those who watch the game from a distance can

understand the moves more accurately.

"Woman is the embodiment of māyā. In the course of his hymn to Rāma,

Nārada said: 'O Rāma, all men are parts of Thee. All women are parts of

Sita, the personification of Thy māyā. Please deign to grant that I may have

pure love for Thy Lotus Feet and that I may not be deluded by Thy world

bewitching māyā. I do not want any other favour than that.' "

Surendra's younger brother and his nephews were present. The brother

worked in an office and one of the nephews was studying law.

MASTER (to Surendra's relatives): "My advice to you is not to become

attached to the world. You see, Rākhāl now understands what is knowledge

and what is ignorance. He can discriminate between the Real and the

unreal. So I say to him: 'Go home. You may come here once in a while and

spend a day or two with me.'

"Have a friendly relationship with one another. That will be for your good

and make you all happy. In a theatre the performance goes well only if the

musicians sing with one voice. And that also gladdens the hearts of the

audience.

"Do your worldly duties with a part of your mind and direct most of it to

God. A sādhu should think of God with three quarters of his mind and with

one quarter should do his other duties. He should be very alert about

spiritual things. The snake is very sensitive in its tail. Its whole body reacts

when it is hurt there. Similarly, the whole life of a sādhu is affected when

his spirituality is touched."

Sri Ramakrishna was going to the pine-grove and asked Gopal of Sinthi to

take his umbrella to his room. Arrangements had been made in the

Panchavati for the kirtan.

When the Mister had returned and taken his seat again among the devotees,

the musician began her song. Suddenly there came a rain-storm. The Master

went back to his room with the devotees, the musician accompanying them

to continue her songs there.

MASTER (to Gopal): "Have you brought the umbrella?"

GOPAL: "No, sir. I forgot all about it while listening to the music."

The umbrella had been left in the Panchavati and Gopal hurried to fetch it.

MASTER: "I am generally careless, but not to that extent. Rākhāl also is

very careless.

Referring to the date of an invitation, he says 'the eleventh' instead of 'the

thirteenth'.

And Gopal-he belongs in a herd of cows!"

The musician sang a song about the monastic life of Chaitanya. Now and

then she improvised lines: "He will not look upon a woman; for that is

against the sannyasi's duty."

"Eager to take away men's sorrows, he will not look upon a woman." "For

the Lord's birth as Sri Chaitanya otherwise would be in vain."

The Master stood up, as he heard about Chaitanya's renunciation, and went

into samādhi. The devotees put garlands of flowers around his neck.

Bhavanath and Rākhāl supported his body lest he should fall on the ground.

Vijay, Kedār, Ram, M., Lātu, and the other devotees stood around him in a

circle, recalling one of the scenes of Chaitanya's kirtan.

The Master gradually came down to the sense plane. He was talking to

Krishna, now and then uttering the word "Krishna". He could not say it very

distinctly because of the intensity of his spiritual emotion. He said:

"Krishna! Krishna! Krishna! Krishna Satchidananda! Nowadays I do not

see Your form. Now I see You both inside me and outside. I see that it is

You who have become the universe, all living beings, the twenty-four

cosmic principles, and everything else. You alone have become mind,

intelligence, everything. It is said in the 'Hymn of Salutation to the Guru': 'I

bow down to the Guru by whose grace I have realized Him who pervades

the indivisible universe of the animate and the inanimate.'

"You alone are the Indivisible. Again, it is You who pervade the universe of

the animate and the inanimate. You are verily the manifold universe; again,

You alone are its basis. O

Krishna! You are my life. O Krishna! You are my mind. O Krishna! You are

my intelligence.

O Krishna! You are my soul. O Govinda! You are my life-breath. You are my

life itself."

Vijay was also in an ecstatic mood. The Master asked him, "My dear sir,

have you too become unconscious?" "No, sir", said Vijay humbly.

The music went on. The musician was singing about the blinding love of

God. As she improvised the lines:

O Beloved of my soul! Within the chamber of my heart I would have kept

You day and night!

The Master again went into samādhi. His injured arm rested on Bhavanath's

shoulder.

Sri Ramakrishna partly regained outer consciousness. The musician

improvised: Why should one who, for Thy sake, has given up everything

Endure so much of suffering?

The Master bowed to the musician and sat down to listen to the music. Now

and then he became abstracted. When the musician stopped singing, Sri

Ramakrishna began to talk to the devotees.

Prema

MASTER (to Vijay and the others): "What is prema? He who feels it, this

intense and ecstatic love of God, not only forgets the world but forgets even

the body, which is so dear to all. Chaitanya experienced it."

The Master explained this to the devotees by singing a song describing the

ecstatic state of prema:

Oh, when will dawn the blessed day

When tears of joy will flow from my eyes

As I repeat Lord Hari's name? . . .

The Master began to dance, and the devotees joined him. He caught M. by

the arm and dragged him into the circle. Thus dancing, Sri Ramakrishna

again went into samādhi.

Standing transfixed, he looked like a picture on canvas.

Kedār repeated the following hymn to bring his mind down from the plane

of samādhi: We worship the Brahman-Consciousness in the Lotus of the

Heart,

The Undifferentiated, who is adored by Hari, Hara, and Brahma;

Who is attained by yogis in the depths of their meditation; The Scatterer of

the fear of birth and death,

The Essence of Knowledge and Truth, the Primal Seed of the world.

Sri Ramakrishna gradually came back to the plane of normal consciousness.

He took his seat and chanted the names of God: "Om Satchidananda!

Govinda! Govinda! Govinda!

Yogamaya! Bhagavata-Bhakta-Bhagavan!"

The Master took dust from the place where the kirtan had been sung and

touched it to his forehead.

A little later Sri Ramakrishna was sitting on the semicircular porch facing

the Ganges, the devotees sitting by his side. Now and then the Master

would exclaim, "Ah, Krishnachaitanya!"

MASTER (to Vijay and the others): "There has been much chanting of the

Lord's name in the room. That is why the atmosphere has become so

intense."

BHAVANATH: "Words of renunciation, too."

The Master said, "Ah, how thrilling!" Then he sang about Gaurānga and

Nityananda : Gora bestows the Nectar of prema;

Jar after jar he pours it out,

And still there is no end!

Sweetest Nitai is summoning all;

Beloved Gora bids them come;

Shāntipur is almost drowned,

And Nadia is flooded with prema!

Strict rules for sannyasi's life

MASTER (to Vijay and the others): "The musician sang rightly: 'A sannyasi

must not look at a woman.' This is the sannyasi's dharma. What a lofty

ideal!"

VIJAY: "Yes indeed, sir."

MASTER: "Others learn from the sannyasi's example. That is why such

strict rules are prescribed for him. A sannyasi must not look even at the

portrait of a woman. What a strict rule! The slaughtering of a black goat is

prescribed for the worship of the Divine Mother; but a goat with even a

slight wound cannot be offered. A sannyasi must not only not have

intercourse with woman; he must not even talk to her"

VIJAY: "Young Haridas talked with a pious woman. For that reason

Chaitanya banished him from his presence."

MASTER: "A sannyasi associated with 'woman and gold' is like a beautiful

damsel with a bad odour. The odour makes her beauty useless.

"Once a Mārwāri devotee wanted to give me some money. Mathur wanted

to deed me some land. But I couldn't accept either.

"The rules for the life of a sannyasi are very strict indeed. If a man takes the

garb of a sannyasi, he must act exactly like one. Haven't you noticed in the

theatre that the man who takes the part of the king acts like a king, and the

man who takes the part of a minister acts like a minister?

"But on attaining the state of the paramahamsa one becomes like a child. A

child five years old doesn't know the difference between a man and a

woman. But even a paramahamsa must be careful, so as not to set a bad

example to others."

Referring to Keshab's association with "woman and gold", which had

hindered his work as a spiritual teacher, Sri Ramakrishna said to Vijay, "He-

do you understand?"

VIJAY: "Yes, sir."

MASTER: "He couldn't achieve very much because he wanted to satisfy

both God and the world."

VIJAY: "Chaitanya said to Nityananda: 'Nitai, I shall not be able to do the

people any good unless I renounce the world. All will imitate me and want

to lead the life of a householder. No one will try to direct his whole mind to

the Lotus Feet of God, renouncing "woman and gold."

MASTER: "Yes. Chaitanyadeva renounced the world to set an example to

mankind.

The sannyasi is a world teacher

"The sannyasi must renounce 'woman and gold' for his own welfare. Even if

he is unattached, and consequently not in danger, still, in order to set an

example to others, he must not keep 'woman and gold' near him. The

sannyasi, the man of renunciation, is a world teacher. It is his example that

awakens the spiritual consciousness of men."

It was nearly dusk. The devotees saluted the Master and took their leave.

--------------------

Chapter 23

FESTIVAL AT SURENDRA'S HOUSE

Sunday, June 15, 1884

SRI RAMAKRISHNA arrived in the morning at the garden house of

Surendra, one of his beloved householder disciples, in the village of

Kankurgachi near Calcutta. Surendra had invited him and a large number of

the devotees to a religious festival.

Occasions like this were a source of great happiness and rejoicing to the

Master's devotees. He was then seen at his best. He joined with the others in

devotional music and in chanting the names of God, frequently going into

ecstasy. He poured out his entire soul in inspired talk, explaining the

various phases of God-Consciousness. The impressions of such a festival

lingered in the minds of all for many days.

The devotees stood in rows inside the big hall of the garden house to hear

the music sung by the professional singers. The floor of the room was

covered with a carpet over which was spread a white sheet; a few bolsters,

pillows, and cushions lay here and there.

Krishna and Gopis at Vrindāvan

The musicians were singing of the episodes in the life of Sri Krishna

especially associated with His divine love for the gopis of Vrindāvan. This

was a theme which always appealed to the Master and would throw him

into ecstatic moods.

Krishna, God Incarnate, lived the years of His boyhood in Vrindāvan as a

cowherd. He tended His cows on the green meadows along the bank of the

Jamuna and played His flute. The milkmaids could not resist the force of

His divine attraction. At the sound of His flute they would leave their

household duties and go to the bank of the sacred river.

Their love for Krishna destroyed their attachment to worldly things. Neither

the threats of their relatives nor the criticism of others could make them

desist from seeking the company of Krishna. In the love of the gopis for

Krishna there was not the slightest trace of worldliness. It was the innate

attraction of God for pure souls, as of the magnet for iron. The author of the

Bhagavata has compared this love to the all-consuming love of a woman for

her beloved. Before the on rush of that love all barriers between man and

God are swept away. The devotee surrenders himself completely to his

Divine Beloved and in the end becomes one with Him.

Radha was the foremost of the gopis, and Krishna's chief playmate. She felt

an indescribable longing for union with Him. A moment's separation from

Krishna would rend her heart and soul.

During many a moonlit night Krishna would dance with Radha and the

gopis in the sacred groves of Vrindāvan, and on such occasions the gopis

would experience the highest religious ecstasy. At the age of eleven Krishna

was called to be the king of Mathura. He left the gopis, promising them,

however, His divine vision whenever they concentrated on Him in their

hearts.

For centuries and centuries the lovers of God in 1ndia have been

worshipping the Divine by recreating in themselves the yearning of the

gopis for Krishna. Many of the folk-songs of India have as their theme this

sweet episode of Krishna's life. Sri Chaitanya revived this phase of Hindu

religious life by his spiritual practice and his divine visions. In his ecstatic

music Chaitanya assumed the role of Radha and manifested the longing to

be united with Krishna. For a long period Sri Ramakrishna also worshipped

God as his beloved Krishna, looking on himself as one of the gopis or as

God's handmaid.

At Surendra's garden house the kirtan had begun early in the morning. The

musicians were singing about the love of Krishna and Radha for each other.

The Master was frequently in samādhi. The room was crowded with

devotees, among them Bhavanath, Niranjan, Rākhāl , Surendra, Ram, and

M., and many members of the Brahmo Samaj.

In accordance with the custom, the kirtan had begun with, an introductory

song about Gaurānga.

Gaurānga embraces monastic life. He is being consumed with longing for a

vision of Krishna. He leaves Navadvip and goes away as a wandering monk

to seek out his Beloved. His devotees, unable to bear the pangs of

separation, weep bitterly and beg Gaurānga to return.

The musician sang:

O Gaur, come back to Nadia!

Master's ecstasy

Next the musician sang about the anguish of Radha at her separation from

Krishna.

When Sri Ramakrishna heard the song he suddenly stood up. Assuming the

mood of Radha, he sang in a voice laden with sorrow, improvising the

words: "O friend, either bring my beloved Krishna here or take me to Him."

Thus singing, he completely lost himself in Radha and could not continue

the song. He became speechless, his body motionless, his eyes half closed,

his mind totally unconscious of the outer world. He was in deep samādhi.

Radha's anguish at separation from Krishna

After a long time he regained normal consciousness and said in the same

heart-rending voice: "O friend, take me to my beloved Krishna and make

me your bondslave. I shall be your handmaid for ever. O friend, it was you

who taught me how to love Krishna. O

Krishna! O Beloved of my soul!"

The professional musicians continued their song. They took the part of

Radha and sang as if she were talking to her friend: "O friend, I shall not go

again to the Jamuna to draw water. Once I beheld my beloved Friend under

the kadamba tree. Whenever I pass it I am overwhelmed."

The Master again became abstracted. Heaving a deep sigh he said, "Ah me!

Ah me!"

The song went on. Radha says:

Even the desire for Krishna's presence

Has cooled and refreshed my feverish body.

Now and then, the musicians improvised lines to the music, continuing in

the attitude of Radha:

"O friends, you can wait. Show me Krishna, my Beloved."

Again: "Do not bother about my ornaments. I have lost my most precious

Ornament."

And again: "Alas! I have fallen on evil days. My happy days are over." And

finally: "This unhappy time lingers so long!"

Sri Ramakrishna improvised a line himself: "Are not better times yet in

sight for me?" The musicians then improvised: "Such a long time has

passed! Are not better times yet in sight for me?"

The musicians sang Radha's words to a friend:

O friend, I am dying! Surely I die.

The anguish of being kept apart

From Krishna is more than I can bear.

Alas! to whom then shall I leave.

My priceless Treasure? When I am dead,

I beg you, do not burn my body;

Do not cast it into the river.

See that it is not given to the flames;

Do not cast it into the water.

In this body I played with Krishna.

Bind my lifeless form, I beg you,

To the black tamala's branches;

Tie it to the tamala tree.

Touching tamala it touches black.

Krishna is black, and black is tamala;

Black is the colour that I love.

From earliest childhood I have loved it.

To the black Krishna my body belongs;

Let it not lie apart from black!

Radha reaches her last extremity. She faints away.

Radha has fallen to the ground;

She lies there lost to outward sense,

Repeating her precious Krishna's name,

And straightway doses both her eyes.

Ah, has the drama reached its end?

What ails you, O delight of Krishna?

Only a moment ago you spoke.

Her friends, anointing Radha's form

With cool and soothing sandal-paste,

Attempt to bring her back to earth.

Some of them weep in bitter grief;

They cannot bear to see her die.

Some sprinkle water on her face;

Perhaps she will revive again!

But, oh, can water give back life

To one who dies of Krishna's love?

Radha's friends chant Krishna's sweet name in her ears. This brings her

back to partial consciousness. She looks at the black tamala tree and thinks

that Krishna stands before her.

Krishna's name restores her life;

Once more her two eyes gaze around,

But Krishna's face she cannot see.

Alas, how bitterly she weeps!

"Where is my Krishna? Where is He

Whose name you chanted in my ears?

Bring Him but once before me here!"

Seeing the black tamala tree,

She stares at it and cries aloud:

"There is His crest! I see it clearly!

There is my "Krishna's lovely crest!"

But only a peacock did she see,

Whose glistening feathers she mistook

For the gay feather on Krishna's crest.

Krishna has gone to Mathura to assume His royal duties. He has discarded

His cowherd's dress and flute and put on the royal regalia. Radha's friends,

after a hurried consultation, send a gopi to Mathura as messenger. She

meets a woman of that city, of her own age, who asks her where she comes

from.

Radha's friend says: "I don't have to call Krishna. He Himself will come to

me." But none the less, she follows the woman of Mathura and goes to

Krishna's palace. In the street she weeps overcome with grief, and prays to

Krishna: "O Hari, where are You? O Life of the gopis! O Enchanter of our

hearts! O Beloved of Radha! O Hari, Remover of Your devotees' shame!

Come to us once more! With great pride I said to the people of Mathura that

You Yourself would come to me. Please do not humiliate me."

In scorn says the woman of Mathura:

"Oh, you are only a simple milkmaid!

How can you go to see our King,

Our Krishna, in your beggar's rags?

Behind seven doors His chamber stands.

You cannot enter. How can you go?

I die of shame to see your boldness.

Tell me, how will you manage to enter?"

Says the gopi:

"Krishna! Beloved!

Soul of the gopis! Oh, where are You?

Come to me here and save my life.

Where are You, adorable Soul of the gopis?

Come to me, Lord of Mathura!

And save the life of Your sorrowing handmaid.

Ah, where are You, Beloved of Radha?

Lord of our hearts and Friend of our souls!

O Hari, Destroyer of our shame!

O priceless Treasure of the gopis!

Come to Your handmaid and save her honour."

Thus the messenger weeps and cries out for Krishna.

When the musicians sang, "Where are You, adorable Soul of the gopis?" the

Master went into samādhi. As the music neared its end the musicians sang

louder. Sri Ramakrishna was on his feet, again in deep samādhi. Regaining

partial consciousness, he said in a half articulate voice, "Kitna! Kitna!" He

was too much overwhelmed to utter Krishna's name distinctly.

The kirtan was coming to a close. At the reunion of Radha and Krishna the

Master sang with the musicians, composing the lines himself:

Behold, there Radha stands by Krishna;

On His bosom she reclines.

Behold her standing at His left,

Like a golden creeper twining

Round a black tamala tree!

As the music came to a close the Master led the chorus. All chanted

together, to the accompaniment of drums and cymbals: "Victory to Radha

and Krishna! Hallowed be the names of Radha and Krishna!" The devotees

felt a surge of divine emotion and danced around the Master. He too danced

in an ecstasy of joy. The names of God echoed and reechoed in the house

and garden.

Master's praise of Niranjan

After the music the Master sat with the devotees. Just then Niranjan arrived

and prostrated himself before him. At the very sight of this beloved disciple

the Master stood up; with beaming eyes and smiling face, and said: "You

have come too! (To M.) You see, this boy is absolutely guileless. One

cannot be guileless without a great deal of spiritual discipline in previous

births. A hypocritical and calculating mind can never attain God.

"Don't you see that God incarnates Himself only in a family where

innocence exists? How guileless Dasaratha was! So was Nanda, Krishna's

father. There is a saying: 'Ah, how innocent a man he is!

He is just like Nanda.'

(To Niranjan) "I feel as if a dark veil has covered your face. It is because

you have accepted a job in an office. One must keep accounts there.

Besides, one must attend to many other things, and that always keeps the

mind in a state of worry. You are serving in an office like other worldly

people; but there is a slight difference, in that you are earning money for the

sake of your mother. One must show the highest respect to one's mother, for

she is the very embodiment of the Blissful Mother of the Universe. If you

had accepted the job for the sake of wife and children, I should have said:

'Fie upon you!

Shame! A thousand shames!'

(To Mani Mallick, pointing to Niranjan) "Look at this boy. He is absolutely

guileless. But he has one fault: he is slightly untruthful nowadays. The other

day he said that he would visit me again very soon, but he didn't come. (To

Niranjan) That is why Rākhāl asked you why you didn't come to see me

while you were at Ariadaha, so near Dakshineswar."

NIRANJAN: "I was there only a couple of days."

MASTER (to Niranjan, pointing to M.) "He is the headmaster of a school.

At my bidding he went to see you. (To M.) Did you send Baburam to me

the other day?"

The Master went to an adjoining room and began to talk with some

devotees there.

Be mad for God alone

MASTER (to M.): "Ah! How wonderful was the yearning of the gopis for

Krishna! They were seized with divine madness at the very sight of the

black tamala tree. Separation from Krishna created such a fire of anguish in

Radha's heart that it dried up even the tears in her eyes! Her tears would

disappear in steam. There were other times when nobody could notice the

depth of her feeling. People do not notice the plunge of an elephant in a big

lake."

M: "Yes, sir, that is true. Chaitanya, too, experienced a similar feeling. He

mistook a forest for the sacred grove of Vrindāvan, and the dark water of

the ocean for the blue Jamuna"

MASTER: "Ah! If anyone has but a particle of such prema! What yearning!

What love!

Radha possessed not only one hundred per cent of divine love, but one

hundred and twenty-five per cent.

This is what it means to be intoxicated with ecstatic love of God. The sum

and substance of the whole matter is that a man must love God, must be

restless for Him. It doesn't matter whether you believe in God with form or

in God without form. You may or may not believe that God incarnates

Himself as man. But you will realize Him if you have that yearning. Then

He Himself will let you know what He is like. If you must be mad, why

should you be mad for the things of the world? If you must be mad, be mad

for God alone."

Presently Sri Ramakrishna returned to the main hall of the house. A big

pillow was placed near him for his use. Before touching it he said, "Om Tat

Sat" Perhaps the pillow had been used by many worldly people, and that

was why he purified it in this way.

Bhavanath, M., and other devotees sat near him. It was getting late, but

there was no indication that the meal was going to be served. The Master

became impatient, like a child, and said: "I don't see any sign of food.

What's the matter? Where is Narendra?"

A DEVOTEE (with a smile): "Sir, Ram Babu is the manager of the feast.

He is superintending everything."

MASTER (laughing): "Oh, Ram is the manager! Then we know what to

expect."

A DEVOTEE: "Things like this always happen when he is the supervisor."

(All laugh.) MASTER (to the devotees): "Where is Surendra? What a nice

disposition he has now! He is very outspoken; he isn't afraid to speak the

truth. He is unstinting in his liberality. No one that goes to him for help

comes away empty-handed. (To M.) You went to Bhagavan Das. What sort

of man is he?"

M: "He is very old now. I saw him at Kalna. It was night. He lay on a carpet

and a devotee fed him with food that had been offered to God. He can hear

only if one speaks loudly into his ear.

Hearing me mention your name he said, 'You have nothing to worry about.'"

BHAVANATH (to M.): "You haven't been to Dakshineswar for a long time.

The Master asked me about you and said one day, 'Has M. lost all taste for

this place?' "

Bhavanath laughed as he said these words. The Master heard their

conversation and said to M. in a loving voice: "Yes, that is true. Why

haven't you been to Dakshineswar for such a long time?"

M. could only stammer some lame excuses.

Just then Mahimacharan arrived. He lived at Cossipore near Calcutta.

Mahimacharan held the Master in great respect and was a frequent visitor at

the temple garden. He was a man of independent means, having inherited

some ancestral property. He devoted his time to religious thought and to the

study of the scriptures. He was a man of some scholarship, having studied

many books, both Sanskrit and English.

MASTER (to Mahima): "What is this? I see a steamship here. (All laugh.)

We expect here a small boat at the most, but a real steamship has arrived.

But then I know. It's the rainy season!" (Laughter.)

The Master was conversing with Mahimacharan. He asked him: "Isn't

feeding people a kind of service to God? God exists in all beings as fire. To

feed people is to offer oblations to that Indwelling Spirit. But then one

shouldn't feed the wicked, I mean people who are entangled in gross

worldliness or who have committed heinous crimes like adultery. Even the

ground where such people sit becomes impure to a depth of seven cubits.

Once Hriday fed a number of people at his native place. A good many of

them were wicked. I said to Hriday: 'Look here. If you feed such people I

shall leave your house at once.' (To Mahima) I hear that you used to feed

people; but now you don't give any such feasts. Is it because your expenses

have gone up?" (Laughter.) The meal was to be served on the south

verandah of the house. Leaf-plates were being placed on the floor. The

Master said to Mahimacharan: "Please go there and see what they are

doing. You may help them a little in serving the food. But I shouldn't ask

you."

Mahimacharan said: "Let them bring in the food. I shall see." Hemming and

hawing, he went toward the kitchen, but presently he came back.

Sri Ramakrishna and the devotees enjoyed the meal greatly. Afterwards he

rested awhile. About two o'clock in the afternoon Pratap Chandra

Mazumdar of the Brahmo Samaj arrived. He was a co-worker of Keshab

Chandra Sen and had been to Europe and America in connection with the

Brahmo missionary work. He greeted Sri Ramakrishna, and the Master, too,

bowed before him with his usual modesty.

They were soon engaged in conversation.

PRATAP: "I have been to Darjeeling recently for a change of air."

MASTER: "But your health hasn't much improved. What are you suffering

from?"

PRATAP: "The same-illness that Keshab died of."

They began to talk about Keshab. Pratap said: "Even in boyhood he showed

non-attachment to worldly things, seldom making merry with other boys.

He was a student in the Hindu College. At that time he became friendly

with Satyendra and through him made the acquaintance of his father,

Devendranath Tagore. Keshab cultivated bhakti and at the same time

practised meditation. At times he would be so much overcome with divine

love that he would become unconscious. The main purpose of his life was

to introduce religion among householders.

The conversation next turned to a certain Marhatta lady.

PRATAP: "Some women of our country have been to England. This

Marhatta lady, who is very scholarly, also visited England. Later she

embraced Christianity. Have you heard her name, sir?"

Egotism brings calamity

MASTER: "No. But from what you say it seems to me that she has a desire

for name and fame. That kind of egotism is not good. The feeling 'I am the

doer' is the outcome of ignorance. But the feeling that God does everything

is due to knowledge. God alone is the Doer; all others are mere instruments

in His hands.

Parable of the calf

"The misfortune that befalls a man on account of his egotism can be

realized if you only think of the condition of the calf. The calf says,

'Hamma! Hamma!' that is, 'I! I!' And just look at its misfortune! At times it

is yoked to the plough and made to work in the field from sunup to

sundown, rain or shine. Again, it may be slaughtered by the butcher. In that

case the flesh is eaten and the skin tanned into hide. From the hide shoes are

made. People put on these shoes and walk on the rough ground. Still that is

not the end of its misfortunes. Drums are made from its skin and

mercilessly beaten with sticks. At last its entrails are made into strings for

the bow used in carding cotton. When used by the carder the string gives

the sound 'Tuhu! Tuhu!','Thou! Thou!'-that is, 'It is Thou, O

Lord! It is Thou!' It no longer says, 'Hamma! Hamma!', 'I! I!' Only then

does the calf's trouble come to an end, and it is liberated. It doesn't return to

the world of action.

"Likewise, when the embodied soul says: 'O God, I am not the doer; Thou

art the Doer. I am the machine and Thou art its Operator', only then does its

suffering of worldly life come to an end; only then does it obtain liberation.

It no longer has to be reborn in this world of action."

A DEVOTEE: "How can a man get rid of his ego?"

MASTER: "You cannot get rid of it until you have realized God. If you find

a person free from ego, then know for certain that he has seen God."

Signs of God-vision

DEVOTEE: "What, sir, are the signs of God-vision?"

MASTER: "Yes, there are such signs. It is said in the Bhagavata that a man

who has seen God behaves sometimes like a child, sometimes like a ghoul,

sometimes like an inert thing, and sometimes like a madman.

"The man who has seen God becomes like a child. He is beyond the three

gunas; he is unattached to any of them. He behaves like a ghoul, for he

maintains the same attitude toward things holy and unholy. Again, like a

madman, he sometimes laughs and sometimes weeps. Now he dresses

himself like a dandy and the next moment he goes entirely naked and roams

about with his cloth under his arm. Therefore he seems to be a lunatic.

Again, at times he sits motionless like an inert thing."

Harmless ego

DEVOTEE: "Does the ego disappear altogether after the realization of

God?"

MASTER: "Yes, sometimes God totally effaces the ego of His devotee, as

in the state of samādhi.

But in many cases He keeps a trace of ego. But that doesn't injure anybody.

It is like the ego of a child. A five-year-old child no doubt says 'I', but that

ego doesn't harm anybody. At the touch of the philosopher's stone, steel is

turned into gold; the steel sword becomes a sword of gold.

The gold sword has the form of a sword, no doubt, but it cannot injure

anybody. One cannot cut anything with a gold sword.

(To Pratap) "You have been to England. Tell us what you saw there."

PRATAP: "The English people worship what you call 'gold'. Of course,

there are also some good people in England, those who live an unattached

life. But generally one finds there a great display of rajas in everything. I

saw the same thing in America."

Secret of work

MASTER (to Pratap): "It is not in England alone that one sees attachment

to worldly things. You see it everywhere. But remember that work is only

the first step in spiritual life. God cannot be realized without sattva-love,

discrimination, kindness, and so on. It is the very nature of rajas to involve

a man in many worldly activities. That is why rajas degenerates into tamas.

If a man is entangled in too many activities he surely forgets God. He

becomes more and more attached to 'woman and gold'.

"But it is not possible for you to give up work altogether. Your very nature

will lead you to it whether you like it or not. Therefore the scriptures ask

you to work in a detached spirit, that is to say, not to crave the work's

results. For example, you may perform devotions and worship, and practise

austerities, but your aim is not to earn people's recognition or to increase

your merit.

"To work in such a spirit of detachment is known as karmayoga. But it is

very difficult.

We are living in the Kaliyuga, when one easily becomes attached to one's

actions. You may think you are working in a detached spirit, but attachment

creeps into the mind from nobody knows where. You may worship in the

temple or arrange a grand religious festival or feed many poor and starving

people. You may think you have done all this without hankering after the

results. But unknown to yourself the desire for name and fame has

somehow crept into your mind. Complete detachment from the results of

action is possible only for one who has seen God."

The path of bhakti for this age

A DEVOTEE: "Then what is the way for those who have not seen God?

Must they give up all the duties of the world?"

MASTER: "The best path for this age is bhaktiyoga, the path of bhakti

prescribed by Nārada: to sing the name and glories of God and pray to Him

with a longing heart, 'O

God, give me knowledge, give me devotion, and reveal Thyself to me!' The

path of karma is extremely difficult. Therefore one should pray: 'O God,

make my duties fewer and fewer; and may I, through Thy grace, do the few

duties that Thou givest me without any attachment to their results! May I

have no desire to be involved in many activities!'

"It is not possible to give up work altogether. Even to think or to meditate is

a kind of work.

As you develop love for God, your worldly activities become fewer and

fewer of themselves. And you lose all interest in them. Can one who has

tasted a drink made of sugar candy enjoy a drink made of ordinary

molasses?"

First God and then worldly duties

A DEVOTEE: "The English people always exhort us to be active. Isn't

action the aim of life then?"

MASTER: "The aim of life is the attainment of God. Work is only a

preliminary step; it can never be the end. Even unselfish work is only a

means; it is not the end.

"Sambhu Mallick once said to me, 'Please bless me, sir, that I may spend all

my money for good purposes, such as building hospitals and dispensaries;

making roads, and digging wells.' I said to him: 'It will be good if you can

do these things in a spirit of detachment. But that is very difficult. Whatever

you may do, you must always remember that the aim of this life of yours is

the attainment of God and not the building of hospitals and dispensaries.

Suppose God appeared before you and said to you, "Accept a boon from

Me." Would you then ask Him, "O God, build me some hospitals and

dispensaries"? Or would you not rather pray to Him: "O God, may I have

pure love at Your Lotus Feet! May I have Your uninterrupted vision!"?

Hospitals, dispensaries, and all such things are unreal. God alone is real and

all else unreal. Furthermore, after realizing God one feels that He alone is

the Doer and we are but His instruments. Then why should we forget Him

and destroy ourselves by being involved in too many activities?

After realizing Him, one may, through His grace, become His instrument in

building many hospitals and dispensaries.'

"Therefore I say again that work is only the first step. It can never be the

goal of life.

Devote yourself to spiritual practice and go forward. Through practice you

will advance more and more in the path of God. At last you will come to

know that God alone is real and all else is illusory, and that the goal of life

is the attainment of God.

The story of the wood-cutter

"Once upon a time a wood-cutter went into a forest to chop wood. There

suddenly he met a brahmachari. The holy man said to him, 'My good man,

go forward.' On returning home the wood-cutter asked himself, 'Why did

the brahmachari tell me to go forward?'

Some time passed. One day he remembered the brahmachari's words. He

said to himself, 'Today I shall go deeper into the forest.' Going deep into the

forest, he discovered innumerable sandalwood trees. He was very happy

and returned with cart-loads of sandalwood. He sold them in the market and

became very rich.

"A few days later he again remembered the words of the holy man to go

forward. He went deeper into the forest and discovered a silver-mine near a

river. This was even beyond his dreams. He dug out silver from the mine

and sold it in the market. He got so much money that he didn't even know

how much he had.

"A few more days passed. One day he thought: 'The brahmachari didn't ask

me to stop at the silver-mine; he told me to go forward.' This time he went

to the other side of the river and found a gold-mine. Then he exclaimed:

'Ah, just see! This is why he asked me to go forward.'

"Again, a few days afterwards, he went still deeper into the forest and found

heaps of diamonds and other precious gems. He took these also and became

as rich as the god of wealth himself.

Go forward

"Therefore I say that, whatever you may do, you will find better and better

things if only you go forward. You may feel a little ecstasy as the result of

japa, but don't conclude from this that you have achieved everything in

spiritual life. Work is by no means the goal of life. Go forward, and then

you will be able to perform unselfish work. But again I say that it is most

difficult to perform unselfish work. Therefore with love and longing in your

heart pray to God: 'O God, grant me devotion at Thy Lotus Feet and reduce

my worldly duties. Please grant me the boon that the few duties I must do

may be done in a detached spirit.' If you go still farther you will realize

God.

You will see Him. In time you will converse with Him."

Next the conversation turned to the quarrels among the members of the

Brahmo Samaj.

They had had a misunderstanding about the right to preach in the temple

after Keshab's death.

MASTER (to Pratap): "I hear that some members of the Samaj have

quarrelled with you about the altar. But they are most insignificant persons-

mere nobodies.

(To the devotees): "People like Pratap and Amrita are like good

conchshells, which give out a loud sound. And the rest, about whom you

hear so much, don't give out any sound at all." (All laugh.)

PRATAP: "Speaking of sounds, even such a worthless thing as a

mangostone makes a sound!"

MASTER (to Pratap): "One can very well understand the inner feeling of a

teacher of your Brahmo Samaj by hearing his preaching. Once I went to a

meeting of a Hari Sabha.

The preacher of the day was a pundit named Samadhyayi. And can you

imagine what he said? He said in the course of his sermon: 'God is dry. We

must make Him sweet and fresh with our love and devotion.' I was stunned

to hear these words. Then I was reminded of a story. A boy once said: 'At

my uncle's house there are many horses. Oh, yes! His whole cowshed is full

of them.' Now if it was really a cowshed, then horses could not be kept

there. Possibly he had only cows. What did people think on hearing such an

incoherent statement? They believed that there were surely no such animals

as horses in the shed." (Laughter.)

A DEVOTEE: "True, sir, there were not only no horses, but possibly there

were also no cows!"

(Laughter.)

MASTER: "Just fancy, to describe God, who is of the very nature of Love

and Bliss, as dry! It only proves that the man has never experienced what

God is like.

Master's advice to Pratap

(To Pratap) "Let me tell you something. You are a learned and intelligent

and serious-minded soul. Keshab and you were like the two brothers, Gaur

and Nitai. You have had enough of lectures, arguments,

quarrels,discussions, and dissensions. Can such things interest you any

more? Now gather your whole mind and direct it to God. Plunge deep into

God."

PRATAP: "Yes, sir, you are right. That is surely my only duty now. But I

am doing all these things only to perpetuate Keshab's name."

MASTER (with a smile): "No doubt you say now that you are doing all this

to keep his name alive; but in a few days you won't feel that way. Listen to

a story. A man had built a house on a hill.

It was only a mud hut, but he had built it with great labour. A few days

after, there came a violent storm and the hut began to rock. The man

became very anxious to save it and prayed to the god of the winds,'O god of

the winds, please don't wreck the house!'

But the god of the winds paid no heed to his prayer. The house was about to

crash. Then he thought of a trick. He remembered that Hanuman was the

son of the god of the winds. At once he cried out with great earnestness: 'O

revered sir, please don't pull down the house. It belongs to Hanuman. I

beseech you to protect it.' But still the house continued to shake violently.

Nobody seemed to listen to his prayer. He repeated many times, 'Oh, this

house belongs to Hanuman!' But the fury of the wind did not abate. Then he

remembered that Hanuman was the devoted servant of Rāma, whose

younger brother was Lakshmana. Desperately the man prayed, crying

aloud, 'Oh, this house belongs to Lakshmana!' But that also failed to help

matters. So the man cried out as a last resort: 'This is Rāma's house. Don't

break it down, O god of the winds! I beseech you most humbly.' But this too

proved futile, and the house began to crash down.

Whereupon the man, who now had to save his own life, rushed out of it

with the curse: 'Let it go! This is the devil's own hut!'

(To Pratap): "You don't have to perpetuate Keshab's name. Remember that

he achieved all his success through the will of God. Through the divine will

his work was established, and through the divine will it is disintegrating.

What can you do about it? Now it is your bounden duty to give your entire

mind to God, to plunge deep into the Ocean of His Love."

Saying these words the Master sang in his sweet voice: Dive deep, O mind,

dive deep in the Ocean of God's Beauty; If you descend to the uttermost

depths,

There you will find the gem of Love.

Go seek, O mind, go seek Vrindāvan in your heart, Where with His loving

devotees

Sri Krishna sports eternally.

Light up, O mind, light up true wisdom's shining lamp, And let it burn with

steady flame

Unceasingly within your heart.

Who is it that steers your boat across the solid earth?

It is your guru, says Kubir;

Meditate on his holy feet.

The Master continued, addressing Pratap: "Did you listen to the song? You

have had enough of lectures and quarrels. Now dive deep into the Ocean of

God. There is no fear of death from plunging into this Ocean, for this is the

Ocean of Immortality. Don't think that this will make you lose your head.

Never for a moment harbour the idea that by thinking too much of God one

becomes insane. Once I said to Narendra"

PRATAP: "Who is Narendra, sir?"

MASTER: "Oh, never mind. There is a young man of that name. I said to

Narendra: 'Look here, my boy. God is the Ocean of Bliss; Don't you want to

plunge into this Ocean?

Suppose there is a cup of syrup and you are a fly. Where will you sit to sip

the syrup?'

Narendra said, 'I will sit on the edge of the cup and stick my head out to

drink it.' 'Why?'

said I. 'Why should you sit on the edge?' He replied, 'If I go far into the

syrup, I shall be drowned and lose my life.' Then I said to him: 'But, my

child, there is no such fear in the Ocean of Satchidananda. It is the Ocean of

Immortality. By plunging into it a man does not die; he becomes immortal.

Man does not lose his consciousness by being mad about God.

Knowledge and ignorance

(To the devotees) "The feeling of 'I ' and 'mine' is ignorance. People say that

Rani Rasmani built the Kāli temple; but nobody says it was the work of

God. They say that such and such a person established the Brahmo Samaj;

but nobody says it was founded through the will of God. This feeling, 'I am

the doer', is ignorance. On the contrary, the idea, 'O God, Thou art the Doer

and I am only an instrument; Thou art the Operator and I am the machine',

is Knowledge. After attaining Knowledge a man says: 'O God, nothing

belongs to me-neither this house of worship nor this Kāli temple nor this

Brahmo Samaj.

These are all Thine. Wife, son, and family do not belong to me. They are all

Thine.'

"To love these objects, regarding them as one's own, is māyā. But to love all

things is daya, compassion. To love only the members of the Brahmo Samaj

or of one's own family is māyā; to love one's own countrymen is māyā. But

to love the people of all countries, to love the members of all religions, is

daya. Such love comes from love of God, from daya.

"Māyā entangles a man and turns him away from God. But through daya

one realizes God. Sages like Sukadeva and Nārada always cherished daya

in their hearts."

PRATAP: "Revered sir, are those who live with you making progress in

spiritual life?"

MASTER: "I tell people that there is nothing wrong in the life of the world.

But they must live in the world as a maidservant lives in her master's

house.'

Referring to her master's house, she says, 'That is our house.' But her real

home is perhaps in a faraway village. Pointing out her master's house to

others, she says, no doubt, 'This is our house', but in her heart she knows

very well that it doesn't belong to her and that her own house is in a faraway

village. She brings up her master's son and says, 'My Hari has grown very

naughty', or 'My Hari doesn't like sweets.' Though she repeats, 'My Hari'

with her lips, yet she knows in her heart that Hari doesn't belong to her, that

he is her master's son.

"Thus I say to those who visit me: 'Why don't you live in the world? There

is no harm in that.

But always keep your mind, on God. Know for certain that house, family

and property are not yours. They are God's. Your real home is in God.' Also

I ask them to pray always with a longing heart for love of God's Lotus

Feet."

Again the conversation turned to the English people. A devotee said, "Sir, I

understand that nowadays the pundits of England do not believe in the

existence of God."

PRATAP: "However they may talk, I don't believe that any of them is a real

atheist. Many of them have had to admit that there is a great power behind

the activities of the universe."

MASTER: "Well, that is enough. They believe in Śakti, don't they? Then

why should they be atheists?"

PRATAP: "They also believe in the moral government of the universe."

Pratap was now about to take leave of the Master.

MASTER (to Pratap): "What more shall I say to you? My only request is

that you do not involve yourself in quarrels and dissensions any more.

Another thing. It is 'woman and gold' that keeps men away from God. That

is the barrier. Don't you find that everyone has nothing but praise for his

own wife? (All laugh.) A wife may be good or bad; but if you ask her

husband about her he will always say, 'Oh, she is very good-'"

At this point Pratap bade the Master good-bye. He did not wait to hear the

end of Sri Ramakrishna's words about the renunciation of "woman and

gold". Those burning words touched the hearts of the devotees and were

carried away on the wind through the gently rustling leaves in the garden.

A few minutes later Mani Mallick said to Sri Ramakrishna: "Sir, it is time

for you to leave for Dakshineswar. Today Keshab's mother and the other

ladies of his family are going to the temple garden to visit you. They will be

hurt if they do not find you there."

Keshab had passed away only a few months before. His old mother and his

other relatives wanted to visit the Master.

MASTER (to Mani Mallick): "Don't hurry me, please. I didn't sleep well. I

can't rush. They are going to Dakshineswar. What am I to do about it? They

will stroll in the garden and enjoy it thoroughly."

After resting a little the Master was ready to leave for Dakshineswar. He

was thinking of Surendra's welfare. He visited the different rooms, softly

chanting the holy name of God.

Suddenly he stood still and said: "I didn't eat any luchi at meal time. Bring

me a little now."

He ate only a crumb and said: "There is much meaning in my asking for the

luchi. If I should remember that I hadn't eaten any at Surendra's house, then

I should want to come back for it."

(All laugh.)

MANI MALLICK: "That would have been nice. Then we too should have

come with you."

The devotees laughed.

Friday, June 20, 1884

It was dusk. Sri Ramakrishna was sitting in his room, absorbed in

contemplation of the Divine Mother. Now and then he was chanting Her

name. Rākhāl , Adhar, M., and several other devotees were with him.

After a while the evening worship began in the temples. Adhar left the

room to see the worship.

Sri Ramakrishna and M. conversed.

MASTER: "Tell me, does Baburam intend to continue his studies? I said to

him, 'Continue your studies to set an example to others.' After Sita had been

set free, Bibhishana refused to become king of Ceylon. Rāma said to him:

'You should become king to open the eyes of the ignorant.

Otherwise they will ask you what you have gained as a result of serving

Me. They will be pleased to see you acquire the kingdom.'

Baburam's spiritual nature

"I noticed the other day that Baburam, Bhavanath, and Harish have a

feminine nature.

In a vision I saw Baburam as a goddess with a necklace around her neck

and with woman companions about her.

He has received something in a dream. His body is pure. Only a very little

effort will awaken his spiritual consciousness.

Concerning Rākhāl

"You see, I am having some difficulty about my physical needs. It will be

nice if Baburam lives with me. The nature of these attendants of mine is

undergoing a change. Lātu is always tense with spiritual emotion. He is

about to merge himself in God. Rākhāl is getting into such a spiritual mood

that he can't do anything even for himself. I have to get water for him. He

isn't of much service to me.

"Among the youngsters Baburam and Niranjan are rather exceptional. If

other boys come in the future, they will, it seems to me, receive instruction

and then go away.

"But I don't want Baburam to tear himself away from his family. It may

make trouble at home.

(Smiling) When I ask him, 'Why don't you come?' he says, 'Why not make

me come?' He looks at Rākhāl and weeps. He says, 'Rākhāl is very happy

here.'

"Rākhāl now lives here as one of the family. I know that he will never again

be attached to the world. He says that worldly enjoyments have become

tasteless to him. His wife came here on her way to Konnagar. She is

fourteen. He too was asked to go to Konnagar, but he didn't go. He said, 'I

don't like merriment and gaiety.'

"What do you think of Niranjan?" M: "He is very handsome."

Niranjan's guilelessness

MASTER: "No, I am not asking about his looks. He is guileless. One can

easily realize God if one is free from guile. Spiritual instruction produces

quick results in a guileless heart. Such a heart is like well cultivated land

from which all the stones have been removed. No sooner is the seed sown

than it germinates. The fruit also appears quickly.

"Niranjan will not marry. It is 'woman and gold' that causes entanglement.

Isn't that so?"

M: "Yes, sir."

MASTER: "What will one gain by renouncing betel-leaf and tobacco? The

real renunciation is the renunciation of 'woman and gold.'

"I came to know in an ecstatic mood that, though Niranjan had accepted a

job in an office, he would not be stained by it. He is earning money for his

mother. There is no harm in that.

"The work you are doing won't injure you either. What you are doing is

good. Suppose a clerk is sent to jail; he is shut up there and chained, and at

last he is released. Does he cut capers after his release? Of course not. He

works again as a clerk.

It is not your intention to accumulate money. You only want to support your

family.

Otherwise, where will they go?"

M: "I shall be relieved if someone takes charge of them."

MASTER: "That is true. But now do 'this' as well as 'that' "

M: "It is great luck to be able to renounce everything."

MASTER: "That is true. But people act according to their inherent

tendencies. You have a few more duties to perform. After these are over you

will have peace. Then you will be released. A man cannot easily get out of

the hospital once his name is registered there.

He is discharged only when he is completely cured.

Two classes of Master's devotees

"The devotees who come here may be divided into two groups. One group

says, 'O God, give me liberation.' Another group, belonging to the inner

circle, doesn't talk that way.

They are satisfied if they can know two things: first, who I6 am; second,

who they are and what their relationship to me is. You belong to this second

group; otherwise. . .

"Bhavanath, Baburam, and a few others have a feminine nature. Harish

sleeps in a woman's cloth.

Baburam says that he too likes the womanly attitude. So I am right.

Bhavanath also is like that.

But Narendra, Rākhāl, and Niranjan have a masculine nature.

Significance of the Master's injuring his arm

"Please tell me one thing. What is the significance of my having hurt my

arm? Once my teeth were broken while I was in a state of ecstasy. It is the

arm this time."

Seeing M. silent, the Master himself continued the conversation.

MASTER: "My arm was broken in order to destroy my ego to its very root.

Now I cannot find my ego within myself any more. When I search for it I

see God alone. One can never attain God without completely getting rid of

the ego. You must have noticed that the chatak bird has its nest on the

ground but soars up very high.

"Captain says I haven't acquired any occult powers because I eat fish. I

tremble with fear lest I should acquire those powers. If I should have them,

then this place would be turned into a hospital or a dispensary. People

would flock here and ask me to cure their illness. Is it good to have occult

powers?"

M: "No, sir. You have said to us that a man cannot realize God if he

possesses even one of the eight occult powers."

MASTER: "Right you are. Only the small-minded seek them. If one asks

something of a rich man, one no longer receives any favour from him. The

rich man doesn't allow such a person to ride in the same carriage with him.

Even if he does, he doesn't allow the man to sit near him. Therefore love

without any selfish motive is best.

"God with form and the formless God are both equally true. What do you

say? One cannot keep one's mind on the formless God a long time. That is

why God assumes form for His devotees.

"Captain makes a nice remark in this connexion. He says that when a bird

gets tired of soaring very high it perches on a tree and rests. First is the

formless God, and then comes God with form.

"I shall have to go to your house once. I saw in a vision that the houses of

Adhar, Balarām, and Surendra were so many places for our forgathering.

But it makes no difference to me whether they come here or not."

M: "That's right. Why shouldn't it be so? One must feel misery if one feels

happiness. But you are beyond both."

MASTER: "Yes. Further, I think of the magician and his magic. The

magician alone is real. His magic is illusory, like a dream. I realized this

when I heard the Chandi recited.

Sumbha and Nisumbha were scarcely born when I learnt that they both

were dead."

M: "Yes, sir. Once I was going to Kalna with Gangadhar in a steamer. A

country boat struck our ship and sank with twenty or twenty-five

passengers. They all disappeared in the water, like foam churned up by the

steamer.

"May I ask you one thing? Does a man watching magic really feel

compassion when he sees suffering in the performance? Does he feel, at

that time, any sense of responsibility? One thinks of compassion only when

one feels responsibility. Isn't that so?"

How a Jnāni looks on the illusory world

MASTER: "A Jnāni sees everything at once-God, māyā, the universe, and

living beings.

He sees that Vidyā-māyā, Avidyā-māyā, the universe, and all living beings

exist and at the same time do not exist. As long as he is conscious of 'I', he

is conscious of 'others'

too. Nothing whatsoever exists after he cuts through the whole thing with

the sword of jnāna. Then even his 'I' becomes as unreal as the magic of the

magician."

M. was reflecting on these words, when the Master said: "Do you know

what it is like? It is as if there were a flower with twenty-five layers of

petals, and you cut them all with one stroke.

"The idea of responsibility! Goodness gracious! Men like Sankaracharya

and Sukadeva kept the 'ego of Knowledge'. It is not for man to show

compassion, but for God. One feels compassion as long as one has the 'ego

of Knowledge'. And it is God Himself who has become the 'ego of

Knowledge'.

Supreme power of Ādyāśakti in the relative world "You may feel a

thousand times that it is all magic; but you are still under the control of the

Divine Mother. You cannot escape Her. You are not free. You must do what

She makes you do. A man attains Brahmajnana only when it is given to him

by the Ādyāśakti, the Divine Mother. Then alone does he see the whole

thing as magic; otherwise not.

"As long as the slightest trace of ego remains, one lives within the

jurisdiction of the Ādyāśakti. One is under Her sway. One cannot go beyond

Her.

"With the help of the Ādyāśakti, God sports as an Incarnation. God, through

His Śakti, incarnates Himself as man. Then alone does it become possible

for the Incarnation to carry on His work.

Everything is due to the Śakti of the Divine Mother.

"When anyone asked the former manager of the temple garden a great

favour, the manager would say, 'Come after two or three days.' He must ask

the proprietor's permission.

"God will incarnate Himself as Kalki at the end of the Kaliyuga. He will be

born as the son of a brahmin. Suddenly and unexpectedly a sword and horse

will come to him. . . ."

Adhar returned to the Master's room after watching the evening worship in

the temples.

MASTER (to Adhar and the others): "Bhuvan was here and brought me

twenty-five Bombay mangoes and some sweets. She said to me, 'Will you

eat a mango?' I said, 'My stomach is heavy today.' And to tell you the truth,

I am feeling uncomfortable after eating a few of the sweets."

Bhuvanmohini was a nurse who used to visit Sri Ramakrishna now and

then.

The Master could not eat the food offerings of everyone, especially of

physicians and nurses. It was because they accepted money from the sick in

spite of the suffering of these people.

MASTER: "Keshab Sen's mother, sisters, and other relatives came here; so

I had to dance a little.

I had to entertain them. What else could I do? They were so grief-stricken!"

--------------------

Chapter 24

PUNDIT SHASHADHAR

Wednesday, June 25, 1884

IT WAS THE DAY of the Rathyatra the Car Festival of the Hindus. At

Ishan's invitation Sri Ramakrishna went to his house in Calcutta. For some

time the Master had had a desire to meet Pundit Shashadhar.

Tarkachudamani, who had been staying with one of Ishan's neighbours. So

it was decided that he would visit the pundit in the afternoon.

A few devotees, including Hazra, accompanied the Master to Ishan's house.

Ishan had invited one or two brahmin scholars and a devotee who followed

the Tantrik method of worship. Shrish and Ishan's other sons were also

present.

The Master noticed that the Tantrik worshipper had a vermilion mark on his

forehead, and smilingly said, "I see he is branded."

After a while M. and Narendra arrived and bowed before Sri Ramakrishna.

The Master had previously informed M. that he would be at Ishan's house.

The Master joked about the delay in serving their meal. One of the scholars

quoted a Sanskrit verse about the anxiety created in people's minds by the

pangs of hunger.

Proceeding to explain the verse he said: "The study of philosophy is indeed

edifying, but poetry is more fascinating than philosophy. People listening to

good poems think of the study of philosophy-Vedānta, Nyaya, Samkhya,

and so forth as dry and insipid. Again, music is more attractive than poetry.

Music melts even a heart of stone. But a beautiful woman has an even

greater attraction for a man's heart than music. Such a woman, passing by,

diverts a man's attention from both poetry and music. But when a man feels

the pangs of hunger, everything else poetry, music and woman appears as of

no consequence. Thus, hunger is the most arresting thing."

The Master remarked with a smile, "The pundit is witty."

Soon Narendra began to sing. A few moments later the Master went

upstairs for a little rest. M. and Shrish accompanied him. M. introduced

Shrish to the Master, saying: "He is a scholar and a man of peaceful nature.

We were fellow students in our boyhood. Now he is a lawyer."

MASTER: "It is a pity that such a man should practise law."

M: "Yes, sir. It was a mistake on his part."

MASTER: "I know a few lawyers. One of them shows me great respect. He

is a straightforward man. (To Shrish) What is your idea about the most

essential thing in life?"

SHRISH: "God exists and He alone does everything. But the attributes we

ascribe to Him are not the right ones. How can a man canceive of Him? His

nature is infinite."

MASTER: "What need is there of your counting the number of trees and

branches in an orchard? You have come to the orchard to eat mangoes. Do

that and be happy. The aim of human birth is to love God. Realize that love

and be at peace.

"Suppose you have entered a tavern for a drink. Is it necessary for you to

know how many gallons of wine there are in the tavern? One glass is

enough for you. What need is there of your knowing the infinite qualities of

God? You may discriminate for millions of years about God's attributes and

still you will not know them."

The Master remained silent a few minutes. A brahmin pundit came into the

room.

Sufferings in the worldly life

MASTER (to M.): "There is no substance whatsoever in the worldly life.

The members of Ishan's family are good; so he has some peace here.

Suppose his sons had been lewd, disobedient, and addicted to drink and

other vices. Then there would have been no end to his troubles. One very

seldom comes across such a religious family, in which all the members are

devoted to God. I have seen only two or three such families. Generally one

finds quarrels, misunderstanding, jealousy, and friction. Besides, there are

disease, grief, and poverty in the world. Seeing this condition, I prayed to

the Divine Mother, 'O

Mother, turn my mind at once from the world to God.'

"Look at Narendra's troubles. His father is dead and the members of his

family are starving. He has been trying his utmost to secure a position, but

he has not yet found one. Just see how unsettled his mind is!

(To M.) "You used to come to Dakshineswar very frequently. But why have

you become such a rare visitor? Perhaps you have become particularly

friendly with your wife. Is it true? Why should I blame you? The influence

of 'woman and gold' is everywhere.

Therefore I pray, 'O Divine Mother, please don't make me a worldly man if

I am to be born again in a human body.' "

BRĀHMIN SCHOLAR: "Why should you say that, sir? The scriptures

extol the life of a householder."

MASTER: "Yes, that is true. But it is very difficult to lead the true life of a

householder.

(To M.) How wrong of us! They are singing, especially Narendra, and we

have left the room."

About four o'clock in the afternoon the Master left in a carriage for the

house where Pundit Shashadhar was staying. As soon as Sri Ramakrishna

got into the carriage he went into samādhi. His physical frame was very

tender as a result of the austerities he had undergone during the long years

of his spiritual discipline and his constant absorption in God-

Consciousness.

The Master would suffer from the slightest physical discomfort and even

from the vibration of worldly thoughts around him. Once Keshab Chandra

Sen had said that Sri Ramakrishna, Christ, and Sri Chaitanya belonged to a

delicate species of humanity that should be kept in a glass case and

protected from the vulgar contact of the world.

It was the rainy season, and a fine drizzle of rain had made the road muddy.

The sky was overcast. The devotees followed the carriage on foot. As the

carriage stopped in front of the house, the host and his relatives welcomed

the Master and took him upstairs to the drawing-room. There the Master

met the pundit.

Pundit Shashadhar

Pundit Shashadhar, a man of fair complexion and no longer young, had a

string of rudraksha beads around his neck. He was one of the renowned

Sanskrit scholars of his time-a pillar of orthodox Hinduism, which had

reasserted itself after the first wave of Christianity and Western culture had

passed over Hindu society. His clear exposition of the Hindu scriptures, his

ringing sincerity, and, his stirring eloquence had brought back a large

number of the educated young Hindus of Bengal to the religion of their

forefathers.

The pundit saluted the Master with reverence. Narendra, Rākhāl , Ram,

Hazra, and M., who had come with the Master, seated themselves in the

room as near the Master as they could, anxious not to miss one of his

words.

At the sight of the pundit the Master again went into samādhi. After a

while, still remaining in that state, he looked at the pundit and said with a

smile, "Very well, very well." Then, addressing the pundit, the Master said,

"Tell me how you give lectures."

PUNDIT: "Sir, I try to explain the teachings of the Hindu scriptures."

Efficacy of bhakti for modern times

MASTER: "For the Kaliyuga the path of devotion described by Nārada is

best. Where can people find time now to perform their duties according to

the scriptural injunctions?

Nowadays the decoctions of roots and herbs of the orthodox Hindu

physicians cannot be given to a fever patient. By the time that kind of

medicine begins its slow process of curing, the patient is done for.

Therefore only a drastic medicine like the allopathic 'fever mixture' is

effective now. You may ask people to practise scriptural rites and rituals;

but, when prescribing the rituals, remove the 'head and tail'. I tell people not

to bother about the elaborate rituals of the sandhya as enjoined in the

scriptures. I say that it will be enough for them to repeat the Gayatri alone.

If you must give instruction about scriptural ceremonies, do so only to a

very few, like Ishan.

Futility of lecturing

"You may deliver thousands of lectures, but they won't make the slightest

impression on worldly people. Can one drive a nail into a stone wall? The

point of the nail will sooner break than make a dent in the stone. What will

you gain by striking the tough skin of the crocodile with a sword? The

sādhu's water-bowl, made from the shell of a bitter gourd, may visit the four

principal holy places of India with its owner, but it will still remain as bitter

as ever. Your lectures are not helping worldly people very much; and you

will realize this by and by. The calf cannot stand on its legs all at once. Now

it drops to the ground and now it stands up. So it learns to stand finally on

its legs and walk.

"You cannot distinguish a lover of God from a worldly person. It isn't your

fault, of course. When the first onrush of the gale shakes the trees, it is

impossible to distinguish one tree from another-the mango from the

tamarind, for instance.

Rituals prepare the way for divine love

"Without having realized God one cannot give up rituals altogether. How

long should one practise the sandhya and other forms of ritualistic worship?

As long as one does not shed tears of joy at the name of God and feel a

thrill in one's body. You will know that your ritualistic worship has come to

an end when your eyes become filled with tears as you repeat 'Om Rāma'.

Then you do not have to continue your sandhya or other rituals.

"When the fruit appears the blossom drops off. Love of God is the fruit, and

rituals are the blossom. When the daughter-in-law of the house becomes

pregnant, she cannot do much work. Her mother-in-law gradually lessens

her duties in the house. When her time arrives she does practically nothing.

And after the child is born her only work is to play with it. She doesn't do

any household duties at all. The sandhya merges in the Gayatri, the Gayatri

in Om, and, Om in samādhi. It is like the sound of a bell: t-a-m. The yogi,

by following in the trail of the sound Om, gradually merges himself in the

Supreme Brahman. His sandhya and other ritualistic duties disappear in

samādhi. Thus the duties of the Jnāni come to an end."

As the Master talked of samādhi, he himself went into that state. His face

radiated a heavenly light. Bereft of outer consciousness, he could not utter

another word. His gaze was indrawn and transfixed in communion with the

Self. After a long time the Master began to recognize the world around him

and said, like a child, "I shall have a drink of water." Whenever after

samādhi the Master asked for a drink of water, his devotees knew that he

was gradually becoming conscious of the outer world.

Still lingering in the state of ecstasy, he said to the Divine Mother: "O

Mother, the other day You showed me Pundit Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar.

Then I told You that I should like to see another pundit, and so You have

brought me here."

Looking at the pundit, he said: "My child, add a little more to your strength.

Practise spiritual discipline a few days more. You have hardly set your foot

on the tree, yet you expect to lay hold of a big cluster of fruit. But, of

course, you are doing all this for the welfare of others." With these words he

bowed his head before the pundit.

The Master continued: "When I first heard about you, I inquired whether

you were merely erudite or whether you had discrimination and

renunciation. A pundit who doesn't know how to discriminate between the

Real and the unreal is no pundit at all.

Preacher with God's commission "There is no harm in teaching others if

the preacher has a commission from the Lord.

Nobody can confound a preacher who teaches people after having received

the command of God. Getting a ray of light from the goddess of learning, a

man becomes so powerful that before him big scholars seem mere

earthworms.

"When the lamp is lighted the moths come in swarms. They don't have to be

invited. In the same way, the preacher who has a commission from God

need not invite people to hear him. He doesn't have to announce the time of

his lectures. He possesses such irresistible attraction that people come to

him of their own accord. People of all classes, even kings and aristocrats,

gather around him. They say to him: 'Revered sir, what can we offer you?

Here are mangoes, sweets, money, shawls, and other things. What will you

be pleased to accept?' In that case I say to them: 'Go away. I don't care, for

these. I don't want anything.'

"Does the magnet say to the iron, 'Come near me?' That is not necessary.

Because of the attraction of the magnet, the iron rushes to it.

Divine wisdom is inexhaustible

"Such a preacher may not be a scholarly person, but don't conclude from

that that he has any lack of wisdom. Does book-learning make one wise?

He who has a commission from God never runs short of wisdom. That

wisdom comes from God; it is inexhaustible.

At Kamarpukur I have seen people measuring grain. It lies in a heap. One

man keeps pushing grain from the heap toward another man, who weighs it

on a scales. So the man who weighs doesn't run short of grain. It is the same

with the preacher who has received a commission from God. As he teaches

people, the Divine Mother Herself supplies him with fresh knowledge from

behind. That knowledge never comes to an end.

"Can a preacher ever lack knowledge if but once he is favoured with a

benign glance from the Divine Mother? Therefore I ask you whether you

have received any commission from God."

HAZRA: "Oh yes, he must have it. (To the pundit) Isn't it true, sir?"

PUNDIT: "Commission? No, sir, I am afraid I haven't received any such

thing."

HOST: "He may not have received the commission, but he preaches from a

sense of duty."

MASTER: "What will a man accomplish by mere lectures without the

commission from God? Once a Brahmo preacher said in the course of his

sermon, 'Friends, how much I used to drink!' and so on. Hearing this the

people began to whisper among themselves: 'What is this fool saying? He

used to drink!' Now these words produced a very unfavourable effect. This

shows that preaching cannot bring a good result unless it comes from a

good man.

"A high government official from Barisal once said to me, 'Sir, if you begin

the work of preaching, I too shall gird my loins.' I told him the story of

people's dirtying the bank of the Haldārpukur and of its being stopped only

when a constable, armed with authority from the government, put up a

notice prohibiting it.

"So I say, a worthless man may talk his head off preaching, and yet he will

produce no effect. But people will listen to him if he is armed with a badge

of authority from God.

One cannot teach others without the commission from God. A teacher of

men must have great power. There's many a Hanumanpuri in Calcutta. It is

with them that you will have to wrestle. (Pointing to the people assembled

there) These are mere sheep!

"Chaitanyadeva was an Incarnation of God. How little is left of what he

accomplished-not to speak of a lecturer who preaches without authority

from God! What good will a lecturer do?

Master exhorts the pundit to cultivate divine love "Therefore I say to

you, dive deep in God-Consciousness."

Saying this, the Master began to sing in an ecstasy of love for God: Dive

deep, O mind, dive deep in the Ocean of God's Beauty; If you descend to the

uttermost depths,

There you will find the gem of Love. . . .

The Master continued: "One does not die if one sinks in this Ocean. This is

the Ocean of Immortality. Once I said to Narendra: 'God is the Ocean of

Bliss. Tell me if you want to plunge into It. Just imagine there is some syrup

in a cup and that you have become a fly. Now tell me where you will sit to

sip the syrup.' Narendra answered: 'I will, sit on the edge of the cup and

stretch out my neck to drink, because I am sure to die if I go far into the

cup.' Then I said to him: 'But my child, this is the Ocean of Satchidananda.

There is no fear of death in it. This is the Ocean of Immortality. Only

ignorant people say that one should not have an excess of devotion and

divine love. How foolish! Can there be any excess of divine love?'

(To the pundit) "Therefore I say to you, dive into the Ocean of

Satchidananda. Nothing will ever worry you if you but realize God. Then

you will get His commission to teach people.

Many paths to realize God

"There are innumerable pathways leading to the Ocean of Immortality. The

essential thing is to reach the Ocean. It doesn't matter which path you

follow. Imagine that there is a reservoir containing the Elixir of Immortality.

You will be immortal if a few drops of the Elixir somehow get into your

mouth. You may get into the reservoir either by jumping into it, or by being

pushed into it from behind, or by slowly walking down the steps. The effect

is one and the same. You will become immortal by tasting a drop of that

Elixir.

Three yogas explained by Master "Innumerable are the ways that lead to

God. There are the paths of jnāna, of karma, and of bhakti. If you are

sincere, you will attain God in the end, whichever path you follow. Roughly

speaking, there are three kinds of yoga: jnanayoga, karma yoga, and

bhaktiyoga.

"What is jnanayoga? The Jnāni seeks to realize Brahman. He discriminates,

saying, 'Not this, not this'. He discriminates, saying, 'Brahman is real and

the universe illusory.' He discriminates between the Real and the unreal. As

he comes to the end of discrimination, he goes into samādhi and attains the

Knowledge of Brahman.

"What is karmayoga? Its aim is to fix one's mind on God by means of work.

That is what you are teaching. It consists of breath-control, concentration,

meditation, and so on, done in a spirit of detachment. If a householder

performs his duties in the world in a spirit of detachment, surrendering the

results to God and with devotion to God in his heart, he too may be said to

practise karmayoga. Further, if a person performs worship, japa, and other

forms of devotion, surrendering the results to God, he may be said to

practise karmayoga. Attainment of God alone is the aim of karmayoga.

"What is bhaktiyoga? It is to keep the mind on God by chanting His name

and glories.

For the Kaliyuga the path of devotion is easiest. This is indeed the path for

this age.

Difficulties of the paths of jnāna and karma

"The path of karma is very difficult. First of all, as I have just said, where

will one find the time for it nowadays? Where is the time for a man to

perform his duties as enjoined in the scriptures? Man's life is short in this

age. Further, it is extremely difficult to perform one's duties in a spirit of

detachment, without craving the result. One cannot work in such a spirit

without first having realized God. Attachment to the result somehow enters

the mind, though you may not be aware of it.

"To follow jnanayoga in this age is also very difficult. First, a man's life

depends entirely on food. Second, he has a short span of life. Third, he can

by no means get rid of body-consciousness; and the Knowledge of Brahman

is impossible without the destruction of body-consciousness. The Jnāni

says: 'I am Brahman; I am not the body. I am beyond hunger and thirst,

disease and grief, birth and death, pleasure and pain.' How can you be a

Jnāni if you are conscious of disease, grief, pain, pleasure, and the like? A

thorn enters your flesh, blood flow from the wound, and you suffer very

badly from the pain; but nevertheless, if you are a Jnāni you must be able to

say: 'Why, there is no thorn in my flesh at all. Nothing is the matter with

me'

"Therefore bhaktiyoga is prescribed for this age. By following this path one

comes to God more easily than by following the others. One can

undoubtedly, reach God by following the paths of jnāna and karma, but they

are very difficult paths.

God fulfils all desires of His devotees

"Bhaktiyoga is the religion for this age. But that does not mean that the

lover of God will reach one goal and the philosopher and worker another. It

means that if a person seeks the Knowledge of Brahman he can attain It by

following the path of bhakti, too. God, who loves His devotee, can give him

the Knowledge of Brahman if He so desires.

"But the bhakta wants to realize the Personal God endowed with form and

talk to Him.

He seldom seeks the Knowledge of Brahman. But God, who does

everything at His pleasure, can make His devotee the heir to His infinite

glories if it pleases Him. He gives His devotee both the Love of God and

the Knowledge of Brahman. If one is able somehow to reach Calcutta, one

can see the Maidan and the museum and other places too. The thing is how

to reach Calcutta.

"By realizing the Divine Mother of the Universe, you will get Knowledge

as well as Devotion. You will get both. In bhava samādhi you will see the

form of God, and in nirvikalpa samādhi you will realize Brahman, the

Absolute Existence-Knowledge-Bliss. In nirvikalpa samādhi ego, name,

and form do not exist.

Devotee's prayer to God

"A lover of God prays to the Divine Mother: 'O Mother, I am very much

afraid of selfish actions. Such actions have desires behind them, and if I

perform them I shall have to reap their fruit. But it is very difficult to work

in a detached spirit. I shall certainly forget Thee, O Mother, if I involve

myself in selfish actions. Therefore I have no use for them.

May my actions, O Divine Mother, be fewer every day till I attain Thee.

May I perform, without attachment to the results, only what action is

absolutely necessary for me. May I have great love for Thee as I go on with

my few duties. May I not entangle myself in new work so long as I do not

realize Thee. But I shall perform it if I receive Thy command. Otherwise

not.' "

About pilgrimage

PUNDIT: "How far did you go in visiting the sacred places?"

MASTER: "Oh, I visited a few places. (With a smile) But Hazra went

farther and also climbed higher. He visited Hrishikesh, but I didn't go so far

or so high.

"You must pave noticed kites and vultures soaring very high in the sky; but

their eyes are always fixed on the charnel-pits. Do you know the meaning

of 'charnel-pits'? It is 'woman and gold'.

"What is the use of making pilgrimages if you can attain love of God

remaining where you are? I have been to Benares and noticed the same

trees there as here. The same green tamarind-leaves!

"Pilgrimage becomes futile if it does not enable you to attain love of God.

Love of God is the one essential and necessary thing. Do you know the

meaning of 'kites and vultures'?

There are many people who talk big and who say that they have performed

most of the duties enjoined in the scriptures. But with all that their minds

are engrossed in worldliness and deeply preoccupied with money, riches,

name, fame, creature comforts, and such things."

PUNDIT: "It is true, sir. Going on a pilgrimage is like seeking diamonds

and gems, while discarding the precious stone that is worn by Narayana

Himself on His breast."

MASTER: "I want you to remember this. You may impart thousands of

instructions to people, but they will not bear fruit except in proper time. On

going to bed, a child said to his mother, 'Mother, please wake me up when I

feel the call of nature.' The mother said: 'Don't worry about it, my child.

That call will wake you up itself.' (All laugh.) One feels yearning for God at

the proper time.

Three kinds of teachers

"There are three classes of physicians. The physicians of one class feel the

patient's pulse and go away, merely prescribing medicine. As they leave the

room they simply ask the patient to take the medicine. They are the poorest

class of physicians. Likewise, there are teachers who only give instruction,

but do not stop to see whether their teachings have produced a good or bad

effect. They do not think at all about the disciple.

"There are physicians of another class, who prescribe medicine and ask the

patient to take it. If the patient is unwilling to follow their directions, they

reason with him. They are the mediocre physicians. Likewise, there are

mediocre teachers. They give instruction to the student and, further, try to

persuade him in various ways to follow the instruction.

"Lastly, there are the physicians of the highest class. If the patient does not

respond to their gentle persuasion, they even exert force upon him. If

necessary, they press their knees on the patient's chest and force the

medicine down his throat.

Likewise, there are teachers of the highest class, who even exert force to

direct the mind of the pupil toward God."

PUNDIT: Sir, if there are such superior teachers as you have described, then

why should you say that one does not get the Knowledge of God until the

right time comes?"

MASTER: "You are right. But what will the physician do if the medicine

runs out of the patient's mouth and doesn't reach his stomach? In such a

case even the best physician can't do anything.

"The teacher should judge the fitness of the student before giving him

instruction. But you don't discriminate in your instruction. When a young

man comes to me for instruction, first of all I ask him about his relatives at

home. Suppose he has lost his father; suppose his father has left some debts

for him. How can such a person direct his mind to God? Are you listening

to me?"

PUNDIT: "Yes, sir. I am paying attention to every word."

MASTER: "One day some Sikh soldiers came to the temple garden at

Dakshineswar. I met them in front of the Kāli temple. One of them referred

to God as very compassionate. 'Indeed!' I said. 'Is that true? But how do you

know?' He answered, 'Because, sir, God gives us food and takes every care

of us.' I said: 'Why should that surprise you? God is the Father of us all.

Who will look after the child if the father doesn't? Do you mean to say that

the people of the neighbouring village should look after the child?"

NARENDRA: "Then shouldn't we call God kind?"

MASTER: "Have I forbidden you to? What I mean is that God is our very

own. He is not a stranger to us."

PUNDIT: "Priceless words!"

MASTER (to Narendra): "I listened to your singing, but I didn't enjoy it. So

I left the room. Your mind is now set on seeking a job, and therefore your

song sounded dull."

Narendra flushed. He felt ashamed of himself and remained silent.

The Master asked for a drink of water. A glass of water had been placed

near him, but he could not take it. He asked for some fresh water. Later it

was found that a man of immoral character had touched the first glass.

PUNDIT (to Hazra): "You live in his company day and night. You must be

very happy."

MASTER (with a smile): "This is indeed a great occasion for me. Today I

have seen the crescent moon of the second day of the bright fortnight. (All

laugh.) Do you know why I referred to the moon of the second day? Sita

once said to Ravana, 'You are the full moon and Rāma is the crescent moon

of the second day of the bright fortnight.' Ravana did not understand the

meaning of these words. He thought Sita was flattering him and became

exceedingly happy. But Sita meant that Ravana had reached the fullest limit

of his power and prosperity, and that thenceforth he would wane like the

full moon. Rāma, on the other hand, was like the moon of the second day.

He would wax day by day."

The Master was about to take his leave. The pundit and his friends bowed

low before him.

It was not yet dusk, and Sri Ramakrishna returned to Ishan's house with the

devotees.

The Master took his seat in the drawing-room with Ishan and his sons, a

pundit, and a few devotees.

MASTER (smiling to Ishan): "I said to Pundit Shashadhar: 'You have

hardly set your foot on the tree, and yet you aspire to lay hold of a big

bunch of fruit. First of all practise some spiritual discipline. Then you may

teach others.' "

ISHAN: "Every preacher thinks that he enlightens others. The glowworm

also may think that it illumines the world. Imagining this to be the glow–

worm's feeling, someone said to it: 'O glow–worm, how can you bring light

to the world? You only reveal the intensity of the darkness.' "

MASTER (with a smile): "But Shashadhar is not just a scholar. He also has

a little discrimination and dispassion."

A pundit who was present said to Sri Ramakrishna, "You are indeed a great

soul."

MASTER: "You may say that about sages like Nārada, Prahlada, or

Sukadeva. I am like your son.

"Of course, in one sense your words are true. It is said that in one respect

the devotee of God is greater than God Himself, because he carries God in

his heart. (All rejoice.) It is said in the Vaishnava books: 'A devotee regards

himself as a higher, and God as a lower, being.' Yaśoda, the mother of

Krishna, was about to fetter Krishna, who was God Incarnate, with chains.

She believed that no one but herself could take care of Krishna.

"Sometimes God acts as the magnet and the devotee as the needle. God

attracts the devotee to Himself. Again, sometimes the devotee acts as the

magnet and God as the needle. Such is the attraction of the devotee that

God comes to him, unable to resist his love."

The Master was about to leave for Dakshineswar. Ishan and the other

devotees stood around him while he gave Ishan various words of advice.

Advice to householders

MASTER: "A devotee who can call on God while living a householder's

life is a hero indeed. God thinks: 'He who has renounced the world for My

sake will surely pray to Me.

He must serve Me. Is there anything very remarkable about it? People will

cry shame on him if he fails to do so. But he is blessed indeed who prays to

Me in the midst of his worldly duties. He is trying to find Me, overcoming a

great obstacle-pushing away, as it were, a huge block of stone weighing a

ton. Such a man is a real hero.' "

PUNDIT: "You are right, sir. The scripture says the same thing. There is in

the Mahabharata the story of the 'pious hunter' and the 'chaste woman'.

Once a hermit was disturbed in his meditation by a crow. When he cast an

angry glance at the bird, it was reduced to ashes. The hermit said to himself:

'I have destroyed the crow by a mere glance. I must have made great

progress in spiritual life.' One day he went to a woman's house to beg his

food. She was devoted to her husband and served him day and night; she

provided him with water to wash his feet and even dried them with her hair.

When the hermit knocked at her door for alms, she was serving her husband

and could not open the door at once. The hermit, in a fit of anger, began to

curse her. The chaste woman answered from the inner apartments: 'I am not

your crow. Wait a few minutes, sir. After finishing my service to my

husband I shall give you my attention.' The hermit was very much surprised

to find that this simple woman was aware of his having burnt the crow to

ashes. He wanted her to give him spiritual instruction. At her bidding he

went to the 'pious hunter' at Benares. This hunter sold meat, but he also

served his parents day and night as embodiments of God. The hermit said to

himself in utter amazement: 'Why, he is a butcher and a worldly man! How

can he give me the Knowledge of Brahman?' But the hunter was a knower

of Brahman and had acquired divine knowledge through the performance of

his worldly duties. The hermit was illumined by the instruction of the 'pious

hunter'."

The Master was about to take his leave. He was standing at the door of the

next house, where Ishan's father-in-law lived. Ishan and the other devotees

stood by the Master.

They were waiting to bid him good-bye. Sri Ramakrishna said to Ishan:

"Live in the world like an ant. The world contains a mixture of truth and

untruth, sugar and sand. Be an ant and take the sugar.

"Again, the world is a mixture of milk and water, the bliss of God-

Consciousness and the pleasure of sense-enjoyment. Be a swan and drink

the milk, leaving the water aside.

"Live in the world like a waterfowl. The water clings to the bird, but the

bird shakes it off. Live in the world like a mudfish. The fish lives in the

mud, but its skin is always bright and shiny.

"The world is indeed a mixture of truth and make-believe. Discard the

make-believe and take the truth."

Sri Ramakrishna got into the carriage and left for Dakshineswar.

--------------------

Chapter 25

ADVICE TO PUNDIT SHASHADHAR

Monday, June 30, 1884

SRI RAMAKRISHNA was in his room, sitting on a mat spread on the floor.

Pundit Shashadhar and a few devotees were with him on the mat, and the

rest sat on the bare floor. Surendra, Baburam, M., Harish, Lātu, Hazra, and

others were present. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon.

Sri Ramakrishna had met Pundit Shashadhar six days before in Calcutta,

and now the pundit had come to Dakshineswar to visit the Master. Bhudar

Chattopadhyaya and his elder brother, the pundit's hosts, were with him.

Nature of Brahman

The pundit was a follower of the path of jnāna. The Master was explaining

this path to him. He said: "Nityā and Lila are the two aspects of one and the

same Reality. He who is the Indivisible Satchidananda has assumed

different forms for the sake of His Lila." As he described the nature of the

Ultimate Reality the Master every now and then became unconscious in

samādhi. While he talked he was intoxicated with spiritual fervour. He said

to the pundit: "My dear sir, Brahman is immutalble and immovable, like

Mount Sumeru. But He who is 'immovable' can also 'move'."

Glories of Kāli

The Master was in ecstasy. He began to sing in his melodious voice: Who is

there that can understand what Mother Kāli is?

Even the six darsanas are powerless to reveal Her. . . .

He went on:

Is Mother merely a simple woman, born as others are born?

Only by chanting Her holy name

Does Śiva survive the deadly poison.

She it is who creates the worlds, She who preserves and destroys,

With a mere wink of Her wondrous eyes;

She holds the universe in Her womb.

Seeking a shelter at Her feet, the gods themselves feel safe; And Mahadeva,

God of Gods,

Lies prostrate underneath Her feet.

Again he sang:

Is Mother only Śiva's wife? To Her must needs bow down The all-destroying

King of Death!

Naked She roams about the world, slaying Her demon foes, Or stands erect

on Śiva's breast.

Her feet upon Her Husband's form! What a strange wife She makes!

My Mother's play, declares Prasad, shatters all rules and laws: Strive hard

for purity, O mind,

And understand my Mother's ways.

And again:

I drink no ordinary wine, but Wine of Everlasting Bliss, As I repeat my

Mother Kāli's name;

It so intoxicates my mind that people take me to be drunk! . . .

And again:

Can everyone have the vision of Syama? Is Kāli's treasure for everyone?

Oh, what a pity my foolish mind will not see what is true!

Even with all His penances, rarely does Śiva Himself behold The mind-

bewitching sight of Mother Syama's crimson feet.

To him who meditates on Her the riches of heaven are poor indeed;

If Syama casts Her glance on him, he swims in Eternal Bliss.

The prince of yogis, the king of the gods, meditate on Her feet in vain

Yet worthless kamalakanta yearns for the Mother's blessed feet!

The Master's ecstatic mood gradually relaxed. He stopped singing and sat in

silence.

After a while he got up and sat on the small couch.

Pundit Shashadhar was charmed with his singing. Very humbly he said to

Sri Ramakrishna, "Are you going to sing anymore?"

A little later the Master sang again:

High in the heaven of the Mother's feet, my mind was soaring like a kite,

When came a blast of sin's rough wind that drove it swiftly toward the earth.

. . .

Then he sang:

Once for all, this time, I have thoroughly understood; From One who knows

it well, I have learnt the secret of bhava.

A man has come to me from a country where there is no night, And now I

cannot distinguish day from night any longer; Rituals and devotions have

all grown profitless for me.

My sleep is broken; how can I slumber any more?

For now I am wide awake in the sleeplessness of yoga.

O Divine Mother, made one with Thee in yoga-sleep at last, My slumber I

have lulled asleep for evermore.

I bow my head, says Prasad, before desire and liberation; Knowing the

secret that Kāli is one with the highest Brahman, I have discarded, once for

all, both righteousness and sin.

Sri Ramakrishna continued:

I have surrendered my soul at the fearless feet of the Mother; Am I afraid of

Death any more?

Unto the tuft of hair on my head.

Is tied the almighty mantra, Mother Kāli's name.

My body I have sold in the marketplace of the world And with it have

bought Sri Durga's name.

As Sri Ramakrishna sang the line, "And with it have bought Sri Durga's

name", the tears flowed from Pundit Shashadhar's eyes. The Master went on

with the song: Deep within my heart I have planted the name of Kāli, The

Wish-fulfilling Tree of heaven;

When Yama, King of Death, appears,

To him I shall open my heart and show it growing there.

I have cast out from me my six unflagging foes;4

Ready am I to sail life's sea,

Crying, "To Durga, victory!"

Again he sang:

Dwell, O mind, within yourself;

Enter no other's home.

If you but seek there, you will find

All you are searching for. . . .

And again:

Though I am never loath to grant salvation,

I hesitate indeed to grant pure love.

Whoever wins pure love surpasses all;

He is adored by men;

He triumphs over the three worlds. . . .

Mere study of scriptures is futile

The pundit had studied the Vedas and the other scriptures. He loved to

discuss philosophy. The Master, seated on the couch, cast his benign look

on the pundit and gave him counsel through parables.

MASTER (to the pundit): "There are many scriptures like the Vedas. But

one cannot realize God without austerity and spiritual discipline. 'God

cannot be found in the six systems, the Vedas, or the Tantra.'

"But one should learn the contents of the scriptures and then act according

to their injunctions. A man lost a letter. He couldn't remember where he had

left it. He began to search for it with a lamp. After two or three people had

searched, the letter was at last found. The message in the letter was: 'Please

send us five seers of sandesh and a piece of wearing-cloth.' The man read it

and then threw the letter away. There was no further need of it; now all he

had to do was to buy the five seers of sandesh and the piece of cloth.

Reading, hearing, and seeing

"Better than reading is hearing, and better than hearing is seeing. One

understands the scriptures better by hearing them from the lips of the guru

or of a holy man. Then one doesn't have to think about their non-essential

part.

Hanuman said: 'Brother, I don't know much about the phase of the moon or

the position of the stars. I just contemplate Rāma.'

"But seeing is far better than hearing. Then all doubts disappear. It is true

that many things are recorded in the scriptures; but all these are useless

without the direct realization of God, without devotion to His Lotus Feet,

without purity of heart. The almanac forecasts the rainfall of the year. But

not a drop of water will you get by squeezing the almanac. No, not even one

drop.

"How long should one reason about the texts of the scriptures? So long as

one does not have direct realization of God. How long does the bee buzz

about? As long as it is not sitting on a flower. No sooner does it light on a

flower and begin to sip honey than it keeps quiet.

"But you must remember another thing. One may talk even after the

realization of God.

But then one talks only of God and of Divine Bliss. It is like a drunkard's

crying, 'Victory to the Divine Mother!' He can hardly say anything else on

account of his drunkenness.

You can notice, too, that a bee makes an indistinct humming sound after

having sipped the honey from a flower.

The nature of jnanis and vijnanis

"The Jnāni reasons about the world through the process of 'Neti, neti', 'Not

this, not this'.

Reasoning in this way, he at last comes to a state of Bliss, and that is

Brahman. What is the nature of a Jnāni? He behaves according to scriptural

injunctions.

"Once I was taken to Chanak and saw some sādhus there. Several of them

were sewing.

(All laugh.) At the sight of us they threw aside their sewing. They sat

straight, crossing their legs, and conversed with us. (All laugh.)

"But jnanis will not talk about spiritual things without being asked. They

will inquire, at first, about such things as your health and your family.

"But the nature of the vijnāni is different. He is unconcerned about

anything. Perhaps he carries his wearing-cloth loose under his arm, like a

child; or perhaps the cloth has dropped from his body altogether.

"The man who knows that God exists is called a Jnāni. A Jnāni is like one

who knows beyond a doubt that a log of wood contains fire. But a vijnāni is

he who lights the log, cooks over the fire, and is nourished by the food. The

eight fetters have fallen from the vijnāni. He may keep merely the

appearance of lust, anger, and the rest."

PUNDIT: "The knots of his heart are cut asunder; all his doubts are

destroyed."

MASTER: "Yes. Once a ship sailed into the ocean. Suddenly its iron joints,

nails, and screws fell out. The ship was passing a magnetic hill, and so all

its iron was loosened.

"I used to go to Krishnakishore's house. Once, when I was there, he said to

me, 'Why do you chew betel-leaf?' I said: 'It is my sweet pleasure. I shall

chew betel-leaf, look at my face in the mirror, and dance naked among a

thousand girls.' Krishnakishore's wife scolded him and said: 'What have you

said to Ramakrishna? You don't know how to talk to people.'

"In this state, passions like lust and anger are burnt up, though nothing

happens to the physical body. It looks just like any other body; but the

inside is all hollow and pure."

A DEVOTEE: "Does the body remain even after the realization of God?"

MASTER: "The body survives with some so that they may work out their

prarabdha karma or work for the welfare of others. By bathing in the

Ganges a man gets rid of his sin and attains liberation. But if he happens to

be blind, he doesn't get rid of his blindness. Of course, he escapes future

births, which would otherwise be necessary for reaping the results of his

past sinful karma. His present body remains alive as long as its momentum7

is not exhausted; but future births are no longer possible. The wheel moves

as long as the impulse that has set it in motion lasts. Then it comes to a stop.

In the case of such a person, passions like lust and anger are burnt up. Only

the body remains alive to perform a few actions."

PUNDIT: "That is called samskara."

The nature of jnanis and vijnanis

MASTER: "The vijnāni always sees God. That is why he is so indifferent

about the world.

He sees God even with his eyes open. Sometimes he comes down to the

Lila from the Nitya, and sometimes he goes up to the Nitya from the Lila."

PUNDIT: "I don't understand that."

MASTER: "The Jnāni reasons about the world through the process of 'Neti,

neti', and at last reaches the Eternal and Indivisible Satchidananda. He

reasons in this manner: 'Brahman is not the living beings; It is neither the

universe nor the twenty-four cosmic principles.' As a result of such

reasoning he attains the Absolute. Then he realizes that it is the Absolute

that has become all this-the universe, its living beings, and the twenty-four

cosmic principles.

"Milk sets into curd, and the curd is churned into butter. After extracting the

butter one realizes that butter is not essentially different from buttermilk

and buttermilk not essentially different from butter. The bark of a tree goes

with the pith and the pith goes with the bark."

PUNDIT (smiling, to Bhudar): "Did you understand that? It is very

difficult."

All-embracing realization of the vijnāni

MASTER: "If there is butter, there must be buttermilk also. If you think of

butter, you must also think of buttermilk along with it; for there cannot be

any butter without buttermilk. Just so, if you accept the Nitya, you must

also accept the Lila. It is the process of negation and affirmation. You

realize the Nitya by negating the Lila. Then you affirm the Lila, seeing in it

the manifestation of the Nitya. One attains this state after realizing Reality

in both aspects: Personal and Impersonal. The Personal is the embodiment

of Chit, Consciousness; and the Impersonal is the Indivisible

Satchidananda.

"Brahman alone has become everything. Therefore to be vijnāni this world

is a 'mansion of myrth'. But to the Jnāni it is a 'framework of illusion'.

Ramprasad described the world as a 'framework of illusion'. Another man

said to him by way of retort: This very world is a mansion of myrth;

Here I can eat, here drink and make merry.

O physician, you are a fool!

You see only the surface of things.

Janaka's might was unsurpassed;

What did he lack of the world or the Spirit?

Holding to one as well as the other,

He drank his milk from a brimming cup!

"The vijnāni enjoys the bliss of God in a richer way. Some have heard of

milk, some have seen it, and some have drunk it. The vijnāni has drunk

milk, enjoyed it, and been nourished by it."

The Master remained silent a few moments and then asked Pundit

Shashadhar to have a smoke. The Pundit went to the south east verandah to

smoke. Soon he came back to the room and sat on the floor with the

devotees. Seated on the small couch, the Master continued the conversation.

MASTER (to the Pundit): "Let me tell you something. There are three kinds

of Ānanda, joy: the joy of worldly enjoyment, the joy of worship, and the

Joy of Brahman. The joy of worldly enjoyment is the joy of 'woman and

gold', which people always enjoy. The joy of worship one enjoys while

chanting the name and glories of God. And the Joy of Brahman is the joy of

God-vision. After experiencing the joy of God-vision the rishis of olden

times went beyond all rules and conventions.

Three states of God-Consciousness "Chaitanyadeva used to experience

three spiritual states: the inmost, the semi-conscious, and the conscious. In

the inmost state he would see God and go into samādhi. He would be in the

state of jada samādhi. In the semi-conscious state he would be partially

conscious of the outer world. In the conscious state he could sing the name

and glories of God."

HAZRA (to the Pundit): "So your doubts are now solved."

Samādhi described

MASTER (to the Pundit): "What is samādhi? It is the complete merging of

the mind in God-Consciousness. The Jnāni experiences jada samādhi, in

which no trace of 'I' is left.

The samādhi attained through the path of bhakti is called 'chetana samādhi'.

In this samādhi there remains the conciousness of 'I' ― the 'I' of the servant-

and-Master relationship, of the lover-and-Beloved relationship, of the

enjoyer-and-Food relationship.

God is the Master; the devotee is the servant. God is the beloved; the

devotee is the lover. God is the Food, and the devotee is the enjoyer. 'I don't

want to be sugar. I want to eat it.' "

PUNDIT: "What will happen if God dissolves all of the 'I', if He changes

the enjoyer himself into sugar?"

MASTER (smiling): "Come, come! Tell me what is in your mind. But don't

the scriptures mention Nārada, Sanaka, Sanatana, Sananda, and

Sanatkumara?"

PUNDIT: "Yes, sir. They do."

MASTER: "Though they were jnanis, yet they kept the 'I' of the bhakta.

Haven't you read the Bhagavata?"

PUNDIT: "I have read only part of it, not the whole."

MASTER: "Pray to God. He is full of compassion. Will He not listen to the

words of His devotee? He is the Kalpataru. You will get whatever you

desire from Him."

PUNDIT: "I haven't thought deeply about these things before. But now I

understand."

MASTER: "God keeps a little of 'I' in His devotee even after giving him the

Knowledge of Brahman. That 'I' is the 'I of the devotee', the 'I of the Jnāni'.

Through that 'I' the devotee enjoys the infinite play of God.

"The pestle was almost worn out with rubbing. Only a little was left. That

fell into the underbrush and brought about the destruction of the lunar race,

the race of the Yadus.

The vijnāni retains the 'I of the devotee', the 'I of the Jnāni', in order to taste

the Bliss of God and teach people.

"The rishis of old had timid natures. They were easily frightened. Do you

know their attitude? It was this: 'Let me somehow get my own salvation;

who cares for others?' A hollow piece of drift-wood somehow manages to

float; but it sinks if even a bird sits on it. But Nārada and sages of his kind

are like a huge log that not only can float across to the other shore but can

carry many animals and other creatures as well. A steamship itself crosses

the ocean and also carries people across.

The vijnāni is fearless and joyous

"Teachers like Nārada belong to the class of the vijnāni. They were much

more courageous than the other rishis. They are like an expert satrancha-

player. You must have noticed how he shouts, as he throws the dice: 'What

do I want? Six? No, five! Here is five!' And every time he throws the dice

he gets the number he wants. He is such a clever player! And while playing

he even twirls his moustaches.

"A mere Jnāni trembles with fear. He is like an amateur satrancha-player.

He is anxious to move his pieces somehow to the safety zone, where they

won't be overtaken by his opponent. But a vijnāni isn't afraid of anything.

He has realized both aspects of God: Personal and Impersonal. He has

talked with God. He has enjoyed the Bliss of God.

"It is a joy to merge the mind in the Indivisible Brahman through

contemplation. And it is also a joy to keep the mind on the Lila, the

Relative, without dissolving it in the Absolute.

"A mere Jnāni is a monotonous person. He always analyses, saying: 'It is

not this, not this. The world is like a dream.' But I have 'raised both my

hands'. Therefore I accept everything.

Parable of the weaver woman

"Listen to a story. Once a woman went to see her weaver friend. The

weaver, who had been spinning different kinds of silk thread, was very

happy to see her friend and said to her: 'Friend, I can't tell you how happy I

am to see you. Let me get you some refreshments.' She left the room. The

woman looked at the threads of different colours and was tempted. She hid

a bundle of thread under one arm. The weaver returned presently with the

refreshments and began to feed her guest with great enthusiasm. But,

looking at the thread, she realized that her friend had taken a bundle. Hitting

upon a plan to get it back, she said: 'Friend, it is so long since I have seen

you. This is a day of great joy for me. I feel very much like asking you to

dance with me.' The friend said, 'Sister, I am feeling very happy too.' So the

two friends began to dance together. When the weaver saw that her friend

danced without raising her hands, she said: 'Friend, let us dance with both

hands raised. This is a day of great joy.' But the guest pressed one arm to

her side and danced raising only the other. The weaver said: 'How is this,

friend?

Why should you dance with only one hand raised? Dance with me raising

both hands.

Look at me. See how I dance with both hands raised.' But the guest still

pressed one arm to her side. She danced with the other hand raised and said

with a smile, 'This is all I know of dancing.' "

The Master continued: "I don't press my arm to my side. Both my hands are

free. I am not afraid of anything. I accept both the Nitya and the Lila, both

the Absolute and the Relative.

The two kinds of ego

"I said to Keshab Sen that he would not be able to realize God without

renouncing the ego. He said, 'Sir, in that case I should not be able to keep

my organization together.'

Thereupon I said to him: 'I am asking you to give up the "unripe ego", the

"wicked ego".

But there is no harm in the "ripe ego", the "child ego", the "servant ego",

the "ego of Knowledge".'

"The worldly man's ego, the 'ignorant ego', the 'unripe ego', is like a thick

stick. It divides, as it were, the water of the Ocean of Satchidananda. But

the 'servant ego', the 'child ego', the 'ego of Knowledge', is like a line on the

water. One clearly sees that there is only one expanse of water. The dividing

line makes it appear that the water has two parts, but one clearly sees that in

reality there is only one expanse of water.

"Sankaracharya kept the 'ego of Knowledge' in order to teach people. God

keeps in many people the 'ego of a Jnāni' or the 'ego of a bhakta' even after

they have attained Brahmajnana. Hanuman, after realizing God in both His

Personal and His Impersonal aspect, cherished toward God the attitude of a

servant, a devotee. He said to Rāma: 'O

Rāma, sometimes I think that You are the whole and I am a part of You.

Sometimes I think that You are the Master and I am Your servant. And

sometimes, Rāma, when I contemplate the Absolute, I see that I am You

and You are I.'

"Yaśoda became grief-stricken at being separated from Krishna, and called

on Radha.

Radha saw Yaśoda's suffering and revealed herself to her as the divine

Śakti, which was her real nature. She said to Yaśoda: 'Krishna is Chidatma,

Absolute Consciousness, and I am ChitŚakti, the Primal Power. Ask a boon

of Me: Yaśoda said: 'I don't want Brahmajnana. Please grant me only this:

that I may see the form of Gopala in my meditation; that I may always have

the company of Krishna's devotees; that I may always serve the devotees of

God; that I may always chant God's name and glories.'

"Once the gopis felt a great desire to see the forms of the Lord. So Krishna

asked them to dive into the water of the Jamuna. No sooner did they dive

into the water than they all arrived at Vaikuntha. There they saw the form of

the Lord endowed with His six celestial splendours. But they did not like it.

They said to Krishna: 'We want to see Gopala and serve Him. Please grant

us that boon alone. We don't want anything else.'

"Before His departure for Mathura, Krishna wanted to give the Knowledge

of Brahman to the gopis. He said to them: 'I dwell both inside and outside

all beings. Why should you see only one form of Mine?' The gopis cried in

chorus: 'O Krishna, do You want to go away from us? Is that why You are

instructing us in Brahmajnana?'

"Do you know the attitude of the gopis? It is this: 'We are Radha's and

Radha is ours.' "

A DEVOTEE: "Does this 'I' of the devotee never disappear altogether?"

MASTER: "Yes, it disappears at times. Then one attains the Knowledge of

Brahman and goes into samādhi. I too lose it, but not for all the time. In the

musical scale there are seven notes: sa, re, ga, ma, pa, dha, and ni. But one

cannot keep one's voice on 'ni' a long time. One must bring it down again to

the lower notes. I pray to the Divine Mother, 'Mother, do not give me

Brahmajnana.' Formerly believers in God with form used to visit me a great

deal. Then the modern Brahmajnanis began to arrive. During that period I

used to remain unconscious in samādhi most of the time. Whenever I

regained consciousness, I would say to the Divine Mother, 'O Mother,

please don't give me Brahmajnana.'"

God listens to our prayer

PUNDIT: "Does God listen to our prayers?"

MASTER: "God is the Kalpataru, the Wish-fulfilling Tree. You will

certainly get whatever you ask of Him. But you must pray standing near the

Kalpataru. Only then will your prayer be fulfilled. But you must remember

another thing. God knows our inner feeling.

A man gets the fulfillment of the desire he cherishes while practising

sadhana. As one thinks, so one receives. A magician was showing his tricks

before a king. Now and then he exclaimed: 'Come confusion! Come

delusion! O King, give me money! Give me clothes!' Suddenly his tongue

turned upward and clove to the roof of his mouth. He experienced

kumbhaka. He could utter neither word nor sound, and became motionless.

People thought he was dead. They built a vault of bricks and buried him

there in that posture. After a thousand years someone dug into the vault.

Inside it people found a man seated in samādhi. They took him for a holy

man and worshipped him. When they shook him his tongue was loosened

and regained its normal position. The magician became conscious of the

outer world and cried, as he had a thousand years before: 'Come confusion!

Come delusion! O King, give me money! Give me clothes!'

"I used to weep, praying to the Divine Mother, 'O Mother, destroy with Thy

thunderbolt my inclination to reason.' "

PUNDIT: "Then you too had an inclination to reason?"

MASTER :"Yes, once."

PUNDIT: "Then please assure us that we shall get rid of that inclination too.

How did you get rid of yours?"

MASTER: "Oh, somehow or other."

Sri Ramakrishna was silent awhile. Then he went on with his conversation.

MASTER: "God is the Kalpataru. One should pray standing near It. Then

one will get whatever one desires.

"How many things God has created! Infinite is His universe. But what need

have I to know about His infinite splendours? If I must know these, let me

first realize Him. Then God Himself will tell me all about them. What need

have I to know how many houses and how many government securities

Jadu Mallick possesses? All that I need is somehow to converse with Jadu

Mallick. I may succeed in seeing him by jumping over a ditch or through a

petition or after being pushed about by his gate-keeper. Once I get a chance

to talk to him, then he himself will tell me all about his possessions if I ask

him. If one becomes acquainted with the master, then one is respected by

his officers too. (All laugh.)

"There are some who do not care to know the splendours of God. What do I

care about knowing how many gallons of wine there are in the tavern? One

bottle is enough for me.

Why should I desire the knowledge of God's splendours? I am intoxicated

with the little wine I have swallowed.

"Both bhaktiyoga and jnanayoga are paths by which you can realize God.

Whatever path you may follow, you will certainly realize Him. The path of

bhakti is an easy one. The path of knowledge and discrimination is very

difficult. Why should one reason so much to know which path is the best? I

talked about this with Vijay for many days. Once I told him about a man

who used to pray, 'O God, reveal to me who and what You are.'

"The path of knowledge and discrimination is difficult indeed. Parvati, the

Divine Mother, revealed Her various forms to Her father and said, 'Father, if

you want Brahmajnana, then live in the company of holy men.'

"Brahman cannot be described in words. It is said in the Rāma Gitā that

Brahman has only been indirectly hinted at by the scriptures. When one

speaks about the 'cowherd village on the Ganges', one indirectly states that

the village is situated on the bank of the Ganges.

"Why shouldn't a man be able to realize the formless Brahman? But it is

extremely difficult. He cannot if he has even the slightest trace of

worldliness. He can be directly aware of Brahman in his inmost

consciousness only when he renounces all sense-objects―form, taste,

smell, touch, and sound and only when his mind completely stops

functioning. And then too, he knows only this much of Brahman―that It

exists."

Quoting from an Upanishad, the pundit said, "It is to be experienced only as

Existence."

MASTER: "In order to realize God a devotee should make use of a

particular attitude-the attitude of a 'hero' or a friend or a handmaid or a

child."

MANI MALLICK: "Only then can one feel attached to God."

MASTER: "For many days I cherished the feeling that I was a companion

of the Divine Mother. I used to say: 'I am the handmaid of Brahmamayi, the

Blissful Mother. O

companions of the Divine Mother, make me the Mother's handmaid! I shall

go about proudly, saying, "I am Brahmamayi's handmaid!"

Different classes of perfect souls "Some souls realize God without

practising any spiritual discipline. They are called nityasiddha, eternally

perfect. Those who have realized God through austerity, japa, and the like,

are called sadhanasiddha, perfect through spiritual discipline. Again, there

are those called kripasiddha, perfect through divine grace. These last may

be compared to a room kept dark a thousand years, which becomes light the

moment a lamp is brought in.

"There is also a class of devotees, the hathatsiddha, that is to say, those who

have suddenly attained God-vision. Their case is like that of a poor boy

who has suddenly found favour with a rich man. The rich man marries his

daughter to the boy and along with her gives him land, house, carriage,

servants, and so forth.

"There is still another class of devotees, the svapnasiddha, who have had

the vision of God in a dream."

SURENDRA (smiling): "Let us go to sleep then. We shall wake and find

ourselves babus, aristocrats."

MASTER (tenderly): "You are already a babu. When the letter 'a' is joined

to the letter 'ka', 'ka' becomes 'kaa'. It is futile to add another 'a'. If you add

it, you will still have the same 'kaa'. (All laugh.)

Description of the nityasiddha

"The nityasiddha is in a class apart. He is like arani wood. A little rubbing

produces fire.

You can get fire from it even without rubbing. The nityasiddha realizes God

by practising slight spiritual discipline and sometimes without practising

any at all. But he does practise spiritual discipline after realizing God. He is

like the gourd or pumpkin vine―first fruit, then flower."

The pundit smiled at this illustration.

MASTER: "There is the instance of Prahlada. He was a nityasiddha. While

writing the letter 'ka' he shed a stream of tears."

The Master was pleased with the pundit's humility. He praised him to the

devotees.

MASTER: "He has such a nice nature. You find no difficulty in driving a

nail into a mud wall. But its point breaks if you try to drive it against a

stone; and still it will not pierce it. There are people whose spiritual

consciousness is not at all awakened even though they hear about God a

thousand times. They are like a crocodile, on whose hide you cannot make

any impression with a sword "

PUNDIT: "But one can hurt a crocodile by throwing a spear into its belly."

(All laugh.) MASTER (smiling): "What good is there in reading a whole lot

of scriptures? What good is there in the study of philosophy? What is the

use of talking big? In order to learn archery one should first aim at a banana

tree, then at a reed, then at a wick, and last at a flying bird. At the beginning

one should concentrate on God with form.

"Then there are devotees who are beyond the three gunas. They are

eternally devoted to God, like Nārada. These devotees behold Krishna as

Chinmaya, all Spirit, His Abode as Chinmaya, His devotee as Chinmaya.

To them God is eternal, His Abode is eternal, His devotee is eternal.

"Those who reason and speculate following the process of 'Neti, neti' do not

accept the Incarnation of God. Hazra says well that Divine Incarnation is

only for the bhakta, and not for the Jnāni, because the Jnāni is quite

contented with his ideal, 'I am He'."

Sri Ramakrishna and the devotees remained silent awhile. The pundit

resumed the conversation.

PUNDIT: "Sir, how does one get rid of callousness? Laughter makes me

think of muscles and nerves. Grief makes me think of the nervous system."

MASTER (smiling): "That is why Narayan Shastri used to say, The harmful

effect of the study of the scriptures is that it encourages reasoning and

arguing.'"

PUNDIT: "Is there no way for us then?"

MASTER: "Yes, there is the path of discrimination. In a song occurs the

line: 'Ask her son Discrimination about the Truth.'

"The way lies through discrimination, renunciation, and passionate yearning

for God.

Unless a man practises discrimination, he cannot utter the right words. One

time, after expounding religion at great length, Pundit Samadhyayi said,

'God is dry.' He reminded me of the man who once said, 'My uncle's

cowshed is full of horses.' Now, does anyone keep horses in a cowshed?

(With a smile) You have become like a chānābarā fried in butter. Now it

will be good for you and for others as well, if you are soaked in syrup a few

days. Just a few days."

PUNDIT (smiling): "The sweetmeat is over-fried. It has become charred."

MASTER (with a laugh): "No! No! It is brown as a cockroach. Just the

right colour."

HAZRA: "The sweetmeat is well cooked. It has become spongy. Now it

will soak up the syrup nicely."

MASTER: "You see, there is no need to read too much of the scriptures. If

you read too much you will be inclined to reason and argue. Nangta used to

teach me thus: What you get by repeating the word 'Gitā' tell times is the

essence of the book. In other words, if you repeat 'Gitā' ten times it is

reversed into 'tagi', which indicates renunciation.

"Yes, the way to realize God is through discrimination, renunciation, and

yearning for Him. What kind of yearning? One should yearn for God as the

cow, with yearning heart, runs after its calf."

PUNDIT: "The same thing is said in the Vedas: 'O God, we call on Thee as

the cow lows for the calf.'"

MASTER: "Add your tears to your yearning. And if you can renounce

everything through discrimination and dispassion, then you will be able to

see God. That yearning brings about God-intoxication, whether you follow

the path of knowledge or the path of devotion. The sage Durvasa was mad

with the Knowledge of God.

"There is a great deal of difference between the knowledge of a householder

and that of an all-renouncing sannyasi. The householder's knowledge is like

the light of a lamp, which illumines only the inside of a room. He cannot

see anything, with the help of such knowledge, except his own body and his

immediate family. But the knowledge of the all-renouncing monk is like the

light of the sun. Through that light he can see both, inside and outside the

room. Chaitanyadeva's knowledge had the brilliance of the sun-the sun of

Knowledge. Further, he radiated the soothing light of the moon of

Devotion. He was endowed with both-the Knowledge of Brahman and

ecstatic love of God.

(To the pundit) "One can attain spiritual consciousness through both

affirmation and negation. There is the positive path of love and devotion,

and there is the negative path of knowledge and discrimination. You are

preaching the path of knowledge. But that creates a very difficult situation:

there the guru and the disciple do not see each other.

Sukadeva went to Janaka for instruction about the Knowledge of Brahman.

Janaka said to him: 'You must pay me the guru's fee beforehand. When you

attain the knowledge of Brahman you won't pay me the fee, because the

knower of Brahman sees no difference between the guru and the disciple.'

Different stages of divine love

"Both negation and affirmation are ways to realize one and the same goal.

Infinite are the opinions and infinite are the ways. But you must remember

one thing. The injunction is that the path of devotion described by Nārada is

best suited to the Kaliyuga. According to this path, first comes bhakti; then

bhava, when bhakti is mature. Higher than bhava are mahabhava and

prema. An ordinary mortal does not attain mahabhava and prema.

He who has achieved these has realized the goal, that is to say, has attained

God."

PUNDIT: "In expounding religion one has to use a great many words."

MASTER: "While preaching, eliminate the 'head and tail', that is to say,

emphasize only the essentials."

The pundit and Mani Mallick became engaged in conversation. Mani was a

member of the Brahmo Samaj. The pundit argued vehemently about the

good and bad sides of the Samaj. Sri Ramakrishna was seated on the small

couch and looked on, smiling. Presently he remarked: "This is the tamasic

aspect of sattva, the attitude of a hero. This is necessary. One should not

hold one's tongue at the sight of injustice and untruth.

Suppose a bad woman wants to drag you from the path of righteousness.

You must then assume the heroic attitude and say: 'What? You witch! You

dare injure my spiritual life? I shall cut your body in two right now.' "

With a smile Sri Ramakrishna said to the pundit: "Mani Mallick has been

following the tenets of the Brahmo Samaj a long time. You can't convert

him to your views. Is it an easy thing to destroy old tendencies? Once there

lived a very pious Hindu who always worshipped the Divine Mother and

chanted Her name. When the Mussalmans conquered the country, they

forced him embrace Islam. They said to him: 'You are now a Mussalman.

Say "Allah". From now on you must repeat only the name of Allah.' With

great difficulty he repeated the word 'Allah', but every now and then blurted

out 'Jagadamba'. At that the Mussalmans were about to beat him.

Thereupon he said to them: 'I beseech you! Please do not kill me. I have

been trying my utmost to repeat the name of Allah, but our Jagadamba has

filled me up to the throat. She pushes out your Allah.' (All laugh.)

Different paths to suit different tastes

(To the pundit) "Please don't say anything to Mani Mallick. You must know

that there are different tastes. There are also different powers of digestion.

God has made different religions and creeds to suit different aspirants. By

no means all are fit for the Knowledge of Brahman. Therefore the worship

of God with form has been provided.

"The mother brings home a fish for her children. She curries part of the fish,

part she fries, and with another part she makes pilau. By no means all can

digest the pilau. So she makes fish soup for those who have weak stomachs.

Further, some want pickled or fried fish. There are different temperaments.

There are differences in the capacity to comprehend."

All sat in silence. Sri Ramakrishna said to the pundit, "Go and visit the

temples and take a stroll in the garden." It was about half past five in the

afternoon. The pundit left the room with his friends and several of the

devotees.

After a while the Master went with M. toward the bathing-ghat on the

Ganges. He said to M., "Baburam now says, 'What shall I gain by study?'

"On the bank of the river he met the pundit and said to him, "Aren't you

going to the Kāli temple?" The pundit said: "Yes, sir. Let us go together."

With a smiling face Sri Ramakrishna proceeded to the temple through the

courtyard. He said to the pundit, "Listen to a song."

He sang:

Is Kāli, my Mother, really black?

The Naked One, of blackest hue,

Lights the Lotus of the Heart. . . .

As he was going through the courtyard, he quoted to the pundit from a

song: Lighting the lamp of Knowledge in the chamber of your heart, Behold

the face of the Mother, Brahman's Embodiment.

They came to the temple. Sri Ramakrishna saluted the Divine Mother,

touching the ground with his forehead.

Red hibiscus flowers and vilwa-leaves adorned the Mother's feet. Her three

eyes radiated love for Her devotees. Two of Her hands were raised as if to

give them boons and reassurance; the other two hands held symbols of

death. She was clothed in a sari of Benares silk and was decked with

ornaments.

Image of Kāli

Referring to the image, one of the party remarked, "I heard it was made by

the sculptor Nabin." The Master answered: "Yes, I know. But to me She is

the Embodiment of Spirit."

As Sri Ramakrishna was coming back to his room with the devotees, he

said to Baburam, "Come with us." M. also joined them.

It was dusk. The Master was sitting on the semicircular porch west of his

room. Baburam and M. sat near him. He was in a mood of partial ecstasy.

Rākhāl was not then living with Sri Ramakrishna, and therefore the Master

was having difficulties about his personal service. Several devotees lived

with him, but he could not bear the touch of everyone during his spiritual

moods. He hinted to Baburam: "Do stay with me. It will be very nice. In

this mood I cannot allow others to touch me."

The pundit entered the Master's room after visiting the temples. The Master

said to him from the porch, "Take some refreshments." The pundit said that

he had not yet performed his evening devotions. At once Sri Ramakrishna

stood up and sang in an exalted mood:

Why should I go to Ganga or Gaya, to Kasi, Kanchi, or Prabhas,

So long as I can breathe my last with Kāli's name upon my lips?

What need of rituals has a man, what need of devotions any more,

If he repeats the Mother's name at the three holy hours? . . .

Intoxicated With ecstatic love, the Master said: "How long should one

perform devotions? So long as one's mind does not merge in God while

repeating Om."

PUNDIT: "Then let me eat the refreshments. I shall perform the devotions

later on."

MASTER: "No, I don't want to obstruct the current of your life. It is not

good to renounce anything before the proper time arrives. When the fruit

ripens, the flower drops off of itself. One shouldn't forcibly tear off the

green branch of a coconut tree. That injures the tree."

Surendra was about to leave. He invited his friends into his carriage. The

Master, still in an ecstatic mood, said, "Don't take more people than your

horse can draw." Suredra took leave of Sri Ramakrishna. The pundit left the

room to perform his worship. M. and Baburam saluted the Master. They

were about to leave for Calcutta. Sri Ramakrishna was still in an ecstatic

mood.

MASTER (to M.): "I cannot utter a word now. Stay a few minutes."

M. again took his seat and waited for the Master's command. Sri

Ramakrishna motioned to Baburam to take a seat and asked him to fan him

a little. M. also took part in rendering this personal service to the Master.

MASTER (to M., tenderly): "Why don't you come here so frequently now?"

M: "Not for any special reason. I have been rather busy at home."

MASTER: "Yesterday I came to know Baburam's inner nature. That is why

I have been trying so hard to persuade him to live with me. The mother bird

hatches the egg in proper time. Boys like Baburam are pure in heart. They

have not yet fallen into the clutches of 'woman and gold'. Isn't that so?"

M: "It is true, sir. They are still stainless."

MASTER: "They are like a new pot. Milk kept in it will not turn sour."

M: "Yes, sir."

MASTER: "I need Baburam here. I pass through certain spiritual states

when I need someone like him. He says he must not, all at once, live with

me permanently, for it will create difficulties. His relatives will make

trouble. I am asking him to come here Saturdays and Sundays."

Master's advice to householders

The pundit entered the room with his friends. He had finished his devotions

and was ready to eat the refreshments. One of his companions asked the

Master: "Shall we succeed in spiritual life? Please tell us what our way is."

MASTER: "You all have the yearning for liberation. If an aspirant has

yearning, that is enough for him to realize God. Don't eat any food of the

sraaddha ceremony. Live in the world like an unchaste woman. She

performs her household duties with great attention, but her mind dwells day

and night on her paramour. Perform your duties in the world but keep your

mind always fixed on God.

The pundit finished eating his refreshments.

MASTER (to the pundit): "You have read the Gitā, no doubt. It says that

there is a special power of God in the man who is honoured and respected

by all."

The pundit quoted the verse from the Gitā.

MASTER: "You surely possess divine power."

PUNDIT: "Shall I labour with perseverance to finish the task that I have

accepted?"

Sri Ramakrishna forced himself, as it were, to say, "Yes." He soon changed

the conversation.

MASTER: "One cannot but admit the manifestation of power. Vidyasagar

once asked me, 'Has God given more power to some than to others?' I said

to him: 'Certainly. Otherwise, how can one man kill a hundred? If there is

no special manifestation of power, then why is Queen Victoria so much

honoured and respected? Don't you admit it?' He agreed with me."

The pundit and his friends saluted the Master and were about to take their

leave. Sri Ramakrishna said to the pundit: "Come again. One hemp-smoker

rejoices in the company of another hemp-smoker. They even embrace each

other. But they hide at the sight of people not of their own kind. A cow licks

the body of her calf; but she threatens a strange cow with her horns." (All

laugh.)

The pundit left the room. With a smile the Master said: "He has become

'diluted' even in one day. Did you notice how modest he was? And he

accepted everything I said."

Moonlight flooded the semicircular porch. Sri Ramakrishna was still seated

there. M. was about to leave.

MASTER (tenderly): "Must you go now?"

M.: "Yes, sir. Let me say good-bye."

MASTER: "I have been thinking of visiting the houses of the devotees. I

want to visit yours also. What do you say?"

M.: "That will be very fine."

Thursday, July 3, 1884

Sri Ramakrishna was sitting in Balarām Bose's house in Calcutta. It was the

day of the "Return Car Festival". The Lord of the Universe was worshipped

in Balarām's house as Jagannath. There was a small car in the house for use

during the Car Festival.

Balarām's father

Balarām's father was a pious Vaishnava who devoted most of his time to

prayer and meditation in his garden house at Vrindāvan. He also studied

devotional books and enjoyed the company of devotees. Balarām had

brought his father to Calcutta to meet the Master.

Sri Ramakrishna was in a very happy mood. Seated near him were Ram,

Balarām, Balarām's father, M., Manomohan, and several young devotees.

He was conversing with them.

Dogmatism in religion

MASTER (to Balarām's father and the others): "The Bhaktamala is one of

the Vaishnava books. It is a fine book. It describes the lives of the various

Vaishnava devotees. But it is one-sided. At one place the author found

peace of mind only after compelling Bhagavati, the Divine Mother, to take

Her initiation according to the Vaishnava discipline.

"Once I spoke highly of Vaishnavcharan to Mathur and persuaded him to

invite Vaishnavcharan to his house. Mathur welcomed him with great

courtesy. He fed his guest from silver plates. Then do you know what

happened? Vaishnav said in front of Mathur, 'You will achieve nothing

whatsoever in spiritual life unless you accept Krishna as your Ideal.' Mathur

was a follower of the Sakta cult and a worshipper of the Divine Mother. At

once his face became crimson. I nudged Vaishnavcharan.

"I understand that the Bhagavata also contains some statements like that. I

hear that it is said there that trying to cross the ocean of the world without

accepting Krishna as the Ideal Deity is like trying to cross a great sea by

holding the tail of a dog. Each sect magnifies its own view.

"The Saktas, too, try to belittle the Vaishnavas. The Vaishnavas say that

Krishna alone is the Helmsman to take one across the ocean of the world.

The Saktas retort: 'Oh, yes!

We agree to that. Our Divine Mother is the Empress of the Universe. Why

should She bother about a ferryboat? Therefore She has engaged that fellow

Krishna for the purpose.' (All laugh.)

"Besides, how vain people are about their own sects! There are weavers in

the villages near Kamarpukur. Many of them are Vaishnavas and like to talk

big. They say: 'Which Vishnu does he worship? The Preserver? Oh, we

wouldn't touch him!' Or: 'Which Śiva are you talking about? We accept the

Atmaramasiva.' Or again, 'Please explain to us which Hari you worship'.

They spin their yarn and indulge in talk like that.

"Rati's mother, Rani Katyayani's favourite confidante, is a follower of

Vaishnavcharan.

She is a bigoted Vaishnava. She used to visit me very frequently, and none

could outdo her in devotion. One day she noticed me eating the prasad from

the Kāli temple. Since then I haven't seen even her shadow.

Master's harmony of religions

"He is indeed a real man who has harmonized everything. Most people are

one-sided.

But I find that all opinions point to the One. All views-the Sakta, the

Vaishnava, the Vedānta-have that One for their centre. He who is formless

is, again, endowed with form. It is He who appears in different forms: The

attributeless Brahman is my Father.

God with attributes is my Mother. Whom shall I blame? Whom shall I

praise? The two pans of the scales are equally heavy.'

"He who is described in the Vedas is also described in the Tantras and the

Puranas. All of them speak about the one Satchidananda. The Nitya and the

Lila are the two aspects of the one Reality. It is described in the Vedas as

'Om Satchidananda Brahman', in the Tantras as 'Om Satchidananda Śiva',

the ever-pure Śiva, and in the Puranas as 'Om Satchidananda Krishna'. All

the scriptures, the Vedas, the Puranas, and the Tantras, speak only of one

Satchidananda. It is stated in the Vaishnava scripture that it is Krishna

Himself who has become Kāli."

Sri Ramakrishna went to the porch for a few minutes and then returned. As

he was going out, Vishvamvhar's daughter, six or seven years old, saluted

him. On returning to the room, the Master began talking to the little girl and

her companions, who were of the same age.

THE CHILD (to the Master): "I saluted you and you didn't even notice it."

MASTER (smiling): "Did you? I really didn't notice."

CHILD: "Then wait. I want to salute you again-the other foot too."

Sri Ramakrishna laughed and sat down. He returned the salute and bowed

to the child, touching the ground with his forehead. He asked her to sing.

The child said, "I swear I don't sing." When the Master pressed her again,

she said, "Should you press me when I said 'I swear'?" The Master was very

happy with the children and sang light and frivolous songs to entertain

them. He sang:

Come, let me braid your hair,

Lest your husband should scold you

When he beholds you!

The children and the devotees laughed.

Childlike nature of a Paramahamsa

MASTER (to the devotees): "The paramahamsa is like a five-year-old child.

He sees everything filled with Consciousness. At one time I was staying at

Kamarpukur when Shivaram was four or five years old. One day he was

trying to catch grasshoppers near the pond. The leaves were moving. To

stop their rustling he said to the leaves: 'Hush!

Hush! I want to catch a grasshopper.' Another day it was stormy. It rained

hard.

Shivaram was with me inside the house. There were flashes of lightning. He

wanted to open the door and go out. I scolded him and stopped him, but still

he peeped out now and then. When he saw the lightning he exclaimed,

'There, uncle! They are striking matches again!'

"The paramahamsa is like a child. He cannot distinguish between a stranger

and a relative. He isn't particular about worldly relationships. One day

Shivaram said to me, 'Uncle, are you my father's brother or his brother-in-

law?'

"The paramahamsa is like a child. He doesn't keep any track of his

whereabouts. He sees everything as Brahman. He is indifferent to his own

movements. Shivaram went to Hriday's house to see the Durga Puja. He

slipped out of the house and wandered away. A passer-by saw the child,

who was then only four years old, and asked, 'Where do you come from?'

He couldn't say much. He only said the word 'hut'. He was speaking of the

big hut in which the image of the Divine Mother was being worshipped.

The stranger asked him further, 'Whom are you living with?' He only said

the word 'brother'.

Other traits of a Paramahamsa

"Sometimes the paramahamsa behaves like a madman. When I experienced

that divine madness I used to worship my own sexual organ as the Śiva-

phallus. But I can't do that now. A few days after the dedication of the

temple at Dakshineswar, a madman came there who was really a sage

endowed with the Knowledge of Brahman. He had a bamboo twig in one

hand and a potted mango-plant in the other, and was wearing torn shoes. He

didn't follow any social conventions. After bathing in the Ganges he didn't

perform any religious rites. He ate something that he carried in a corner of

his wearing-cloth. Then he entered the Kāli temple and chanted hymns to

the Deity. The temple trembled. Haladhāri was then in the shrine. The

madman wasn't allowed to eat at the guesthouse, but he paid no attention to

this slight. He searched for food in the rubbish heap where the dogs were

eating crumbs from the discarded leaf-plates. Now and then he pushed the

dogs aside to get his crumbs. The dogs didn't mind either. Haladhāri

followed him and asked: 'Who are you? Are you a purnajnani?' The

madman whispered, 'Sh! Yes, I am a purnajnani.' My heart began to

palpitate as Haladhāri told me about it. I clung to Hriday.

I said to the Divine Mother, 'Mother, shall I too have to pass through such a

state?' We all went to see the man. He spoke words of great wisdom to us

but behaved like a madman before others. Haladhāri followed him a great

way when he left the garden.

After passing the gate he said to Haladhāri: 'What else shall I say to you?

When you no longer make any distinction between the water of this pool

and the water of the Ganges, then you will know that you have Perfect

Knowledge.' Saying this he walked rapidly away."

Sri Ramakrishna began to talk with M. Other devotees, too, were present.

MASTER (to M.): "How do you feel about Shashadhar?"

M: "He is very nice."

MASTER: "He is very intelligent, isn't he?"

M: "Yes, sir. He is very erudite."

MASTER: "According to the Gitā there is a power of God in one who is

respected and honoured by many. But Shashadhar has still a few things to

do.

What will he accomplish with mere scholarship? He needs to practise some

austerity. It is necessary to practise some spiritual discipline.

"Gauri Pundit practised austerity. When he chanted a hymn to the Divine

Mother, the other pundits would seem no more than earthworms.

"Narayan Shastri was not merely a scholar, either. He practised sadhana as

well. He studied for twenty-five years without a break. Nyaya alone, he

studied for seven years.

Still he would go into ecstasy while repeating the name of Śiva. The King

of Jaipur wanted to make him his court pundit, but Narayan refused. He

used to spend much time here. He had a great desire to go to the Vasishtha

Āśrama to practise tapasya. He often spoke to me about it, but I forbade

him to go there. At that he said: 'Who knows when I shall die? When shall I

practise sadhana? Any day I may crack.' After much insistence on his part I

let him go. Some say that he is dead, that he died while practising austerity.

Others say that he is still alive and that they saw him off on a railway train.

Master and Keshab

"Before meeting Keshab, I asked Narayan Shastri to visit him and tell me

what he thought of him. Narayan reported that Keshab was an adept in japa.

He knew astrology and remarked that Keshab had been born under a good

star. Then I went to visit Keshab in the garden house at Belgharia. Hriday

was with me. The moment I saw Keshab, I said: 'Of all the people I see

here, he alone has dropped his tail. He can now live on land as well as in

water, like a frog.'

"Keshab sent three members of the Brahmo Samaj to the temple garden at

Dakshineswar to test me. Prasanna was one of them. They were

commissioned to watch me day and night, and to report to Keshab. They

were in my room and intended to spend the night there. They constantly

uttered the word 'Dayamaya' and said to me: 'Follow Keshab Babu. That

will do you good.' I said, 'I believe in God with form.' Still they went on

with their exclamations of 'Dayamaya!' Then a strange mood came over me.

I said to them, 'Get out of here!' I didn't allow them to spend the night in my

room.

So they slept on the verandah. Captain also spent the night in the temple

garden the first time he visited me.

"Michael visited the temple garden when Narayan Shastri was living with

me. Dwarika Babu, Mathur's eldest son, brought him here. The owners of

the temple garden were about to get into a lawsuit with the English

proprietors of the neighbouring powder magazine; so they wanted Michael's

advice. I met him in the big room next to the manager's office. Narayan

Shastri was with me. I asked Narayan to talk to him. Michael couldn't talk

very well in Sanskrit. He made mistakes. Then they talked in the popular

dialect. Narayan Shastri asked him his reason for giving up the Hindu

religion. Pointing to his stomach, Michael said, 'It was for this.' Narayan

said, 'What shall I say to a man who gives up his religion for his belly's

sake?' Thereupon Michael asked me to say something. I said: 'I don't know

why, but I don't feel like saying anything. Someone seems to be pressing

my tongue.' "

MANOMOHAN: "Mr. Choudhury will not come. He said: 'That fellow

Shashadhar from Faridpur will be there. I shall not go.' "

Mr. Choudhury had obtained his Master's degree from Calcutta University.

He drew a salary of three or four hundred rupees. After the death of his first

wife he had felt intense dispassion for the world, but after some time he had

married again. He frequently visited the Master at the temple garden.

MASTER: "How mean of him! He is vain of his scholarship. Besides, he

has married a second time. He looks on the world as a mere mud-puddle.

(To the devotees) "This attachment to 'woman and gold' makes a man small-

minded.

When I first saw Haramohan he had many good traits. I longed to see him.

He was then seventeen or eighteen years old. I used to send for him every

now and then, but he wouldn't come. He is now living away from the family

with his wife. He had been living with his uncle before. That was very

good. He had no worldly troubles. Now he has a separate home and does

the marketing for his wife daily. The other day he came to Dakshineswar. I

said to him: 'Go away. Leave this place. I don't even feel like touching you.'

Sri Ramakrishna went to the inner apartments to see the Deity. He offered

some flowers.

The ladies of Balarām's family were pleased to see him.

The Master came back to the drawing-room and said: "The worldly minded

practise devotions, japa, and austerity only by fits and starts. But those who

know nothing else but God repeat His name with every breath. Some

always repeat mentally, 'Om Rāma'.

Even the followers of the path of knowledge repeat, 'Soham', 'I am He'.

There are others whose tongues are always moving, repeating the name of

God. One should remember and think of God constantly."

Pundit Shashadhar entered the room with one or two friends and saluted the

Master.

MASTER (smiling): "We are like the bridesmaids waiting near the bed for

the arrival of the groom."

The pundit laughed. The room was filled with devotees, among them

Dr.Pratap and Balarām's father. The Master continued his talk.

MASTER (to Shashadhar): "The first sign of knowledge is a peaceful

nature, and the second is absence of egotism. You have both. There are

other indications of a Jnāni. He shows intense dispassion in the presence of

a sādhu, is a lion when at work, for instance, when he lectures, and is full of

wit before his wife. (All laugh.) "But the nature of the vijnāni is quite

different, as was the case with Chaitanyadeva. He acts like a child or a

madman or an inert thing or a ghoul. While in the mood of a child, he

sometimes shows childlike guilelessness, sometimes the frivolity of

adolescence, and sometimes, while instructing others, the strength of a

young man."

Three kinds of bhakti

PUNDIT: "By what kind of bhakti does one realize God?"

MASTER: "Three kinds of bhakti are found, according to the nature of the

man: sattvic bhakti, rajasic bhakti, and tamasic bhakti.

"Sattvic bhakti is known to God alone. It makes no outward display. A man

with such devotion loves privacy. Perhaps he meditates inside the mosquito

net, where nobody sees him. When this kind of devotion is awakened, one

hasn't long to wait for the vision of God. The appearance of the dawn in the

east shows that the sun will rise before long.

"A man with rajasic bhakti feels like making a display of his devotion

before others. He worships the Deity with 'sixteen ingredients', enters the

temple wearing a silk cloth, and puts around his neck a string of rudrāksha

beads interspersed here and there with beads of gold and ruby.

"A man with tamasic bhakti shows the courage and boisterousness of a

highway robber.

A highway robber goes on his expedition openly, shouting, 'Kill! Plunder!'

He isn't afraid even of eight police inspectors. The devotee with tamasic

bhakti also shouts like a madman:'Hara! Hara! Vyom! Vyom! Victory to

Kāli!' He has great strength of mind and burning faith.

"A Sakta has such faith. He says: 'What? I have uttered once the name of

Kāli and of Durga! I have uttered once the name of Rāma! Can there be any

sin in me?'

"The Vaishnavas have a very humble and lowly attitude. (Looking at

Balarām's father) They tell their rosary and whine and whimper: 'O Krishna,

be gracious to us! We are wretched! We are sinners!'

Faith in God's name

"A man should have such fiery faith as to be able to say, 'I have uttered the

name of God; how can I be a sinner?' Imagine a man repeating the name of

Hari day and night and at the same time saying that he is a sinner!"

So saying, Sri Ramakrishna became overwhelmed with divine ecstasy and

sang: If only I can pass away repeating Durga's name, How canst Thou

then, O Blessed One,

Withhold from me deliverance,

Wretched though I may be?

I may have stolen a drink of wine, or killed a child unborn, Or slain a

woman or a cow,

Or even caused a brahmin's death;

But, though it all be true,

Nothing of this can make me feel the least uneasiness; For through the

power of Thy sweet name

My wretched soul may still aspire Even to Brahmanhood.

He sang again:

Behold my Mother playing with Śiva, lost in an ecstasy of joy!

Drunk with a draught of celestial wine, She reels, and yet She does not fall.

Erect She stands on Śiva's bosom, and the earth trembles under Her tread;

She and Her Lord are mad with frenzy, casting aside all fear and shame!

Pundit Shashadhar was weeping. Vaishnavcharan, the musician, sang: O

tongue, always repeat the name of Mother Durga!

Who but your Mother Durga will save you in distress?

Thou art the heavens and the earth, and Thou the nether world; From Thee

have the twelve Gopalas and Hari and Śiva sprung.

The ten Embodiments of Divine Śakti art Thou,

And Thou the ten Avatars: this time, save me Thou must!

The moving and the unmoving, the gross and the subtle, art Thou;

Creation and preservation art Thou, and the last dissolution.

Thou art the Primal Root of this manifold universe; The Mother of the three

worlds, their only Saviour, art Thou; Thou art the Śakti of all, and Thou

Thine own Śakti, too.

As the Master listened to the last few lines, he went into an ecstatic mood.

The Master himself sang:

O Mother, for Yaśoda Thou wouldst dance, when she called Thee her

precious "Blue Jewel";

Where hast Thou hidden that lovely form, O terrible Syama?

Dance that way once for me, O Mother! Throw down Thy sword and take

the flute;

Cast off Thy garland of heads, and wear Thy wild-flower garland.

If without Śiva Thou canst not dance, then let Balarama be Thy Śiva.

Dance, O Syama, as Thou didst dance when Thou wert Krishna!

Mother, play on Thy flute again, once so full of delight for the gopis;

Play again on Thy magic flute, which called the cattle in from the pasture,

Stopping the Jamuna's murmuring flow and turning it backward.

Hot in the sky the sun would burn, when Yaśoda, restless for her Krishna,

Fondly would call: "Here, my Gopala! Cream and butter-eat them, my

Darling!"

And she would comb His long black hair and carefully braid it.

Bending Thy supple body, Mother, both at the neck, the waist, and the knee,

Thou didst dance with Thy friend Sridāmā, while Thy two anklets played the

music:

Ta-thaia! Ta-thaia! Ta-ta! Thaia-thaia!

Hearing their captivating sound, the gopis would rush there.

Again Pundit Shashadhar shed tears of love.

Sri Ramakrishna came down to consciousness of the world. Pointing to

Shashadhar, he said to M., "Why don't you prod him?" He wanted M. or

some other devotee to ask Shashadhar a question.

RAMDAYAL (to Shashadhar): "The scriptures speak of Brahman's form as

a projection of mind. Who is it that projects?"

SHASHADHAR: "It is Brahman Itself that does so. It is no projection of a

man's mind."

PRATAP: "Why does Brahman project the form?"

MASTER: "You ask why? Brahman doesn't act in consultation with others.

It is Brahman's pleasure. Brahman is self-willed. Why should we try to

know the reason for Brahman's acting this way or that? You have come to

the orchard to eat mangoes. Eat the mangoes. What is the good of

calculating how many trees there are in the orchard, how many thousands of

branches, and how many millions of leaves? One cannot realize Truth by

futile arguments and reasoning."

PRATAP: "Shouldn't we reason any more then?"

MASTER: "I am asking you not to indulge in futile reasoning. But reason,

by all means, about the Real and the unreal, about what is permanent and

what is transitory. You must reason when you are overcome by lust, anger,

or grief."

SHASHADHAR: "That is different. It is called reasoning based on

discrimination."

MASTER: "Yes, discrimination between the Real and the unreal."

All sat in silence. Again the Master spoke, addressing the pundit.

MASTER: "Formerly many great men used to come here."

SHASHADHAR: "You mean rich people?"

MASTER: "No. Great scholars."

In the mean time the small car of Jagannath had been brought to the

verandah. Inside the car were the images of Krishna, Balarama, and

Subhadra. They were adorned with flowers, garlands, jewelry, and yellow

apparel. Balarām was a sattvic worshipper: there was no outward grandeur

in his worship. Outsiders did not even know of this Car Festival at his

house. The Master and the devotees went to the verandah. Sri Ramakrishna

pulled the car by the rope. Then he began to sing:

See how all Nadia is shaking

Under the waves of Gaurānga's love. . . .

He sang again:

Behold, the two brothers have come, who weep while chanting Hari's name,

The brothers who, in return for blows, offer to sinners Hari's love. . . .

Sri Ramakrishna danced with the devotees. The musician and his party

joined the Master in the music and dancing. Soon the whole verandah was

filled with people. The ladies witnessed this scene of joy from an adjoining

room. It appeared as if Chaitanya himself were dancing with his devotees,

intoxicated with divine love.

It was not yet dusk. Sri Ramakrishna returned to the drawing-room with the

devotees.

MASTER (to Shashadhar): "This is called bhajanananda, the bliss of

devotees in the worship of God. Worldly people keep themselves engrossed

in the joy of sensuous objects, of 'woman and gold'. Through worship

devotees receive the grace of God, and then His vision. Then they enjoy

Brahmananda, the Bliss of Brahman."

Shashadhar and the devotees listened to these words with rapt attention.

SHASHADHAR (humbly): "Sir, please tell us what kind of yearning gives

one this blissful state of mind."

MASTER: "One feels restless for God when one's soul longs for His vision.

The guru said to the disciple: 'Come with me. I shall show you what kind of

longing will enable you to see God.' Saying this, he took the disciple to a

pond and pressed his head under the water. After a few moments he

released the disciple and asked, 'How did you feel?' The disciple answered:

'Oh, I felt as if I were dying! I was longing for a breath of air.' "

SHASHADHAR: "Yes! Yes! That's it. I understand it now."

MASTER: "To love God is the essence of the whole thing. Bhakti alone is

the essence.

Nārada said to Rāma, 'May I always have pure love for Your Lotus Feet;

and may I not be deluded by Your world-bewitching māyā!' Rāma said to

him, 'Ask for some other boon.' 'No,' said Nārada, 'I don't want anything

else. May I have love for Your Lotus Feet. This is my only prayer.' "

Pundit Shashadhar was ready to leave. Sri Ramakrishna asked a devotee to

bring a carriage for the pundit.

SHASHADHAR: "Don't trouble yourself. I shall walk."

MASTER (smiling): "Oh, how can that be? 'You are beyond the reach of

even Brahma's meditation.' "

SHASHADHAR: "There is no particular need of my going just now. The

only thing is that I shall have to perform my sandhya."

MASTER: "The Divine Mother has taken away my sandhya and other

devotions. The purpose of the sandhya is to purify body and mind. I am no

longer in that state."

The Master sang the following lines of a song:

When will you learn to lie, O mind, in the abode of Blessedness, With

Cleanliness and Defilement on either side of you?

Only when you have found the way

To keep these wives contentedly under a single roof, Will you behold the

matchless form of Mother Syama.

Pundit Shashadhar saluted the Master and went away.

RAM: "I visited Shashadhar yesterday. You asked me to."

MASTER: "Did I? I don't remember. But it is nice that you went."

RAM: "The editor of a newspaper was abusing you."

MASTER: "Suppose he was. What does it matter?"

RAM: "Please listen. Then I began to talk to the editor about you. He

wanted to hear more and wouldn't let me go."

It was dusk. Sri Ramakrishna began to chant the names of the Divine

Mother, Krishna, Rāma, and Hari. The devotees sat in silence. The Master

chanted the names in such sweet tones that the hearts of the devotees were

deeply touched. That day Balarām's house was like Navadvip when

Chaitanya lived there. On the verandah it was like Navadvip, and in the

parlour it was like Vrindāvan.

That same night Sri Ramakrishna was to go to Dakshineswar. Balarām took

him into the inner apartments and served him with refreshments. The ladies

of the family saluted the Master.

The devotees were singing kirtan in the drawing-room, awaiting the

Master's coming.

Presently Sri Ramakrishna came and joined the singers.

The kirtan went on:

Behold, my Gora is dancing! With the devotees

He dances in Srivas's courtyard, singing the kirtan.

Gora says to all, "Repeat the name of Hari!"

He looks at Gadadhar, and from his red eyes

Are flowing tears of love over his golden body.

The Master improvised the lines:

Gora is dancing in the kirtan:

There he dances, Sachi's darling!

There he dances, my Gaurānga!

There he dances, my soul's beloved!

--------------------

Chapter 26

FESTIVAL AT ADHAR'S HOUSE

Sunday, August 3, 1884

SRI RAMAKRISHNA was sitting in his room in the temple garden at

Dakshineswar after his midday meal. A party of Bauls from Shibpur,

several devotees from Bhawanipur, Balarām, and M. were in the room.

Rākhāl, Lātu, and Harish were then living with the Master. They too were

present.

The Master began the conversation by addressing the Baul musicians from

Shibpur.

Yoga and the six centres

MASTER: "Yoga is not possible if the mind dwells on 'woman and gold'.

The mind of a worldly man generally moves among the three lower centres:

those at the navel, at the sexual organ, and at the organ of evacuation. After

great effort and spiritual practice the Kundalini is awakened. According to

the yogis there are three nerves in the spinal column: Ida, Pingala, and

Sushumna. Along the Sushumna are six lotuses, or centres, the lowest being

known as the Muladhara. Then come successively Svadhisthana, Manipura,

Anāhata, Visuddha, and Ājnā. These are the six centres. The Kundalini,

when awakened, passes through the lower centres and comes to the

Anāhata, which is at the heart. It stays there. At that time the mind of the

aspirant is withdrawn from the three lower centres. He feels the awakening

of Divine Consciousness and sees Light. In mute wonder he sees that

radiance and cries out: 'What is this? What is this?'

"After passing through the six centres, the Kundalini reaches the thousand

petalled lotus known as the Sahasrara, and the aspirant goes into samādhi.

"According to the Vedas these centres are called 'bhumi', 'planes'. There are

seven such planes. The centre at the heart corresponds to the fourth plane of

the Vedas. According to the Tantra there is in this centre a lotus called

Anāhata, with twelve petals.

"The centre known as Visuddha is the fifth plane. This centre is at the throat

and has a lotus with sixteen petals. When the Kundalini reaches this plane,

the devotee longs to talk and hear only about God. Conversation on worldly

subjects, on 'woman and gold', causes him great pain. He leaves a place

where people talk of these matters.

"Then comes the sixth plane, corresponding to the centre known as Ājnā.

This centre is located between the eyebrows and it has a lotus with two

petals. When the Kundalini reaches it, the aspirant sees the form of God.

But still there remains a slight barrier between the devotee and God. It is

like a light inside a lantern. You may think you have touched the light, but

in reality you cannot because of the barrier of glass.

"And last of all is the seventh plane, which, according to Tantra, is the

centre of the thousand-petalled lotus. When the Kundalini arrives there, the

aspirant goes into samādhi. In that lotus dwells Satchidananda Shiva, the

Absolute. There Kundalini, the awakened Power, unites with Shiva. This is

known as the union of Shiva and Śakti.

The state of samādhi

"When the Kundalini rises to the Sahasrara and the mind goes into samādhi,

the aspirant loses all consciousness of the outer world. He can no longer

retain his physical body. If milk is poured into his mouth, it runs out again.

In that state the life-breath lingers for twenty-one days and then passes out.

Entering the 'black waters' of the ocean, the ship never comes back. But the

Isvarakotis, such as the Incarnations of God, can come down from this state

of samādhi. They can descend from this exalted state because they like to

live in the company of devotees and enjoy the love of God. God retains in

them the 'ego of Knowledge' or the 'ego of Devotion' so that they may teach

men. Their minds move between the sixth and the seventh planes. They run

a boat-race back and forth, as it were, between these two planes.

Keeping individuality after samādhi

"After attaining samādhi some souls of their own accord keep the 'ego of

Knowledge'.

But that ego does not create any attachment. It is like a line drawn on the

water.

"Hanuman kept the 'servant ego' after realizing God in both His Personal

and His Impersonal aspects. He thought of himself as the servant of God.

The great sages, such as Nārada, Sanaka, Sananda, Sanatana, and

Sanatkumāra, after attaining the Knowledge of Brahman, kept the 'servant

ego' and the 'ego of Devotion'. They are like big steamships, which not only

cross the ocean themselves but carry many passengers to the other shore.

Two classes of Paramahamsas

"There are two classes of paramahamsas, one affirming the formless Reality

and the other affirming God with form. Trailanga Swami believed in the

formless Reality.

Paramahamsas like him care for their own good alone; they feel satisfied if

they themselves attain the goal.

Paramahamsas as teachers of men

"But those paramahamsas who believe in God with form keep the love of

God even after attaining the Knowledge of Brahman, so that they may teach

spiritual truth to others.

They are like a pitcher brimful of water. Part of the water may be poured

into another pitcher. These perfected souls describe to others the various

spiritual disciplines by which they have realized God. They do this only to

teach others and to help them in spiritual life. With great effort men dig a

well for drinking water, using spades and baskets for the purpose. After the

digging is over, some throw the spades and other implements into the well,

not needing them any more. But some put them away near the well, so that

others may use them.

"Some eat mangoes secretly and remove all trace of them by wiping their

mouths with a towel. But some share the fruit with others. There are sages

who, even after attaining Knowledge, work to help others and also to enjoy

the Bliss of God in the company of devotees. 'I want to eat sugar. I don't

want to be sugar.'

"The Gopis of Vrindāvan, too, attained the Knowledge of Brahman; but

they were not seeking It. They wanted to enjoy God, looking on themselves

as His mother, His friend, His handmaid, or His lover."

The Bauls from Shibpur began to sing to the accompaniment of a stringed

instrument. A line in the first song was:

We are sinners: redeem us, O merciful Lord!

MASTER (to the devotees): "It is the attitude of a beginner to worship God

out of fear.

Please sing about God-realization-songs expressing divine joy.

(To Rākhāl ) "How well they sang that song the other day at Nabin Niyogi's

house: 'Be drunk, O mind, be drunk with the Wine of Heavenly Bliss'!

While singing religious songs one should not constantly refer to one's

worries. One should rather feel joyous and ecstatic as one chants God's

name.

A DEVOTEE: "Sir, won't you sing?"

MASTER: "What shall I sing? Well, I may sing when the spirit moves me."

Master sings of divine joy

After a few minutes the Master began to sing. His eyes were turned upward.

He sang:

Behold the waves of Gora's ecstatic love;

Under them all the universe lies submerged!

And in his love I, too, long to be drowned.

O friend, Gaurānga's love has swallowed me;

Who else feels for our misery like Gaurānga,

Dragging us from the mire of worldliness?

He sang again:

Dive deep, O mind, dive deep in the Ocean of God's Beauty; If you descend

to the uttermost depths,

There you will find the gem of Love. . . .

Then he sang about the Divine Mother:

Can everyone have the vision of Syama?

Is Kāli's treasure for everyone?

Oh, what a pity my foolish mind will not see what is true! . . .

He continued:

The black bee of my mind is drawn in sheer delight To the blue lotus flower

of Mother Syama's feet. . . .

And again:

O Mother, what a machine is this that Thou hast made!

What pranks Thou playest with this toy

Three and a half cubits high! . . .

As Sri Ramakrishna sang the last song he went into samādhi. The devotees

sat speechless, gazing at his radiant figure. After some time he regained

partial consciousness of the world and began to talk to the Divine Mother.

The Master said, "Mother, please come down from up there." Did he feel

his mind still lingering in the seventh plane of consciousness, the thousand

petalled lotus of the Sahasrara? "Please do come down", he said. "Don't

torment me that way. Be still, Mother, and sit down.

"O Mother, everybody's future is determined by the tendencies of his

previous births.

What shall I say to these people? Nothing can be achieved without

discrimination and renunciation."

Renunciation, true and false

Sri Ramakrishna had now regained full consciousness of the world, and he

continued: "There are many kinds of renunciation. One of them may be

called 'Markata Vairāgya', 'Monkey Renunciation'. It is a false renunciation

stimulated by the afflictions of the world. That renunciation doesn't last

long. Then there is real renunciation. A man with everything in the world,

lacking nothing, feels all to be unreal.

"It is not possible to acquire renunciation all at once. The time factor must

be taken into account. But it is also true that a man should hear about it.

When the right time comes, he will say to himself, 'Oh yes, I heard about

this.'

"You must also remember another thing. By constantly hearing about

renunciation one's desire for worldly objects gradually wears away. One

should take rice-water in small doses to get rid of the intoxication of liquor.

Then one gradually becomes normal.

"An aspirant entitled to the Knowledge of God is very rare. It is said in the

Gitā that one in thousands desires to know God, and again, that among

thousands who have such a desire, only one is able to know Him."

A devotee quoted the text from the Gitā.

MASTER: "As your attachment to the world diminishes, your spiritual

knowledge will increase. Attachment to the world means attachment to

'woman and gold'.

Prema, the rarest love of God

"It is not given to everybody to feel prema, ecstatic love of God. Chaitanya

experienced it. An ordinary man can at the most experience bhava. Only the

Isvarakotis, such as Divine Incarnations, experience prema. When prema is

awakened the devotee not only feels the world to be unreal, but forgets even

the body, which everyone loves so intensely.

"In a Persian book it is said that inside the skin is the flesh, inside the flesh

the bone, inside the bone the marrow, and so on, but that prema is the

innermost of all. One becomes soft and tender through prema. On account

of this prema, Krishna became tribhanga.

"Prema is the rope by which you can tether God, as it were. Whenever you

want to see Him you have merely to pull the rope. Whenever you call Him,

He will appear before you.

"The mature stage of bhakti is bhava. When one attains it one remains

speechless, thinking of Satchidananda. The feeling of an ordinary man can

go only that far. When bhava ripens it becomes mahabhava. Prema is the

last. You know the difference between a green mango and a ripe one.

Unalloyed love of God is the essential thing. All else is unreal.

"Once Rāma was pleased with the prayer of Nārada and told him to ask for

a boon.

Nārada prayed for pure love and said further, 'O Rāma, please grant that I

may not be deluded by Thy world-bewitching māyā.' Rāma said: 'That is all

right. But ask for something else.' Nārada replied: 'I don't want anything

else. I pray only for pure love.'

How to attain pure love of God

"How can a devotee attain such love? First, the company of holy men. That

awakens śraddhā, faith in God. Then comes nishtha, single-minded

devotion to the Ideal. In that stage the devotee does not like to hear

anything but talk about God. He performs only those acts that please God.

After nishtha comes bhakti, devotion to God; then comes bhava. Next

mahabhava, then prema, and last of all the attainment of God Himself.

Only for Isvarakotis, such as the Incarnations, is it possible to have

mahabhava or prema.

How to attain pure love of God

"The knowledge of a worldly person, the knowledge of a devotee, and the

Knowledge of an Incarnation are by no means of the same degree. The

knowledge of a worldly person is like the light of an oil lamp, which shows

only the inside of a room. Through such knowledge he eats and drinks,

attends to household duties, protects his body, brings up his children, and so

on.

"The knowledge of a devotee is like the light of the moon, which illumines

objects both inside and outside a room. But such light does not enable him

to see a distant or a very minute object.

"The Knowledge of an Incarnation of God is like the light of the sun.

Through that light the Incarnation sees everything, inside and outside, big

and small.

"The mind of a worldly person is, no doubt, like muddy water; but it can be

made clear by a purifying agent. Discrimination and renunciation are the

purifying agent."

The Master spoke to the devotees from Shibpur.

MASTER: "Have you any questions to ask?"

A DEVOTEE: "We have listened to your words."

The time factor in spiritual progress

MASTER: "Yes, it is good to listen to these things. But nothing will happen

except at the right time. What can quinine do for a fever patient when he

runs a high temperature?

Only when his temperature comes down through the use of 'fever mixture'

or a purgative should quinine be prescribed. There are patients who get rid

of their fever even without quinine. A child said to his mother, when he was

put to bed, 'Mother, please wake me up when I feel the call of nature.' The

mother said: 'My child, I shall not have to wake you. The urge itself will

wake you.'

"Different kinds of people come here. 'Some come by boat with the

devotees. But they do not enjoy spiritual talk. They keep nudging their

friends and whispering: 'When shall we leave here? When are we going?' If

the friends show no sign of getting up, they say, 'We would rather wait for

you in the boat.'

"Those who have a human body for the first time need the experience of

sense enjoyments. Spiritual consciousness is not awakened unless certain

duties have been performed."

The Master was going to the pine-grove. With a smile he said to M., on the

semicircular porch, "Well, what do you think of my state of mind?"

M. (smiling): "On the surface you are very simple, but inwardly very deep.

It is extremely difficult to understand you."

MASTER (smiling): "True. It is like the cement floor of a house. People see

only the outer surface and do not know how many materials there are under

it."

It was about four o'clock in the afternoon. Balarām and several other

devotees got into a country boat to return to Calcutta. It was ebb-tide in the

Ganges. A gentle breeze was blowing from the south, covering the bosom

of the sacred river with ripples.

M. looked at the scene a long time. As the boat disappeared in the direction

of Calcutta, he came back to the Master.

Sri Ramakrishna was going to the pine-grove. A beautiful, dark rain-cloud

was to be seen in the northwest. The Master asked M.: "Do you think it will

rain? Please bring my umbrella." M. brought the umbrella. Reaching the

Panchavati, the Master said to Lātu, who also accompanied him, "Why do

you look so sickly?"

LĀTU: "I can hardly eat anything."

MASTER: "Is that the only reason? It is also a bad time of the year. Are

you meditating too much? (To M.) I have a request to make of you. Please

tell Baburam to stay with me a day or two during Rākhāl 's absence.

Otherwise I shall feel very unhappy."

M: "Yes, sir. I shall tell him."

Sri Ramakrishna asked M. whether he thought that Baburam was guileless.

Presently the Master left them, going in the direction of the pine-trees. After

a few minutes M. and Lātu, standing in the Panchavati, saw the Master

coming back toward them. Behind him the sky was black with the rain-

cloud. Its reflection in the Ganges made the water darker. The disciples felt

that the Master was God Incarnate, a Divine Child five years old, radiant

with the smile of innocence and purity. Around him were the sacred trees of

the Panchavati under which he had practised spiritual discipline and had

beheld visions of God. At his feet flowed the sacred river Ganges, the

destroyer of man's sins. The presence of this God-man charged the trees,

shrubs, flowers, plants, and temples with spiritual fervour and divine joy.

Sri Ramakrishna returned to his room and sat on the small couch. He began

to praise a medicine that a certain brahmachari had prepared for him.

Referring to this man, Hazra said: "He is now entangled in many worldly

anxieties. What a shame! Look at Nabai Chaitanya of Konnagar. Though a

householder, he has put on a red cloth."

MASTER: "What shall I say? I clearly see that it is God Himself who has

assumed all these human forms. Therefore I cannot take anybody to task."

HAZRA: "Narendra is again involved in a lawsuit."

MASTER: "He doesn't believe in Śakti, the Divine Mother. If one assumes

a human body, one must recognize Her."

HAZRA: "Narendra says: 'If I believed in Śakti, all would follow me.

Therefore I cannot.'"

MASTER: "But it is not good for him to go to the extreme of denying the

Divine Mother.

He is now under Śakti's jurisdiction. Even a judge, while giving evidence in

a case, comes down and stands in the witness-box.

(To M.) "Have you seen Narendra lately?"

M: "Not during the last few days."

MASTER: "See him and bring him here in a carriage.

(To Hazra) "Well, what is his relation to this [meaning himself]?"

HAZRA: "He expects help from you."

MASTER: "And what about Bhavanath? Would he come here so frequently

if he didn't have good tendencies? What about Harish and Lātu? They

always meditate. Why is that?"

HAZRA: "That's right. Why should they devote all their time to meditation?

It is quite a different thing for them to stay here to attend to your personal

needs."

MASTER: "Possibly you are right. Perhaps others may take their place

now."

Hazra left the room, leaving the Master alone with M.

MASTER: "Does what I say in the state of ecstasy attract people?"

M: "Oh, yes. Very much."

MASTER: "What do people think of me? Do they think anything in

particular about me when they see me in that condition?"

M: "We feel in you a wonderful synthesis of knowledge, love, and

renunciation, and on the surface a natural spontaneity. Many divine

experiences have passed, like huge steamboats, through the deep of your

inner consciousness; still you maintain outwardly this utter simplicity.

Many cannot understand it, but a few are attracted by this state alone."

MASTER: "There is a sect of Vaishriavas known as the Ghoshpara, who

describe God as the 'Sahaja', the 'Simple One'. They say further that a man

cannot recognize this 'Simple One' unless he too is simple. (To M.) Have I

any ego?"

M: "Yes, sir. A little. You have kept it to preserve your body, and to enjoy

divine love in the company of the devotees and impart spiritual knowledge

to them. Further, you have kept this trace of ego by praying to the Divine

Mother for it."

MASTER: "No. I have not kept it. It is God Himself who has left it in me.

Can you tell me how I appear in the state of samādhi?"

M: "As you said a little while ago, you see the form of God when your

mind rises to the 'sixth plane'. When you speak after that, your mind comes

down to the 'fifth plane'."

MASTER: "It is God who does all these things. I do not know anything."

M: "That is why you attract people so much. Sir, I have a question to ask.

There are two opinions in the scriptures. According to one, Purana, Krishna

is Chidatma, the Absolute, and Radha is ChitŚakti, Its Divine Power; but

according to another, Krishna Himself is Kāli; the Primordial Energy."

MASTER: "This second view is held in the Devi Purana. According to it,

Kāli Herself has become Krishna; But what difference does it make? God is

infinite, and infinite are the ways to reach Him."

M. remained speechless with wonder for a few moments and then said:

"Oh, now I understand. As you say, the important thing is to climb to the

roof. Our goal will be achieved if we can accomplish it by following any of

the means-a rope or a pole."

MASTER: "It is through the grace of God that you have understood that.

Without His grace doubt is never cleared up.

Master teaches M

"T he important thing is somehow to cultivate devotion to God and love for

Him. What is the use of knowing many things? It is enough to cultivate love

of God by following any of the paths. When you have this love, you are

sure to attain God. Afterwards, if it is necessary, God will explain

everything to you and tell you about the other paths as well.

It is enough for you to develop love of God. You have no need of many

opinions and discussions. You have come to the orchard to eat mangoes.

Enjoy them to your heart's content. You don't need to count the branches

and leaves on the trees. It is wise to follow the attitude of Hanuman: 'I do

not know the day of the week, the phase of the moon, or the position of the

stars; I only contemplate Rāma.' "

M: "I now desire that my activities may be much reduced and that I may

devote myself greatly to God."

MASTER: "Ah! Certainly your desire will be fulfilled. But a Jnāni can live

unattached in the world."

M: "True, sir. But one needs special power to lead an unattached life."

MASTER: "That is also true. But perhaps you wanted the worldly life.

Krishna had been enshrined in Radha's heart; but Radha wanted to sport

with Him in human form. Hence all the episodes of Vrindāvan. Now you

should pray to God that your worldly duties may be reduced. And you will

achieve the goal if you renounce mentally."

M: "But mental renunciation is prescribed for those who cannot give up the

world outwardly. For superior devotees total renunciation is enjoined-both

outer and inner."

Sri Ramakrishna was silent a few minutes and then resumed the

conversation.

MASTER: "How did you like what I said about renunciation a little while

ago?"

M: "Very much, sir."

MASTER: "Tell me, what is the meaning of renunciation?"

M: "Renunciation does not mean simply dispassion for the world. It means

dispassion for the world and also longing for God."

MASTER: "You are right. You no doubt need money for your worldly life;

but don't worry too much about it. The wise course is to accept what comes

of its own accord. Don't take too much trouble to save money. Those who

surrender their hearts and souls to God, those who are devoted to Him and

have taken refuge in Him, do not worry much about money. As they earn,

so they spend. The money comes in one way and goes out the other. This is

what the Gitā describes as 'accepting what comes of its own accord'."

The Master referred to Haripada and said, "He came here the other day."

M: "He knows how to sing the stories of the Purana. He sings melodiously

about the life of Prahlada and the nativity of Sri Krishna."

MASTER: "Is that so? That day I looked into his eyes. They had an inward

look. I asked him whether he meditated a great deal, but he sat with his eyes

cast down and didn't answer. Then I said to him, 'Look here, don't strain

yourself too much.' "

It was now dusk. Sri Ramakrishna, as was usual with him during this part of

the day, chanted the names of God and turned his mind to contemplation.

Soon the moon rose in the sky. The temples, courtyards, and trees were

bathed in its silvery light, and millions of broken moons played on the

rippling surface of the Ganges. Rākhāl and M.

were with the Master in his room.

MASTER (to M.): "Baburam says, 'Oh, the worldly life! God forbid!' "

M: "His opinion is based on mere hearsay. What does he know of the

world? He is a mere child."

MASTER: "Yes, that is true. Have you noticed Niranjan? He is utterly

artless."

M: "Yes, sir. His very appearance attracts people. How expressive his eyes

are!"

MASTER: "Not only his eyes, but his entire person. His relatives proposed

that he marry. At this he said, 'Why are you going to drown me?' (With a

smile) Tell me this.

People say that a man finds great pleasure in the company of his wife after

the hard work of the day."

M: "That is no doubt true of those who think that way. (To Rākhāl, with a

smile) We are now being examined. This is a leading question."

Both Rākhāl and M. were married.

MASTER (with a smile): "A mother says, 'I shall heave a sigh of relief if I

can procure a "shade-tree" for my son. He will rest in its shade when

scorched by the heat of the world.' "

M: "True, sir. But there are parents and parents. A father who is spiritually

illumined doesn't give his children in marriage. If he does, his is a fine

spirituality!"

Adhar Sen arrived from Calcutta and saluted the Master. After a few

minutes, he went to the temple of Kāli, where M. followed him.

A little later M. was sitting at the Bathing-Ghat on the Ganges. The flood

tide had just set in. As he listened to the waters lapping against the bank,

many pictures of Sri Ramakrishna's divine life flitted before his mind: the

Master's deep samādhi, his constant ecstasy, his joy in the love of God, his

untiring discourse on spiritual life, his genuine love for the devotees, and,

above all, his childlike simplicity. Who was this man? Was it God who had

embodied Himself on earth for the sake of His devotees?

Adhar and M. returned to the Master's room. Adhar had been to Chittagong,

in East Bengal, on official duty. He was telling the Master about his visit to

the Chandranath Hills and Sitakunda, sacred places of Chittagong.

ADHAR: "Near Sitakunda I visited a well where I saw fire in the water. It is

always burning on the water with leaping tongues."

MASTER: "How is that possible?"

ADHAR: "The water contains phosphorus."

Presently Ram Chatterji entered the room. The Master said some kind

words about him to Adhar.

MASTER: "Ram's presence in the temple garden has relieved us of many

anxieties. He searches out Harish, Lātu, and the others at meal-time. Very

often they are absorbed in meditation in some corner of the temple garden.

It is Ram who sees that they eat at the proper time."

Saturday, September 6, 1884

Master at Adhar's house

About three o'clock in the afternoon Sri Ramakrishna was seated in Adhar's

parlour on the second floor. Narendra, the Mukherji brothers, Bhavanath,

M., Hazra, and other devotees were with the Master.

Arrangements were being made for Narendra to sing: While he was tuning

the Tānpura, one of the strings snapped, and the Master exclaimed, "Oh!

What have you done?"

Narendra then tuned the drums. The Master said to him, "You are beating

that drum, and I feel as if someone were slapping my cheek."

Referring to the Kirtan, Narendra said: 'There is not much rhythm in the

Kirtan. That's why it is so popular and people love it so much."

MASTER: "How silly! People like it because it is so tender and full of

pathos."

Narendra's music

Narendra sang:

Sweet is Thy name, a Refuge of the humble!

It falls like sweetest nectar on our ears

And comforts us, Beloved of our souls! . . .

He sang again:

O Lord, must all my days pass by so utterly in vain?

Down the path of hope I gaze with longing, day and night.

Thou art the Lord of all the worlds, and I but a beggar here; How can I ask

of Thee to come and dwell within my heart?

My poor heart's humble cottage door is standing open wide; Be gracious,

Lord, and enter there but once, and quench its thirst!

MASTER (to Hazra, smiling): "That was the first song he sang for me."

Narendra sang one or two more songs. Then Vaishnavcharan sang,

describing the grief of the gopis at the sight of Krishna as king of Mathura:

O Hari, how shall we know You now?

In Mathura's royal splendour You have forgotten us. . . .

MASTER: "Won't you sing that one- 'O Vina, sing Lord Hari's name?"

Vaishnavcharan sang:

O Vina, sing Lord Hari's name!

Without the blessing of His feet

You cannot know the final Truth.

The name of Hari slays all grief:

Sing Hari's name! Sing Krishna's name!

If only Hari shows His grace,

Then I shall never be distressed.

O Vina, sing His name but once;

No earthly gem is half so rare.

Govinda says: In vain my days

Have passed. No longer may I float

Here in life's trackless ocean waste!

While listening to the song, the Master became abstracted. Saying "Ah me!

Ah me!" he went into samādhi. The devotees were sitting around him, their

eyes riveted on him.

The room was filled with people.

Master in ecstasy

The musician sang again. As he improvised new lines describing ecstatic

love of God, the Master stood up and danced. He himself improvised lines

and sang them with outstretched arms. Soon he went into samādhi and sat

down, with his head resting on the bolster in front of him. The musician

was also carried away with emotion and sang new songs. Sri Ramakrishna

again stood up and began to dance. The devotees could not control

themselves. They too danced with the Master. While dancing, Sri

Ramakrishna every now and then went into deep samādhi. When he was in

the deepest samādhi he could not utter a word and his whole body remained

transfixed. The devotees danced encircling him. After a while, regaining

partial consciousness, he danced with the strength of a lion, intoxicated with

ecstatic love. But even then he could not utter a word. Finally, regaining

more of the consciousness of the world, he sang again, improvising the

lines. An intense spiritual atmosphere was created in Adhar's parlour. At the

sound of the loud music a large crowd had gathered in the street.

Sri Ramakrishna danced a long time in the company of the devotees. When

he resumed his seat, still tinged with the lingering glow of divine fervour,

he asked Narendra to sing "O Mother, make me mad with Thy love".

Narendra sang:

O Mother, make me mad with Thy love!

What need have I of knowledge or reason? . . .

MASTER: "And that one― 'Upon the Sea of Blissful Awareness'."

Narendra sang:

Upon the Sea of Blissful Awareness waves of ecstatic love arise:

Rapture divine! Play of God's Bliss!

Oh, how enthralling! . . .

MASTER: "And that one too― 'In Wisdom's firmament'. Perhaps it is too

long. Do you think so? All right, sing it slowly."

Narendra sang:

In Wisdom's firmament the moon of Love is rising full, And Love's flood-

tide, in surging waves, is flowing everywhere.

O Lord, how full of bliss Thou art! Victory unto Thee! . . .

MASTER: "And won't you sing that one― The Wine of Heavenly Bliss' ?"

Narendra sang:

Be drunk, O mind, be drunk with the Wine of Heavenly Bliss!

Roll on the ground and weep, chanting Hari's sweet name!

Fill the arching heavens with your deep lion roar, Singing Hari's sweet

name! With both your arms upraised, Dance in the name of Hari and give

His name to all.

Swim by day and by night in the b1iss of Hari's love; Slay desire with His

name, and blessed be your life!

The Master improvised, "Be drunk with prema and weep, chanting Hari's

sweet name." And, "Be mad with divine fervour and weep, chanting His

name."

Sri Ramakrishna and the devotees rested awhile. Narendra said to the

Master in a low voice, "Will you kindly sing that one?"

MASTER: "My voice has become a little hoarse."

After a few minutes he asked Narendra, "Which one?"

NARENDRA: "Gaur, whose beauty delights the world."

Sri Ramakrishna sang, describing the beauty of Sri Chaitanya: Who has

brought Gaur to Nadia

Gaur, whose beauty delights the world?

His face, covered with ringlets of hair,

Shines like lightning against a dark cloud. . . .

Again he sang, this time about the grief of a Gopi at her separation from Sri

Krishna: I have not found my Krishna, O friend! How cheerless my home

without Him!

Ah, if Krishna could only be the hair upon my head, Carefully I should

braid it then, and deck it with bakul-flowers; Carefully I should fashion the

braids out of my Krishna-hair.

Krishna is black, and black is my hair; black would be one with black.

Ah, if Krishna could only be the ring I wear in my nose, Always from my

nose He would hang, and my two lips could touch Him.

But it can never be, alas! Why should I idly dream?

Why should Krishna care at all to be the ring in my nose?

Ah, if Krishna could only be the bracelets on my arms, Always He would

cling to my wrists, and proudly I should walk, Shaking my bracelets to make

them sound, shaking my arms to show them;

Down the king's highway I should walk, wearing my Krishna bracelets.

The music was over. The Master began to talk with the devotees.

MASTER (smiling): "Hazra danced."

NARENDRA: "Yes, a little."

MASTER: "A little?"

NARENDRA: "Yes. His belly danced too." (All laugh.) Pundit

Shashadhar's host had been thinking of inviting the Master for dinner.

MASTER: "I have heard that his host is not an honest man. He is immoral."

NARENDRA: "That is why you didn't drink the water he touched. It

happened the first day you met Shashadhar at his house. How did you come

to know he was immoral?"

MASTER (smiling): "Hazra knows of another instance. It happened at

Sihore in Hriday's house."

HAZRA: "The man was a Vaishnava. He came with me to see you

[meaning Sri Ramakrishna]. As soon as he sat in front of you, you turned

your back on him."

MASTER: "We learnt later that he led an immoral life. (To Narendra) You

used to say, at first, that these were all hallucinations."

NARENDRA: "How was I to know? Now I see that you are always right."

Adhar had prepared a feast for the Master and the devotees, and now he

invited them to the meal. The Master said to the Mukherji brothers: "What?

Won't you eat?" They said humbly, "Please excuse us."

MASTER: "But why? You are doing everything else. Why this hesitation

only about eating the meal?"

Adhar was a low-caste Hindu. Therefore some of the Master's brahmin

devotees hesitated to eat at his house. They came to their senses at last

when they saw Sri Ramakrishna himself eating.

It was about nine o'clock. The Master was resting in the drawing-room with

the devotees. He would soon leave for Dakshineswar.

The Mukherji brothers had arranged with a singer of Kirtan to entertain the

Master the following day. Ram was taking singing lessons from this

musician. Sri Ramakrishna asked Narendra to come to Dakshineswar to

hear the Kirtan.

MASTER (to Narendra): "Come tomorrow, won't you?"

NARENDRA: "I shall try, sir."

MASTER: "You can bathe there and also take your meal. (Pointing to M.)

He may dine there too. (To M.) Are you quite well now? I hope you are not

on a diet."

M: "No, sir. I shall come."

Nityagopal was living at Vrindāvan. Chunilal had returned from Vrindāvan

only a few days before, and the Master inquired about Nityagopal.

As Sri Ramakrishna was about to leave, M. saluted him, touching the

Master's feet with his forehead. The Master said to him tenderly: "Then I

shall see you tomorrow.

Narendra! Bhavanath! Please come tomorrow." Then with several devotees

he set out for Dakshineswar.

The other devotees returned home in the moonlit night, cherishing in their

hearts the Master's ecstatic music and dancing.

--------------------

Chapter 27

AT DAKSHINESWAR

Sunday, September 7, 1884

IT WAS ABOUT ELEVEN O'CLOCK. The Master was sitting in his room

at Dakshineswar.

He had not yet taken his midday meal.

Arrangements had been made with the musician Shyamdas to entertain the

Master and the devotees with his kirtan. Baburam, M., Manomohan,

Bhavanath, Kishori, Chunilal, Haripada, the Mukherji brothers, Ram,

Surendra, Tārak, Niranjan, and others arrived at the temple garden. Lātu,

Harish, and Hazra were staying with the Master.

When M. saluted Sri Ramakrishna, the Master asked: "Where is Narendra?

Isn't he coming?" M. told him that Narendra could not come.

A brahmin devotee was reading to the Master from a book of devotional

songs by Ramprasad. Sri Ramakrishna asked him to continue. The brahmin

read a song, the first line of which was: "O Mother, put on Thy clothes."

MASTER: "Stop, please! These ideas are outlandish and bizarre. Read

something that will awaken bhakti."

The brahmin read:

Who is there that can understand what Mother Kāli is?

Even the six darsanas are powerless to reveal Her. . . .

MASTER (to M.): "I got a pain because I lay too long on one side while in

samādhi yesterday at Adhar's house; so now I'll take Baburam with me

when I visit the houses of the devotees. He is a sympathetic soul"

With these words the Master sang:

How shall I open my heart,O friend?

It is forbidden me to speak.

I am about to die, for lack of a kindred soul

To understand my misery.

Simply by looking in his eyes,

I find the beloved of my heart;

But rare is such a soul, who swims in ecstatic bliss On the high tide of

heavenly love.

MASTER: "The Bauls sing songs like that. They also sing another kind of

song: Stay your steps, O wandering monk!

Stand there with begging-bowl in hand,

And let me behold your radiant face.

Signs of a perfect soul

"According to the Śakti cult the siddha is called a koul, and according to the

Vedānta, a paramahamsa. The Bauls call him a sai. They say, 'No one is

greater than a sai.' The sai is a man of supreme perfection. He doesn't see

any differentiation in the world. He wears a necklace, one half made of cow

bones and the other of the sacred tulsi-plant. He calls the Ultimate Truth

'Ālekh', the 'Incomprehensible One'. The Vedas call It 'Brahman'.

About the jivas the Bauls say, 'They come from Ālekh and they go unto

Ālekh.'

That is to say, the individual soul has come from the Unmanifest and goes

back to the Unmanifest. The Bauls will ask you, 'Do you know about the

wind?' The 'wind' means the great currrent that one feels in the subtle

nerves, Ida, Pingala, and Sushumna, when the Kundalini is awakened. They

will ask you further, 'In which station are you dwelling?'

According to them there are six 'stations', corresponding to the six psychic

centres of Yoga. If they say that a man dwells in the 'fifth station', it means

that his mind has climbed to the fifth centre, known as the Viśuddha chakra.

(To M.) At that time he sees the Formless."

Saying this the Master sang:

Within the petals of this flower there lies concealed a subtle space,

Transcending which, one sees at length the universe in Space dissolve.

Description of the Bauls

"Once a Baul came here. I asked him, 'Have you finished the task of

"refining the syrup"? Have you taken the pot off the stove?' The more you

boil the juice of sugar-cane, the more it is refined. In the first stage of

boiling it is simply the juice of the sugar-cane. Next it is molasses, then

sugar, then sugar candy, and so on. As it goes on boiling, the substances you

get are more and more refined.

"When does a man take the pot off the stove? That is, when does a man

come to the end of his sadhana? He comes to the end when he has acquired

complete mastery over his sense-organs. His sense-organs become loosened

and powerless, as the leech is loosened from the body when you put lime on

its mouth. In that state a man may live with a woman, but he does not feel

any lust for her.

"Many of the Bauls follow a 'dirty' method of spiritual discipline. It is like

entering a house through the back door by which the scavengers come.

"One day I was taking my meal when a Bāul devotee arrived. He asked me,

'Are you yourself eating, or are you feeding someone else?' The meaning of

his words was that the siddha sees God dwelling within a man. The siddhas

among the Bauls will not talk to persons of another sect; they call them

'strangers'.

"The Bauls designate the state of perfection as the 'sahaja', the 'natural'

state. There are two signs of this state. First, a perfect man will not 'smell of

Krishna'. Second, he is like the bee that lights on the lotus but does not sip

the honey. The first means, that he keeps all his spiritual feelings within

himself. He doesn't show outwardly any sign of spirituality. He doesn't even

utter the name of Hari. The second means that he is not attached to woman.

He has completely mastered his senses.

"The Bauls do not like the worship of an image. They want a living man.

That is why one of their sects is called the Kartabhaja. They worship the

karta, that is to say, the guru, as God.

Different paths leading to God

"You see how many opinions there are about God. Each opinion is a path.

There are innumerable opinions and innumerable paths leading to God."

BHAVANATH: "Then what should we do?"

Devotion to one's own path and respect for others'

MASTER: "You must stick to one path with all your strength. A man can

reach the roof of a house by stone stairs or a ladder or a rope-ladder or a

rope or even by a bamboo pole.

But he cannot reach the roof if he sets foot now on one and now on another.

He should firmly follow one path. Likewise, in order to realize God a man

must follow one path with all his strength.

"But you must regard other views as so many paths leading to God. You

should not feel that your path is the only right path and that other paths are

wrong. You mustn't bear malice toward others.

"Well, to what path do I belong? Keshab Sen used to say to me: 'You belong

to our path.

You are gradually accepting the ideal of the formless God.' Shashadhar says

that I belong to his path. Vijay, too, says that I belong to his―Vijay's―

path."

The tides in the Ganges

Sri Ramakrishna walked toward the Panchavati with M. and a few other

devotees. It was midday and time for the flood-tide in the Ganges.

They waited in the Panchavati to see the bore of the tide.

MASTER (to the devotees): "The ebb-tide and flood-tide are indeed

amazing. But notice one thing. Near the sea you see ebb-tide and flood-tide

in a river, but far away from the sea the river flows in one direction only.

What does this mean? Try to apply its significance to your spiritual life.

Those who live very near God feel within them the currents of bhakti,

bhava, and the like. In the case of a few―the Isvarakotis, for instance―one

sees even mahabhava and prema.

(To M.) "What is the explanation of the ebb-tide and flood-tide?"

M: "According to Western astronomy, they are due to the attraction of the

sun and the moon."

In order to explain it, M. drew figures on the earth and began to show the

Master the movement of the earth, the sun, and the moon.

The Master looked at the figures for a minute and said: "Stop, please! It

gives me a headache."

Presently the tide came up the Ganges. They heard the sound of the rushing

water. The tide struck the bank of the river and flowed toward the north. Sri

Ramakrishna looked at it intently and exclaimed like a child: "Look at that

boat! I wonder what is going to happen to it."

The Master and M. sat down for a while in the Panchavati, Sri Ramakrishna

placing his umbrella on the cement platform. The conversation turned to

Narayan. The boy was a student. Sri Ramakrishna looked upon him as

Narayana, God Himself, and was very fond of him.

MASTER: "Have you noticed Naran's nature? He can mix with all, old and

young. One cannot do this without a special power.

Besides, all love him. Is he really artless?"

M: "I think so."

MASTER: "I understand that he goes to your place. Is that so?"

M: "Yes, sir. He has visited me once or twice."

MASTER: "Will you give him a rupee? Or shall I ask Kāli about it?"

M: "Very well, sir. I shall give him the money."

MASTER: "That's fine. It is good to help those who yearn for God. Thus

one makes good use of one's money. What will you gain by spending

everything on your family?"

Kishori had several children. His salary was too small to support his family.

Sri Ramakrishna said to M.: "Naran said he would get a job for Kishori.

Please remind him of it."

The Master walked away in the direction of the pine-grove. Returning to the

Panchavati, he said to M.: "Please ask someone to spread a mat outside my

room. I shall lie down a few minutes. I am coming presently."

When the Master returned to his room, he could not find his umbrella and

exclaimed: "You have all forgotten the umbrella! The busybody doesn't see

a thing even when it is very near him. A man went to a friend's house to

light the charcoal for his smoke, though all the time he had a lighted lantern

in his hand. Another man looked everywhere for his towel. Finally he

discovered that it had been on his shoulder all the time."

It was about one o'clock in the afternoon. The Master ate the prasad from

the Kāli temple. Then he wanted to rest awhile, but the devotees were still

sitting in his room.

They were asked to go out, and then the Master lay down. He said to

Baburam, "Come here; sit near me." Baburam answered, "I am preparing

betel-leaf." The Master said,"Put your betel-leaf aside"

The devotees sat under the bakul-tree in the Panchavati. Tārak, who had

just returned from Vrindāvan, told them stories of his visit.

A little later Sri Ramakrishna was seated again on his couch, the devotees

sitting on the floor. Shyamdas was singing with his party.

He sang of the gopis' grief at their separation from Sri Krishna: Dry as a

desert seemed the happy lake to them: The chatak died of thirst, gazing

toward the clouds.

The Master became somewhat abstracted, but the musician could not create

a spiritual atmosphere. Sri Ramakrishna asked Nabai of Konnagar to sing a

kirtan. Nabai was Manomohan's uncle. He lived on the bank of the Ganges,

devoting his time to prayer and meditation, and was a frequent visitor of Sri

Ramakrishna at Dakshineswar.

Master in ecstasy

Nabai began the kirtan in a loud voice. The Master left the couch and began

to dance.

Immediately Nabai and other devotees began to dance around him. The

atmosphere became intense with spiritual fervour.

After the kirtan, Sri Ramakrishna resumed his seat. With great feeling he

began to sing of the Divine Mother, his eyes turned upward:

O Mother, ever blissful as Thou art,

Do not deprive Thy worthless child of bliss!

My mind knows nothing but Thy Lotus Feet.

The King of Death scowls at me terribly;

Tell me, Mother, what shall I say to him? . . .

He sang again:

As is a man's meditation, so is his feeling of love; As is a man's feeling of

love, so is his gain; And faith is the root of all. . . .

He continued:

This world, O Mother, is Thy madhouse!

What can I say of all Thy virtues?

Setting aside Thine elephant, Thou roamest about on foot; Putting off Thy

gems and pearls, O Self-willed Mother, Thou dost adorn Thy comely neck

with a garland of human heads.

Now Thou must rescue Ramprasad out of the forest of this world.

Again he sang:

Why should I go to Ganga or Gaya, to Kasi, Kanchi, or Prabhas,

So long as I can breathe my last with Kāli's name upon my lips? . ..

And again:

Dwell, O mind, within yourself; Enter no other's home.

If you but seek there, you will find All you are searching for. . .

And then:

The black bee of my mind is drawn in sheer delight To the blue lotus flower

of Mother Syama's feet. . . .

And then:

Cherish my precious Mother Syama

Tenderly within, O mind;

May you and I alone behold Her,

Letting no one else intrude. . . .

As the Master sang this last song he stood up. He was almost intoxicated

with divine love. Again and again he said to the devotees,

" Cherish my precious Mother Syama tenderly within."

Then he danced and sang:

Is Kāli, my Mother, really black?

The Naked One, of blackest hue,

Lights the Lotus of the Heart. . . .

The Master reeled as he sang. Niranjan came forward to hold him. The

Master said to him softly, "Don't touch me, you rascal!"

Seeing the Master dance, the devotees stood up. He caught hold of M.'s

hand and said: "Don't be foolish! Dance!"

Sri Ramakrishna resumed his seat, still charged with divine ecstasy. Coming

down a little to the normal state, he said: "Om! Om! Om!

Om! Om! Om Kāli!" Again he said, "Let me have a smoke." Many of the

devotees stood around. Mahimacharan was fanning him. The Master asked

him to sit down and recite from the scriptures. Mahimacharan recited from

the Mahanirvana Tantra: Om; I bow to Thee, the Everlasting Cause of the

world; I bow to Thee, Pure Consciousness, the Soul that sustains the whole

universe.

I bow to Thee, who art One without duality, who dost bestow liberation; I

bow to Thee, Brahman, the all-pervading Attributeless Reality.

Thou alone art the Refuge, the only Object of adoration; Thou art the only

Cause of the universe, the Soul of everything that is; Thou alone art the

world's Creator, Thou its Preserver and Destroyer; Thou art the immutable

Supreme Lord, the Absolute; Thou art unchanging Consciousness.

Dread of the dreadful! Terror of the terrible!

Refuge of all beings! Purity of purifiers!

Thou alone dost rule over those in the high places, Supreme over the

supreme, the Protector of protectors.

Almighty Lord, who art made manifest as the Form of all, yet art Thyself

unmanifest and indestructible;

Thou who art imperceptible to the senses, yet art the very Truth;

Incomprehensible, imperishable, all-pervading, hidden, and without form;

O Lord! O Light of the Universe! Protect us from harm.

On that One alone we meditate; that One is the sole object of our worship;

To That alone, the non-dual Witness of the Universe, we bow.

In that One who alone exists and who is our sole eternal Support, we seek,

refuge, The self-dependent Lord, the Vessel of Safety in the ocean of

existence.

Sri Ramakrishna listened to the hymn with folded hands. After it was sung

he saluted Brahman; the devotees did likewise.

Adhar arrived from Calcutta and bowed down before the Master.

MASTER (to M.): "We have had such joy today! How much joy Hari's

name creates! Is it not so?"

M: "Yes, sir."

Mahimacharan was a student of philosophy. That day he too had chanted

the name of Hari and danced during the kirtan. This made the Master very

happy.

It was about dusk. Many of the devotees took their leave. A lamp was

lighted in Sri Ramakrishna's room and incense was burnt.

After some time the moon came out, flooding the sky with its light.

Sri Ramakrishna was sitting on his couch. He was in a spiritual mood,

absorbed in contemplation of the Divine Mother. Now and then he chanted

Her hallowed name. Adhar was sitting on the floor. M. and Niranjan, too,

were there. Sri Ramakrishna began to talk to Adhar.

MASTER: "What! You have come just now! We have had so much kirtan

and dancing.

Shyamdas began the kirtan. He is Ram's music teacher. But I didn't enjoy

his singing very much; I didn't feel like dancing. Later I heard about his

character. I was told that he had as many mistresses as there are hairs on a

man's head.

"Didn't you get the job?"

Adhar held the post of deputy magistrate, a government post that carried

with it great prestige. He earned three hundred rupees a month. He had

applied for the office of vice-chairman of the Calcutta Municipality. The

salary attached to this office was one thousand rupees. In order to secure it,

Adhar had interviewed many influential people in Calcutta.

MASTER (to M. and Niranjan): "Hazra said to me, 'Please pray to the

Divine Mother for Adhar, that he may secure the job.' Adhar made the same

request to me. I said to the Mother: 'O Mother, Adhar has been visiting You.

May he get the job if it pleases You.' But at the same time I said to Her:

'How small-minded he is! He is praying to You for things like that and not

for Knowledge and Devotion.'

(To Adhar) "Why did you dance attendance on all those small-minded

people? You have seen so much; you have heard so much!

After reading the entire Ramayana, to ask whose wife Sita is!' "

ADHAR: "A man cannot but do these things if he wants to lead a

householder's life. You haven't forbidden us to, have you?"

Advice to Adhar about renunciation

MASTER: "Nivritti alone is good, and not pravritti. Once, when I was in a

God-intoxicated state, I was asked to go to the manager of the Kāli temple

to sign the receipt for my salary. They all do it here. But I said to the

manager: 'I cannot do that. I am not asking for any salary. You may give it

to someone else if you want.' I am the servant of God alone. Whom else

shall I serve? Mallick noticed the late hours of my meals and arranged for a

cook. He gave me one rupee for a month's expenses. That embarrassed me.

I had to run to him whenever he sent for me. It would have been quite a

different thing if I had gone to him of my own accord.

"In leading the worldly life one has to humour mean-minded people and do

many such things. After the attainment of my exalted state, I noticed how

things were around me and said to the Divine Mother, 'O Mother! Please

change the direction of my mind right now, so that I may not have to flatter

rich people.'

(To Adhar) "Be satisfied with the job you have. People hanker after a post

paying fifty or a hundred rupees, and you are earning three hundred rupees!

You are a deputy magistrate. I saw a deputy magistrate at Kamarpukur. His

name was Ishwar Ghosha! He had a turban on his head. Men's very bones

trembled before him. I remember having seen him during my boyhood. Is a

deputy magistrate a person to be trifled with?

"Serve him whom you are already serving. The mind becomes soiled by

serving but one master. And to serve five masters!

"Once a woman became attached to a Mussalman and invited him to her

room. But he was a righteous person; he said to her that he wanted to use

the toilet and must go home to get his water-jar for water. The woman

offered him her own, but he said: 'No, that will not do. I shall use the jar to

which I have already exposed myself. I cannot expose myself before a new

one.' With these words he went away. That brought the woman to her

senses. She understood that a new water-jar, in her case, signified a

paramour."

Narendra was in straitened circumstances on account of his father's

unexpected death.

He had been seeking a job to maintain his mother, brothers, and sisters. He

had served a few days as headmaster of the Vidyasagar School at Bowbazar.

ADHAR: "May I ask if Narendra would accept a job?"

MASTER: "Yes, he would. He has his mother, brothers, and sisters to

support."

ADHAR: "Well, Narendra can support his family with fifty or with a

hundred rupees. Will he try for a hundred?"

MASTER: "Worldly people think highly of their wealth. They feel that

there is nothing like it. Sambhu said, 'It is my desire to leave all my

property at the Lotus Feet of God.' But does God care for money? He wants

from His devotees knowledge, devotion, discrimination, and renunciation.

"After the theft of the jewelry from the temple of Radhakanta, Mathur Babu

said: 'O God, You could not protect Your own jewelry! What a shame!'

Once he wanted to give me an estate and consulted Hriday about it. I

overheard the whole thing from the Kāli temple and said to him: 'Please

don't harbour any such thought. It will injure me greatly.' "

ADHAR: "I can tell you truthfully, sir, that not more than six or seven

persons like you have been born since the creation of the world."

MASTER: "How so? There certainly are people who have given up

everything for God. As soon as a man gives up his wealth, people come to

know about him. But it is also true that there are others unknown to people.

Are there not such holy men in upper India?"

ADHAR: "I know of at least one such person in Calcutta. He is

Devendranath Tagore."

MASTER: "What did you say? Who has enjoyed the world as much as he?

Once I visited him at his house with Mathur Babu. I saw that he had many

young children. The family physician was there writing out prescriptions.

If, after having eight children, a man doesn't think of God, then who will?

If, after, enjoying so much wealth, Devendranath hadn't thought of God,

then people would have cried shame upon him."

NIRANJAN: "But he paid off all his father's debts."

MASTER: "Keep quiet! Don't torment me any more. Do you call anyone a

man who doesn't payoff his father's debts if he is able to?

But I admit that Devendranath is infinitely greater than other worldly men,

who are sunk in their worldliness. They can learn much from him.

Signs of a real devotee

There is an ocean of difference between a real all-renouncing devotee of

God and a householder devotee. A real sannyāsi, a real devotee who has

renounced the world, is like a bee. The bee will not light on anything but a

flower. It will not drink anything but honey.

But a devotee leading the worldly life is like a fly. The fly sits on a festering

sore as well as on a sweetmeat. One moment he enjoys a spiritual mood,

and the next moment he is beside himself with the pleasure of 'woman and

gold'.

"A devotee who has really and truly renounced all for God is like the chatak

bird. It will drink only the rain-water that falls when the star Svati is in the

ascendant. It will rather die of thirst than touch any other water, though all

around there may lie seven oceans and rivers full to the brim with water. An

all-renouncing devotee will not touch 'woman and gold'. He will not keep

'woman and gold' near him lest he should feel attached."

ADHAR: "But Chaitanya, too, enjoyed the world."

MASTER (amazed): "What? What did he enjoy in the world?"

ADHAR: "Scholarship! Honour!"

MASTER: "It was honour in the sight of others, but nothing to him.

Whether you―a deputy magistrate―or this youngster Niranjan honours

me, it is all the same to me. And I tell you this truthfully: the idea of

controlling a wealthy man never enters my mind.

Surendra once said, rather condescendingly, that Rākhāl's father could sue

me for letting Rākhāl stay with me. When I heard this from Manomohan, I

said: 'Who is this Surendra?

How does he dare make a remark like that? He keeps a carpet and pillow

here and gives me some money. Is that his excuse for daring to make such

an impudent remark?' "

ADHAR: "I understand that he gives ten rupees a month. Isn't that so?"

MASTER: "That covers two months expenses. The devotees stay here and

he gives the money for their service. It is he who earns the merit. What is

that to me? Is it for my personal gain that I love Narendra, Rākhāl, and the

others?"

M: "Your love for them is like a mother's for her children."

Master's genuine love for his disciples

MASTER: "But even behind the mother's love lies her hope that the

children will support her later on. But I love these youngsters because I see

in them Narayana Himself. These are not mere words.

God takes charge of His devotees

(To Adhar) "Listen. There is no scarcity of moths when the lamp is lighted.

When God is realized, He Himself provides everything for His devotees. He

sees that they do not lack anything. When God is enshrined in the heart,

many people come forward to offer their services.

"Once a young sannyasi went to a householder to beg his food. He had

lived as a monk from his very birth; he knew nothing of worldly matters. A

young daughter of the householder came out to give him alms; He turned to

her mother and said, 'Mother, has this girl abscesses on her chest?' The

mother said: 'No, my child. God has given her breasts to nurse her child

when she becomes a mother.' Thereupon the sannyasi said: 'Then why

should I worry about myself? Why should I beg my food? He who has

created me will certainly feed me.'

"Listen. If a woman renounces everything for her paramour, she can say to

him, if need be, 'You wretch! I shall sit on your chest and devour you.'

"Nangta told me of a certain king who gave a feast to the sādhus, using

plates and tumblers of gold. I noticed in the monasteries at Benares with

what great respect the abbots were treated. Many wealthy up-country

people stood before them with folded hands, ready to obey their commands.

But a true sādhu, a man who has really renounced everything, seeks neither

a gold plate nor honour.

God sees that he lacks nothing. God gives the devotee everything that is

needed for realizing Him.

(To Adhar) "You are an executive officer. What shall I say to you? Do

whatever you think best. I am an illiterate person."

ADHAR (smiling, to the devotees): "Now he is examining me."

MASTER (smiling) : "Dispassion alone is good. Don't you see, I didn't sign

the receipt for my salary? God alone is real and all else is illusory."

Hazra entered the room and sat with the devotees on the floor. Hazra

repeated now and then, "Soham! Soham!" "I am He! I am He!"

To Lātu and other devotees he often said: "What does one gain by

worshipping God with offerings? That is merely giving Him things that are

His already." He had said this once to Narendra.

The Master spoke to him.

MASTER: "I explained to Lātu who the object of the devotee's worship is."

HAZRA: "The devotee really prays to his own Self."

MASTER: "What you say is a very lofty thought. The aim of spiritual

discipline, of chanting God's name and glories, is to realize just that. A man

attains everything when he discovers his true Self in himself. The object of

sādhanā is to realize that. That also is the purpose of assuming a human

body. One needs the clay mould as long as the gold image has not been

cast; but when the image is made, the mould is thrown away. The body may

be given up after the realization of God.

"God is not only inside us; He is both inside and outside. The Divine

Mother showed me in the Kāli temple that everything is Chinmaya, the

Embodiment of Spirit; that it is She who has become all this―the image,

myself, the utensils of worship, the door-sill, the marble floor. Everything is

indeed Chinmaya.

"The aim of prayer, of spiritual discipline, of chanting the name and glories

of God, is to realize just that. For that alone a devotee loves God. These

youngsters are on a lower level; they haven't yet reached a high spiritual

state. They are following the path of bhakti. Please don't tell them such

things as 'I am He'."

Like the mother bird brooding over her chicks, Sri Ramakrishna was alert to

protect his devotees.

Adhar and Niranjan went out on the porch to take refreshments. Presently

they returned to the room.

ADHAR (smiling): "We talked about so many things. (Pointing to M.) But

he didn't utter a word."

MASTER: "In Keshab's organization there was a young man with four

university degrees.

He laughed when he saw people arguing with me. He said: 'To argue with

him! How silly!' I saw him again, later on, at one of Keshab's meetings. But

then he did not have the same bright complexion."

Sri Ramakrishna sat on the floor for his supper. It was a light meal of a little

farina pudding and one or two luchis that had been offered in the Kāli

temple. M. and Lātu were in the room. The devotees had brought various

sweets for the Master. He touched a sandesh and asked Lātu, "Who is the

rascal that brought this?" He took it out of the cup and left it on the ground.

He said to Lātu and M.: "I know all about him. He is immoral"

LĀTU: "Shall I give you this sweet?"

MASTER: "Kishori brought it."

LĀTU: "Will it suit you?"

MASTER (smiling): "Yes."

M. had received an English education. Sri Ramakrishna said to him: "It is

not possible for me to eat things offered by anyone and everyone. Do you

believe this?"

M: "Gradually I shall have to believe all these things."

MASTER: "Yes, that is so."

After finishing the meal Sri Ramakrishna washed his mouth. He said to M.,

"Then will you give the rupee to Naran?" "Yes," said M., "certainly I will."

The moon rose in the clear autumn sky and was reflected in the river. It was

ebb-tide in the Ganges and the river flowed south toward the sea.

Sunday, September 14, 1884

Sri Ramakrishna was sitting in his room with Narendra, Bhavanath, the

Mukherji brothers, and other devotees. Rākhāl was staying with Balarām at

Vrindāvan and was laid up with an attack of fever. Narendra was preparing

himself for his coming law examination.

About eleven o'clock Jnan Babu arrived. He was a government official and

had received four university degrees.

MASTER (at the sight of Jnan Babu): "Well! Well! This sudden awakening

of 'knowledge'!"

JNAN (smiling): "You must admit, sir, that one sees the awakening of

knowledge as a result of very good fortune."

MASTER (smiling): "You are Jnan. Then why should you have ajnan,

ignorance? Oh, I understand. Where there is knowledge there is also

ignorance. The sage Vasishtha was endowed with great knowledge and still

he wept at the death of his sons. Therefore I ask you to go beyond both

knowledge and ignorance. The thorn of ignorance has pierced the sole of a

man's foot. He needs the thorn of knowledge to take it out. Afterwards he

throws away both thorns. The Jnāni says, 'This world is a "framework of

illusion".' But he who is beyond both knowledge and ignorance describes it

as a 'mansion of mirth'. He sees that it is God Himself who has become the

universe, all living beings, and the twenty-four cosmic principles.

Living in the world after realization of God

"A man can live in the world after attaining God. Then he can lead the life

of detachment. In the country I have seen the women of the carpenter

families making flattened rice with a husking-machine. With one hand one

of them turns the paddy in the hole and with the other she holds a nursing

child. At the same time she talks with the buyer. She says to him: 'You owe

me two ānnās. Pay it before you go.' But seventy-five per cent of the

woman's mind is on her hand lest it should be crushed by the pestle of the

husking machine.

"A man should do his worldly duties with only twenty-five percent of his

mind, devoting the rest to God."

Referring to Pundit Shashadhar, the Master said to the devotees, "I found

him monotonous―engaged in the dry discussion of philosophy.

"He alone who, after reaching the Nitya, the Absolute, can dwell in the Lila,

the Relative, and again climb from the Lila to the Nitya, has ripe knowledge

and devotion. Sages like Nārada cherished love of God after attaining the

Knowledge of Brahman. This is called vijnāna.

"Mere dry knowledge is like an ordinary rocket: it bursts into a few sparks

and then dies out. But the Knowledge of sages like Nārada and Sukadeva is

like a good rocket: for a while it showers balls of different colours, and then

it stops; again it throws out new balls, and again it stops; and thus it goes

on. Those sages had prema for God. Prema is the rope by which one can

reach Satchidananda."

The Master finished his midday meal and rested a few minutes. Bhavanath,

M., the Mukherji brothers, Hazra, and several other devotees sat down

under the bakul-tree and began to converse. The Master stopped there

awhile on his way to the pine-grove.

HAZRA (to the younger Gopal): "Please prepare a smoke for him [meaning

the Master]."

MASTER (smiling): "Why don't you admit that you want it?" (All laugh.)

MUKHERJI (to Hazra): "You must have learnt much wisdom from him

[meaning the Master]."

MASTER (smiling): "No, he has been wise like this from his boyhood."

(All laugh.) Presently Sri Ramakrishna returned from the pine-grove. The

devotees noticed that he was in an ecstatic mood and was reeling like a

drunkard. After reaching his room he regained the normal state.

Many devotees gathered in the room. Among them was a newcomer, a

sadhaka from Konnagar, who looked over fifty years of age and seemed to

have great vanity of scholarship.

The Master stood in the middle of the room and suddenly said to M., "He

came here―Naran."

Narendra was engaged in a discussion with Hazra and a few others on the

verandah.

They could be heard from the room.

MASTER (referring to Narendra): "The chatterbox! But he is now much

worried about his family."

M.: "Yes, sir, it is true."

MASTER: "Once he said that he would look upon adversity as his good

fortune. Isn't that so?"

M: "He has great strength of mind."

A DEVOTEE: "Does he lack strength in anything?"

Pointing to the sadhaka from Konnagar, a devotee said to the Master: "Sir,

he has come to visit you. He has some questions to ask."

The sadhaka was seated erect, his chin up.

SADHAKA: "Sir, what is the way?"

MASTER: "Faith in the guru's words. One attains God by following the

guru's instructions step by step. It is like reaching an object by following the

trail of a thread."

SADHAKA: "Is it possible to see God?"

MASTER: "He is unknowable by the mind engrossed in worldliness. One

cannot attain God if one has even a trace of attachment to 'woman and

gold'. But He is knowable by the pure mind and the pure intelligence―the

mind and intelligence that have not the slightest trace of attachment. Pure

Mind, Pure Intelligence, Pure Ātman are one and the same thing."

SADHAKA: "But the scriptures say, 'From Him words and mind return

baffled.' He is unknowable by mind and words."

MASTER: "Oh, stop! One cannot understand the meaning of the scriptures

without practising spiritual discipline. What will you gain by merely

uttering the word 'siddhi'?

The pundits glibly quote the scriptures; but what will that accomplish? A

man does not become intoxicated even by rubbing siddhi on his body; he

must swallow it. What is the use of merely repeating, 'There is butter in the

milk'?

Turn the milk into curd and churn it. Only then will you get butter."

SADHAKA: "You talk about churning butter. But you too are quoting the

scriptures."

MASTER: "What will one gain by merely quoting or hearing the

scriptures? One must assimilate them. The almanac makes a forecast of the

rainfall for the year, but you won't get a drop by squeezing its pages."

SADHAKA: "You talk about churning butter. Have you done it yourself?"

MASTER: "You don't have to bother about what I have or haven't done.

Besides, it is very difficult to explain these things to others.

Suppose someone asks you, 'What does ghee taste like?' Your answer will

be, 'Ghee tastes like ghee.'

"To understand these things one needs to live with holy men, just as to

understand the pulse of bile, of phlegm, and so on, one needs to live with a

physician."

SADHAKA: "There are some people who are irritated by others' company."

MASTER: "That happens only after the attainment of Knowledge, after the

realization of God. Shouldn't a beginner live in the company of holy men?"

The sadhaka sat in silence a few moments. Then he said with some

irritation: "Please tell me whether you have realized God either directly or

intuitively. You may answer me if you are able, or you may keep silent if

you wish." The Master said with a smile: "What shall I say? One can only

give a hint."

SADHAKA: "Then tell us that much."

Narendra was going to sing. He said, "No one has brought a pakhoaj."

THE YOUNGER GOPAL: "Mahimacharan has one."

MASTER (interrupting): "No, we don't want anything of his here."

A devotee from Konnagar sang a song. Every now and then Sri

Ramakrishna glanced at the sadhaka. The singer and Narendra became

engaged in a furious discussion about musical technique. The sadhaka said

to the singer, "What is the use of such discussions?" Referring to another

man who had joined in the discussion, Sri Ramakrishna said to the sadhaka,

"Why didn't you scold him, too?" It could be seen that the sadhaka was not

on friendly terms with his companions from Konnagar.

Narendra sang:

O Lord, must all my days pass by so utterly in vain?

Down the path of hope I gaze with longing, day and night. . . .

The sadhaka closed his eyes in meditation as he listened to the song. It was

four o'clock in the afternoon. The rays of the setting sun fell on his body. Sri

Ramakrishna quickly opened an umbrella and placed it near the door so that

the sun might not disturb the sadhaka.

Narendra sang again:

How shall I call on Thee, O Lord, with such a stained and worldly mind?

Can a straw remain unharmed, cast in a pit of Raming coals?

Thou, all goodness, art the fire, and I, all sin, am but a straw: How shall I

ever worship Thee?

The glory of Thy name, they say, redeems those even past redeeming;

Yet, when I chant Thy sacred name, alas! my poor heart quakes with fright.

I spend my life a slave to sin; how can I find a refuge, then, O Lord, within

Thy holy way?

In Thine abounding kindliness, rescue Thou this sinful wretch; Drag me off

by the hair of my head and give me shelter at Thy feet.

Again he sang:

Sweet is Thy name, O Refuge of the humble!

It falls like sweetest nectar on our ears

And comforts us, Beloved of our souls!

The priceless treasure of Thy name alone

Is the abode of Immortality,

And he who chants Thy name becomes immortal.

Falling upon our ears, Thy holy name

Instantly slays the anguish of our hearts,

Thou Soul of our souls, and fills our hearts with bliss!

As Narendra sang the line, "And he who chants Thy name becomes

immortal", the Master went into samādhi. At first his fingers, especially the

thumbs, began to tremble.

The devotees from Kannagar had never seen the Master in samādhi. Seeing

him silent, they were about to leave the room. Bhavanath said to them:

"Why are you going away?

This is his samādhi." The devotees resumed their places.

Narendra sang:

I have laboured day and night

To make Thy seat within my heart;

Wilt Thou not be kind to me,

O Lord of the World, and enter there?

Sri Ramakrishna, still in the ecstatic mood, came dawn from his couch to

the floor and sat by Narendra. The beloved disciple sang again: In Wisdom's

firmament the moon of Love is rising full, And Love's flood-tide, in surging

waves, is flowing everywhere.

O Lord, how full of bliss Thou art! Victory unto Thee! . . .

As Narendra sang the last line, Sri Ramakrishna stood up, still absorbed in

samādhi.

Futility of mere study of scriptures

After a long time the Master regained partial consciousness of the world

and sat down on the mat. Narendra finished his singing, and the Tānpura

was put back in its place. The Master was still in a spiritual mood and said:

"Mother, tell me what this is. They want someone to extract the butter for

them and hold it to their mouths. They won't throw the spiced bait into the

lake. They won't even hold the fishing-rod. Someone must catch the fish

and put it into their hands! How troublesome! Mother, I won't listen to any

more argument.

The rogues force it on me. What a bother! I shall shake it off. God is

beyond the Vedas and their injunctions. Can one realize Him by studying

the scriptures, the Vedas, and the Vedānta? (To Narendra) Do you

understand this? The Vedas give only a hint"

Narendra wanted the Tānpura again. The Master said, "I want to sing." He

was still in an ecstatic mood and sang:

Mother, this is the grief that sorely grieves my heart, That even with Thee

for Mother, and though I am wide awake, There should be robbery in my

house. . .

The Master said, "Mother, why do You make me argue?" He sang again:

Once for all, this time, I have thoroughly understood; From One who knows

it well, I have learnt the secret of bhava…

The Master said, "I am quite conscious." But he was still groggy with

divine fervour. He sang once more:

I drink no ordinary wine, but Wine of Everlasting Bliss, As I repeat my

Mother Kāli's name;

It so intoxicates my mind that people take me to be drunk!...

Futility of reasoning

Sri Ramakrishna had said, "Mother, I won't listen to any more argument."

Narendra sang:

O Mother, make me mad with Thy love!

What need have I of knowledge or reason? . . .

Sri Ramakrishna said with a smile: "O Mother, make me mad! God cannot

be realized through knowledge and reasoning, through the arguments in the

scriptures." He had been pleased with the singing of the musician from

Konnagar and said to him humbly: "Please sing about the Divine Mother.

Please - one song."

MUSICIAN: "You must excuse me, sir."

MASTER (bowing with folded hands): "No, sir. I can enforce this demand."

Saying this, Sri Ramakrishna sang a few lines from a kirtan, assuming the

attitude of a gopi:

Radha has every right to say it;

She has kept awake for Krishna.

She has stayed awake all night,

And she has every right to be piqued.

Then he said to the musician: "My dear sir, you are a child of the Divine

Mother. She dwells in all beings. Therefore I have every right to enforce my

demand. A farmer said to his guru, 'I shall get my mantra from you by

beating you, if I have to.' "

MUSICIAN (smiling): "By a shoe-beating?"

MASTER (smiling): "No! I won't go that far."

Again in an abstracted mood Sri Ramakrishna said: "The beginner, the

struggling, the perfect, and the supremely perfect. Which are you―perfect

or supremely perfect? Come along! Sing for us."

The musician complied. He sang just a melody.

MASTER: "My dear sir, that too makes me happy."

The musician then sang a song. When the music was over, the devotees

from Konnagar saluted the Master and took their leave.

The sadhaka bowed before him with folded hands and said, "Holy man, let

me say good-bye."

Sri Ramakrishna, still in an ecstatic mood, was talking to the Divine

Mother.

MASTER: "Mother, is it You or I? Do I do anything? No. no! It is You.

Was it You who heard the arguments all this time, or was it I? No, not I. It

was You.".

Sri Ramakrishna became conscious of the outer world and began to

converse with Narendra, Bhavanath, and the other devotees.

They were talking about the sadhaka.

BHAVANATH (smiling): "What kind of man is he?"

MASTER: "He is a tamasic devotee."

BHAVANATH: "He can certainly recite Sanskrit verses."

MASTER: "Once I said to a man about a sādhu: 'He is a rajasic sādhu. Why

should one give him food and other presents?' At this another sādhu taught

me a lesson by saying to me: 'Don't say that. There are three classes of holy

men: sattvic, rajasic, and tamasic.' Since that day I have respected holy men

of all classes."

NARENDRA (smiling): "What? Is it like the 'elephant God'? All, indeed,

are God."

MASTER (smiling): "It is God Himself who sports in the world as both

vidyā and avidyā.

Therefore I salute both. It is written in the Chandi: 'The Divine Mother is

the good fortune of the blessed and the ill fortune of the unlucky.' (To

Bhavanath) Is that mentioned in the Vishnu Purana?"

BHAVANATH (smiling): "I don't know, sir. The devotees from Konnagar

did not understand your samādhi and were about to leave the room."

MASTER: "Who was it that asked them to remain?"

BHAVANATH (smiling): "It was I."

MASTER: "My child, you are equally good in bringing people here and in

driving them away."

The conversation turned to the argument that Narendra had had with the

musician from Konnagar.

MUKHERJI: "Narendra didn't spare him."

MASTER: "That's right. One needs such grit. This is called the influence of

tamas on sattva. Must a man listen to everything another man says? Should

one say to a prostitute, 'All right, you may do whatever you like'? Must one

listen to her? At one time Radha was piqued. A friend said, 'Her ego has

been roused.' Brinde, another friend, said: 'Whose is this' ego? Her ego

belongs to Krishna alone. She is proud in the pride of Krishna.' "

Glory of God's name

The conversation turned to the glory of God's name.

BHAVANATH: "I feel such relief while chanting the name of Hari."

MASTER: "He who relieves us of sin is Hari. He relieves us of our three

afflictions in the world. Chaitanya preached the glory of Hari's name; so it

must be good. You see, he was such a great scholar, and an Incarnation too.

Since he preached that name, it must be good. (Smiling) Once some

peasants were invited to a feast. They were asked if they would eat a

preparation of hog plum. They answered: 'You may give it to us if the

gentlemen have eaten it. If they enjoyed it, then it must be good.' (All

laugh.) (To the Mukherji brothers) "I should like to visit Shivanath; I won't

have to hire a carriage if you take me in yours."

MUKHERJI: "All right, sir, we shall set a day."

MASTER (to the devotees): "Do you think the Brahmos will like me? They

criticize those who believe in God with form."

Mahendra Mukherji wanted to go on a pilgrimage. He told Sri Ramakrishna

so.

MASTER (smiling): "How is that? Do you want to go when the sprout of

divine love has hardly corne up? First comes the sprout, then the tree, then

the fruit. We are so happy to have you here to talk to."

MAHENDRA: "I feel like visiting the holy places a little. I shall return

soon."

It was about five o'clock in the afternoon. Sri Ramakrishna left his room.

The devotees were walking in the garden. Many of them were about to

leave.

The Master was conversing with Hazra on the north verandah. They were

talking of Narendra's frequent visits to Annada, the eldest son of the Guhas.

HAZRA: "I hear that Annada is now practising austerity. He lives on very

little food and eats rice once every four days."

MASTER: "Is that so? 'Who knows? One may realize God even by means

of a religious garb.'"

HAZRA: "Narendra sang the Āgamani."

MASTER (eagerly): "How did he sing it?"

Kishori stood close by. The Master said to him, "Are you well?"

A little later the Master was standing on the west porch. Since it was

autumn, he had put on a flannel shirt dyed with ochre. He asked Narendra,

"Is it true that you sang the Āgamani?"

Accompanied by Narendra and M., Sri Ramakrishna walked to the

embankment of the Ganges.

Narendra sang the Āgamani: Tell me, my Uma, how have you fared, alone in

the Stranger's house?

People speak so much ill of us! Alas, I die of shame!

My Son-in-law smears His body with ashes from the funeral pyre

And roams about in great delight;

You too, along with Him, cover with ash your golden skin.

He begs the food that He eats! How can I bear it, being your mother?

This time, when He returns to claim you, I shall say to Him, "My daughter

Umā is not at home."

Sri Ramakrishna stood listening to the song and went into samādhi. The sun

was still above the horizon as the Master stood on the embankment in the

ecstatic mood. On one side of him was the Ganges, flowing north with the

flood-tide. Behind him was the flower garden. To his right one could see the

nahabat and the Panchavati. Narendra stood by his side and sang. Gradually

the darkness of evening fell upon the earth.

After Narendra and several other devotees had saluted the Master and left

for Calcutta, Sri Ramakrishna returned to his room. He was absorbed in

meditation on the Divine Mother and was chanting Her holy name.

Master at Jadu's garden

Jadu Mallick had arrived at his garden house next to the Kāli temple. He

sent for the Master. Adhar, too, had arrived from Calcutta, and he saluted

Sri Ramakrishna. The Master asked Lātu to light the lantern and accompany

him to Jadu's garden.

MASTER (to M.): "Why didn't you bring Naran with you?"

M: "Shall I come with you?"

MASTER: "Do you want to come? Adhar and the others are here. All right,

you may come. Will the Mukherjis also come with us? (To the Mukherjis)

Come along. Then we can leave Jadu-Mallick quickly."

The Master went to Jadu's drawing-room. It was a well furnished room,

with everything spick and span. The lamps were lighted. Jadu was sitting

with his friends and was playing with the children. Servants were in

attendance. Smiling, Jadu welcomed Sri Ramakrishna, but he did not get

up. He treated the Master as a friend of long acquaintance.

Jadu was a devotee of Gaurānga. He had just seen a performance of

Gaurānga's life at the Star Theatre and told the Master about it. The Master

listened to his account joyfully and played with the children. M. and the

Mukherji brothers sat near him. In the course of the conversation Sri

Ramakrishna told Jadu that Adhar had not been able to secure the post of

vice-chairman of the Calcutta Municipality. Jadu said that Adhar was still

young and could try for it again. At his request the Master sang a few songs

about Gaurānga.

After the music was over, the Mukherjis were about to take their leave. The

Master, too, was ready to go, but he was in an ecstatic mood. On coming to

the porch he went into samādhi. The gate-keeper of the garden house was a

pious man. Now and then he invited the Master to his house and fed him.

Sri Ramakrishna stood there in samādhi and the gate-keeper fanned him

with a large fan. Ratan, the manager of the garden house, saluted the

Master, and Sri Ramakrishna, returning to the consciousness of the relative

world, greeted the manager and the gate-keeper, saying, "Narayana". Then,

accompanied by the devotees, he went back to the temple-garden through

the main gate.

MASTER (to the Mukherjis, pointing to M.): "Please visit him often."

MUKHERJI (smiling): "Yes, henceforth he will be our teacher."

MASTER: "It is the nature of the hemp-smoker to make merry in the

company of another hemp-smoker. He will not talk even to an amir, but he

will embrace a wretched hemp-smoker if he happens to meet one." (All

laugh.) It was about nine o'clock. The Mukherji brothers saluted the Master

and went away.

Adhar and M. sat on the floor in the Master's room while he talked to Adhar

about Rākhāl .

His worry over Rākhāl 's illness

Rākhāl was staying in Vrindāvan with Balarām. The Master had learnt from

a letter about Rākhāl 's illness. He was so worried about him that two or

three days earlier he had wept before Hazra like a child. Adhar had sent a

registered letter to Rākhāl but had received no reply.

MASTER (to Adhar): "Naran has received a letter from Vrindāvan. Why

haven't you received a reply to yours?"

ADHAR: "I haven't yet heard from Vrindāvan."

MASTER: "M. has also received a letter from Vrindāvan."

They began to talk of Sri Ramakrishna's seeing a play, at the Star Theatre,

about the life of Cauranga.

MASTER (smiling): "Jadu told me that one could see the play very well

from a one-rupee seat. Very cheap! Once we were talking about going to

Panihati. Jadu wanted me to go in a country boat with a whole crowd of

passengers. (All laugh.) "Formerly he liked to hear a little about God. But I

don't see Jadu much nowadays. He is always surrounded by flatterers. They

have spoiled him. He is a man of a very calculating nature. I would no

sooner set foot in his house than he would ask me,. 'How much is the

carriage hire?' I would say: 'You don't have to bother about it. You may give

two and a half rupees.' That would keep him quiet." (All laugh.) It was late.

Adhar was about to depart. The Master asked M. to bring Naran with him.

--------------------

Chapter 28

AT THE STAR THEATRE

Friday, September 19, 1884

IT WAS MAHALAYA, a sacred day of the Hindus, and the day of the new

moon. At two o'clock in the afternoon Sri Ramakrishna was sitting in his

room with Mahendra Mukherji, Priya Mukherji, M., Baburam, Harish,

Kishori, and Lātu. Some were sitting on the floor, some standing, and others

moving about. Hazra was sitting on the porch. Rākhāl was still at Vrindāvan

with Balarām.

Master praises Captain's devotion

MASTER (to the devotees): "I was at Captain's house in Calcutta. It was

very late when I returned. What a sweet nature Captain has! What devotion!

He performs the Ārati before the image. First he waves a lamp with three

lights, then a lamp with one light, and last of all he waves burning camphor.

When performing the worship he does not speak. Once he motioned to me

to take my seat. During the worship his eyes become swollen from spiritual

emotion. They look as if they have been stung by wasps. He cannot sing,

but he chants hymns beautifully. In his mother's presence he sits on a lower

level; she sits on a high stool.

"His father was a havildar in the English army. He would hold a gun with

one hand and with the other worship Śiva. His servant made a clay image of

Śiva for him. He wouldn't even touch water before performing the worship.

He earned six thousand rupees a year.

"Captain sends his mother to Benares now and then. Twelve or thirteen

servants attend her there; it is very expensive. Captain knows the Vedānta,

the Gitā, and the Bhagavata by heart. He says that the educated gentlemen

of Calcutta follow the ways of the mlechchhas.

"In his earlier years he practised hathayoga. That is why he strokes my head

gently when I am in samādhi. His wife worships the Deity in another form-

that of Gopala. This time I didn't find her so miserly. She too knows the

Gitā and other scriptures. What devotion they have!

"They cooked a goat curry. Captain said they could eat it for fifteen days,

but she said, 'No, no! Only seven days.' But I liked the taste of it. They

serve a very small quantity of each dish, but nowadays they give me good

portions since I eat more than they do. After the meal either Captain or his

wife fans me.

"They are very pious souls and show great respect to holy men. The people

of upper India are greatly devoted to sādhus. The sons and nephews of the

Jung Bahadur of Nepal once visited the temple garden; before me they

showed great respect and humility. Once a young girl of Nepal came to see

me with Captain. She was a great devotee, and unmarried; she knew the

whole of the Gitagovinda by heart. Dwarika Babu and the others wanted to

hear her music. When she sang the Gitagovinda, Dwarika Babu was

profoundly moved and wiped the tears from his eyes with his handkerchief.

She was asked why she was not married. She said: 'I am the handmaid of

God. Whom else shall I serve?' Her people respect her as a goddess, as the

scriptures enjoin.

(To Mahendra Mukherji and the others) "I shall feel very happy to know

that you are being benefited by your visits here. (To M.) Why do people

come here? I don't know much of reading and writing."

M.: "God's power is in you. That is why there is such power of attraction. It

is the Divine Spirit that attracts."

MASTER: "Yes, this is the attraction of Yogamaya, the Divine Śakti. She

casts the spell.

God performs all His lila through the help of Yogamaya.

Nature of gopis' love for Krishna

"The love of the gopis was like the attachment of a woman to her paramour.

They were intoxicated with ecstatic love for Sri Krishna. A woman

cherishing illicit love is not very keen about her own husband. If she is told

that her husband has come, she will say: 'What if he has? There is food in

the kitchen. He can help himself.' But if she is told of the arrival of a

stranger-jovial, handsome, and witty-she will run to see him and peep at

him from behind a screen.

"You may raise an objection and say: 'We have not seen God. How can we

feel attracted to Him as the gopis felt attracted to Krishna?' But it is

possible. 'I do not know Him. I have only heard His name, and that has

fixed my mind upon Him.' "

A DEVOTEE: "Sir, what is the significance of Sri Krishna's stealing the

gopis' clothes?"

MASTER: "There are eight fetters that bind a person to the world. The

gopis were free from all but one: shame. Therefore Krishna freed them from

that one, too, by taking away their clothes. On attaining God one gets rid of

all fetters. (To Mahendra Mukherji and the others) By no means all people

feel attracted to God. There are special souls who feel so. To love God one

must be born with good tendencies. Otherwise, why should you alone of all

the people of Baghbazar come here? You can't expect anything good in a

dunghill. The touch of the Malaya breeze turns all trees into sandalwood, no

doubt. But there are a few exceptions-the banyan, the cotton-tree, and the

Aśwattha, for example.

(To the Mukherji brothers) "You are well off. If a man slips from the path of

yoga, then he is reborn in a prosperous family and starts again his spiritual

practice for the realization of God."

Unfulfilled desires make one deviate from yoga MAHENDRA: "Why

does one slip from the path of yoga?"

MASTER: "While thinking of God the aspirant may feel a craving for

material enjoyment.

It is this craving that makes him slip from the path. In his next life he will

be born with the spiritual tendencies that he failed to translate into action in

his present life."

MAHENDRA: "Then what is the way?"

MASTER: "No salvation is possible for a man as long as he has desire, as

long as he hankers for worldly things. Therefore fulfil all your desires

regarding food, clothes, and sex. (Smiling) What do you say about the last

one? Legitimate or illegitimate? (M. and Mahendra laugh.)

"It is not good to cherish desires and hankerings. For that reason I used to

fulfil whatever desires came to my mind. Once I saw some coloured

sweetmeats at Burrabazar and wanted to eat them. They brought me the

sweets and I ate a great many. The result was that I fell ill.

"In my boyhood days, while bathing in the Ganges, I saw a boy with a gold

ornament around his waist. During my state of divine intoxication I felt a

desire to have a similar ornament myself. I was given one, but I couldn't

keep it on very long. When I put it on, I felt within my body the painful

uprush of a current of air. It was because I had touched gold to my skin. I

wore the ornament a few moments and then had to put it aside.

Otherwise I should have had to tear it off.

"I once felt a desire to eat the famous sweetmeats of different cities. (All

laugh.) I had a desire to hear Sambhu's musical recital of the Chandi. After

fulfilling that desire I wanted to hear the same thing by Rajnarayan. That

desire also was satisfied.

"At that time many holy men used to visit the temple garden. A desire arose

in my mind that there should be a separate store-room to supply them with

their provisions. Mathur Babu arranged for one. The sādhus were given

foodstuffs, fuel, and the like from that store-room.

"Once the idea came to me to put on a very expensive robe embroidered

with gold and to smoke a silver hubble-bubble. Mathur Babu sent me the

new robe and the hubble-bubble. I put on the robe. I also smoked the

hubble-bubble in various fashions.

Sometimes I smoked it reclining this way, and sometimes that way,

sometimes with head up, and sometimes with head down. Then I said to

myself, 'O mind, this is what they call smoking a silver hubble-bubble.'

Immediately I renounced it. I kept the robe on my body a few minutes

longer and then took it off. I began to trample it underfoot and spit on it,

saying: 'So this is an expensive robe! But it only increases man's rajas.'"

About Rākhāl

Rākhāl had been staying at Vrindāvan with Balarām. At first he had written

excited letters praising the holy place. He had written to M.: "It is the best

of all places. Please come here. The peacocks dance around, and one always

hears and sees religious music and dancing. There is an unending flow of

divine bliss." But then Rākhāl had been laid up with an attack of fever. Sri

Ramakrishna was very much worried about him and vowed to worship the

Divine Mother for his recovery. So he began to talk about Rākhāl.

MASTER: "Rākhāl had his first religious ecstasy while sitting here

massaging my feet. A Bhagavata scholar had been expounding the sacred

book in the room. As Rākhāl listened to his words, he shuddered every now

and then. Then he became altogether still.

"His second ecstasy was at Balarām Bose's house. In that state he could not

keep himself sitting upright; he lay flat on the floor. Rākhāl belongs to the

realm of the Personal God. He leaves the place if one talks about the

Impersonal.

"I have taken a vow to worship the Divine Mother when he recovers. You

see, he has renounced his home and relatives and completely surrendered

himself to me. It was I who sent him to his wife now and then. He still had

a little desire for enjoyment.

(Pointing to M,) "Rākhāl has written him from Vrindāvan that it is a grand

place-the peacocks dance around. Now let the peacock's take care of him.

He has really put me in a fix.

Balarām's devotion

"Rākhāl has been staying with Balarām at Vrindāvan. Ah, what a nice

nature Balarām has! It is only for my sake that he doesn't go to Orissa,

where his family owns an estate.

His brother stopped his monthly allowance and wrote to him: 'Come and

stay with us here. Why should you waste so much money in Calcutta?' But

he didn't listen. He has been living in Calcutta because he wants to see me.

What devotion to God! He is busy day and night with his worship. His

gardener is always making garlands of flowers for the Deity, He has

decided to spend four months a year at Vrindāvan to reduce his expenses.

He gets a monthly allowance of two hundred rupees.

"Why am I so fond of the youngsters? They are still untouched by 'woman

arid gold'. I find that they belong to the class of the nityasiddhas, the

everperfect."

Narendra's first visit

"When Narendra first came here he was dressed in dirty clothes; but his

eyes and face betokened some inner stuff. At that time he did not know

many songs. He sang one or two: 'Let us go back once more, O mind, to our

own abode!' and 'O Lord, must all my days pass by so utterly in vain?'

"Whenever he came here, I would talk only with him, though the room was

filled with people. He would say to me, 'Please talk to them', and then I

would talk with the others.

"I became mad for the sight of him and wept for him in Jadu Mallick's

garden house: 'I wept here, too, holding Bholanath's hand.' Bholanath said,

'Sir, you shouldn't behave that way for a mere kayastha boy.' One day the

'fat brahmin' said to me about Narendra, with folded hands, 'Sir, he has very

little education; why should you be so restless for him?'

"Bhavanath and Narendra are a pair. They are like man and woman. So I

asked Bhavanath to rent a house near Narendra's. Both of them belong to

the realm of the formless Reality.

Master warns the devotees about women

"I forbid the youngsters to spend a long time with women or visit them too

frequently.

Haripada has fallen into the clutches of a woman of the Ghoshpara sect. She

shows maternal feeling for him; but Haripada is a child and doesn't

understand its real meaning. The women of that sect act that way when they

see young boys. I understand that Haripada lies on her lap and that she

feeds him with her own hands. I shall tell him that this is not good. This

very maternal feeling leads to a downfall. The women of that sect practise

spiritual discipline in the company of men; they regard men as Krishna. A

teacher of that sect asks a woman devotee, 'Have you found your Krishna?'

and she says, 'Yes, I have found my Krishna.'

"The other day that woman came here. I watched the way she looked

around and I didn't approve of it. I said to her, 'You may treat Haripada any

way you like, but don't have any wrong feeling for him.'

"The youngsters are now in the stage of sadhana. They are aspirants. For

them the only thing now is renunciation. A sannyasi must not look even at

the portrait of a woman. I say to them: 'Don't sit beside a woman and talk to

her, even if she is a devotee. You may say a word or two to her, standing.'

Even a perfect soul must follow this precept for his own protection and also

to set an example to others. When women, come to me, I too say to them

after a few minutes, 'Go and visit the temples.' If they don't get up, I myself

leave the room. Others will learn from my example.

Master's attraction for people

"Can you tell me why all these youngsters, and you people, too, visit me?

There must be something in me; or why should you all feel such a pull,

such attraction?

His own reminiscences

"Once I visited Hriday's house at Sihore. From there I was taken to

Syambazar. I had a vision of Cauranga before I entered the village, and I

realized that I should meet Cauranga's devotees there. For seven days and

nights I was surrounded by a huge crowd of people. Such attraction!

Nothing but kirtan and dancing day and night. People stood in rows on the

walls and even were in the trees.

"I stayed at Natavar Goswami's house. It was crowded day and night. In the

morning I would run away to the house of a weaver for a little rest. There

too I found that people would gather after a few minutes. They carried

drums and cymbals with them, and the drum constantly played:'Takuti!

Takuti!' We would have our meal at three in the afternoon.

"The rumour spread everywhere that a man had arrived who died seven

times and came back to life again. Hriday would drag me away from the

crowd to a paddy-field for fear I might have an attack of heat apoplexy. The

crowd would follow us there like a line of ants. Again the cymbals and the

never-ending Takuti! Takuti!' of the drums. Hriday scolded them and said:

'Why do you bother us like this? Have we never heard kirtan?'

"The Vaishnava priests of the village came and almost started a quarrel.

They thought I would take their share of the fees from the devotees. But

soon they discovered that I didn't touch a piece of cloth or even a thread.

Someone remarked that I was a Brahmajnani. So the Vaishnava pundits

wanted to test me. One said, 'Why hasn't he beads, and a mark on his

forehead?' Another of them replied, They have dropped from him, as the

dry branch from a coconut tree. It was there that I learnt this illustration of

the dry branch of a coconut tree. The upadhis, limitations, drop when one

attains Knowledge.

"People came thronging from distant villages. They even spent the night

there. At Syambazar I learnt the meaning of divine attraction. When God

incarnates Himself on earth He attracts people through the help of

Yogamaya, His Divine Power. People become spellbound."

It was about three o'clock in the afternoon. The Master had been conversing

with the Mukherji brothers and the other devotees, when Radhika

Goswami, a Vaishnava scholar, arrived and bowed before him. This was his

first visit to the Master. Radhika Goswami took a seat.

MASTER: "Are you a descendant of Advaita?"

GOSWAMI: "Yes, sir."

At this the Master saluted him with folded hands.

MASTER: "You are descended from Advaita Goswami. You must have

inherited some of his traits. A sweet-mango tree produces only sweet

mangoes arid not sour ones. Of course, it happens that some trees produce

large mangoes and some small; that depends on the soil. Isn't that true?"

GOSWAMI (humbly): "Sir, what do I know?"

MASTER: "Whatever you may say, others will not let you off so easily.

Brahmans, however imperfect they-may be, are worshipped by all on

account of their having been born in the lines of great sages. (To M.) Tell us

the story of the samkhachila."

M. sat in silence.

MASTER: "If one of your ancestors was a great soul, he will certainly pull

you up, however unworthy you may be. When King Duryodhana and his

brothers were taken captive by the gandharvas, Yudhisthira released them in

spite of the fact that King Duryodhana was his enemy and had banished him

to the forest.

"Besides, one must show respect to the religious garb. Even the mere garb

recalls to mind the real object. Chaitanya once dressed an ass in a religious

garb and then prostrated himself before it.

"Why do people bow before a samkhachila? When Kamsa was about to kill

the Divine Mother, She Hew away taking the form of a samkhachila. So

even now people salute the bird.

"An Englishman arrived at the cantonment of Chanak. The sepoys saluted

him. Koar Singh explained to me: 'India is under the rule of the English.

Therefore one should salute an Englishman.

"The Saktas follow the Tantra, and the Vaishnavas the Purana. There is no

harm for the Vaishnavas in speaking publicly of their spiritual practices. But

the Saktas maintain secrecy about theirs. For this reason it is difficult to

understand a Sakta.

(To Goswami) "You are all good people. How much japa you practise! How

much you chant the name of Hari!"

GOSWAMI (humbly): "Oh, no! We do very little. I am a great sinner."

MASTER (smiling): "You have humility. That is good. But there is also

another way: 'I chant the name of Hari. How can I be a sinner?' He who

constantly repeats: 'I am a sinner! I am a wretch!' verily becomes a sinner.

What lack of faith! A man chants the name of God so much, and still he

talks of sin!"

Radhika Goswami listened to these words in amazement.

Master's following of different paths

MASTER: "At Vrindāvan I myself put on the garb of the Vaishnavas and

wore it for fifteen days. (To the devotees) I have practised the disciplines of

all the paths, each for a few days. Otherwise I should have found no peace

of mind. (Smiling) I have practised all the disciplines; I accept all paths. I

respect the Saktas, the Vaishnavas, and also the Vedantists. Therefore

people of all sects come here. And everyone of them thinks that I belong to

his school. I also respect the modern Brahmajnanis.

"A man had a tub of dye. Such was its wonderful property that people could

dye their clothes any colour they wanted by merely dipping them in it. A

clever man said to the owner of the tub, 'Dye my cloth the colour of your

dye-stuff.' (All laugh.) "Why should I be one-sided? The idea that the

people of a particular sect will not come to me does not frighten me. I don't

care a bit whether people come to me or not. The thought of keeping

anyone under my control never crosses my mind. Adhar Sen asked me to

ask the Divine Mother for a big position for him, but he didn't get it. If that

makes him think differently about me, what do I care?

"Once at Keshab's house I found myself in a new mood. The Brahmos

always speak of the Impersonal; therefore I said to the Divine Mother in an

ecstatic mood: 'Mother, please don't come here. They don't believe in Your

forms.'"

Radhika Goswami listened to these words of the Master against

sectarianism and remained silent.

Master's praise of Vijay Goswami

ASTER (smiling): "Vijay is in a wonderful state of mind nowadays. He

falls to the ground while chanting the name of Hari. He devotes himself to

kirtan, meditation, and other spiritual practices till four in the morning. He

now puts on an ochre robe and prostrates himself before the images of God.

Once he accompanied me to Gadadhar's schoolhouse.

I pointed out the place where Gadadhar

used to meditate. At once Vijay prostrated himself there. Again he fell

prostrate before the picture of Chaitanyadeva."

GOSWAMI: "What about the image of Radha-Krishna?"

MASTER: "He prostrated himself there too. Vijay also follows all the

conventions of religious life."

GOSWAMI: "He can now be accepted in Vaishnava society."

MASTER: "People's opinions don't count for much with him."

GOSWAMI: "I don't mean that. By accepting him Vaishnava society will

honour itself."

MASTER: "He respects me very much. But it is difficult to reach him. One

day he is called to Dāccā, the next day to some other place. He is always

busy. His presence has created great trouble in the Sadharan Brahmo

Samaj."

GOSWAMI: "Why so, sir?"

MASTER: The Brahmos tell him: 'You mix with people who worship God

with form. You are an idolater.' Vijay is liberal and straightforward. Unless

a man is guileless, he doesn't receive the grace of God. Sri Ramakrishna

talked to the Mukherji brothers.

Mahendra, the elder, had his own business. Priyanath, the younger, had

been an engineer. After making some provision for himself, he had given up

his job. Mahendra was thirty-five or thirty-six years old. The brothers had

homes both in the country and in Calcutta.

MASTER (smiling): "Don't sit idle simply because your spiritual

consciousness has been awakened a little. Go forward. Beyond the forest of

sandalwood there are other and more valuable things-silver-mines, gold-

mines, and so on."

Bondage and freedom are of the mind

PRIYA (smiling): "Sir, our legs are in chains. We cannot go forward."

MASTER: "What if the legs are chained? The important thing is the mind.

Bondage is of the mind, and freedom also is of the mind.

"Listen to a story. There were two friends. One went into a house of

prostitution and the other to hear a recital of the Bhagavata. 'What a shame!'

thought the first. 'My friend is hearing spiritual discourse, but just see what

I have slipped down to!' The second friend said to himself: 'Shame on me!

My friend is having a good time, but how stupid I am!'

After death the soul of the first was taken to Vaikuntha by the messenger of

Vishnu, while that of the second was taken to the nether world of Yama."

PRIYA: "But the mind is not under my control."

MASTER: "How is that? There is such a thing as abhyiisayoga, yoga

through practice.

Keep up the practice and you will find that your mind will follow in

whatever direction you lead it. The mind is like a white cloth just returned

from the laundry. It will be red if you dip it in red dye and blue if you dip it

in blue. It will have whatever colour you dip it in.

(To Goswami) "Have you anything to ask?"

GOSWAMI: "No, sir. I am satisfied that I have seen you and have been I

listening to your words."

MASTER: "Go and visit the temples."

GOSWAMI (very humbly): "Won't you please sing something about Sri

Chaitanya?"

The Master complied. He sang:

Why has My body turned so golden?It is not time for this to be:

Many the ages that must pass, before as Gaurānga I appear! . .

Again:

Gora gazes at Vrindāvan and tears stream from his eyes; In an exuberance

of joy, he laughs and weeps and dances and sings.

He takes a wood for Vrindāvan, the ocean for the blue Jamuna;

He rolls on the ground for love of Hari.

After singing, the Master went on with the conversation.

MASTER (to Goswami): "I have sung these songs to suit your Vaishnava

temperament.

But I must sing differently when the Saktas or others come.

"Herepeople of all sects come-Vaishnavas, Saktas, Kartabhajas,Vedantists,

and also members of the modern Brahmo Samaj. Therefore one finds here

all ideals and attitudes. It is by the will of God that different religions and

opinions have come into existence. God gives to different people what they

can digest. The mother does not give fish pilau to all her children. All

cannot digest it; so she prepares simple fish soup for some. Everyone

cherishes his own special ideal and follows his own nature.

"They provide various images for the Baroari because people of different

sects assemble at it. You see there images of Radha-Krishna, Śiva-Durga,

and Sita-Rāma-different images in different places. A crowd gathers before

each image. The Vaishnavas spend most of their time before the image of

Radha-Krishna, the Saktas before Śiva-Durga, and the devotees of Rāma

before Sita-Rāma.

"But it is quite different with those who are not spiritually minded at all. In

the Baroari one sees another image also-a prostitute beating her paramour

with a broomstick. Those people stand there with gaping mouths and cry to

their friends: 'What are you looking at over there? Come here! Look at this!'

" (All laugh.) Radhika Goswami saluted the Master and took his leave.

It was about five o'clock. The Master was on the semicircular west porch.

Baburam, Lātu, the Mukherji brothers, M., and some other devotees were

with him.

MASTER (to M. and the others): "Why should I be one-sided? The

goswamis belong to the Vaishnava school and are very bigoted. They think

that their opinion alone is right and all other opinions are wrong. My words

have hit him hard. (Smiling) One must strike the elephant on the head with

the goad; that is the elephant's most sensitive spot."

Then Sri Ramakrishna told a few naughty jokes for the young men.

MASTER (to the devotees): "I don't give the youngsters a pure vegetarian

diet: now and then I give them a little water smelling of fish. Otherwise,

why should they come?"

The Mukherji brothers left the porch. They went to the garden for a stroll.

MASTER (to M.): "I wonder whether the Mukherjis have taken offence at

my jokes?"

M: "Why should they? Captain said that you are like a child. After realizing

God a man becomes childlike."

MASTER: "Yes, and sometimes he behaves like a boy, and sometimes like

a young man.

As a boy he is very light-hearted. He may use frivolous language. As a

young man he is like a roaring lion while teaching others. You had better

explain my state of mind to the Mukherjis."

M: "I don't have to do that. Haven't they the sense to see it?"

Again the Master became light-hearted with the boys. Then he said to one

of the devotees: "Today is the new moon. Go to the Kāli temple in the

evening."

It was dusk. They heard the sound of gongs, cymbals, and other instruments

used in the evening service in. the temples. The Master said to Baburam,

"Come with me to the Kāli temple." He and Baburam went toward the

temple, accompanied by M. At the sight of Harish sitting on the porch, the

Master said: "What is this? Is he in ecstasy?"

Going through the courtyard, the Master and the devotees stopped a minute

in front of the Radhakanta temple to watch the worship. Then they

proceeded to the shrine of Kāli.

With folded hands the Master prayed to the Divine Mother: "O Mother! O

Divine Mother!

O Brahmamayi!"

Reaching the raised platform in front of the shrine, he bowed low before the

image. The Ārati was going on. He entered the shrine and fanned the image.

The evening worship was over. The devotees bowed before the Deity. It

was the night of the new moon. The Master was in a spiritual mood.

Gradually his mood deepened into intense ecstasy. He returned to his room,

reeling like a drunkard and holding to Baburam's hand.

Master's prayer to Divine Mother

A lamp was lighted on the west porch. The Master sat there a few minutes,

chanting: "Hari Om! Hari Om! Hari Om!" and other mystic syllables of the

Tantra. Presently he returned to his room and sat on the small couch, facing

the east. He was still completely.

absorbed in divine fervour. He said to the Divine Mother: "Mother, that I

should first speak and You then act-oh, that's nonsense! What is the

meaning of talk? It is nothing but a sign. One man says, 'I shall eat.' Again,

another says, 'No! I won't hear of it.' Well, Mother, suppose I had said I

would not eat; wouldn't I still feel hungry? Is it ever possible that You

should listen only when one prays aloud and not when one feels an inner

longing? You are what You are. Then why do I speak? Why do I pray? I do

as You make me do. Oh, what confusion! Why do You make me reason?"

As Sri Ramakrishna was thus talking to God, the devotees listened wonder-

struck to his words. The Master's eyes fell upon them.

MASTER (to the devotees): "One must inherit good tendencies to realize

God, One must have done something, some form of tapasya, either in this

life or in another.

"When Draupadi's clothes were being taken off, she cried earnestly, praying

to God. God revealed Himself to her and said: 'Try to remember whether

you have ever made a gift of a cloth to anyone. Then your modesty will be

preserved.' Draupadi replied: 'Yes, I remember now. Once a rishi was taking

his bath when his loincloth was carried away by the current. I tore off half

my cloth and gave it to him.' Thereupon the Lord said, 'Then you have

nothing to fear.' "

M. was sitting on the small foot-rug.

MASTER (to M.): "You have understood what I said."

M: "Yes, sir. You spoke about inherent tendencies."

MASTER: "Repeat what I said."

M. repeated the story of Draupadi.

Hazra entered the room. He had been living with Sri Ramakrishna in the

temple garden for the past two years and had first met the Master in 1880 at

Sihore in the house of Hriday, the Master's nephew. Hazra's native village

was near Sihore, and he owned some property there. He had a wife and

children and also some debts. From youth he had felt a spirit of

renunciation and sought the company of holy men and devotees. The

Master had asked him to live with him at Dakshineswar and looked after his

necessities. Hazra's mind was a jumble of undigested religious moods. He

professed the path of knowledge and disapproved of Sri Ramakrishna's

attitude of bhakti and his longing for the young devotees. Now and then he

thought of the Master as a great soul, but again he slighted him as an

ordinary human being. He spent much of his time in telling his beads, and

he criticized Rākhāl and the other young men for their indifference to the

practice. He was a strong advocate of religious conventions and rules of

conduct, and made a fad of them.

He was about thirty-eight years old.

As Hazra came in, the Master became a little abstracted and in that mood

began to talk.

MASTER (to Hazra): "What you are doing is right in principle, but the

application is not quite correct. Don't find fault with anyone, not even with

an insect. As you pray to God for devotion, so also pray that you may not

find fault with anyone."

HAZRA: "Does God listen to our prayer for bhakti?"

MASTER: "Surely. I can assure you of that a hundred times. But the prayer

must be genuine and earnest. Do worldly-minded people weep for God as

they do for wife and children? At Kamarpukur the wife of a certain man fell

ill. The man thought she would not recover; he began to tremble and was

about to faint. Who feels that way for God?"

Hazra was about to take the dust of the Master's feet.

MASTER (shrinking): "What is this?"

HAZRA: "Why should I not take the dust of his feet who has so kindly kept

me with him?"

MASTER: "Satisfy God and everyone will be satisfied.'If He is pleased the

world is pleased.' Once the Lord ate a few greens from Draupadi's cooking-

pot and said, 'Ah, I am satisfied.' Immediately the whole world and all its

living beings were satisfied; they felt as if they had eaten their fill. But was

the world satisfied or did it feel that way when the rishis ate their food?

(To Hazra) "A perfect soul, even after attaining Knowledge, practises

devotions or observes religious ceremonies to set an example to others. I go

to the Kāli temple and I bow before the holy pictures in my room; therefore

others do the same. Further, if a man has become habituated to such

ceremonies, he feels restless if he does not observe them.

"One day I saw a sannyasi under the banyan-tree. He had put the salagram

on the same carpet with his guru's sandals. He was worshipping them. I said

to him, 'If you have attained Knowledge to that extent, then why such

formal worship at all?' He replied: 'What difference does it make? Since I

do everything else, why not this too? Sometimes I offer the flowers at the

guru's feet and sometimes to God.'

"One cannot renounce work as long as one has a body. As long as there is

mud at the bottom of the lake, bubbles will be produced.

Advice to Hazra - Scriptures and sadhana

(To Hazra) "If there is knowledge of one, there is also knowledge of many.

What will you achieve by mere study of the scriptures? The scriptures

contain a mixture of sand and sugar, as it were. It is extremely difficult to

separate the sugar from the sand. Therefore one should learn the essence of

the scriptures from the teacher or from a sādhu.

Afterwards what does one care for books?

(To the devotees) "Gather all the information and then plunge in. Suppose a

pot has dropped in a certain part of a lake. Locate the spot and dive there.

"One should learn the essence of the scriptures from the guru and then

practise sadhana. If one rightly follows spiritual discipline, then one directly

sees God. The discipline is said to be rightly followed only when one

plunges in. What will a man gain by merely reasoning about the words of

the scriptures? Ah, the fools! They reason themselves to death over

information about the path. They never take the plunge. What a pity!

"You may say, even though you dive deep you are still in danger of sharks

and crocodiles, of lust and anger. But dive after rubbing your body with

turmeric powder; then sharks and crocodiles will not come near you. The

turmeric is discrimination and renunciation.

Master's spiritual practice

(To the devotees) "God made me pass through the disciplines of various

paths. First according to the Purana, then according to the Tantra. I also

followed the disciplines of the Vedas. At first I practised sadhana in the

Panchavati. I made a grove of tulsi-plants and used to sit inside it and

meditate. Sometimes I cried with a longing Heart, 'Mother!

Mother!' Or I again, 'Rāma! Rāma!'

"While repeating the name of Rāma, I sometimes assumed the attitude of

Hanuman and fixed a tail to the lower end of my backbone. I was in a God-

intoxicated state. At that time I used to put on a silk robe and worship the

Deity. What joy I experienced in that worship!

"I practised the discipline of the Tantra under the bel-tree. At that time I

could see no distinction between the sacred tulsi and any other plant. In that

state I sometimes ate the leavings from a jackal's meal, food that had been

exposed the whole night, part of which might have been eaten by snakes or

other creatures. Yes, I ate that stuff.

"Sometimes I rode on a dog and fed him with luchi, also eating part of the

bread myself.

I realized that the whole world was filled with God alone. One cannot have

spiritual realization without destroying ignorance; so I would assume the

attitude of a tiger and devour ignorance.

"While practising the disciplines of the Vedas, I became a sannyasi. I used

to lie down in the chandni and say to Hriday: 'I am a sannyasi. I shall take

my meals here.'

"I vowed to the Divine Mother that I would kill myself if I did not see God.

I said to Her: 'O Mother, I am a fool. Please teach me what is contained in

the Vedas, the Puranas, the Tantras, and the other scriptures.' The Mother

said to me, 'The essence of the Vedānta is that Brahman alone is real and the

world illusory.'The Satchidananda Brahman described in the Vedas is the

Satchidananda Śiva of the Tantra and the Satchidananda Krishna of the

Purana. The essence of the Gitā is what you get by repeating the word ten

times. It is reversed into 'tagi', which indicates renunciation.

"After the realization of God, how far below lie the Vedas, the Vedānta, the

Purana, the Tantra! (To Hazra) I cannot utter the word 'Om' in samādhi.

Why is that? I cannot say 'Om' unless I come down very far from the state

of samādhi.

"I had all the experiences that one should have, according to the scriptures,

after one's direct perception of God. I behaved like a child, like a madman,

like a ghoul, and like an inert thing.

"I saw the visions described in the scriptures. Sometimes I saw the universe

filled with sparks of fire. Sometimes I saw all the quarters glittering with

light, as if the world were a lake of mercury. Sometimes I saw the world as

if made of liquid silver. Sometimes, again, I saw all the quarters illumined

as if with the light of Raman candles. So you see my experiences tally with

those described in the scriptures.

"It was revealed to me further that God Himself has become the universe

and all its living beings and the twenty-four cosmic principles. It is like the

process of evolution and involution.

"Oh, what a state God kept me in at that time! One experience would hardly

be over before another overcame me. It was like the movement of the

husking-machine: no sooner is one end down than the other goes up.

"I would see God in meditation, in the state of samādhi, and I would see the

same God when my mind came back to the outer world. When looking at

this side of the mirror I would see Him alone, and when looking on the

reverse side I saw the same God."

The devotees listened to these words with rapt attention.

(To the Mukherji brothers) "Captain is now really in the state of the

sadhaka. That the mere possession of wealth should create, attachment is by

no means true. Sambhu Mallick used to say to Hriday, 'Hridu, I have packed

my things and am ready for the journey.' I said to him: 'God forbid! Why do

you say such ominous words?' 'No', replied Sambhu. 'Please bless me that I

may cast aside all these possessions and go to God.'

"God's devotees have nothing to fear. They are His own He always stands

by them. Once Duryodhana and his brothers were imprisoned by the

gandharvas. It was Yudhisthira who freed them. Yudhisthira said, 'If our

relatives are placed in such a plight, then it is our disgrace.' "

It was about nine o'clock in the evening. The Mukherji brothers were ready

to return to Calcutta. The Master left his seat and began to pace the room

and the porch. He could hear the kirtan sung in the Vishnu temple. A

devotee said that Harish and Lātu were in the singing party.

Sri Ramakrishna and the devotees went to the Vishnu temple and saluted

the Deity. The brahmins belonging to the staff of the temple garden, and

also the priests, the cooks, and the servants, were singing the kirtan. He

stood there a few minutes and encouraged the singers. On the way back to

his room he remarked to the devotees, "You see, some of them polish the

metal utensils and some go to houses of prostitution."

The Master returned to his room and took his seat. Presently the singers

came and bowed low before him. The Master said to them: "One should

perspire, dancing and singing the name of God, as people do earning

money. I had thought of joining you in the dancing; but I found that you did

everything very well. You had flavoured the curry with all the seasoning.

What could I add? It will be nice if you sing devotional songs that way now

and then."

The Mukherji brothers saluted the Master. Their carriage was ready near the

verandah north of the room. The Master stood facing the north. On his left

was the Ganges; in front of him were the nahabat, the garden, and the kuthi;

and to his right was the road leading to the gate. The night was dark, and a

devotee had brought a lantern to show the visitors their way. One by one the

devotees bowed and took the dust of the Master's feet. The carriage seemed

too heavily loaded for the horses. The Master said, "Aren't there too many

people in the carriage?"

Sri Ramakrishna remained standing. As the carriage rolled away, the

devotees looked back at the Master's face beaming with compassion and

love.

Sunday, September 21, 1884

A large number of devotees were in Sri Ramakrishna's room, among them

Ram, Mahendra Mukherji, M., and Chunilal. Chunilal had just returned

from Vrindāvan, where he had gone with Rākhāl and Balarām. The two

latter were still there. Nityagopal also was staying there. The Master began

to talk with Chunilal about Vrindāvan.

MASTER: "How is Rākhāl?"

CHUNI: "He is quite well now, sir."

MASTER: "Isn't Nityagopal coming back?"

CHUNI: "He was still there when I left."

MASTER: "Who will bring your family back?"

CHUNI: "Balarām Babu told me he would arrange it with some reliable

person. He didn't mention any name."

Master praises Narayan

Sri Ramakrishna then spoke to Mahendra Mukherji about Narayan, a

school-boy sixteen or seventeen years old, who often visited the Master and

was very dear to him.

MASTER: "He is quite guileless, isn't he?"

The very uttering of the word "guileless" filled the Master with great joy.

MAHENDRA: "Yes, sir. Completely guileless."

MASTER: "His mother came here the other day. I was a little frightened to

see that she was a proud woman. That day she found that Captain, you, and

many others, too, visited me. Then she must have realized that she and her

son were not the only people to come here. (All laugh.) There was some

sugar candy in the room and she remarked that it was good. That made her

feel there was no scarcity of food here. I happened to tell Baburam, in front

of her, to keep some sweets for himself and Naran. Ganu's mother said that

Naran always bothered his mother for the boat hire to come here. His

mother said to me, 'Please ask Naran to consent to marry.' I replied, 'All that

depends on one's fate.' Why should I interfere? (All laugh.) Naran is

indifferent to his studies. His mother said, 'Please ask him to pay a little

more attention.' So I said to Naran, 'Attend to your studies.' Then his mother

said, 'Please tell him seriously.' (All laugh.) (To Chunilal) "Why doesn't

Gopal come here?"

CHUNILAL: "He has been suffering from dysentery."

MASTER: "Is he taking any medicine?"

Sri Ramakrishna was planning to go to a performance of the Chaitanyalila

at the Star Theatre. Mahendra Mukherji was to take him to Calcutta in his

carriage. They were talking about choosing good seats. Some suggested that

one could see the performance well from the one-rupee gallery. Ram said,

"Oh, no! I shall engage a box for him." The Master laughed. Some of the

devotees said that public women took part in the play.

They took the parts of Nimai, Nitai, and others.

MASTER (to the devotees): "I shall look upon them as the Blissful Mother

Herself. What if one of them acts the part of Chaitanya? An imitation

custard-apple reminds one of the real fruit. Once, while going along a road,

a devotee of Krishna noticed some babla-trees. Instantly his mind was

thrown into ecstasy. He remembered that the wood of babla-trees was used

for the handles of the spades that the garden of the temple of Syamasundar

was dug with. The trees instantly reminded him of Krishna. I was once

taken to the Maidan in Calcutta to see a balloon go up. There I noticed a

young English boy leaning against a tree, with his body bent in three places.

It at once brought before me the vision of Krishna and I went into samādhi.

"Once Chaitanyadeva was passing through a village. Someone told him that

the body of the drum used in the kirtan was made from the earth of that

village, and at once he went into ecstasy.

"Radha could not control herself at the sight of a cloud or the blue throat of

a peacock. It would at once awaken in her mind the thought of Krishna, and

she would go into ecstasy."

The Master was silent a few moments and then resumed the conversation.

MASTER: "Radha had attained mahabhava. There was no desire behind the

ecstatic love of the gopis. A true lover does not seek anything from God. He

prays only for pure love.

He doesn't want any powers or miracles.

Occult powers

"It is very troublesome to possess occult powers. Nangta taught me this by a

story. A man who had acquired occult powers was sitting on the seashore

when a storm arose. It caused him great discomfort; so he said, 'Let the

storm stop.' His words could not remain unfulfilled. At that moment a ship

was going full sail before the wind. When the storm ceased abruptly the

ship capsized and sank. The passengers perished and the sin of causing their

death fell to the man. And because of that sin he lost his occult powers and

went to hell.

"Once upon a time a sādhu acquired great occult powers. He was vain about

them. But he was a good man and had some austerities to his credit. One

day the Lord, disguised as a holy man, came to him and said, 'Revered sir, I

have heard that you have great occult powers.' The sādhu received the Lord

cordially and offered him a seat. Just then an elephant passed by. The Lord,

in the disguise of the holy man, said to the sādhu, 'Revered sir, can you kill

this elephant if you like?' The sādhu said, 'Yes, it is possible.'

So saying, he took a pinch of dust, muttered some mantras over it, and

threw it at the elephant. The beast struggled awhile in pain and then

dropped dead. The Lord said: 'What power you have! You have killed the

elephant!' The sādhu laughed. Again the Lord spoke: 'Now can you revive

the elephant?' 'That too is possible', replied the sādhu. He threw another

pinch of charmed dust at the beast. The elephant writhed about a litle and

came back to life. Then the Lord said: 'Wonderful is your power. But may I

ask you one thing? You have killed the elephant and you have revived it.

But what has that done for you? Do you feel uplifted by it? Has it enabled

you to realize God?' Saying this the Lord vanished.

"Subtle are the ways of dharma. One cannot realize God if one has even the

least trace of desire. A thread cannot pass through the eye of a needle if it

has the smallest fibre sticking out.

"Krishna said to Arjuna, 'Friend, if you want to realize Me, you will not

succeed if you have even one of the eight occult powers.' This is the truth.

Occult power is sure to beget pride, and pride makes one forget God.

"Once a cross-eyed rich man came here. He said to me: 'You are a

paramahamsa. That is good. You must perform a swastyayana ceremony for

me.' What a small-minded person he was! He called me a paramahamsa and

yet wanted me to perform that ceremony. To secure welfare by means of the

swastyayana is to exercise occult power.

"An egotistic person cannot realize God. Do you know what egotism is

like? It is like a high mound, where rain-water cannot collect: the water

runs off. Water collects in low land. There seeds sprout and grow into trees.

Then the trees bear fruit.

"Therefore I say to Hazra, 'Never think that you alone have true

understanding and that others are fools.' One must love all. No one is a

stranger. It is Hari alone who dwells in all beings. Nothing exists without

Him.

"The Lord said to Prahlada, 'Ask a boon of Me.' 'I have seen You', replied

Prahlada. 'That is enough. I don't need anything else.' But the Lord insisted.

Thereupon Prahlada said, 'If You must give me a boon, let it be that those

who have tortured me may not have to suffer punishment.' The meaning of

those words is that it was God who tortured Prahlada in the form of his

persecutors, and, if they suffered punishment, it would really be God who

suffered.

Divine madness

"Radha was mad with prema, ecstatic love of God. But there is also the

madness of bhakti. Hanuman's was such. When he saw Sita entering the fire

he was going to kill Rāma. Then, too, there is the madness of Knowledge. I

once saw a Jnāni behaving like a madman. He came here very soon after the

temple garden was dedicated. People said he belonged to the Brahmo Sabha

of Rammohan Roy. He had a torn shoe on one foot, a stick in one hand, and

a potted mango-plant in the other. After a dip in the Ganges he went to the

Kāli temple where Haladhāri was seated. With great fervour he began to

chant a hymn to the Divine Mother. Then he went up to a dog, held it by the

ear, and ate some of its food. The dog didn't mind. Just at that time I too

was about to experience the state of divine madness. I threw my arm around

Hriday's neck and said, 'Oh, Hride! Shall I too fall into that plight?'

Master's God-intoxicated condition

"I became mad. Narayan Shastri came here and saw me roaming about with

a bamboo pole on my shoulder. He said to the people, 'Ah, he is mad!' In

that state I could not observe any caste restrictions. The wife of a low caste

man used to send me cooked greens, and I ate them.

"I touched my head and lips with the leaf-plates from which the beggars ate

their food in the guesthouse of the Kāli temple. Thereupon Haladhāri said to

me: 'What have you done? You have taken the food left by beggars. How

will you marry off your children?'

These words aroused my anger. Haladhāri was my cousin, older than

myself. But could that restrain me? I said to him: 'You wretch! Isn't it you

who take pride in the study of the Gitā and the Vedānta? Isn't it you who

teach people that Brahman alone is real and the world illusory? And yet you

imagine that I shall beget children! May your mouth that recites from the

Gitā be blighted!'

(To M.) "You see, mere study of books avails nothing. One may recite the

written part for the drum glibly from memory, but to play the drum is

exceedingly difficult."

The Master continued with the description of his divine madness: "Once,

for a few days, I was out on an excursion with Mathur Babu in his house-

boat.

We took the trip for a change of air. During that trip we visited Navadvip.

One day I saw the boatmen cooking their meal and stood and watched

them. Mathur said to me, 'What are you doing there?' I replied with a smile,

'The boatmen are cooking, and their food looks very good.' Mathur felt that

I might ask the boatmen to give me a portion of their food; so he said:

'Come away! Come away!'

"But I cannot do such a thing now. I am no longer in that mood. Now the

food must be cooked by a brahmin observing ceremonial purity, and be

offered to the Deity; then only can I eat it.

"Oh, what moods I passed through! At Kamarpukur I said to Chine

Sankhari and the other chums of my boyhood days, 'Oh, I fall at your feet

and beg of you to utter the name of Hari.' I was about to prostrate myself

before them all. Thereupon Chine said, 'This is the first outburst of your

divine love; so you don't see any distinction between one man and another.'

When the storm breaks and raises the dust, then mango and tamarind trees

look the same. One cannot distinguish the one from the other."

A DEVOTEE: "How can a householder keep on with his worldly duties if

he is overwhelmed by such bhakti-madness or Love-madness or Knowledge

madness?"

Two kinds of yogis

MASTER (looking at him): "There are two kinds of yogis, the 'revealed'

and the 'hidden'.

The householder may be a 'hidden' yogi. None recognizes him. The

householder should renounce mentally, not outwardly."

RAM: "You talk as if you were consoling children. A householder may be a

Jnāni but never a vijnāni."

MASTER: "He may become a vijnāni in the end. But it is not good to force

oneself into renunciation."

RAM: "Keshab Sen used to say: 'Why do people go to him so much? One

day he will sting them and they will flee from him.' "

MASTER: "Why should I sting people? I say to people: 'Do this as well as

that. Do your worldly duties and call on God as well.' I don't ask them to

renounce everything. (With a smile) One day Keshab was delivering a

lecture. He said, 'O Lord, grant us that we may dive into the river of divine

love and go straight to the Ocean of Satchidananda.' The ladies were seated

behind the screen. I said to Keshab, 'How can you all dive once for all?'

Pointing to the ladies, I said: 'Then what would happen to them? Every now

and then you must return to dry land. You must dive and rise alternately.'

Keshab and the others laughed.

"Hazra says to me, 'You love most those endowed with rajas, those who

have great wealth and name and fame.' If that is so, then why do I love

people like Harish and Loto? Why do I love Narendra? He can't even afford

salt to season his roast banana!"

Sri Ramakrishna left his from and went toward the pine-grove talking with

M. A devotee followed them with water and towel. The Master was talking

about his intended visit to the Star Theatre. He said to M.: "What Ram says

applies to rajasic people. What is the use of reserving an expensive seat?"

About five o'clock that afternoon Sri Ramakrishna was on his way to

Calcutta. M., Mahendra Mukherji, and a few other devotees accompanied

him in Mahendra's carriage.

Thinking of God, the Master soon went into an ecstatic mood. After a long

time he regained consciousness of the world. He observed: "That fellow

Hazra dares teach me!

The rascal!" After a short pause he said, "shall drink some water." He often

made such remarks in order to bring his mind down to the sense plane.

MAHENDRA (to M.): "May I get some refreshments for him?"

M: "No, he won't eat anything now."

MASTER (still in ecstatic mood): "I shall eat."

Mahendra took the Master to his flour-mill located at Hathibagan. After a

little rest Sri Ramakrishna was to go to the theatre. Mahendra did not care

to take him to his own house, for the Master was not well acquainted with

his father. Priyanath, Mahendra's second brother, was also a devotee of the

Master.

Sri Ramakrishna was sitting on a cot over which a carpet had been spread,

and was engaged in spiritual talk.

MASTER (to M. and the others): "Once, while listening to the various

incidents of the life of Chaitanya, Hazra said that these were manifestations

of Śakti, and that Brahman, the All-pervasive Spirit, had nothing to do with

them. But can there be Śakti without Brahman? Hazra wants to nullify the

teachings of this place.

Identity of Brahman and Śakti

"I have realized that Brahman and Śakti are identical, like water and its

wetness, like fire and its power to burn. Brahman dwells in all beings as the

Bibhu, the All-pervasive Consciousness, though Its manifestation is greater

in some places than in others. Hazra says, further, that anyone who realizes

God must also acquire God's supernatural powers; that he possesses these

powers, though he may or may not use them."

M: "Yes, one must have control over these supernatural powers!" (All

laugh) MASTER (smiling): "Yes, one must have them in one's grasp! How

mean! He who has never enjoyed power and riches becomes impatient for

them. But a true devotee never prays to God for them."

Sri Ramakrishna washed his face. A smoke was prepared for him. He said

to M.: "Is. it dusk now? If it is, I won't smoke. During the twilight hour of

the dusk you should give up all other activities and remember God." Saying

this he looked at the hairs on his arm. He wanted to see whether he could

count them. If he could not, it would be dusk.

Master at Star Theatre

About half past eight in the evening the carriage with the Master and the

devotees drew up in front of the Star Theatre on Beadon Street. He was

accompanied by M., Baburam, Mahendra and two or three others. They

were talking about engaging seats, when Girish Chandra Ghosh, the

manager of the theatre, accompanied by several officials, came out to the

carriage, greeted the Master, and took him and the party upstairs. Girish had

heard of the Master and was very glad to see him at the theatre. The Master

was conducted to one of the boxes. M. sat next to him; Baburam and one or

two devotees sat behind.

The hall was brilliantly lighted. The Master looked down at the pit and saw

that it was crowded. The boxes also were full. For every box there was a

man to fan those who occupied it. Sri Ramakrishna was filled with joy and

said to M., with his childlike smile: "Ah, it is very nice here! I am glad to

have come. I feel inspired when I see so many people together. Then I

clearly perceive that God Himself has become everything."

M: "It is true, sir."

MASTER: "How much will they charge us here?"

M: "They won't take anything. They are very happy that you have come to

the theatre."

MASTER: "It is all due to the grace of the Divine Mother."

The Chaitanyalila was about to be performed. It was a play about the early

life of Sri Chaitanya, who was also known as Nimai, Gaur, Gora, and

Gaurānga. The curtain rose; the attention of the audience was fixed on the

stage.

The first scene depicts a council of Sin and the Six Passions. On a forest

path behind them walk Viveka, Vairāgya, and Bhakti, engaged in

conversation.

Bhakti says to her companions: "Gaurānga is born in Nadia. Therefore the

vidyadharis, the munis, and the rishis have come down to earth in disguise

to pay their respects to him."

She sings:

Blest indeed is the earth! Gora is born in Nadia!

Behold the vidyadharis, coming in chariots toadore him; Behold the munis

and rishis, who come, allured by the spell of Love.

The vidyadharis, munis, and rishis sing a hymn to Gaurānga and adore him

as an Incarnation of God.

Sri Ramakrishna watched the scene and was overpowered with divine

ecstasy. He said to M.: "Look at it! Ah! Ah!"

Sages: O Kesava, bestow Thy grace

Upon Thy luckless servants here!

O Kesava, who dost delight

To roam Vrindāvan's glades and groves!

Goddesses: O Madhava, our mind's Bewitcher!

Sweet One, who dost steal our hearts,

Sweetly playing On Thy flute!

Chorus: Chant, O mind, the name of Hari, Sing aloud the name of Hari,

Praise Lord Hari's name!

Sages: O Thou Eternal Youth of Braja,

Tamer of fierce Kaliya,

Slayer of the afflicted's fear!

Goddesses: Beloved with the arching eyes And crest with arching peacock

feather,

Charmer of Sri Radha's heart!

Sages: Govardhan's mighty Lifter, Thou, All garlanded with sylvan flowers!

O Damodara, Kamsa's Scourge!

Goddesses: O Dark One, who dost sport in bliss With sweet Vrindāvan's

gopi maids.

Chorus: Chant, O mind, the name of Hari, Sing aloud the name of Hari,

Praise Lord Hari's name!

As the vidyadharis sang the lines, Beloved with the arching eyes; And crest

with arching peacock feather!, the Master went into deep samādhi. The

orchestra played on, but he was not aware of the outer world.

Another scene: A guest has arrived at the house of Jagannath Misra, Nimai's

father. The boy Nimai plays about, singing with his friends, in a happy

mood: Tell Me, where is My blessed Vrindāvan?

Where is Mother Yaśoda?

Where Father Nanda and Brother Balai?

Where My twin cows, black and white?

Tell Me, where is My magic flute?

My friends Sudāmā and Sridāmā?

Where My Jamuna's bank, My banyan?

Where My beloved gopi maids?

Where is Radha, queen of My heart?

The guest closes his eyes while offering food to the Lord. Nimai runs to

him. and eats the food from the plate. The guest recognizes Nimai as an

Incarnation of God and seeks to please him with the Hymn of the Ten

Incarnations. Before taking leave of Gaurānga's parents he sings:

Glory to Gora, the Source of Bliss!

Hail Gaurānga, Redeemer of earth!

Help of the helpless, Life of the living,

Slayer of fear in the hearts of the fearful!

Age after age we see Thy play

New sports unfolding, moods ever new;

New waves rolling, new tales to be told.

Thou who bearest the whole world's burden,

Shower on us the nectar of Love!

Take away our grief and affliction:

Thou in Love's pleasure-cave dost dwell.

Hope of the suffering! Chastiser of sin!

Scourge of the wicked! Victory to Thee!

Listening to the hymn, the Master was thrilled with ecstasy.

The next scene is at Navadvip on the bank of the Ganges. After bathing in

the holy water, the brahmin men and women engage in worship by the

riverside. As they close their eyes, Nimai steals their food offerings and

begins to eat them. A brahmin loses his temper and says: "You scapegrace!

You rascal! You are taking away my offering for Vishnu. Ruin will seize

you." Nimai holds on to the offering and is about to run away.

Many of the women love him dearly and cannot bear to have him go away.

They call to him: "Return, O Nimai! Come back, O Nimai!" Nimai turns a

deaf ear to them.

One of the women, however, knows the irresistible charm that will bring

him back. She loudly chants the name of Hari. Immediately he repeats the

name of Hari and comes back.

M. was seated beside the Master. Sri Ramakrishna could not control

himself. He cried out, "Ah!" and shed tears of love. He said to Baburam and

M.: "Don't make a fuss if I fall into an ecstatic mood or go into samādhi.

Then the worldly people will take me for a cheat."

Another scene: Nimai is invested with the sacred thread of the brahmins. He

puts on the traditional ochre robe of the sannyasi. Mother Sachi and the

women of the neighbourhood stand about while he begs for alms, singing:

Drop a morsel of food, I pray, into my begging bowl; Alone I roam, a new-

made yogi, on the highways of the world.

People of Braja, you I love, and so, time and again, I come to you; at

hunger's call I beg my food from door to door.

The sun is low, and I must seek my home on the Jamuna's bank; Into its

waters fall my tears, as onward murmuring it flows.

The onlookers leave the stage. Nimai stands alone. The gods, in the guise of

brahmin men and women, sing his praises.

Men: Thy body gleams like liquid moonlight; Thou hast put on man's

dwarfish form.

O Lord, Thee we salute!

Women: Bewitcher of the gopis' hearts, Thou roamest in the shady groves

About Vrindāvan's vale.

Nimai: Hail Sri Radha! Glory to Radha!

The youths of Braja are Thy friends;

Thou curbest haughty Madan's pride.

Women: Thy love has made the gopis mad; In ecstasy the Jamuna thrills.

Men: Narayana, Deluder of demons!

Refuge of the fear-stricken gods!

Women: O Lover of Braja, Thou dost beg The love of Braja's comely

maidens!

Nimai: Hail Sri Radha! Glory to Radha!

Listening to the music, the Master went into samādhi. The curtain fell and

the orchestra played on.

A new scene: Srivas and other devotees are engaged in conversation in

front of Advaita's house. Mukunda sings:

Sleep no more! How long will you lie

In māyā's slumber locked, O mind?

Who are you? Why have you been born?

Forgotten is your own true Self.

O mind, unclose your eyes at last

And wake yourself from evil dreams;

A fool you are to bind yourself

So to the passing shows of life,

When in you lives Eternal Bliss.

Come out of the gloom, O foolish mind!

Come out and hail the rising Sun!

Sri Ramakrishna praised the voice of the singer highly.

Another scene: Nimai is staying at home. Srivas comes to visit him. First he

meets Sachi. The mother weeps and says: "My son doesn't attend to his

household duties. My eldest son, Viswarupa, has renounced the world, and

my heart has ached ever since.

Now I fear that Nimai will follow in his steps."

Nimai arrives. Sachi says to Srivas: "Look at him. Tears run down his

cheeks and breast.

Tell, tell me how I can free him from these notions."

At the sight of Srivas, Nimai clings to his feet and says, with eyes full of

tears: "Ah me!

Revered sir, I have not yet attained devotion to Krishna. Futile is this

wretched life! Tell me, sir, where is Krishna? Where shall I find Krishna?

Give me the dust of your feet with your blessing, that I may realize the Blue

One with the garland of wild-flowers hanging about His neck."

Sri Ramakrishna looked at M. He was eager to say something but he could

not. His voice was choked with emotion; the tears ran down his cheeks;

with unmoving eyes he watched Nimai clinging to Srivas's feet and saying,

"Sir, I have not yet attained devotion to Krishna."

Nimai has opened a school, but he cannot teach the students any longer.

Gangadas, his former teacher, comes to persuade him to direct his attention

to his worldly duties. He says to Srivas: "Listen, Srivas! We are brahmins,

too, and devoted to the worship of Vishnu. But you people are ruining

Nimai's worldly prospects."

MASTER (to M.): "That is the advice of the worldly-wise: Do 'this' as well

as 'that'. When the worldly man teaches spirituality he always advises a

compromise between the world and God."

M: "Yes, sir. That is true."

Gangadas continues his argument with Nimai. He says: "Nimai,

undoubtedly you are versed in the scriptures. Reason with me. Explain to

me if any other duty is superior to worldly duties. You are a householder.

Why disregard the duties of a householder and follow others' duties?"

MASTER (to M.): "Did you notice? He's trying to persuade Nimai to make

a compromise."

M: "Yes, sir."

Nimai says to Gangadas: "I am not wilfully indifferent to a householder's

duties. On the contrary, it is my desire to hold to all sides. But, revered sir, I

don't know what it is that draws me on. I don't know what to do. I want to

cling to the shore but I cannot. My soul wanders away. I am helpless. My

soul constantly wants to plunge headlong into the boundless Ocean."

MASTER: "Ah me!"

The scene changes: Nityananda has arrived at Navadvip. After a search he

meets Nimai, who, in turn, has been seeking him. When they meet, Nimai

says to him: "Blessed is my life! Fulfilled is my dream! You visited me in a

dream and then disappeared."

The Master said in a voice choked with emotion, "Nimai said he had seen

him in a dream."

Nimai is in an ecstatic mood and becomes engaged in conversation with

Advaita, Srivas, Haridas, and other devotees. Nitai sings a song suited to

Nimai's mood: Where is Krishna? Where is my Krishna?

He is not in the grove, dear friends.

Give me Krishna! Bring me my Krishna!

Radha's heart knows naught but Him.

At this song Sri Ramakrishna went into samādhi. He remained in that state

a long time.

The orchestra played on. Gradually his mind came down to the relative

plane. In the mean time a young man of Khardaha, born in the holy family

of Nityananda, had entered the box. He was standing behind the Master's

chair. Sri Ramakrishna was filled with delight at the sight of him. He held

his hand and talked to him affectionately. Every now and then he said:

"Please sit down here. Your very presence awakens my spiritual feeling."

He played tenderly with the young man's hands and lovingly stroked his

face.

After he had left, Sri Ramakrishna said to M.: "He is a great scholar. His

father is a great devotee of God. When I go to Khardaha to visit

Syamasundar, the father entertains me with sacred offerings such as one

cannot buy even for a hundred rupees. This young man has good traits. A

little shaking will awaken his inner spirit. At the sight of him my spiritual

mood is aroused. I should have been overwhelmed with ecstasy if he had

stayed here a little longer."

The curtain rises: Nityananda is walking in a procession on the public road

with his companions, chanting the name of Hari. He meets two ruffians,

Jagai and Madhai, who are sworn enemies of all religious people. Madhai

strikes Nitai with a piece of broken pottery. Nitai is hurt and bleeds

profusely, but he pays no heed, inebriated as he is with the love of God.

Sri Ramakrishna was in an ecstatic mood.

Nitai embraces both Jagai and Madhai, and sings a song to the two ruffians:

Jagai! Madhai! Oh, come and dance,

Chanting Hari's name with fervour!

What does it matter that you struck me?

Dance, dear friends, in Hari's name!

Sing the name of our Beloved:

He will embrace you in love's rapture!

Let the heavens resound with His name!

You have not tasted true emotion:

Weep as you chant the name of Hari,

And you will see the Moon of your soul.

Hari's name would I lovingly give you;

Nitai calls you to share His love.

Nimai speaks to Sachi of his desire to enter the monastic life. His mother

faints and falls to the ground.

At this point many in the audience burst into tears. Sri Ramakrishna

remained still and looked intently at the stage. A single tear appeared in the

corner of each eye. The performance was over.

Sri Ramakrishna was about to enter a carriage. A devotee asked him how he

had enjoyed the play. The Master said with a smile, "I found the

representation the same as the real."

The carriage proceeded toward Mahendra's mill. Suddenly, Sri

Ramakrishna went into an ecstatic mood and murmured to himself in loving

tones: "O Krishna! O Krishna! Krishna is knowledge! Krishna is soul!

Krishna is mind! Krishna is life! Krishna is body!" He continued: "O

Govinda, Thou art my life! Thou art my soul!"

The carriage reached the mill. Mahendra fed the Master tenderly with

various dishes. M.

sat by his side. Affectionately he said to M., "Here, eat a little." He put

some sweets in his hands.

With Mahendra and a few other devotees, Sri Ramakrishna left in the

carriage for the Dakshineswar temple garden. The Master was in a happy

mood. He sang a song about Gaurānga and Nitai. M. sang with him:

Gaur and Nitai, ye blessed brothers!

I have heard how kind you are,

And therefore I have come to you. . .

The Master and Mahendra talked about the latter's intended pilgrimage.

MASTER (smiling): "The divine love in you is barely a sprout now. Why

should you let it wither? But come back very soon. Many a time I have

thought of visiting your place. At last I have done it. I am so happy."

MAHENDRA: "My life is indeed blessed, sir."

MASTER: "You were already blessed. Your father is also a good man. I

saw him the other day. He has faith in the Adhyātma Rāmāyana."

MAHENDRA: "Please bless me that I may have love for God."

MASTER: "You are generous and artless. One cannot realize God without

sincerity and simplicity. God is far, far away from the crooked heart."

Near Syambazar, Mahendra bade the Master good-bye, and the carriage

continued on its way.

--------------------

Chapter 29

THE DURGA PUJA FESTIVAL

Friday, September 26, 1884

SRI RAMAKRISHNA had come to Calcutta. It was the first day of the

Durga Puja, the great religious festival, and the Hindus of the metropolis

were celebrating it. The Master intended to visit the image of the Divine

Mother at Adhar's house. He also wanted to see Shivanath, the Brahmo

devotee.

It was about midday. Umbrella in hand, M. was pacing the footpath in front

of the Brahmo Samaj temple. Two hours had passed but the Master had not

yet appeared. Now and then M. sat down on the steps of Dr. Mahalnavish's

dispensary and watched the joy and mirth of the people, young and old,

who were celebrating the Puja.

A little after three the Master's carriage drove up. As soon as Sri

Ramakrishna stepped out he saluted the temple of the Brahmo Samaj with

folded hands. Hazra and a few other devotees were with him. M. bowed

before the Master and took the dust of his feet.

The Master told him that he was going to Shivanath's house. A few minutes

later several members of the Brahmo Samaj came and took him to

Shivanath's. But Shivanath was not at home. Shortly afterwards Vijay

Goswami, Mahalnavish, and several other Brahmo leaders greeted the

Master and took him inside the Brahmo temple.

Sri Ramakrishna was in a happy mood. He was given a seat below the altar.

There the Brahmo devotees sang their devotional music. Vijay and the

Brahmo devotees sat in front of the Master.

MASTER (to Vijay, with a smile): "I was told that you had put up a

'signboard' here that people belonging to other faiths are not allowed to

come in. Narendra, too, said to me: 'You shouldn't go to the Brahmo Samiij.

You had better visit Shivanath's house.'

Master's catholicity

"But I say that we are all calling on the same God. Jealousy and malice

need not be.

Some say that God is formless,and some that God has form. I say, let one

man meditate on God with form if he believes in form, and let another

meditate on the formless Deity if he does not believe in form. What I mean

is that dogmatism is not good. It is not good to feel that my religion alone is

true and other religions are false. The correct attitude is this: My religion is

right, but I do not know whether other religions are right or wrong, true or

false. I say this because one cannot know the true nature of God unless one

realizes Him. Kabir used to say: 'God with form is my Mother, the Formless

is my Father.

Which shall I blame? Which shall I praise? The two pans of the scales are

equally heavy.'

Different paths for different temperaments

"Hindus, Mussalmans, Christians, Saktas, Saivas, Vaishnavas, the

Brahmajnanis of the time of the rishis, and you, the Brahmajnanis of

modern times, all seek the same object.

A mother prepares dishes to suit the stomachs of her children. Suppose a

mother has five children and a fish is bought for the family. She doesn't

cook pilau or kalia for all of them. All have not the same power of

digestion; so she prepares a simple stew for some. But she loves all her

children equally.

"Do you know my attitude? I love all the preparations of fish. I have a

womanly nature (all laugh). I feel myself at home with every dish-fried fish,

fish cooked with turmeric powder, pickled fish. And further, I equally relish

rich preparations like fish-head, kalia, and pilau. (all laugh)

"Do you know what the truth is? 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. Indeed, one can reach God if

one follows any of the paths with whole-hearted devotion. Suppose there

are errors in the religion that one has accepted; if one is sincere and earnest,

then God Himself will correct those errors. Suppose a man has set out with

a sincere desire to visit Jagannath at Puri and by mistake has gone north

instead of south; then certainly someone meeting him on the way will tell

him: 'My good fellow, don't go that way. Go to the south.' And the man will

reach Jagannath sooner or later.

"If there are errors in other religions, that is none of our business. God, to

whom the world belongs, takes care of that. Our duty is somehow to visit

Jagannath. (To the Brahmos) The view you hold is good indeed. You

describe God as formless. That is fine.

One may eat a cake with icing, either straight or sidewise. It will taste sweet

either way.

Dogmatism condemned

"But dogmatism is not good. You have no doubt heard the story of the

chameleon. A man entered a wood and saw a chameleon on a tree. He

reported to his friends, 'I have seen a red lizard.' He was firmly convinced

that it was nothing but red. Another person, after visiting the tree, said, 'I

have seen a green lizard.' He was firmly convinced that it was nothing but

green. But the man who lived under the tree said: 'What both of you have

said is true. But the fact is that the creature is sometimes red, sometimes

green, sometimes yellow, and sometimes has no colour at all.'

"God has been described in the Vedas as both with attributes and without.

You describe Him as without form only. That is one-sided. But never mind.

If you know one of His aspects truly, you will be able to know His other

aspects too. God Himself will tell you all about them. (Pointing to two or

three Brahmo devotees) Those who come to your Samaj know both this

gentleman and that."

Encouragement to Vijay

Vijay still belonged to the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj. He was a salaried

preacher of that organization but could not obey all its rules and regulations.

He mixed with those who believed in God with form. This was creating a

misunderstanding between him and the Brahmo authorities. Many Brahmos

disapproved of his conduct. The Master suddenly looked at Vijay and began

to talk to him.

MASTER (to Vijay, smiling): "I understand that they have been finding

fault with you for mixing with those who believe in God with form. Is that

true? He who is a devotee of God must have an understanding that cannot

be shaken under any conditions. He must be like the anvil in a blacksmith's

shop. It is constantly being struck by the hammer; still it is unshaken. Bad

people may abuse you very much and speak ill of you; but you must bear

with them all if you sincerely seek God. Isn't it possible to think of God in

the midst of the wicked? Just think of the rishis of ancient times. They used

to meditate on God in the forest, surrounded on all sides by tigers, bears,

and other ferocious beasts. Wicked men have the nature of tigers and bears.

They will pursue you to do you an injury.

How to deal with wicked people

"One must be careful about these few things. First, an influential man who

has much money and many men under his control. He can injure you if he

wants; you must be careful while talking to him; perhaps you may have to

approve what he says. Second, a dog. When it chases you or barks at you,

you must stand still, talk to it gently, and pacify it. Third, a bull. If it runs

after you with lowered horns, you must calm it with a gentle voice. Fourth,

a drunkard. If you arouse his anger, he will abuse you, naming fourteen

generations of your family. You should say to him: 'Hello uncle! How are

you?'

Then he will be mightily pleased and sit by you and smoke.

"In the presence of a wicked person I become alert. If such a man asks me

whether I have a pipe for smoking, I say, 'Yes, I have.' Some people have

the nature of a snake: they will bite you without warning. You have to

discriminate a great deal in order to avoid the bite; otherwise your passion

will be stirred up to such an extent that you will feel like doing injury in

return. The companionship of a holy man is greatly needed now and then. It

enables one to discriminate between the Real and the unreal."

VIJAY: "I have no time, sir. I am entangled in my duties here."

MASTER: "You are a religious teacher. Others have holidays, but not so a

religious teacher. When the manager of an estate brings order to one part of

it, the landlord sends him to another part. So you have no leisure." (all

laugh) VIJAY (with folded hands): "Sir, please give me your blessing."

MASTER: "Now you are talking like an ignorant person. It is God alone

who blesses."

VIJAY: "Revered sir, please give us some instruction."

The Master glanced around the Brahmo temple and said with a smile, "This

is nice too-a mixture of crystals and syrup. There are crystals, and there is

syrup too.

"I have scored too many points and am therefore out of the game (all

laugh). Do you know the game called 'nax'? It is a game of cards, and

anyone scoring above seventeen is out of the game. Those who score fewer

points-say five, seven, or ten-are clever. I have scored too many and am out

of the game.

"Once Keshab Sen gave a lecture at his house. I was present. Many people

were there.

The ladies were seated behind the screen. Keshab, in the course of his talk,

said, 'O God, please bless us that we may dive and disappear altogether in

the river of bhakti.' I said to Keshab with a smile: 'If you disappear

altogether in the river of bhakti, then what will be the fate of those behind

the screen? By all means dive into the river, but you had better come back

to dry land now and then: Don't disappear in the river altogether.' At these

words Keshab and the others burst out laughing.

"Never mind. One can realize God in the world, too, if only one is sincere.

'I' and 'mine'-

that is ignorance. But, 'O God! Thou and Thine'-that is knowledge.

Advice to householders

"Live in the world like a maidservant in a rich man's house. She performs

all the household duties, brings up her master's child, and speaks of him as

'my Hari'. But in her heart she knows quite well that neither the house nor

the child belongs to her. She performs all her duties, but just the same her

mind dwells on her native place. Likewise, do your worldly duties but fix

your mind on God. And know that house, family, and son do not belong to

you; they are God's. You are only His servant.

"I ask people to renounce mentally. I do not ask them to give up the world.

If one lives in the world unattached and seeks God with sincerity, then one

is able to attain Him.

(To Vijay) "There was a time when I too would meditate on God with my

eyes closed.

Then I said to myself: 'Does God exist only when I think of Him with my

eyes closed?

Doesn't He exist when I look around with my eyes open?' Now, when I look

around with my eyes open, I see that God dwells in all beings. He is the

Indwelling Spirit of all-men, animals and other living beings, trees and

plants, sun and moon, land and water.

"Why do I seek Shivanath? He who meditates on God for many days has

substance in him, has divine power in him. Further, he who sings well,

plays well on a musical instrument, or has mastered anyone art, has in him

real substance and the power of God. This is the view of the Gitā. It is said

in the Chandi that he who is endowed with physical beauty has in him

substance and the power of God. (To Vijay) Ah, what a beautiful nature

Kedār has! No sooner does he come to me than he bursts into tears. His

eyes are always red and swim in tears, like a chanabara in syrup."

VIJAY: "At Dāccā he is constantly talking about you. He is always eager to

see you."

Sri Ramakrishna was about to depart. The Brahmo devotees bowed low

before him and he returned their salute. Then, getting into the carriage, he

set out for Adhar's house to see the image of the Divine Mother.

Sunday, September 28, 1884

It was the day of the Mahāshtami, the most auspicious day of the worship of

Durga, the Divine Mother. At Adhar's invitation Sri Ramakrishna had come

to Calcutta to see the holy image at his house. Before going there he went to

Ram's. Many devotees, including Narendra, Baburam, M., Niranjan, Vijay,

Kedār, Ram, and Surendra, were present.

Balarām and Rākhāl were still at Vrindāvan.

MASTER (looking at Vijay and Kedār, with a smile): "This is a nice

reunion today. You two have the same spiritual mood. (To Vijay) Well, what

about Shivanath? Did you-?"

VIJAY: "Yes, sir, he heard that you had been to his house. I haven't seen

him, but I sent him word. He knows about it."

MASTER (to Vijay and the others); "Four desires have come into my mind.

I shall eat fish curry cooked with eggplant. I shall visit Shivanath. The

devotees will repeat the name of Hari over their beads, and I shall watch

them. And the Tantrik devotees will drink consecrated wine, eight ānnās

worth, on the ashtami day, and I shall watch them and salute them."

Narendra was seated in front of the Master. He was about twenty-two years

old. While Sri Ramakrishna was talking thus his eyes fell upon his beloved

disciple. At once the Master stood up and went into samādhi. He placed one

foot on Narendra's knee. He was in a deep spiritual mood, his eyes

unblinking, his mind completely unconscious of the outer world. After a

long time he came down to the relative plane of consciousness; but he still

appeared dazed, for the intoxication of divine bliss had not altogether left

him.

Speaking to himself in that ecstatic state, he repeated the name of God. He

said: "Satchidananda! Satchidananda! Satchidananda! Shall I repeat that?

No, it is the day of the Divine Mother, the Giver of the bliss of divine

inebriation. O Mother, full of the bliss of divine inebriation! Sa, re, ga, ma,

pa, dha, ni. It is not good to keep the voice on 'ni'.

It is not possible to keep it there very long. I shall keep it on the next lower

note.

Difference between ordinary men and Incarnations "There are different

planes of consciousness: the gross, the subtle, the causal, and the Great

Cause. Entering the Mahakarana, the Great Cause, one becomes silent; one

cannot utter a word.

"But an Isvarakoti, after attaining the Great Cause, can come down again to

the lower planes. Incarnations of God, and others like them, belong to the

class of the Isvarakotis.

They climb up, and they can also come down. They climb to the roof, and

they can come down again by the stairs and move about on a lower floor. It

is a case of negation and affirmation. There is, for instance, the seven-storey

palace of a king. Strangers have access only to the lower apartments; but

the prince, who knows the palace to be his own, can move up and down

from floor to floor. There is a kind of rocket that throws out sparks in one

pattern and then seems to go out. After a moment it makes another pattern,

and then still another. There is no end to the patterns it can make. But there

is another kind of rocket that, when it is lighted, makes only a dull sound,

throws out a few sparks, and then goes out altogether. Like this second

kind, an ordinary jiva, after much spiritual effort, can go to a higher plane;

but he cannot come down to tell others his experiences. After much effort

he may go into samādhi; but he cannot climb down from that state or tell

others what he has seen there.

Nature of the everperfect

"There is a class of devotees, the nityasiddhas, the everperfect. From their

very birth they seek God. They do not enjoy anything of the world.

Illustration of homa bird

The Vedas speak of the homa bird. It lives very high in the sky. There the

mother bird lays her egg. She lives so high that the egg falls for many days.

While falling it is hatched. The chick continues to fall. That also goes on for

many days. In the mean time the chick develops eyes. Coming near the

earth, it becomes conscious of the world. It realizes it will meet certain

death if it hits the ground. Then it gives a shrill cry and shoots up toward its

mother. The earth means death, and it frightens the young bird; it then seeks

its mother. She dwells high up in the sky, and the young bird shoots straight

up in that direction. It doesn't look anywhere else.

"Those who are born as the companions of an Incarnation of God are

eternally perfect.

For some of them that birth is the last.

(To Vijay) "You have both-yoga and bhoga. King Janaka also had yoga and

bhoga.

Therefore he is called a rajarshi, both king and seer. Nārada was a devarshi,

and Sukadeva a brahmarshi. Yes, Sukadeva was a brahmarshi. He was not a

mere Jnāni; he was the very embodiment of Jnāna, Divine Knowledge.

Whom do I call a Jnāni? A man who has attained Knowledge and has done

so after much effort. Sukadeva was the very image of Knowledge, in other

words, a form of concentrated Knowledge. He attained Knowledge

spontaneously, without any labour."

Saying this, Sri Ramakrishna came down to the normal mood. Then he

talked freely with the devotees. The Master asked Kedār to sing.

Kedār sang:

How shall I open my heart, O friend?

It is forbidden me to speak.

I am about to die, for lack of a kindred soul

To understand my misery. . . .

Kedār sang several other songs. After the music the Master again talked to

the devotees.

Nandalal, Keshab's nephew, was also present with a few brahmo friends.

They were sitting near the Master.

MASTER (to Vijay and the other devotees): "A man brought a bottle of

consecrated wine for me; but I couldn't even touch it."

VIJAY: "Ah!"

MASTER: "I become intoxicated at the mere thought of God. I don't have

to take any wine. I feel drunk at the very sight of the charanamrita. I feel as

if I had drunk five bottles of liquor. When a person attains such a state he

cannot help discriminating about food."

NARENDRA: "As regards food, one should take whatever comes."

MASTER: "What you say applies only to a particular state of the aspirant's

mind. No food can harm a Jnāni.

According to the Gitā, the Jnāni himself does not eat; his eating is an

offering to the Kundalini. But that does not apply to a bhakta. The present

state of my mind is such that I cannot eat any food unless it is first offered

to God by a brahmin priest. Formerly my state of mind was such that I

would enjoy inhaling the smell of burning corpses, carried by the wind from

the other side of the Ganges. It tasted very sweet to me. But nowadays I

cannot eat food touched by anybody and everybody. No, I cannot. But once

in a while I do. One day I was taken to see a performance of a play at

Keshab's house.

They gave me luchi and curries to eat. I didn't know whether the food was

handed to me by a washerman or a barber; but I ate quite a little (all laugh).

Rākhāl had asked me to eat.

(To Narendra) "With you it is all right. You are in 'this' as well as in 'that'.

You can eat everything now. (To the devotees) Blessed is he who feels

longing for God, though he eats pork. But shame on him whose mind

dwells on 'woman and gold', though he eats the purest food-boiled

vegetables, rice, and ghee.

"Once I had a desire to eat dal cooked in a blacksmith's house. From my

childhood I had heard the blacksmiths say, 'Do the brahmins know how to

cook?' I ate the dal, but it smelt of the blacksmith. (all laugh)

"I received the Allah mantra from Govinda Rai. Rice was cooked for me

with onions in the kuthi. I ate some. I ate curry in Mani Mallick's garden

house, but I felt a kind of repulsion to it.

"When I went to Kamarpukur, Ramlal's father was frightened. He thought I

might eat at any and every house. He was frightened to think I might be

expelled from the caste; so I couldn't stay long. I came away.

"Both the Vedas and the Puranas describe pure food and conduct. But what

the Vedas and the Puranas ask people to shun as impure is extolled by the

Tantra as good.

Master's divine madness

"Oh, what a state of mind I passed through! I would open my mouth,

touching, as it were, heaven and the nether world with my jaws, and utter

the word 'Ma'. I felt that I had seized the Mother, like a fisherman dragging

fish in his net. Let me recite a song:

This time I shall devour Thee utterly, Mother Kāli!

For I was born under an evil star,

And one so born becomes, they say, the eater of his mother.

Thou must devour me first, or I myself shall eat Thee up; One or the other it

must be.

I shall besmear my hands with black, and with black my face; With black I

shall besmear the whole of my body And when Death seizes me, with black I

shall besmear his face.

O Mother, I shall eat Thee up but not digest Thee; I shall install Thee in my

heart

And make Thee offerings with my mind.

You may say that by eating Kāli I shall embroil myself With Kala, Her

Husband, but I am not afraid;

Braving His anger, I shall chant my Mother's name.

To show the world that Ramprasad is Kāli's rightful son, Come what may, I

shall eat Thee up-Thee and Thy retinue-Or lose my life attempting it.

"I almost became mad-such was my longing for God."

Narendra began to sing:

O Mother, make me mad with Thy love!

What need have I of knowledge or reason? . . .

Listening to the song, the Master again went into samādhi. Coming down to

the normal plane, he assumed the attitude of Girirani and sang the Āgamani.

He sang, intoxicated with divine love:

Tell me, my Uma, how have you fared, alone in the Stranger's house? . . .

He said to the devotees, "Today is the Mahashtami. The Mother has come;

that is why I feel such an awakening of spiritual emotion."

KEDĀR: "Lord, you are here. Are you different from the Divine Mother?"

Sri Ramakrishna looked in another direction and sang in an absent-minded

mood: Ah, friend! I have not found Him yet, whose love has driven me

mad....

Again he became ecstatic and sang of the Divine Mother. As he sang, Vijay

suddenly stood up crying the name of Hari. Sri Ramakrishna, full of divine

love, began to dance with Vijay and the other devotees.

The music was over. The Master, Vijay, Narendra, and the other devotees

sat down. All eyes were fixed on Sri Ramakrishna, who began conversing

with the devotees. He asked about their health. Kedār spoke to him humbly

in a soft, sweet voice. Narendra, Chunilal, Ram, M., and Harish were sitting

by the Master.

KEDĀR (humbly): "How can I get rid of my dizziness?"

MASTER (tenderly): "One gets that. I have had it myself.

Use a little almond oil. I have heard that it cures dizziness."

KEDĀR: "I shall, sir."

MASTER (to Chunilal): "Hello! How is everything?"

CHUNILAL: "Everything is all right with us now. Balarām Babu and

Rākhāl are well at Vrindāvan."

MASTER: "Why have you sent so many sweetmeats? (To Harish) Wait a

day or two before coming to Dakshineswar. You are not well. You may fall

ill again there. (To Narayan, tenderly) Sit here. Sit by me. Come to

Dakshineswar tomorrow and have your meal there. (Pointing to M.) Come

with him. (To M.) What do you say?"

M. wanted to accompany Sri Ramakrishna to Dakshineswar that very day.

He became thoughtful.

Surendra stood near Sri Ramakrishna. He was in the habit of drinking and

often went to excess. This had worried the Master greatly, but he had not

asked Surendra to give up drinking altogether. He had said to him: "Look

here, Surendra! Whenever you drink wine, offer it beforehand to the Divine

Mother. See that your brain doesnt become clouded and that you don't reel

The more you think of the Divine Mother, the less you will like to drink

The Mother is the Giver of the bliss of divine inebriation. Realizing Her,

one feels a natural bliss."

The Master looked at Surendra and said, "You have had a drink." With these

words he went into samādhi. It was dusk. Regaining partial consciousness,

the Master sang: Behold my Mother playing with Śiva, lost in an ecstasy of

joy!

Drunk with a draught of celestial wine, She reels, and yet She does not fall.

. .

Then he chanted the name of Hari, clapping his hands occasionally. In a

sweet voice he said: "Hari! Hari! O mind, chant the name of Hari! Sing the

name of Hari!" Then he chanted: "Rāma! Rāma Rāma! Rāma!"

Now the Master began to pray: "O Rāma! O Rāma! I am without devotion

and austerity, without knowledge and love; I have not performed any

religious rites. O Rāma, I have taken refuge in Thee; I have taken shelter at

Thy feet. I do not want creature comforts; I do not seek name and fame. O

Rāma, I do not crave the eight occult powers; I do not care for a hundred

occult powers! I am Thy servant. I have taken refuge in Thee. Grant, O

Rāma, that I may have pure love for Thy Lotus Feet; that I may not be

deluded by Thy world-bewitching māyā! O Rāma, I have taken refuge it

Thee."

As the Master prayed all eyes were turned toward him. Hearing his piteous

voice, few could restrain their tears.

Ramchandra Dutta came in and stood near him.

MASTER: "Where have you been, Ram?"

RAM: "I was upstairs, sir."

Ram had been making arrangements for feeding the devotees on the roof of

the house.

MASTER (to Ram, with a smile): "Isn't it better to stay down below that to

be high up?

Water accumulates in low land but flows down from a high mound."

RAM (with a smile): "That is true, sir."

Supper was ready on the roof. Sri Ramakrishna and the devotees were taken

there and sumptuously fed. Later the Master went to Adhar's house with M.,

Niranjan, and others.

The Divine Mother was being worshipped there, It had been Adhar's earnest

prayer that on this sacred day Sri Ramakrishna might bless his house with

his presence.

Monday, September 29, 1884

It was the third day of the Durga Puja. The Master had been awake in his

room at Dakshineswar since early morning. The morning worship in the

Kāli temple was over and the orchestra had played the morning melodies in

the nahabat. Brahmans and gardeners, basket in hand, were plucking

flowers for the worship of the Divine Mother.

Bhavanath, Baburam, Niranjan, and M. had spent the night at

Dakshineswar, sleeping on the porch of the Master's room. As soon as they

awoke they saw Sri Ramakrishna dancing in an ecstatic mood. He was

chanting: "Victory to Mother Durga! Hallowed be the name of Durga!" He

was naked and looked like a child as he chanted the name of the Blissful

Mother. After a few moments he said: "Oh, the bliss of divine ecstasy! Oh,

the bliss of divine drunkenness!" Then he repeatedly chanted the name of

Govinda: "O

Govinda! My life! My soul!"

The devotees sat on their beds and with unwinking eyes watched Sri

Ramakrishna's spiritual mood. Hazra was living at the temple garden. Lātu

was also living there to render the Master personal service. Rākhāl was still

at Vrindāvan. Narendra visited Sri Ramakrishna now and then. He was

expected that day.

The devotees washed their faces. The Master took his seat on a mat on the

north verandah. Bhavanath and M. sat beside him. Other devotees were

coming in and out of the room.

MASTER (to Bhavanath): "The truth is that ordinary men cannot easily

have faith. But an Isvarakoti's faith is spontaneous. Prahlada burst into tears

while writing the letter 'ka'. It reminded him of Krishna. It is the nature of

jivas to doubt. They say yes, no doubt, but-Oneness of Śakti and Brahman

"Hazra can never be persuaded to believe that Brahman and Śakti, that Śakti

and the Being endowed with Śakti, are one and the same. When the Reality

appears as Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer, we call It Śakti; when It is

inactive, we call It Brahman. But really It is one and the same thing-

indivisible. Fire naturally brings to mind its power to burn; and the idea of

burning naturally brings to mind the idea of fire. It is impossible to think of

the one without the other.

"So I prayed to the Divine Mother: 'O Mother! Hazra is trying to upset the

views of this place. Either give him right understanding or take him from

here.' The next day he carne to me and said, 'Yes, I agree with you.' He said

that God exists everywhere as All-pervading Consciousness."

BHAVANATH (smiling): "Did what Hazra said really make you suffer so

much?"

MASTER: "You see, I am now in a different mood. I can't shout and carry

on heated discussions with people. I am not in a mood now to argue and

quarrel with Hazra. Hriday said to me at Jadu Mallick's garden house,

'Uncle, don't you want to keep me with you?'

'No,' I said, 'I am no longer in a mood to get into heated arguments with

you.'

Knowledge and ignorance

"What is knowledge and what is ignorance? A man is ignorant so long as he

feels that God is far away. He has knowledge when he knows that God is

here and everywhere.

Childlike faith

"When a man has true knowledge he feels that everything is filled with

Consciousness.

At Kamarpukur I used to talk to Shibu, who was then a lad four or five

years old. When the clouds rumbled and lightning flashed, Shibu would say

to me: 'There, uncle! They are striking matches again!' (all laugh) One day I

noticed him chasing grasshoppers by himself. The leaves rustled in the

near-by trees. 'Hush! Hush!' he said to the leaves. 'I want to catch the

grasshoppers.' He was a child and saw everything throbbing with

consciousness. One cannot realize God without the faith that knows no

guile, the simple faith of a child.

"Ah, what a state of mind I passed through! One day something bit me

while I was sitting in the grass. I was afraid it might have been a snake, and

I didn't know what to do. I had heard that if a snake bites you again

immediately after its first bite, it takes back. its own venom. At once I set

out to discover the hole so that I might let the snake bite me again. While I

was searching, a man said to me, 'What are you doing?' After listening to

my story, he said, 'But the snake must bite in the very same place it has

bitten before.' Thereupon I went away. Perhaps I had been bitten by a

scorpion or some other insect.

"I had heard from Ramlal that the autumn chill was good for one's health.

Ramlal had quoted a verse to support it. One day, as I was returning from

Calcutta in a carriage, I stuck my head out of the window so that I might get

all the chill. Then I fell ill." (all laugh)

Sri Ramakrishna entered his room and sat down. His legs were a little

swollen. He asked the devotees to feel his legs and see whether or not the

pressure of their fingers made dimples. Dimples did appear with the

pressure, but the devotees said that it was nothing.

MASTER (to Bhavanath): "Please ask Mahendra of Sinthi to see me. I shall

feel better if he reassures me."

BHAVANATH (with a smile): "You have great faith in medicine. But we

haven't so much."

MASTER: "It is God who, as the doctor, prescribes the medicine. It is He

who, in one form, has become the physician. Dr. Gangaprasad asked me not

to drink water at night.

I regarded his statement as the words of the Vedas. I look upon him as the

physician of heaven."

Hazra entered the room and sat down. The Master talked awhile about

different things and then said to Hazra: "You see, many people were at

Ram's house yesterday. Vijay, Kedār, and others were there. But why did I

feel so deeply stirred at the sight of Narendra? I found that Kedār belonged

to the realm of Divine Inebriation."

Presently Narendra arrived, and Sri Ramakrishna was exceedingly happy.

Narendra saluted the Master and began to talk with Bhavanath and others in

the room. M. was seated near by. A long mat was spread on the floor. While

talking, Narendra lay on it flat on his stomach. The Master looked at him

and suddenly went into samādhi. He sat on Narendra's back in an ecstatic

mood.

Bhavanath sang:

O Mother, ever blissful as Thou art,

Do not deprive Thy worthless child of bliss! . . .

Sri Ramakrishna came down from the plane of samādhi. He sang: Repeat,

O mind, my Mother Durga's hallowed name!

O Gauri! O Narayani! to Thee I bow.

Thou art the day, O Mother! Thou art the dusk and the night.

As Rāma Thou drawest the bow, as Krishna Thou playest the flute;

As Kāli all-terrible, Thou hast silenced Śiva, Thy Lord.

The ten Embodiments of Divine Śakti art Thou,

And Thou the ten Avatars; this time save me Thou must!

With flowers and vilwa-leaves did Yaśoda worship Thee, And Thou didst

bless her by placing Krishna, the Child, in her arms.

Wherever I chance to live, O Mother, in forest or grove, May my mind, day

and night, dwell at Thy Lotus Feet; Whether at last I die a natural or

sudden death, Oh, may my tongue repeat Durga's name at the end!

Thou mayest send me away, O Mother, but where shall I go?

Tell me, Mother, where else shall I hear so sweet a name?

Thou mayest even say to me: "Step aside! Go away!"

Yet I shall cling to Thee, O Durga! Unto Thy feet As Thine anklets I shall

cling, making their tinkling sound.

When, O Mother, Thou sittest at mighty Śiva's side, Then I shall cry from

Thy feet, "Victory unto Śiva!"

Mother, when as the Kite, Thou soarest in the sky, There, in the water

beneath, as a minnow I shall be swimming; Upon me Thou wilt pounce, and

pierce me through with Thy claws.

Thus, when the breath of life forsakes me in Thy grip, Do not deny me the

shelter of Thy Lotus Feet!

From the world's bondage free me, 0 Spouse of the Absolute!

Thy two feet are my boat to cross this world's dark sea.

Thou art the heavens and the earth, and Thou the nether world; From Thee

have the twelve Gopalas and Hari and Brahma sprung.

Whoever treads the path, repeating "Durga! Durga!"

Śiva Himself protects with His almighty trident.

Hazra was sitting on the northeast verandah counting the beads of his

rosary. The Master went and sat in front of him, taking the rosary in his own

hands.

MASTER (to Hazra): "You see, I cannot use the rosary. No, perhaps I can.

Yes, I can with my left hand. But I cannot repeat the name of God with it."

With these words Sri Ramakrishna tried to perform a little japa. But hardly

had he begun when he went into samādhi. He sat in that state a long time,

still holding the rosary in his hand. The devotees looked at him with wonder

in their eyes. Hazra also watched the Master without uttering a word. After

a long time Sri Ramakrishna regained consciousness of the outer world and

said that he was hungry. He often said such things to bring his mind down

to the normal plane. M. was going to bring something for him to eat. The

Master said, "No, I shall first go to the Kāli temple."

He went across the cement courtyard toward the Kāli temple. On the way

he bowed with folded hands to the twelve Śiva temples. On the left was the

temple of Radhakanta. He went there first and bowed before the image.

Then he entered the Kāli temple and saluted the Mother. Sitting on a carpet,

he offered flowers at the Mother's holy feet. He also placed a flower on his

own head. While returning from the temple he asked Bhavanath to carry the

green coconut offered at the temple, and the charanamrita.

Coming back to his room, accompanied by M. and Bhavanath, he saluted

Hazra, who cried out in dismay: "What are you doing, sir? What is this?"

The Master said, "Why should you say it is wrong?" Hazra often argued

with the Master, declaring that God dwelt in all beings and that everybody

could attain Brahmajnana through sadhana. He had an exaggerated idea of

his own spiritual progress.

It was about noon. The gong and the bells announced the worship and

offering in the various temples. The brahmins, the Vaishnavas, and the

beggars went to the guesthouse to have their midday meal. The devotees of

the Master were also to partake of the sacred offerings. He asked them to go

to the guesthouse. To Narendra he said: "Won't you take your meal in my

room? All right. Narendra and I will eat here." Bhavanath, Baburam, M.,

and the other devotees went to the guesthouse.

After his meal Sri Ramakrishna rested a few minutes. The devotees were on

the verandah engaged in light conversation. He soon joined them and was

happy in their company. It was about two o'clock. All were, still sitting on

the verandah, when suddenly Bhavanath appeared in the garb of a

brahmachari, dressed in an ochre cloth, kamandalu in hand, his face

beaming with smiles.

MASTER (with a smile): "That is his inner feeling. Therefore he has

dressed himself as a brahmachari"

NARENDRA: "He has put on the garb of a brahmachari; let me put on the

garb of' a Tantrik worshipper."

HAZRA: "Then you will have to follow the Tantrik rituals, with women,

wine, and so on."

Sri Ramakrishna did not encourage the conversation. Indeed, he made fun

of it.

Suddenly the Master began to dance in an ecstatic mood. He sang: Mother,

Thou canst not trick me any more,

For I have seen Thy crimson Lotus Feet. . . .

The Master said: "Ah, how wonderfully Rajnarayan sings about the Divine

Mother! He sings and dances that way. The music of Nakur Āchārya at

Kamarpukur is also wonderful. Ah, how beautiful his singing and dancing

are!"

A sādhu was staying at the Panchavati. But he was a hot-tempered man; he

scolded and cursed everyone. He came to the Master's room wearing

wooden sandals and asked the Master, "Can I get fire here?" Sri

Ramakrishna saluted him and stood with folded hands as long as he

remained in the room.

When he had left, Bhavanath said to the Master with a laugh, "What great

respect you showed the sādhu!"

MASTER (smiling): "You see, he too is Narayana, though full of tamas.

This is the way one should please people who have an excess of tamas.

Besides, he is a sādhu."

The devotees were engaged in a game of golokdham. Hazra joined them.

The Master stood by, watching them play. M. and Kishori reached

"heaven". Sri Ramakrishna bowed before them and said, "Blessed are you

two brothers." He said to M., aside, "Don't play any more." Hazra fell into

"hell". The Master said: "What's the matter with Hazra?

Again!" No sooner had Hazra got out of "hell" than he fell into it again. All

burst into laughter. Lātu, at the first throw of the dice, went to "heaven"

from "earth". He began to cut capers of joy. "See Lātu's joy!" said the

Master. "He would have been terribly sad if he hadn't achieved this. (Aside

to the devotees) This too has a meaning. Hazra is so vain that he thinks he

will triumph over all even in this game. This is the law of God, that He

never humiliates a righteous person. Such a man is victorious everywhere."

Sri Ramakrishna was sitting on the small couch in his room. Narendra,

Baburam, Bhavanath, and M. were sitting on the floor. Narendra referred to

various religious sects-the Ghoshpara, Panchanami, and others. Sri

Ramakrishna described their views and condemned their immoral practices.

He said that they could not follow the right course of spiritual discipline,

but enjoyed sensuous pleasures in the name of religion.

Danger of Tantrik discipline

MASTER (to Narendra): "You need not listen to these things. The bhairavas

and the bhairavis of the Tantrik sect also follow this kind of discipline.

While in Benares I was taken to one of their mystic circles. Each bhairava

had a bhairavi with him. I was asked to drink the consecrated wine, but I

said I couldn't touch wine. They drank it. I thought perhaps they would then

practise meditation and japa. But nothing of the sort. They began to dance. I

was afraid they might fall into the Ganges: the circle had been made on its

bank. It is very honourable for husband and wife to assume the roles of

bhairava and bhairavi.

(To Narendra and the others) "Let me tell you this. I regard woman as my

mother; I regard myself as her son. This is a very pure attitude. There is no

danger in it. To look on woman as a sister is also not bad. But to assume the

attitude of a 'hero', to look on woman as one's mistress, is the most difficult

discipline. Tārak's father followed this discipline. It is very difficult. In this

form of sadhana one cannot always maintain the right attitude.

"There are various paths to reach God. Each view is a path. It is like

reaching the Kāli temple by different roads. But it must be said that some

paths are clean and some dirty.

It is good to travel on a clean path.

"Many views, many paths-and I have seen them all. But I don't enjoy them

any more; they all quarrel.

Master's inner experiences

"No one else is here, and you are my own people. Let me tell you

something. I have come to the final realization that God is the Whole and I

am a part of Him, that God is the Master and I am His servant. Furthermore,

I think every now and then that He is I and I am He."

The devotees listened to these words in deep silence.

BHAVANATH (humbly): "I feel disturbed if I have a misunderstanding

with someone. I feel that in that case I am not able to love all"

MASTER: "Try at the outset to talk to him and establish a friendly

relationship with him.

If you fail in spite of your efforts, then don't give it another thought. Take

refuge in God.

Meditate on Him. There is no use in giving up God and feeling depressed

from thinking about others."

BHAVANATH: "Great souls, such as Christ and Chaitanya, have

admonished us to love all beings."

MASTER: "Love you must, because God dwells in all beings. But salute a

wicked person from a distance. You speak of Chaitanya? He also used to

restrain his spiritual feeling in the presence of unsympathetic people. At

Srivas's house he put Srivas's mother-in-law out of the room, dragging her

out by the hair."

BHAVANATH: "It was not he but others who did it."

MASTER: "Could the other have done it without his approval? What can be

done?

Suppose a man cannot make another love him; must he worry about it day

and night?

Must I waste my mind, which should be given to God, on useless things? I

say: 'O

Mother, I don't want Narendra, Bhavanath, Rākhāl, or anybody. I seek Thee

alone. What shall I do with man?'

When the Blissful Mother comes to my house, how much of the Chandi I

shall hear!

How many monks will come here, and how many yogis with matted locks!

"When I attain God I shall attain everything. I renounced gold and silver,

saying, 'Rupee is clay and clay is rupee; gold is clay and clay is gold.' With

these words I threw gold, silver, and clay into the Ganges. Then I was afraid

at the thought that Mother Lakshmi might be angry with me because I had

treated Her wealth with contempt; that She might even stop my meals. So I

prayed to the Divine Mother, 'O Mother, I want Thee and nothing else.' I

knew that by realizing Her I should get everything."

BHAVANATH (smiling): "This is the shrewd calculation of a business

man."

MASTER (smiling): "Yes, that is so. Once the Lord was pleased with a

certain devotee.

He appeared before him and said: 'I am very much pleased with your

austerities. Ask a boon of Me.' The devotee said, 'O Lord, if You are

gracious enough to give me a boon, then please grant that I may eat from

gold plates with my grandchildren.' One boon covered many things-wealth,

children, and grandchildren." (all laugh) Hazra was sitting on the verandah.

MASTER: "Do you know what Hazra wants? He wants money. His family

is in distress; he has debts. He thinks that God will give him money because

he devotes himself to japa and meditation."

A DEVOTEE: "Can't God fulfil a devotee's desire?"

MASTER: "If it is His sweet will. But God doesn't take entire responsibility

for a devotee unless the devotee is completely intoxicated with ecstatic love

for Him. At a feast it is only a child whom one takes by the hand and seats

at his place. Who does that with older people? Not until a man thinks so

much of God that he cannot look after himself does God take on his

responsibilities. Hazra doesn't inquire about his family. His son said to

Ramlal: 'Please ask father to come home. We shall not ask anything of him.'

These words almost brought tears to my eyes. Hazra's mother said to

Ramlal: 'Please ask Pratap to come home just once. Also ask your uncle to

request him to come home.' I told him about it, but he didn't listen to me.

Duty toward mother

"Is a mother to be trifled .with? Before becoming a sannyasi Chaitanyadeva

worked hard to persuade his mother to let him renounce home. Mother

Sachi said that she would kill Keshab Bharati. Chaitanyadeva did his

utmost to persuade her. He said: 'Mother, I shall not renounce home if you

won't let me. But if you compel me to lead a householder's life, I shall die.

And, mother, even if I go away as a sannyasi, you will be able to see me

whenever you desire. I shall stay near you. I shall see you every now and

then.' Only when Chaitanya explained it to her thus did she give her

permission. Nārada could not go to the forest to practise austerity as long as

his mother was alive. He had to take care of her. After her death he went

away to realize God.

"When I went to Vrindāvan I felt no desire to return to Calcutta. It was

arranged that I should live with Gangama. Everything was settled. My bed

was to be on one side and Gangama's on the other. I resolved not to go back

to Calcutta. I said to myself, 'How long must I eat a kaivarta's food?' 'No,'

said Hriday to me, 'let us go to Calcutta.' He pulled me by one hand and

Gangama pulled me by the other. I felt an intense desire to live at

Vrindāvan. But just then I remembered my mother. That completely

changed everything. She was old. I said to myself: 'My devotion to God

will take to its wings if I have to worry about my mother. I would rather live

with her. Then I shall have peace of mind and be able to meditate on God.'

(To Narendra) "Why don't you say a few words to Hazra about going

home? The other day he said to me, 'Yes, I shall go home and stay there

three days.' But now he has forgotten all about it.

(To the devotees) "We have talked about filthy things-Ghoshpara and things

like that.

Govinda! Govinda! Govinda! Now chant the name of Hari. Let there be a

dish of rice pudding and sweets after the ordinary lentils."

Narendra began to sing:

Fasten your mind, O man, on the Primal Purusha, Who is the Cause of all

causes,

The Stainless One, the Beginningless Truth.

As Prana He pervades the infinite universe;

The man of faith beholds Him,

Living, resplendent, the Root of all.

Beyond the senses, eternal, the Essence of Consciousness, He shines in the

cave of the heart,

Adorned with Holiness, Wisdom, and Love;

By meditating on Him, man is delivered from grief.

Of countenance ever serene,

An inexhaustible Ocean of Virtue,

None can fathom His depths; yet freely, of His own grace, Does He reveal

Himself

To those who come to His feet for shelter,

Merciful since they are helpless and He is the Ever-forgiving, The Giver of

happiness,

The Ready Help in the sea of our woe.

Unswervingly just, bestowing the fruits of our deeds, good and ill,

Yet is He the Fount of Compassion,

The Ocean of Mercy brimming with Love;

Even to hear of His glory suffuses the eyes with tears.

Gaze on His face and be blest:

Your heart is hungry for Him, O man!

Bright with unspeakable beauty, peerless and without stain, No words can

ever describe Him;

Be as a beggar before His gate

And worship Him day and night, beseeching Him for His grace.

He sang again:

In Wisdom's firmament the moon of Love is rising full, And Love's Hood-

tide, in surging waves, is flowing everywhere.

O Lord, how full of bliss Thou art! Victory unto Thee!

On every side shine devotees, like stars around the moon; Their Friend, the

Lord All-merciful, joyously plays with them.

Behold! the gates of paradise today are open wide. . . .

Sri Ramakrishna was dancing in a circle. The devotees joined him. They all

sang and danced. Their bliss was indescribable. The Master sang about the

Divine Mother: Behold my Mother playing with Śiva, lost in an ecstasy of

joy!...

Sri Ramakrishna was highly pleased because M. had joined in the music.

He said to M., with a smile, "The atmosphere would have been more

intense with divine fervour if a drum had accompanied the music and

played: 'Tak tak ta dhina! Dak dak da dhina!' "

It was dusk when the kirtan was finished.

Wednesday, October 1, 1884

Master at Adhar's house

Sri Ramakrishna had set out from Dakshineswar for Adhar's house in

Calcutta. Narayan and Gangadhar were with him. In the carriage, in an

ecstatic mood, he said: "Shall I count the beads? How shameful that would

be! This emblem of Śiva has sprung from the bowels of the earth; it is self

created and not set up by man's hands."

They arrived at Adhar's house, where many devotees, including Kedār,

Baburam, and Vijay, had assembled. Vaishnavcharan, the musician, was

present. At the Master's behest, Adhar heard Vaishnavcharan's music daily

after his return from the office.

When the Master entered Adhar's drawing-room the devotees stood up to

receive him.

Kedār and Vijay saluted him, and the Master asked Narayan and Baburam

to salute Kedār and Vijay. He asked Kedār and Vijay to bless Narayan and

Baburam that they might have devotion to God. Pointing to Narayan he

said, "He is utterly guileless." The eyes of the devotees were fixed on the

two boys.

MASTER (to Kedār and the other devotees): "It is good that I have met you

all here; otherwise perhaps you would have come to the Kāli temple to see

me. Through the will of God, however, we have met here."

KEDĀR (with folded hands): "The will of God! It is all your will."

Sri Ramakrishna smiled. Vaishnavcharan began a kirtan about Radha and

Krishna. When the music was nearing its end, with the union of Radha and

Krishna, the Master began to dance with ecstatic fervour. The devotees

danced and sang around him. After the music they all sat down. The Master

said to Vijay, referring to Vaishnavcharan, "He sings very well." He asked

the musician to sing the song about Sri Chaitanya, beginning with the line,

"The beautiful Gaurānga, the youthful dancer, fair as molten gold."

When the song was over, the Master asked Vijay, "How did you like it?"

VIJAY: "Wonderful."

Sri Ramakrishna also sang a song about Sri Chaitanya, M. joining him.

Then Vaishnavcharan sang another song:

O my flute, sing Hari's name!

You cannot know the highest Truth

Without Lord Hari's grace.

His name removes our bitter grief: Repeat the name of Hari, then,

Repeat Sri Krishna's holy name!

If He bestows His grace on me,

No longer shall be afraid

Of this unfriendly world;

Sing then Lord Hari's name, my flute!

Our only treasure is His name.

Govinda says: Behold, my days

Are passing by in vain:

In the world's deep and shoreless sea,

Oh, let me not be drowned!

Vaishnavcharan sang again, this time about Mother Durga: O tongue,

always repeat the name of Mother Durga; Who but your Mother Durga will

save you in distress? . . .

The Master and the musician sang again and again the following lines from

the song:

The moving and the unmoving, the gross and the subtle, art Thou:

Creation and preservation art Thou, and the last dissolution.

Thou art the Primal Root of this manifold universe: The Mother of the three

worlds, their only Saviour, art Thou; Thou art the Śakti of all, and Thou

Thine own Śakti, too.

Kedār and several devotees stood up. They were about to return home.

Kedār saluted the Master and bade him good-bye.

MASTER: "Should you go away without bidding Adhar good-bye?

Wouldn't that be an act of discourtesy?"

KEDĀR: "'When God is pleased, the world is pleased.' You are staying; so

in a sense we are all staying. I am not feeling well. Besides, I am a little

nervous about my social conventions. Once before I had trouble with our

community."

VIJAY: (pointing to the Master): "Should we go away and leave him here?"

Just then Adhar came in to take the Master to the dining-room, for the meal

was ready.

Sri Ramakrishna stood up and said, addressing Kedār and Vijay: "Come.

Come with me."

They followed him and partook of the dinner together with the other

devotees.

After dinner they all returned to the drawing-room, where the devotees sat

around the Master. Kedār said to him with folded hands, 'Please forgive me

for hesitating to eat here.' Perhaps the thought had come to his mind that he

should not have hesitated, since the Master himself had no scruples about

eating at Adhar's house.

Kedār worked at Dāccā. Many devotees brought offerings of sweets and

other food for him. Referring to this, Kedār said to the Master: "People

want to give me food. What should I do? Lord, what is your command in

this matter?"

MASTER: "One can eat food even from an untouchable if the untouchable

is a devotee of God. After spending seven years in a God-intoxicated state

at Dakshineswar, I visited Kamarpukur. Oh, what a state of mind I was in at

that time! Even a prostitute fed me with her own hands. But I cannot allow

that now."

Kedār was about to take his leave.

KEDĀR (in a low voice): "Lord, please transmit power to me. Many people

come to me.

What do I know?"

MASTER: "Everything will be all right. One gets along well if one is

sincerely devoted to God."

Yogendra, the editor of a Bengali paper, the Bangavasi, entered the room.

The conversation turned to the Personal God and God without form.

MASTER: "God has form; again, He is formless. How many aspects He

has! We cannot comprehend Him. Why should we say that God is formless

only?"

YOGENDRA: "That is the one amazing thing about the Brahmo Samaj.

There even a boy twelve years old sees God as formless. The members of

the Adi Samaj do not object very much to God with form. They are allowed

to attend ritualistic worship if it takes place in respectable families."

MASTER (smiling): "How nicely he has put it! Even a boy sees the

formless God!"

ADHAR: "Shivanath Babu does not believe in God's forms."

VIJAY: "That is his mistake. (Pointing to the Master) As he says, the

chameleon assumes different colours-now this colour, now that. Only the

man who lives under the tree knows the animal's true colour.

"While meditating I saw images of gods painted on a canvas. How many

gods! How many different things they said! I said to myself: 'I shall go to

the Master. He will explain it all to me.' "

MASTER: "You saw correctly."

KEDĀR: "God assumes forms for the sake of His devotees. Through

ecstatic love a devotee sees God with form. Dhruva had a vision of the

Lord. He said: 'Why don't your ear-rings move?' The Lord said, 'They will

move if you move them.' "

MASTER: "One must accept everything: God with form and God without

form. While meditating in the Kāli temple I noticed Ramani, a prostitute. I

said, 'Mother, I see that Thou art in that form too.' Therefore I say one must

accept everything. One does not know when or how God will reveal

Himself."

The Master sang:

A mendicant has come to us, ever absorbed in divine moods. . .

VIJAY: "God has infinite power. Can He not reveal Himself in any form He

chooses? Man is a speck of dust, and he dares come to a conclusion about

God. How amazing!"

MASTER: "A man reads a little of the Gitā, the Bhagavata, or the Vedānta

and thinks he has understood everything. Once an ant went to a hill of

sugar. One grain of sugar filled its stomach, and it was returning home with

another grain in its mouth. On the way it said to itself, 'The next time I go, I

shall bring home the whole hill.' "(All laugh) --------------------

Chapter 30

THE MASTER IN VARIOUS MOODS

Thursday, October 2, 1884

SRI RAMAKRISHNA was sitting in his room at Dakshineswar. Lātu,

Ramlal, Harish, and Hazra were living with him at the temple garden.

Baburam spent a day or two with him now and then.

Manilal Mallick, Priya Mukherji and his relative Hari, a bearded Brahmo

devotee from Shibpur, and several Mārwāri devotees from Calcutta were in

the Master's room. Manilal was an old member of the Brahmo Samaj.

MASTER (to Manilal and the others): "It is wise to salute a person

mentally. What need is there of touching his feet? Mental salutation doesn't

embarrass anybody.

"The attitude that my religion alone is right and all other religions are false

is not good. I see that God Himself has become all these: men; images, and

salagram. I see one alone in all these; I do not see two. I see only one.

"Many people think that their opinion alone is right and others' opinions are

wrong; that they alone have won and others have lost. But a person who has

gone forward may be detained by some slight obstacle, and someone who

has been lagging behind may then steal a march on him. In the game of

golokdham one may advance a great deal, but still somehow one's piece

may fail to reach the goal.

Inscrutability of God's ways

"Triumph or defeat is in the hands of God. We cannot understand His ways.

You must have noticed that the green coconut remains high in the tree and

is exposed to the sun, but still its milk is cool. On the other hand the

paniphal remains in the water, but when eaten it heats the body.

"Look at the body of man. The head is the root, and it is at the top."

Two ways of Yoga

MANILAL: "What then is our duty?"

MASTER: "To remain somehow united with God. There are two ways:

karmayoga and manoyoga. Householders practise yoga through karma, the

performance of duty.

There are four stages of life: brahmacharya, garhasthya, vanaprastha, and

sannyās.

Sannyāsis must renounce those karmas which are performed with special

ends in view; but they should perform the daily obligatory karmas, giving

up all desire for results.

Sannyāsis are united with God by such karmas as the acceptance of the

staff, the receiving of alms, going on pilgrimage, and the performance of

worship and japa.

"It doesn't matter what kind of action you are engaged in. You can be united

with God through any action provided that, performing it, you give up all

desire for its result.

"There is the other path: manoyoga. A yogi practising this discipline doesn't

show any outward sign. He is inwardly united with God. Take Jadabharata

and Sukadeva, for instance. There are many other yogis of this class, but

these two are well known. They shave neither hair nor beard.

"All actions drop away when a man reaches the stage of the paramahamsa.

He always remembers the ideal and meditates on it. He is always united

with God in his mind. If he ever performs an action it is to teach men.

"A man may be united with God either through action or through

inwardness of thought, but he can know everything through bhakti.

Through bhakti one spontaneously experiences kumbhaka. The nerve

currents and breathing calm down when the mind is concentrated. Again,

the mind is concentrated when the nerve currents and breathing calm down.

Then the buddhi, the discriminating power, becomes steady. The man who

achieves this state is not himself aware of it.

Efficacy of bhaktiyoga

"One can attain everything through bhakti yoga. I wept before the Mother

and prayed, 'O Mother, please tell me, please reveal to me, what the yogis

have realized through yoga and the jnanis through discrimination.' And the

Mother has revealed everything to me. She reveals everything if the devotee

cries to Her with a yearning heart. She has shown me everything that is in

the Vedas, the Vedānta, the Puranas, and the Tantra."

MANILAL: "And what about hathayoga?"

MASTER: "The hathayogis identify themselves with their bodies. They

practise internal washing and similar disciplines, and devote themselves

only to the care of the body.

Their ideal is to increase longevity. They serve the body day and night. That

is not good.

Householder's duty

"What is your duty? You should renounce 'woman and gold' mentally. You

cannot look on the world as crow-droppings.

"The goswamis are householders. Therefore I said to them: 'You have your

duties in the temple; how can you renounce the world? You cannot explain

away the world as māyā.'

"Chaitanyadeva said that the duties of householders were kindness to living

beings, service to the Vaishnavas, and the chanting of God's holy name.

"Keshab Sen once said about me: 'Now he asks us to hold to both-God and

the world.

But one day he will sting us.' No, that is not true. Why should I sting?"

MANI MALLICK: "But, sir, you do."

MASTER (smiling): "How so? You are a householder. Why should you

renounce?

Complete renunciation for religious teachers

"But the renunciation of the world is needful for those whom God wants to

be teachers of men. One who is an Āchārya should give up 'woman and

gold'; otherwise people will not take his advice. It is not enough for him to

renounce only mentally; he should also renounce outwardly. Only then will

his teaching bear fruit. Otherwise people will think, 'Though he asks us to

give up "woman and gold," he enjoys them himself in secret.'

"A physician prescribed medicine for a patient. and said to him, 'Come

another day and I'll give you directions about diet.' The physician had

several jars of molasses in his room that day. The patient lived very far

away. He visited the physician later and the physician said to him: 'Be

careful about your food. It is not good for you to eat molasses.' After the

patient left, another person who was there said to the physician: 'Why did

you give him all the trouble of coming here again? You could very well

have given him the instructions the first day.' The physician replied with a

smile: There is a reason. I had several jars of molasses in my room that day.

If I had asked the patient then to give up molasses, he would not have had

faith in my words. He would have thought: "He has so many jars of

molasses in his room, he must eat some of it. Then molasses can't be so

bad." Today I have hidden the jars. Now he will have faith in my words.

"I have seen the Āchārya of the Adi Brahmo Samaj. I understand that he

has married for the second or third time. He has grown-up children. And

such men are teachers! If they say, 'God is real and all else illusory', who

will believe them? You can very well understand who will be their

disciples.

Hard rules for a sannyāsi

"Like teacher, like disciple. Even if a sannyāsi renounces 'woman and gold'

mentally, but lives with them outwardly, he cannot be a teacher of men.

People will say that he enjoys 'molasses' secretly.

"Once Mahendra Kaviraj of Sinthi gave five rupees to Ramlal. I didn't

know about it.

When Ramlal told me about the money, I asked him, 'For whom was the

money given?'

He said it was for me. At first I thought that I should use it to pay what I

owed for my milk, But will you believe me? I had slept only a little while

when I suddenly woke up writhing with pain, as if a cat were scratching my

chest. I went to Ramlal and asked him again, 'Was the money given for your

aunt?' 'No', Ramlal answered. Thereupon I said to him, 'Go at once and

return the money.' Ramlal gave it back the next day.

"Do you know how it looks for a sannyāsi to accept money or to be

attached to an object of temptation? It is as if a brahmin widow who had

practised continence and lived on simple boiled rice and vegetables and

milk for many years, were suddenly to accept an untouchable as her

paramour. (All look stunned.)

"There was a low-caste woman named Bhagi Teli in our part of the country.

She had many disciples and devotees. Finding that she, a sudra, was being

saluted by people, the landlord became jealous and engaged a wicked man

to tempt her. He succeeded in corrupting her and all her spiritual practice

came to nothing. A fallen sannyāsi is like that.

"You are leading householders' lives. It is necessary for you to live in the

company of holy men. First of all, the company of holy men; then sraddha,

faith in God.

"How can people have reverence and faith in God if the holy men do not

sing His name and glories? People respect a man if they know that in his

family there have been royal ministers for three generations.

(To M.) "Even if one has attained Knowledge, one must still constantly

practise God-Consciousness. Nangta used to say: 'What is the use of

polishing the outside of a metal pot one day only? If you don't polish it

regularly it will get tarnished again.' I shall have to go to your house some

time. If I know your house I can meet other devotees there.

Please go to see Ishan some time.

(To Manilal) "Keshab Sen's mother came here the other day. The young

boys of her family sang the name of Hari. She went around them clapping

her hands. I noticed she was not very much stricken with grief over

Keshab's death. She observed the fast of ekadasi here and counted her

beads. I was pleased to see her devotion to God."

About Keshab and Vijay

MANILAL: "Ramkamal Sen, Keshab Babu's grandfather, was a devotee of

God. He used to sit in a tulsi-grove and repeat God's holy name.

Pyarimohan, Keshab's father, was also a Vaishnava devotee."

MASTER: "The son could not have been so devoted to God if the father

had not been like that. Look at Vijay. His father would become unconscious

of the world in divine ecstasy while reading the Bhagavata. Vijay can

hardly control his emotion: while uttering Hari's name, he sometimes stands

up from his seat. The forms of God that Vijay sees nowadays are all real.

Speaking about the different aspects of God, formless and with form, Vijay

said that God sometimes appears with attributes and sometimes without

attributes. He gave the example of the chameleon, which sometimes turns

red, sometimes blue, sometimes green, and sometimes remains colourless.

Praise of guilelessness and purity

"Vijay is really guileless. One cannot realize God without being guileless

and liberal-minded. Yesterday Vijay was at Adhar Sen's house. He behaved

as if it were his own place and those who lived there his own people. One

cannot be guileless and liberal-minded unless one is free from worldliness."

Then the Master sang:

You will attain that priceless Treasure when your mind is free from stain. . .

He continued: "You cannot make a pot without first carefully preparing the

clay. The pot will crack if the clay contains particles of sand or stone. That

is why the potter first prepares the clay by removing the sand and stones.

"If a mirror is covered with dirt, it won't reflect one's face. A man cannot

realize his true Self unless his heart is pure. You will find guilelessness

wherever God incarnates Himself as man. Nandaghosh, Daśaratha,

Vasudeva -all of them were guileless.

"The Vedānta says that a man does not even desire to know God unless he

has a pure mind. One cannot be guileless and liberal-minded without much

tapasya or unless it is one's last birth."

Master's guilelessness

Sri Ramakrishna was worrying, like a child, because he thought his legs

were slightly swollen. Mahendra Kaviraj of Sinthi entered the room and.

saluted the Master.

MASTER (to the devotees): "Yesterday I said to Naran, 'Just press your leg

and see if there is any dimple.' He pressed it and there was one. Then I gave

a sigh of relief. (To Mukherji) Will you please press your leg? Is there any

dimple?"

MUKHERJI: "Yes, sir."

MASTER: "Ah, what a relief!"

MANI MALLICK: "Why should you worry about it, sir? Please take your

bath in the river.

Why should you take medicine?"

MASTER: "No, sir. You have strong blood. Your case is different. The

Divine Mother has placed me in the state of a child. One day I was bitten by

something in the jungle. I had heard people say that, in case of snakebite,

the poison would come out if the snake bit again. So I put my hand in a hole

and waited. A man passing by said to me: 'What are you doing? You will

get rid of the poison only if the snake bites again in the same place.

You will not be cured if the snake bites another part of your body.'

"I was told that the autumn dew was good. One day, while coming from

Calcutta, I stuck my head out of the carriage and exposed it to the damp air.

(All laugh.) (To Mahendra of Sinthi) "That pundit from Sinthi is very good.

He holds a title for this scholarship. He respects me. I said to him, 'You

have read a great deal; but give up the vanity that you are a scholar.' That

made him very happy. I discussed Vedānta with him.

Nature of Brahman

(To M.): "That which is Pure Ātman is unattached. Māyā, or avidyā, is in It.

In māyā

there are three Gunās: sattva, rajas, and tamas. These three Gunās also exist

in the Pure Ātman. But Ātman Itself is unattached. If you throw a blue pill

into the fire, you will see a blue flame. If you throw a red pill, you will see a

red flame. But fire itself has no colour of its own.

"If you put a blue pill in water, the water will turn blue. Again, if you put

alum in that water, it will regain its natural colour.

"A butcher was carrying a load of meat when he touched Sankara. Sankara

exclaimed: 'What! You have touched me!' The butcher replied: 'Venerable

sir, neither have you touched me nor have I touched you. You are pure

Ātman, unattached.' Jadabharata said the same thing to King Rahugana.

"The Pure Ātman is unattached, and one cannot see It. If salt is mixed with

water, one cannot see the salt with the eyes.

"That which is the Pure Ātman is the Great Cause, the Cause of the cause.

The gross, the subtle, the causal, and the Great Cause. The five elements are

gross. Mind, buddhi, and ego are subtle. Prakriti, the Primal Energy, is the

cause of all these. Brahman, Pure Ātman, is the Cause of the cause.

This Pure Ātman alone is our real nature. What is jnāna? It is to know one's

own Self and keep the mind in It. It is to know the Pure Ātman.

"How long should a man perform his duties? As long as he identifies

himself with the body, in other words, as long as he thinks he is the body.

That is what the Gitā says. To think of the body as the Ātman is ajnāna,

ignorance.

(To the bearded Brahmo devotee from Shibpur) "Are you a Brahmo?"

DEVOTEE: "Yes, sir."

MASTER (smiling): "I can recognize a worshipper of the Formless by

looking at his face and eyes. Please dive a little deeper. One doesn't get the

gem by floating on the surface.

As for myself, I accept all-the formless God and God with form."

The Mārwāri devotees from Burrabazar entered the room and saluted the

Master. He began to praise them.

MASTER (to the devotees):"Ah! They are real devotees of God. They visit

temples, sing hymns to God, and eat prasad. And the gentleman whom they

have made their priest this year is learned in the Bhagavata."

MĀRWĀRI DEVOTEE: "Who is this 'I' that says, 'O Lord, I am Thy

servant?' "

MASTER: "This is the lingasarira, or embodied soul. It consists of manas,

buddhi, chitta, and Ahamkāra."

DEVOTEE: "Who is the embodied soul?"

MASTER: "It is the Ātman bound by the eight fetters. And what is the

chitta? It is the 'I-consciousness' that says, 'Aha!'"

What happens after death

DEVOTEE: "Revered sir, what happens after death?"

MASTER: "According to the Gitā, one becomes afterwards what one thinks

of at the time of death. King Bharata thought of his deer and became a deer

in his next life. Therefore one must practise sādhanā in order to realize

God. If a man thinks of God day and night, he will have the same thought in

the hour of death."

Māyā hides Knowledge

DEVOTEE: "Why don't we feel dispassion toward worldly objects?"

MASTER: "Because of māyā. Through māyā one feels the Real to be the

unreal and the unreal to be the Real. The Real means That which is eternal,

the Supreme Brahman; and the unreal means that which is non-eternal, that

is to say, the world."

DEVOTEE: "We read the scriptures. Why is it that we can't assimilate

them?"

MASTER: "What will one accomplish by mere reading? One needs

spiritual practice-austerity. Call on God. What is the use of merely repeating

the word 'siddhi'? One must eat a little of it.

'The hand bleeds when it touches a thorny plant. Suppose you bring such a

plant and repeat, sitting near it: 'There! The plant is burning.' Will that burn

the plant? This world is like the thorny plant. Light the fire of Knowledge

and with it set the plant ablaze. Only then will it be burnt up.

"One must labour a little while at the stage of sādhanā. Then the path

becomes easy.

Steer the boat around the curves of the river and then let it go with the

favourable wind.

"As long as you live inside the house of māyā, as long as there exists the

cloud of māyā, you do not see the effect of the Sun of Knowledge. Come

outside the house of māyā, give up 'woman and gold', and then the Sun of

Knowledge will destroy ignorance. A lens cannot burn paper inside the

house. If you stand outside, then the rays of the sun fall on the lens and the

paper burns. Again, the lens cannot burn the paper if there is a cloud.

The paper burns when the cloud disappears.

"The darkness of the mind is destroyed only when a man stands little apart

from.

'woman and gold' and, thus standing apart, practises a little austerity and

spiritual discipline. Then only does the cloud of his ego and ignorance

vanish. Then only does he attain the Knowledge of God. This 'woman and

gold' is the only cloud that hides the Sun of Knowledge.

Master's renunciation

(To the Mārwāri devotee) "The rules for a sannyāsi are extremely hard. He

cannot have the slightest contact with 'woman and gold'. He must not accept

money with his own hands, and he must not even allow it to be left near

him.

"Lakshminarayan Mārwāri, a Vedantist, used to come here very often. One

day he saw a dirty sheet on my bed and said: 'I shall invest ten thousand

rupees in your name. The interest will enable you to pay your expenses.'

The moment he uttered these words, I fell unconscious, as if struck by a

stick. Regaining consciousness I said to him: 'If you utter such words again,

you had better not come here. It is impossible for me to touch money. It is

also impossible for me to keep it near me.' He was a very clever fellow. He

said: 'Then you too have the idea of acceptance and rejection. In that case

you haven't attained Perfect Knowledge.' 'My dear sir, I said, 'I haven't yet

gone that far.' (All laugh.) Lakshminarayan then wanted to leave the money

with Hriday. I said to him: 'That will not do. If you leave it with Hriday,

then I shall instruct him to spend it as I wish. If he does not comply, I shall

be angry. The very contact of money is bad. No, you can't leave it with

Hriday.' Won't an object kept near a mirror be reflected in it?"

Liberation

DEVOTEE: "Revered sir, is a man liberated only when he dies on the bank

of the Ganges?"

MASTER: "It is the Knowledge of God alone that gives liberation. The

Jnāni will certainly attain liberation wherever he may die, whether in the

charnel-pit or on the bank of the ,Ganges. But the bank of the Ganges is

prescribed for a bound soul."

DEVOTEE: "Revered sir, why does a man dying in Benares become

liberated?"

MASTER: "A person dying in Benares sees the vision of Śiva. Śiva says to

him: 'This is My aspect with form, My embodiment in māyā. I assume this

form for the sake of the devotees. Now look. I am merging in the indivisible

Satchidananda!' Uttering these words, Śiva withdraws His form and enables

the dying person to see Brahman. "The Puranas say that even a chandala

endowed with love of God achieves liberation.

According to this school the name of God is enough to liberate a soul.

There is no need of such things as worship, sacrifice, the discipline of

Tantra, and the recitation of mantras.

Path of devotion for Kaliyuga

"But the teachings of the Vedas are different. According to the Vedas none

but a brahmin can be liberated. Further, the worship is not accepted by the

gods unless the mantras are recited correctly. One must perform sacrifice,

worship, and so on, according to scriptural injunction. But where is the time

in the Kaliyuga to perform the Vedic rituals? Therefore in the Kaliyuga the

path of devotion prescribed by Nārada is best. The path of karma is very

difficult. Karma becomes a cause of bondage unless it is performed in a

spirit of detachment. Further, the life of man nowadays depends on food. He

has no time to observe the rituals enjoined by the scriptures. The patient

dies if he tries to cure his fever by taking the decoction of herbs prescribed

by the orthodox native physicians.

Therefore he should take a modern 'fever mixture'.

"According to Nārada the devotee should sing the name and glories of God.

The path of karma is not the right one for the Kaliyuga. Bhaktiyoga is the

right path. Do your duties in the world as long as you need them to reap the

fruit of the actions of your past lives.

But you must develop love for God and be passionately attached to Him.

The singing of the name and glories of God destroys the effect of past

action.

"You don't have to perform duties all your life. As you develop unalloyed

love and longing for God, your duties become fewer and fewer. After the

realization of God they completely drop away. When the young daughter-

in-law is pregnant, her mother-in-law lessens her duties. After the birth of

the child she doesn't have to do any household work."

Several young men from the village of Dakshineswar entered the room and

saluted Sri Ramakrishna. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon. They

sat down and began to talk with the Master.

YOUNG MAN: "Sir, what is Knowledge?"

MASTER: "It is to know that God is the only Reality and that all else is

unreal. That which is the Real is also called Brahman. It has another name:

Kala, Time. There is a saying, 'O brother, how many things come into being

in Time and disappear in Time!'

"That whieh sports with Kala is called Kāli. She is the Primal Energy. Kala

and Kāli, Brahman and Śakti, are indivisible.

"That Brahman, of the nature of Reality, is eternal. It exists in past, present,

and future.

It is without beginning or end. It cannot be described in words. The utmost

that can be said of Brahman is that It is of the very nature of Intelligence

and Bliss.

"The world is illusory; Brahman alone is real. The world is of the nature of

magic. The magician is real but his magic is unreal"

Power of inborn tendencies

YOUNG MAN: "If the world is of the nature of illusion-magic-then why

doesn't one get rid of it?"

MASTER: "It is due to the samskaras, inborn tendencies. Repeated births in

this world of māyā make one believe that māyā is real.

"Let me tell you how powerful inborn tendencies are. A prince had, in a

previous birth, been the son of a washerman. While playing with his chums

in his incarnation as the prince, he said to them: 'Stop those games. I will

show you a new one. I shall lie on my belly, and you will beat the clothes

on my back as the washerman does, making a swishing sound.'

"Many youngsters come here. But only a few long for God. These few are

born with a spiritual tendency. They shudder at the talk of marriage.

Niranjan has said from boyhood that he will not marry.

"More than twenty years ago two young men used to come here from

Baranagore. One was named Govinda Pal and the other Gopal Sen. They

had been devoted to God since boyhood. The very mention of marriage

would frighten them. Gopal used to have bhava samādhi. He would shrink

from worldly people, as a mouse from a cat. One day he saw the boys of the

Tagore family strolling in the garden. He shut himself in the kuthi lest he

should have to talk with them.

"Gopal went into samādhi in the Panchavati. In that state he said to me,

touching my feet: 'Let me go. I cannot live in this world any more. You

have a long time to wait. Let me go.' I said to him, in an ecstatic mood, 'You

must come again.' 'Very well, I will', he said. A few days later Govinda

came to me. 'Where is Gopal?' I asked him. He said, 'He has passed away.'

"What are the other youngsters about? Money, house, carriage, clothes, and

finally marriage. These are the things that keep them busy. If they want to

marry, at the outset they make inquiries about the girl. They want to find

out for themselves whether she is beautiful.

"There is a person who speaks much ill of me. He is always criticizing me

for loving the youngsters. I love only those who are born with good

tendencies, pure souls with longing for God, who do not pay any attention

to money, creature comforts, and such things.

"If married people develop love for God, they will not be attached to the

world.

Hirananda is married. What if he is? He will not be much attached to the

world."

Hirananda, a member of the Brahmo Samaj, was a native of Sindh. He had

met the Master in Calcutta and become devoted to him.

Manilal, the Mārwāri devotees, the Brahmo devotees from Shibpur, and the

young men from Dakshineswar saluted Sri Ramakrishna and took their

leave.

It was evening. Lamps were lighted on the south and west verandahs. A

lamp was lighted in the Master's room also, and incense was burnt. He was

repeating the name of the Divine Mother, absorbed in contemplation of Her.

After a while he talked again to the devotees. There was still some time

before the evening worship in the temples.

MASTER (to M.): "What need of the sandhya has a man who thinks of God

day and night?

What need of rituals has a man, what need of devotions any more,

If he repeats the Mother's name at the three holy hours?

Rituals may pursue him close, but never can they overtake him.

Charity, vows, and giving of gifts do not appeal to Madan's mind;

The Blissful Mother's Lotus Feet are his whole prayer and sacrifice.

"The sandhya merges in the Gayatri, the Gayatri in Om. A man is firmly

established in spiritual life when he goes into samādhi on uttering 'Om' only

once.

"There is a sādhu in Hrishikesh who gets up early in the morning and stands

near a great waterfall. He looks at it the whole day and says to God: 'Ah,

You have done well! Well done! How amazing! He doesn't practise any

other form of japa or austerity. At night he returns to his hut.

"What need is there even to bother one's head about whether God is

formless or has a form? It is enough for a man to pray to Him, alone in

solitude, weeping, 'O God, reveal Yourself to me as You are.'

"God is both inside and outside. It is He who dwells inside us. Therefore the

Vedas say, 'Tattvamasi-That thou art.' God is also outside us. He appears

manifold through māyā; but in reality He alone exists. Therefore before

describing the various names and forms of God, one should say, 'Om Tat

Sat.'

"It is one thing to learn about God from the scriptures, and quite another to

see Him.

The scriptures only give hints. Therefore to read a great many scriptures is

not necessary. It is much better to pray to God in solitude.

"It isn't necessary to read all of the Gitā. One can get the essence of the Gitā

by repeating the word ten times. It becomes reversed and is then 'tagi'. The

essence of the book is: 'O man, renounce everything and worship God.'"

The Master went into an ecstatic mood while watching the evening worship

of Kāli in the company of the devotees. He was in no condition even to

salute the image. Very carefully he returned to his room with the devotees

and sat down; he was still in an ecstatic mood. He spoke to them while in

that state.

In the room was Hari, a young man about twenty years of age, who was a

relative of the Mukherjis and very much devoted to the Master. He was

married. At that time he was living with the Mukherjis and looking for a

job.

MASTER (to Hari, in an ecstatic mood): "Take your initiation after getting

your mother's permission. (To Priya, referring to Hari) I couldn't give him

the mantra though I said I would initiate him. I don't initiate people.

Continue with your own meditation and japa as you have been doing."

PRIYA: "Yes, sir."

MASTER: "And I am saying this to you in this state of my mind. Believe

my words. You see, there is no show or deceit here. I just said to the Divine

Mother in my ecstatic mood, 'O Mother, may those who come here

[referring to himself] through sincere attraction obtain perfection!' "

Mahendra Kaviraj of Sinthi was seated on the verandah conversing with

Ramlal, Hazra, and others. The Master called to him from his room. M.

went out quickly and brought Mahendra in.

MASTER (to Mahendra): "Sit down and listen to my words."

Mahendra was a little embarrassed. He sat down.

Various forms of divine love

MASTER (to the devotees): "God can be served in different ways. An

ecstatic lover of God enjoys Him in different ways. Sometimes he says, 'O

God, You are the lotus and I am the bee', and sometimes, 'You are the

Ocean of Satchidananda and I am the fish.'

Sometimes, again, the lover of God says, 'I am Your dancing-girl.' He

dances and sings before Him. He thinks of himself sometimes as the friend

of God and sometimes as His handmaid. He looks on God sometimes as a

child, as did Yaśoda, and sometimes as husband or sweetheart, as did the

gopis.

"Sometimes Balarama looked on Krishna as a friend; sometimes he would

think he was Krishna's umbrella or carpet. He served Krishna in all possible

ways."

Was Sri Ramakrishna hinting at his own state of mind while thus describing

the different attitudes of a lover of God?

Chaitanya's spiritual moods

Next he described Chaitanya's three spiritual moods.

MASTER: "Chaitanyadeva used to experience three moods. In the inmost

mood he would be absorbed in samādhi, unconscious of the outer world. In

the semi-conscious mood he would dance in ecstasy but could not talk. In

the conscious mood he would sing the glories of God.

(To the devotees) "You are listening to my words. Try to assimilate them.

When worldly people sit before a sādhu, for the time being they completely

hide all worldly thoughts and ideas. But once away from the holy man they

let them out again. You have seen a pigeon eating dried peas. You think he

has digested them, but he keeps them in his crop. You can feel them there.

"At dusk put aside all duties and pray to God. One is reminded of Him by

darkness. At the approach of darkness one thinks: 'I could see everything a

moment ago. Who has brought about this change?' The Mussalmans put

aside all activities and say their prayers at the appointed times."

Practice of japa

MUKHERJI: "Revered sir, is it good to practise japa?"

MASTER: "Yes. One attains God through japa. By repeating the name of

God secretly and in solitude one receives divine grace. Then comes His

vision. Suppose there is a big piece of timber lying under water and

fastened to the land with a chain; by proceeding along the chain, link by

link, you will at last touch the timber.

"Higher than worship is japa, higher than japa is meditation, higher than

meditation is bhava, and higher than bhava are mahabhava and prema.

Chaitanyadeva had prema, When one attains prema one has the rope to tie

God."

Hazra entered the room.

MASTER (to Hazra): "Love of God, when it is intense and spontaneous, is

called raga-bhakti. Vaidhibhakti, formal devotion, depends on scriptural

injunctions. It comes and it goes. But raga-bhakti is like a stone emblem of

Śiva that has sprung up out of the bowels of the earth. One cannot find its

root; they say the root goes as far as Benares.

Only an Incarnation of God and His companions attain raga-bhakti."

HAZRA: "Ah me!"

MASTER: "One day I was returning from the Pine-grove, when I saw you

telling your beads. I said to the Divine Mother: 'Mother, what a small

minded fellow he is! He lives here and still he pratises japa with a rosary!

Whoever comes he [referring to himself]

will have his spiritual consciousness awakened all a once; he won't have to

bother much, about japa. Go to Calcutta and you will find thousands telling

their beads-even the prostitutes.'

(To M.) "Please bring Naran here in a carriage. I am making the same

request to Mukherji. I shall give Naran something to eat when he comes.

There is great significance in feeding boys like him."

Saturday, October 4, 1884

It was the day of the first full moon after the Durga Puja. Sri Ramakrishna

arrived at the Calcutta house of Nabin Sen, the elder brother of Keshab

Chandra Sen. On the previous Thursday Keshab's mother had begged the

Master to pay her a visit in Calcutta.

The Master seated himself in a room on the upper floor of the house. With

him were Baburam, Kishori, and a few other devotees. Nandalal and

Keshab's other nephews, Keshab's mother, and other relatives of his, waited

on the Master. It had been arranged to have devotional music performed in

the room. M. was sitting in a room downstairs, listening to the kirtan.

Master with Brahmo devotees

Sri Ramakrishna said to the Brahmo devotees: "The world is impermanent.

One should constantly remember death." Then he sang:

Remember this, O mind! Nobody is your own: Vain is your wandering in

this world.

Trapped in the subtle snare of māyā as you are, Do not forget the Mother's

name. . . .

The Master said to the devotees: "Dive deep. What will you gain by merely

floating on the surface? Renounce everything for a few days, retire into

solitude, and call on God with all your soul"

The Master sang:

Dive deep, O mind, dive deep in. the Ocean of God's Beauty; If you descend

to the uttermost depths,

There you will find the gem of Love. . . .

At Sri Ramakrishna's request the Brahmo devotees sang: Thou art my All in

All, O Lord!- the Life of my life, the Essence of essence;

In the three worlds I have none else but Thee to call my own.

Thou art my peace, my joy, my hope;

Thou my support, my wealth, my glory;

Thou my wisdom and my strength. . . .

The Master sang again:

O Mother, for Yaśoda Thou wouldst dance, when she called Thee her

precious "Blue Jewel":

Where hast Thou hidden that lovely form, O terrible Syama? . .

The Brahmo devotees also sang to theaccompaniment of cymbals and

drums:

O Mother, how deep is Thy love for men!

Mindful of it, I weep for joy.

Almost from the day of my birth

I have transgressed Thine every law,

And still Thou lookest on me with love,

Comforting me with sweetest words.

Mindful of it, I weep for joy.

O Mother, the burden of Thy love

Is far too great for me to bear;

My soul gives a heart-piercing cry

At Thy love's touch. To Thee I come,

Seeking a refuge at Thy feet.

They again sang of the Divine Mother: O Mother, Thou my Inner Guide,

ever awake within my heart!

Day and night Thou holdest me in Thy lap.

Why dost Thou show such tenderness to this unworthy child of Thine'?

Ah! It seems Thou art mad with love: now caressing, now with strong grasp

Holding me firm, Thou givest me to drink

Thy nectar, pouring in my ears Thy words of loving tenderness.

Unceasing is Thy love for me, a love that cannot see my faults ; Whenever I

am in danger, Thou dost save me.

Saviour of sinners! I know the truth: I am my Mother's and She is mine.

Now I shall listen to Her alone, and follow the path of righteousness;

Drinking the milk that flows from my Mother's breasts, I shall be strong and

sing with joy: "Hail, O Mother! Brahman Eternal!"

The Master and the Brahmo devotees sang several songs about Hari and

Gaurānga.

Sunday, October 5, 1884

Sri Ramakrishna was sitting in his room after the midday meal, with M.,

Hazra, the elder Kāli, Baburam, Ramlal, Hari, and others. Some of them sat

on the floor and some stood about. On the previous day the Master had

visited Keshab's mother at her Calcutta house and had made her happy with

his devotional songs.

Hazra's eccentricities

Hazra had been living with the Master at Dakshineswar a long time. He was

a little conceited about his knowledge and even criticized the Master now

and then before others. Again, he would sit on the verandah of the Master's

room and tell his beads with apparent concentration. He spoke slightingly

of Chaitanya as a "modern Incarnation". He would say: "God gives not only

pure devotion but also wealth. He has no lack of it. By attaining God one

obtains the eight occult powers as well." Hazra had a small debt to clear up,

about one thousand rupees. He had incurred it for the building of his house

and was worried about paying it.

The elder Kāli had a position in an office, from which he received a small

salary. He had a large family to maintain. He was devoted to the Master and

visited him now and then, even absenting himself from the office.

KALl (to Hazra): "You go about criticizing people; you are like a

touchstone, testing what is pure gold and what is impure. Why do you speak

so much ill of others?" HAZRA: "Whatever I say, I say to him [meaning Sri

Ramakrishna] alone."

MASTER: "That is so."

Hazra began to explain Tattvajnana.

HAZRA: "The meaning of Tattvajnana is the knowledge of the existence of

the twenty-four tattvas, or cosmic principles."

He was wrong about the meaning of the word.

A DEVOTEE: "What are they?"

HAZRA: "The five elements, the six passions, the five organs of

perception, the five organs of action, and so forth."

M. (to the Master, smiling): "He says that the six passions are included in

the twenty-four cosmic principles."

MASTER (smiling): "Listen to him! Notice how he explains Tattvajnana!

The word really means 'knowledge of Self'. The word 'Tat' means the

Supreme Self, and the word 'tvam', the embodied soul. One attains Supreme

Knowledge, Tattvajnana, by realizing the identity of the embodied soul and

the Supreme Self."

After a few minutes Hazra left the room and sat on the porch.

MASTER (to M. and the others): "He [meaning Hazra] only argues. This

moment perhaps he understands, but the next moment he is his old self

again.

"When the angler hooks a big fish and finds it pulling hard, he releases the

line; otherwise it will snap and the angler himself will be thrown into the

water. Therefore I do not say much to him.

(To M.) "Hazra said that a man could not be liberated unless he was born in

a brahmin body. 'How is that?' I said. 'One attains liberation through bhakti

alone. Savari was the daughter of a hunter. She, Ruhidas, and others

belonged to the sudra caste. They were liberated through bhakti alone.' 'But

still-Hazra insisted.

"He recognized Dhruva's spiritual greatness, but not as much as he

recognized Prahlada's. When Lātu said, 'Dhruva had great yearning for God

from his boyhood', he kept still.

"I said that there was nothing greater than the bhakti that sought no end and

had no selfish motive. Hazra contradicted me. I said to him, 'A wealthy man

is annoyed when a petitioner comes to him. "There he comes", he says

angrily. "Sit down", he says to him in an indifferent voice, and shows that

he is much annoyed. He doesn't allow such a beggar to ride with him in his

carriage.'

"But Hazra said that God was not like such wealthy people of the world; did

He lack wealth, that He should feel pinched to give it away? Hazra said

further: 'When rain falls from the sky, the Ganges and all the big rivers and

lakes overflow with water. Small tanks, too, are filled. Likewise, God out of

His grace grants wealth and riches as well as knowledge and devotion.'

(To the devotees) "But I call this impure devotion to God. Pure devotion has

no desire behind it. You don't want anything from me, but you love to see

me and hear my words.

My mind also dwells on you. I wonder how you are and why you don't

come.

"You don't want anything of God but still you love Him. That is pure

bhakti, love of God with no motive behind it. Prahlada had it. He sought

neither kingdom nor riches; he sought Hari alone."

M: "Hazra is a chatterbox. He won't achieve anything unless he becomes

silent."

MASTER: "Now and then he comes to me and becomes mellowed. But he

is a pest; again he argues. It is very hard to get rid of egotism. You may cut

down an Aśwattha tree, but the next day a sprout will spring up. As long as

the roots remain, the tree will grow again.

"I said to Hazra, 'Don't speak ill of anyone.' It is Narayana Himself who has

assumed all these forms. One can worship even a wicked person. Haven't

you observed the Kumari Puja? Why should you worship a girl who has all

the physical limitations of a human being? It is because she is a form of the

Divine Mother. But God dwells in a special way in His devotee. The

devotee is His parlour. If the gourd has a large body then it makes a good

Tānpura. It gives a nice sound."

Two monks had arrived at the temple garden in the morning. They were

devoted to the study of the Bhagavad Gitā, the Vedānta, and other

scriptures. They entered the Master's room, saluted him, and sat on the mat

on the floor. Sri Ramakrishna was seated on the small couch. The Master

spoke to the sādhus in Hindusthani.

MASTER: "Have you had your meal?"

SĀDHU: "Yes, sir."

MASTER: "What did you eat?"

SĀDHU: "Dal and bread. Will you take some?"

MASTER: "No, I take only a few morsels of rice. Well, your japa and

meditation must be without any desire for results. Isn't that so?"

SĀDHU: "Yes, Sir."

MASTER: "That is good. One must surrender the result to God. What do

you say? That is the view of the Gitā."

One sādhu said to the other, quoting from the Gitā: "O Arjuna, whatever

action you perform, whatever you eat, whatever you offer in sacrifice,

whatever you give in charity, and whatever austerities you practise, offer

everything to Me."

MASTER: "If you give God something, you receive it back a thousand

times over. That is why after doing meritorious deeds one offers a handful

of water to God. It is the symbol of offering the fruit to God. When

Yudhisthira was about to offer all his sins to Krishna, Bhima warned him:

'Never do such a thing. Whatever you offer to Krishna you will receive

back a thousandfold.'

(To one of the sādhus) "Well, sir, one should be desireless; one should

renounce all desires. Isn't that so?"

SĀDHU: "Yes, sir."

MASTER: "But I have the desire for bhakti. That is not bad. Rather, it is

good. Sweets are bad, for they produce acidity. But sugar candy is an

exception. Isn't that so?"

SĀDHU: "Yes, sir."

MASTER: "Well, sir, what do you think of the Vedānta?"

SĀDHU: "It includes all the six systems of philosophy."

MASTER: "But the essence of Vedānta is: 'Brahman alone is real, and the

world illusory; I have no separate existence; I am that Brahman alone.' Isn't

that so?"

SĀDHU: "That is true, sir."

MASTER: "But for those who lead a householder's life, and those who

identify themselves with the body, this attitude of 'I am He' is not good. It is

not good for householders to read Vedānta or the Yoga-vāsishta. It is very

harmful for them to read these books.

Householders should look on God as their Master and on themselves as His

servants.

They should think, 'O God, You are the Master and the Lord, and I am Your

servant.'

People who identify themselves with the body should not have the attitude

of 'I am He'."

The devotees in the room remained silent. Sri Ramakrishna was smiling a

little, a picture of self-contentment. He appeared happy in his own Self.

One of the sādhus whispered in the other's ear: "Look! This is the state of

the paramahamsa."

MASTER (to M.): "I feel like laughing."

Sri Ramakrishna smiled like a child. The monks left the room. The devotees

were moving about in the room and on the porch.

Master ( to M.) :"Did you go to Nabin Sen's house?"

M:"Yes, sir. I listened to the songs from down stairs."

MASTER: "That was well done. Your wife was there. She is a cousin of

Keshab Sen, isn't she?"

M: "A distant cousin."

Sri Ramakrishna strolled up and down with M. No one else was with them.

MASTER: "A man visits his father-in-law's house. I, too, often used to

think that I should marry, go to my father-in-law's house, and have great

fun. But see what has come of it!"

M: "Sir, you say, 'If the boy holds his father's hand, he may slip; but he

doesn't if the father holds his hand.' That is exactly your condition. The

Mother has taken hold of your hand."

MASTER: "I met Bamandas at the Viswases' house. I said to him, 'I have

come to see you.' As I was leaving the place I heard him say: 'Goodness

gracious! The Divine Mother has caught hold of him, like a tiger seizing a

man.' At that time I was a young man, very stout, and always in ecstasy.

Master's attitude toward women

"I am very much afraid of women. When I look at one I feel as if a tigress

were coming to devour me. Besides, I find that their bodies, their limbs, and

even their pores are very large. This makes me look upon them as she-

monsters. I used to be much more afraid of women than I am at present. I

wouldn't allow one to come near me. Now I persuade my mind in various

ways to look upon women as forms of the Blissful Mother.

"A woman is, no doubt, a part of the Divine Mother. But as far as a man is

concerned, especially a sannyāsi or a devotee of God, she is to be shunned.

I don't allow a woman to sit near me very long, no matter how great her

devotion may be. After a little while I say to her, 'Go and see the temples.'

If that doesn't make her move, I myself leave the room on the pretext of

smoking.

"I find that some men are not at all interested in women. Niranjan says, 'A

woman never enters my thought.' I asked Hari about it. He too says that his

mind does not dwell on woman.

"Woman monopolizes three quarters of the mind, which should be given to

God. And then, after the birth of a child, almost the whole mind is frittered

away on the family.

Then what is left to give to God?

"Again, there are some men who shed their last drop of blood, as it were, to

keep their wives out of mischief. There is the gate-keeper, an old man,

whose wife is only fourteen years old. She had to live with him. They lived

in a thatched hut with walls made of dry leaves. People made holes in the

wall to peep in. Now she has left him and run away.

"I know another man. He doesn't know where to keep his wife. There was

some trouble at home, and now he is greatly worried. Let's not talk about

these things any more.

"If a man lives with a woman, he cannot help coming under her control.

Worldly men get up and sit down at the bidding of women. They all speak

highly of their wives.

"Once I wanted to go to a certain place. I asked Ramlal's aunt about it. She

forbade me to go; so I could not. A little while later I said to myself: 'I am

not a householder. I have renounced "woman and gold". If, in spite of that,

this is my plight, one can well imagine how much worldly people are

controlled by their wives.'"

M: "One who lives in the midst of 'woman and gold' can't help being

stained by it, even if only slightly. You told us about Jaynarayan. He was

such a great scholar. When you visited him he was an old man. You found

him warming pillows and blankets in the sun."

MASTER: "But he had no vanity of scholarship. Further, what he said

about the last days of his life came to pass. He spent them in Benares,

following the injunctions of the scriptures. I saw his children. They were

wearing high boots and had been educated in English schools."

By means of questions and answers Sri Ramakrishna now explained to M.

his own exalted state.

MASTER: "At first I went stark mad. Why am I less so now? But I get into

that state now and then."

M: "You don't have just one mood. As you said, you experience various

moods.

Sometimes you are like a child, sometimes like a madman, sometimes like

an inert thing, and sometimes like a ghoul. And now and then you are a

natural person."

MASTER: "Yes, like a child. But I also experience the moods of a boy and

a young man.

When I give instruction I feel like a young man. Then there is my

boyishness: like a boy twelve or thirteen years old, I want to be frivolous.

That is why I joke and make merry with the youngsters.

"What do you think of Naran?"

M: "He has good traits, sir."

MASTER: "Yes, the shell of the gourd is good. The Tānpura made out of it

will give good music. He says to me, 'You are everything.' Everyone speaks

of me according to his comprehension. Some say that I am simply a sādhu,

a devotee of God.

"If I forbid Naran to do something, he understands it very well. The other

day I asked him to pull up the curtain, but he didn't do it. I had forbidden

him to tie a knot, to sew his clothes, to lock a box, to pull up a curtain, and

similar things. He understood it all.

He who would renounce the world must practise all these disciplines. They

are meant for sannyāsis.

"While practising sādhanā a man should regard a woman as a raging forest

fire or a black cobra. But in the state of perfection, after the realization of

God, she appears as the Blissful Mother. Then you will look on her as a

form of the Divine Mother."

A few days earlier Sri Ramakrishna had spoken many words of warning to

Narayan about women. He had said: "Don't let yourself touch the air near a

woman's body. Cover yourself with a heavy sheet lest the air should touch

your body. And keep yourself eight cubits, two cubits, or at least one cubit

away from all women except your mother."

MASTER (to M.): "Naran's mother said to him about me, 'Even we are

enchanted by the sight of him, not to speak of you, a mere child.' None but

the guileless can realize God.

How guileless Niranjan is!"

M: "True, sir."

MASTER: "Didn't you notice him that day in the carriage on the way to

Calcutta? He is always the same-without guile. A man shows one side of

his nature inside his house and another to the outside world. Since his

father's death Narendra has been worried about his worldly affairs. He has a

slightly calculating mind. How I wish that other youngsters were like

Niranjan and Narendra!

"Today I went to the village to see Nilkantha's theatrical performance. It

was given at Nabin Niyogi's house. The children there are very bad; they

have nothing to do but find fault. In such a place a person's spiritual feeling

is restrained. During a performance the other day I saw Doctor Madhu

shedding tears. I looked at him alone.

(To M.) "Can you tell me why people feel so much attracted to this place

[meaning himself]? What does it mean?"

M: "It reminds me of an episode in Krishna's life at Vrindāvan. Krishna

transformed Himself into the cowherd boys and the calves, whereupon the

cows began to feel more strongly attracted to the cowherd boys, the gopis,

and the calves."

MASTER: "That is the attraction of God. The truth is, the Divine Mother

creates the spell and it is that which attracts people.

"Well, not as many people come here as used to go to Keshab Sen. And

how many people respect and honour Keshab! He is known even in

England. Queen Victoria spoke with him. It is said in the Gitā that God's

power is manifest in him who is honoured and respected by many. But so

many people do not come here."

M: "It was the householders who went to Keshab Sen."

MASTER: "Yes, that is true. The worldly-minded."

M: "Will what Keshab has founded remain a long time?"

MASTER: "Why, he has written a samhita, a book of rules for the guidance

of the members of his Brahmo Samaj."

M: "But it is quite different with the work done by a Divine Incarnation

Himself-Chaitanya's work, for instance."

MASTER: "Yes, yes. That is true."

M: "You yourself tell us that Chaitanyadeva said, 'The seeds I have sown

will certainly bear fruit some time or other.' A man left some seeds on the

cornice of a house. Later on the house fell down and trees grew from those

seeds."

MASTER: "Many people go to the Samaj founded by Shivanath and

friends. Isn't that so?"

M: "Yes, sir. People of that sort."

MASTER (smiling): "Yes, yes. The worldly-minded go there, but not many

of those who long for God and are trying to renounce 'woman and gold'."

M: "It will be fine if a current flows from this place. Everything will be

carried away by its force. Nothing that comes out of this place will be

monotonous."

MASTER (smiling): "I keep men's own ideals intact. I ask a Vaishnava to

hold to his Vaishnava attitude and a Sakta to his. But this also I say to them

'Never feel that your path alone is right and that the paths of others a wrong

and full of errors. Hindus, Mussalmans, and Christians are going to the

same destination by different paths. A man can realize God by following his

own path if his prayer is sincere.

"Vijay's mother-in-law said to me, 'Why don't you tell Balarām that it

unnecessary to worship God with form; that it will be enough if he prays to

the formless Satchidananda?'

I replied, 'Why should I say such a thing, and why should he listen to me

even if I should say it?' "

M: "That is true, sir. There are different paths to suit time, place, and the

fitness of the candidate. Whatever path a man may follow, he will

ultimately reach God if he is pure of heart and has sincere longing. That is

what you say."

Sri Ramakrishna was sitting in his room. Hari, the relative of the Mukherjis,

M., and other devotees were on the floor. An unknown person saluted the

Master and took a seat. The Master remarked later that his eyes were not

good. They were yellow, like a cat's.

Hari prepared a smoke for Sri Ramakrishna.

MASTER (to Hari): "Let me see the palm of your hand. This mark is good

sign. Relax your hand."

He took Hari's hand into his as if to feel its weight.

MASTER: "He is still childlike. As yet there is no blemish in him. (To the

devotees) From the hand I can tell whether a person is deceitful or guileless.

(To Hari) Why, you should go to your father-in-law's house. You should talk

to your wife and have a little fun with her if you like. (To M.) What do you

say?" (M. and the others laugh.) M: "If a new pot becomes bad, one can no

longer keep milk in it."

MASTER (smiling): "How do you know that it is not already bad?"

The two Mukherjis, Mahendra and Priyanath, were brothers. They did not

work in an office, but had their own flour-mill. Priyanath had been an

engineer. Sri Ramakrishna talked to Hari about the Mukherji brothers.

MASTER: "The elder brother is nice, isn't he? He is artless."

HARI: "Yes, sir."

MASTER: "Isn't the younger brother very miserly? I understand that since

coming here he has improved a great deal. He once said to me, 'I didn't

know anything before.' (To Hari) Do they give anything in charity?"

HARI: "Not much, as far as I can see. Their elder brother, now dead, was a

very good man. He was very charitable."

Physical signs indicating character

MASTER (to M. and the others): "Whether a person will make spiritual

progress or not can be known to a great extent by his physical marks. The

hand of a deceitful person is heavy. A snub nose is not a good sign. Sambhu

had that kind of nose; hence he was not quite sincere in spite of all his

wisdom. Pigeon-breast is not a good sign either. Hard bones and heavy

elbow-joints are bad signs too; and yellow eyes, like a cat's.

"A man becomes very mean if he has lips that are thick, like a dome's. A

brahmin was here for a few months acting as priest of the Vishnu temple. I

couldn't eat the food he touched. One day I suddenly exclaimed, 'He is a

dome!' Afterwards he said to me: 'Yes, sir. We live in the dome quarters. I

know how to make wicker baskets and such things, Just like a dome.'

"There are other bad physical signs: one eye and squint eyes. It is rather

better to have one eye, but never squint eyes. Squint-eyed people are

wicked and deceitful.

"A student of Mahesh Nyayaratna's came here. He described himself as an

atheist. He said to Hriday: 'I am an atheist. You may take up the position of

a believer in God and argue with me.' Thereupon I watched him closely and

noticed that his eyes were yellow, like a cat's.

"Whether a person is good or bad can also be known from the way he

walks."

Sri Ramakrishna paced the verandah. M. and Baburam walked with him.

MASTER (to Hazra): "A man came here. I saw that his eyes were like a

cat's. He asked me: 'Do you know astrology? I am in some difficulty.' I said:

'No, I don't. Go to Baranagore. There you will find astrologers.'"

Master and Nilkantha

Baburam and M. talked about Nilkantha's theatrical performance. Baburam

had spent the previous night at the temple garden after his return from

Nabin Sen's house. In the morning he had attended Nilkantha's performance

with the Master.

MASTER (to M. and Baburam): "What are you talking about?"

M. AND BABURAM: "About Nilkantha's performance."

While pacing the verandah Sri Ramakrishna suddenly took M. aside and

said, "The less people know about your thoughts of God, the better for

You," Saying these words the Master abruptly went away. A short time

afterwards he began to talk with Hazra.

HAZRA: "Nilkantha told you he would pay you a visit. It would be good

send for him."

MASTER: "No, he didn't sleep at all last night. It will be different if he

comes here through the will of God."

Sri Ramakrishna asked Baburam to visit Narayan at his house. He looked

on Narayan as God Himself, and so he longed to see him. The Master said

to Baburam, "You may go to him with one of your English textbooks."

About three o'clock in the afternoon Sri Ramakrishna was sitting in his

room. Nilkantha arrived with five or six of his companions. The Master

went toward the east door as if to welcome him. The musicians bowed

before the Master, touching the ground with their foreheads.

Sri Ramakrishna went into samādhi. Baburam stood behind him. M.,

Nilkantha, and the musicians were in front of him, watching him in great

amazement. Dinanath, an officer of the temple, looked on from the north

side of the bed. Soon the room was filled with officers of the temple garden.

Sri Ramakrishna's ecstasy abated a little. He seated himself on a mat on the

floor, surrounded by Nilkantha and other devotees.

MASTER (still in an ecstatic mood): "I am all right."

NILKANTHA (with folded hands): "Make me all right too."

MASTER (smiling): "Why, you are already all right. Adding the letter to 'a',

one gets 'ka'.

By adding another 'a' to 'ka', one still gets the same 'ka'." (All laugh.)

NILKANTHA: "Revered sir, I am entangled in worldliness."

MASTER (smiling): "God has kept you in the world for the sake of others.

There are eight fetters. One cannot get rid of them all. God keeps one or

two so that a man may live in the world and teach others. You have

organized this theatrical company. How many people are being benefited by

seeing your bhakti! If you give up everything, then where will these

musicians go?

"God is now doing all these works through you. When they are finish, you

will not return to them. The housewife finishes her household duties feeds

everyone, including the menservants and maidservants, and then goes to

take her bath. She doesn't come back then even if people shout for her."

NILKANTHA: "Please bless me."

MASTER: "Yaśoda went mad with grief because she was separated from

Krishna. She went to Radhika, who was meditating. Radhika said to her an

ecstatic state: 'I am the Ultimate Prakriti, the Primal Power. Ask a boon of

Me.' Yaśoda said to her: 'What shall I ask of You? Please bless me, that with

all my body, mind, and speech I may think of God and serve Him; that with

my ears I may hear the singing of God's name and glories; that with my

hands I may serve Hari and His devotees; that with my eyes I may behold

His form and His devotees.'

"Your eyes fill with tears when you utter the name of God. Why then should

you worry about anything? Divine love has grown in you.

"To know many things is ajnāna, ignorance. To know only one thing is

jnāna, Knowledge-the realization that God alone is real and that He dwells

in all. And to talk to Him is vijnāna, a fuller Knowledge. To love God in

different ways, after realizing Him, is vijnāna.

"It is also said that God is beyond one and two. He is beyond speech and

mind. To go up from the Lila to the Nitya and come down again from the

Nitya to the Lila is mature bhakti.

"I love that song of yours about aspiring to reach the Lotus Feet of the

Divine Mother. It is enough to know that everything depends on the grace

of God. But one must pray to God; it will not do to remain inactive. The

lawyer gives all the arguments and finishes his pleading by saying to the

judge: 'I have said all I have to say. Now the decision rests with Your

Honour.' "

After a few minutes Sri Ramakrishna said to Nilkantha: "You sang so much

in the morning, and now you have taken the trouble to come here. But here

everything is 'honorary'."

NILKANTHA: "Why so?"

MASTER (smiling): "I know what you will say."

NILKANTHA: "I shall get a precious gem from here."

MASTER: "You already have that precious gem. What will you gain by

adding again the letter 'a' to 'ka'? If you didn't have the gem, should I like

your songs so much?

Ramprasad had attained divine realization; that is why his songs appeal so

much.

"I had already planned to hear your music. Later on Niyogi, too, came here

to invite me."

The Master was sitting on the small couch. He told Nilkantha that he would

like to hear a song or two about the Divine Mother.

Nilkantha sang two songs with his companions. When the Master heard the

second song he stood up and went into samādhi. Presently he began to

dance in an ecstasy of divine love. Nilkantha and the devotees sang and

danced around him. Then Nilkantha sang a song about Śiva, and the Master

danced with the devotees.

When the singing was over, Sri Ramakrishna said to Nilkantha, "I should

like to hear that song of yours I heard in Calcutta."

M: "About Sri Gaurānga?"

MASTER: "Yes, yes!"

Nilkantha sang the song, "The beautiful Gaurānga, the youthful dancer, fair

as molten gold."

Sri Ramakrishna sang again and again the line, "Everything is swept away

by the onrush of love", and danced with Nilkantha and the other devotees.

Those who saw that indescribable dancing were never to forget it. The room

was filled with people, all intoxicated with divine joy. It seemed as if

Chaitanya himself were dancing with his companions.

Manomohan was in an ecstatic mood. He was a devotee of Sri Ramakrishna

and a brother-in-law of Rākhāl. Several ladies of his family had come with

him. They were witnessing this divine music and dancing from the north

verandah.

Sri Ramakrishna sang again, this time about Gaurānga and Nityananda:

Behold, the two brothers have came, who weep while chanting Hari's name.

. . .

He danced with Nilkantha and the other devotees, improvising the line:

Behold, the two brothers have come, they who are mad with love of Radha.

Hearing the loud music, many people gathered about the room. The

verandahs to the south and north, and the semicircular porch to the west of

the room, were crowded with people. Even passengers in the boats going

along the Gauges were attracted by the kirtan.

The music was over Sri Ramakrishna bowed to the Divine Mother and said,

"Bhagavata-Bhakta-Bhagavan. My salutations to the jnanis, my salutations

to the yogis, my salutations to the bhaktas."

The Master was seated on the semicircular porch with Nilkantha and the

other devotees.

The autumn moon flooded all the quarters with light. Sri Ramakrishna and

Nilkantha talked.

NILKANTHA: "You are none other than Gaurānga."

MASTER: "Why should you say such a thing? I am the servant of .the

servant of all. The waves belong to the Ganges; but does the Ganges belong

to the waves?"

NILKANTHA: "You may say whatever you like, but we regard you as

Gaurānga himself."

MASTER (tenderly, in an ecstatic mood): "My dear sir, I try to seek my 'I',

but I do not find it. Hanuman said: 'O Rāma, sometimes I think that You are

the whole and I am a part, and sometimes that You are the Master and I am

Your servant. But when I have the Knowledge of Reality, I see that You are

I and I am You.'"

NILKANTHA: "What shall I say, sir? Please be gracious to us."

MASTER (smiling): "You are ferrying many people across the ocean or the

world. How many hearts are illumined by hearing your music!"

NILKANTHA: "You talk of ferrying. But bless me that I may not be

drowned in the ocean myself."

MASTER (smiling): "If you get drowned, it will be in the Sea of

Immortality."

Sri Ramakrishna was delighted with Nilkantha's company. He said to the

musician: "For you to have come here! You whom people see as a result of

many austerities and prayers! Listen to a song."

The Master sang a song, two lines of which ran:

When the Blissful Mother comes to my house, how much of the Chandi I

shall hear!

How many monks will come here, and how many yogis with matted locks!

He said, continuing, "As long as the Divine Mother has come here, many

yogis with matted locks will come too."

Sri Ramakrishna laughed. To M., Baburam, and the other devotees he said:

"I feel very much like laughing. Just fancy, I am singing for these

musicians!"

NILKANTHA: "We go about singing; but today we have had our true

reward."

MASTER (smiling): 'when a shopkeeper sells an article, he sometimes

gives a little extra something to the buyer. You sang at Nabin's house and

have given the extra something here."

All laughed.

--------------------

Chapter 31

ADVICE TO ISHAN

Saturday, October 11, 1884

SRI RAMAKRISHNA lay on the small couch in his room at the

Dakshineswar temple garden. It was about two in the afternoon. M. and

Priya Mukherji were sitting on the floor. M. had left his school at one

o'clock and had just arrived at Dakshineswar. The Master was telling

anecdotes about the calculating nature of the wealthy Jadu Mallick.

The worldly Jadu Mallick

MASTER: "Once I went to Jadu Mallick's house. He asked right away,

'How much is the carriage hire?' Someone told him it was three rupees and

two ānnās. Then he questioned me about it. Next one of his people secretly

asked the coachman, who said it was three rupees and four ānnās (All

laugh.) At that he ran to us and said, 'How much did you say the carriage

hire was?'

"A broker was present. He said to Jadu: 'There is a plot of land at Burra

bazar for sale.

Will you buy it?' Jadu asked the price and the broker told him. Jadu said,

'Won't he give it for less?' I said to Jadu: 'Come, come. You aren't going to

buy the land. You're only bargaining. Isn't that so?' He turned to me and

laughed.

"That is the nature of the worldly man. He wants people to come to him.

That spreads his name in the market.

"Jadu went to Adhar's house. I told him it had made Adhar very happy. He

said: 'What?

What? Was he really happy?' A certain Mallick came to Jadu's house. He

was very clever and deceitful. I saw it in his eyes. I looked at him and said:

'It isn't good to be clever.

The crow is very clever, but it eats others filth.' I could tell he was badly off.

Jadu's mother was amazed and said to me, 'How did you know he hadn't a

penny?' I saw it from his appearance."

Narayan entered the room and sat on the floor.

MASTER (to Priyanath): "Well, your Hari is a fine young man."

PRIYANATH: "What is so fine about him? Of course, he has a childlike

nature."

NARAYAN: "He addressed his wife as mother."

MASTER: "What! Even I can't do that. And he calls her mother! (To

Priyanath) You see, the boy is very quiet. His mind is directed to God."

Sri Ramakrishna changed the subject of conversation.

MASTER: "Do you know what Hem said? He said to Baburam, 'God alone

is real; all else is illusory.'(All laugh.) Oh, no! He said it sincerely. Again,

he told me he would take me to his house and sing kirtan. But he didn't do

it. I understand that he said later on, 'What will people say if I sing with

drums and cymbals?' He was afraid that people might think he was crazy.

Warning devotees about women

"Haripada has fallen into the clutches of a woman of the Ghoshpara sect.

He can't get rid of her. He says that she takes him on her lap and feeds him.

She claims that she looks on him as the Baby Krishna. I have warned him a

great many times. She says that she thinks of him as a child. But this

maternal affection soon degenerates into something dangerous.

"You see, you should keep far away from woman; then you may realize

God. It is extremely harmful to have much to do with women who have bad

motives, or to eat food from their hands. They rob a man of his spirituality.

Only by being extremely careful about woman can one preserve one's love

of God. One day Bhavanāth, Rākhāl, and some other youngsters had

cooked their own meal in the temple garden. They were sitting at their meal

when a Baul arrived, sat down with them, and said he wanted to eat with

them. I said that there was not enough food; if anything was left it would be

kept for him. He became angry and left. On the Vijaya day a man allows

anyone and everyone to feed him with his own hand. It is not good. But one

can eat food from the hand of a devotee who is pure in heart.

"You must be extremely careful about women. Women speak of the attitude

of Gopala!

Pay no attention to such things. The proverb says: 'A woman devours the

three worlds.'

Many women, when they see handsome and healthy young men, lay snares

for them.

That is what they call the 'attitude of Gopala.'

"Those who develop dispassion from early youth, those who roam about

yearning for God from boyhood, those who refuse all worldly life, belong

to a different class. They belong to an unsullied aristocracy. If they develop

true renunciation, they keep themselves at least fifty cubits away from

women lest their spiritual mood should be destroyed. Once falling into the

clutches of women, they no longer remain on the level of unsullied

aristocracy. They fall from it and come to a lower level. People who

practise renunciation from early youth belong to a very high level. Their

ideal is very pure. They are stainless.

How to conquer passion

"How can a man conquer passion? He should assume the attitude of a

woman. I spent many days as the handmaid of God. I dressed myself in

women's clothes, put on ornaments, and covered the upper part of my body

with a scarf, just like a woman. With the scarf on I used to perform the

evening worship before the image. Otherwise, how could I have kept my

wife with me for eight months? Both of us behaved as if we were the

handmaids of the Divine Mother. I cannot speak of myself as a man. One

day I was in an ecstatic mood. My wife asked me, 'How do you regard me?'

'As the Blissful Mother', I said.

"Do you know the significance of the Śiva emblem? It is the worship of the

symbols of fatherhood and motherhood. The devotee worshipping the

image prays, 'O Lord, please grant that I may not be born into this world

again; that I may not have to pass again through a mother's womb.' "

A tutor of the Tagores entered the room with some boys of the family.

Sri Ramakrishna continued talking.

MASTER (to the devotees): "Sri Krishna has a peacock feather on His

crest. The feather bears the sign of the female sex. The significance of this

is that Krishna carries Prakriti, the female principle, on His head. When

Krishna joined the circle of the gopis to dance with them, He appeared there

as a woman. That is why you see Him wearing women's apparel in the

company of the gopis. Unless a man assumes the nature of a woman, he is

not entitled to her company. Assuming the attitude of a woman, he can sport

with her and enjoy her company.

Disciplines during the Sādhanā period But a man must be extremely

careful during the early stages of spiritual discipline. Then he must live far

away from any woman. He must not go too close to one even if she is a

great devotee of God. You see, a man must not sway his body while

climbing to the roof; he may fall. Weak people should hold on to a support

while going up the stairs.

"But it is quite different when one reaches perfection. After the realization

of God there is not much for a man to fear; he has become to a great extent

secure. The important thing is for a man somehow to climb to the roof.

After that he can even dance there. But he cannot dance on the steps. Again,

after climbing to the roof, you need no longer discard what you discarded

before. You find that the stairs are made of the same materials-bricks, lime,

and brick-dust-as the roof. The woman you have to be so careful about at

the beginning will appear to you, after the realization of God, as the Divine

Mother Herself. Then you will worship her as the Divine Mother. You won't

fear her so much.

"The thing is to touch the 'granny', as children do in the game of hide-and-

seek. Then you can do whatever you like.

Planes of mind

"Man, looking outward, sees the gross; at that time his mind dwells in the

annamayakosha, the gross body. Next is the subtle body. Functioning

through the subtle body, the mind dwells in the manomayakosha and the

vijnanamayakosha. Next is the causal body. Functioning through the causal

body the mind enjoys bliss; it dwells in the Ānandamaykosha. This

corresponds to the semi-conscious state experienced by Chaitanya. Last of

all, the mind loses itself in the Great Cause. It disappears. It merges in the

Great Cause. What one experiences after that cannot be described in words.

In his inmost state of consciousness, Chaitanya enjoyed this experience. Do

you know what this state is like? Dayananda described it by saying, 'Come

into the inner apartments and shut the door. Anyone and everyone cannot

enter that part of the house.

On meditation

"I used to meditate on the flame of a light. I thought of the red part as gross,

the white part inside the red as subtle, and the stick-like black part, which is

the innermost of all, as the causal.

"By certain signs you can tell when meditation is being rightly practised.

One of them is that a bird will sit on your head, thinking you are an inert

thing.

"I first met Keshab at a meeting of the Adi Samaj. Several members of the

Samaj were sitting on the platform. Keshab was in the middle. I saw him

motionless as a log.

Pointing to Keshab, I said to Mathur Babu: 'Look there! That bait has been

swallowed by a fish.' Because of that power of meditation he achieved what

he wanted-name, fame, and so forth-through the grace of God.

"One can meditate even with eyes open. One can meditate even while

talking. Take the case of a man with toothache.

TUTOR OF THE TAGORES: "Yes, sir. I know that very well." (All laugh.)

MASTER (smiling): "Yes, even when his teeth ache he does all his

duties,but his mind is on the pain. Likewise one can meditate with eyes

open and while talking to others as well."

TUTOR: "One of the epithets of God is the 'Redeemer of the sinner'. That is

our hope.

God is compassionate."

MASTER: "The Sikhs, too, said that God was compassionate. I asked,

'How is He compassionate?' 'Why,' they answered, 'He has begotten us; He

has created so many things for us; He has brought us up to be men; and He

protects us from danger at every step.' Thereupon I said: 'After begetting us,

God looks after us and feeds us. Is there much credit in that? Suppose a son

is born to you. Do you expect a man from another part of the city to bring

him up?' "

Tendencies from previous births

TUTOR: "Revered sir, one man quickly succeeds in spiritual life, and

another doesn't succeed at all. How do you explain that?"

MASTER: "The truth is that a man succeeds to a great extent because of

tendencies inherited from his previous births. People think he has attained

the goal all of a sudden.

A man drank a glass of wine in the morning. It made him completely drunk.

He began to behave improperly. People were amazed to see that he could be

so drunk after one glass. But another man said, 'Why, he has been drinking

all night.'

"Hanuman burnt down the golden city of Lanka. People were amazed that a

mere monkey could burn the whole city. But then they said, 'The truth is

that the city was burnt by the sighs of Sita and the wrath of Rāma.'

"Look at Lala Babu. He had so much wealth. Could he have renounced it all

so suddenly without the good tendencies of his previous births? And Rani

Bhavani. So much knowledge and devotion in a woman!

"In his last birth a man is endowed with sattva. His mind is directed to God.

He longs for God. He withdraws his mind from worldly things.

"Krishnadas Pal came here. I found him full of rajas. But it must be said

that he observed the Hindu customs. He left his shoes outside before

entering the room. After a little conversation I discovered that he had no

stuff inside. I asked him about man's duty. He said, 'To do good to the

world.' I said: 'My dear sir, who are you? What good will you do to the

world? Is the world such a small thing that you think you can help it?' "

Narayan arrived. Sri Ramakrishna was very happy to see him. He seated

Narayan by his side on the small couch. He showed him his love by

stroking his body and giving him sweets to eat. Then he asked Narayan

tenderly, "Will you have some water?" Narayan was a student at M.'s

school. At home his people beat him for visiting Sri Ramakrishna.

The Master said to Narayan with an affectionate smile, "You had better get

a leather jacket; then the beating won't hurt." Turning to Harish, the Master

said that he would like to have a smoke.

Again addressing Narayan, Sri Ramakrishna said: "That woman who has

established an artificial relationship of mother and son with Haripada came

here the other day. I have warned Haripada very often. She belongs to the

Ghoshpara sect. I asked her if she had found her 'man'. She said yes, and

mentioned a man's name.

(To M.) "Ah! Nilkantha came here the other day. What spiritual fervour he

has! He said he would come here another day and sing for us. They are

dancing over there. Why don't you go and see it? (To Ramlal) There is no

oil in the room. (Looking at the oil-jar) The servant hasn't filled it."

Sri Ramakrishna was walking up and down, now in his room, now on the

south verandah. Occasionally pausing on the semicircular porch west of his

room, he would look at the Ganges.

After a little while he returned to his room and sat on the small couch. It

was past three in the afternoon. The devotees took their seats on the floor.

The Master sat in silence before them, now and then casting a glance at the

walls, where many pictures were hanging. To Sri Ramakrishna's left was a

picture of Sarasvati, and beyond it, a picture of Gaur and Nitai singing

kirtan with their devotees. In front of the Master hung pictures of Dhruva,

Prahlada, and Mother Kāli. On the wall to his right was another picture of

the Divine Mother, Rajarajesvari. Behind him was a picture of Jesus Christ

raising the drowning Peter. Suddenly Sri Ramakrishna turned to M. and

said: "You see, it is good to keep pictures of sannyāsis and holy men in

one's room. When you get up in the morning you should see the faces of

holy persons rather than the faces of other men. People with rajasic qualities

keep 'English' pictures on their walls-pictures of rich men, the King, the

Queen, the Prince of Wales, and white men and women walking together.

That shows their rajasic temperament.

"You acquire the nature of the people whose company you keep. Therefore

even pictures may prove harmful. Again, a man seeks the company that

agrees with his own nature.

The paramahamsas keep near them a few young boys five or six years old.

They allow such boys to be near them. Attaining the state of a

paramahamsa, a man loves the company of boys. Like the paramahamsas,

the boys are not under the control of the Gunās-sattva, rajas, or tamas.

"By looking at trees a man awakens in his heart the picture of a hermitage

in which a rishi is practising austerity."

A brahmin from Sinthi entered the room and saluted Sri Ramakrishna. He

had studied Vedānta in Benares. He was stout and had a smiling face.

MASTER: "Hello! How are you? You haven't been here in a long time."

PUNDIT (smiling): "Worldly duties, sir. You know I have very little leisure.

The pundit sat down, and the Master began to talk with him.

Dayananda

MASTER: "You spent a long time in Benares. Tell us what you saw there.

Tell us something about Dayananda."

PUNDIT: "Yes, I met him. You also met him, didn't you?"

MASTER: "Yes, I visited him. He was 'living then in a garden house on the

other side of the Ganges. Keshab was expected there that day. He longed for

Keshab as the chatak bird longs for rain. He was a great scholar and made

fun of the Bengali language. He admitted the existence of the deities, but

Keshab did not. Dayananda used to say: 'God has created so many things.

Couldn't He have created the deities?' Dayananda believed the Ultimate

Reality to be without form. Captain was repeating the name of Rāma.

Dayananda said to him sarcastically, 'Better repeat "sandesh"!' "

PUNDIT: "In Benares the pundits had great discussions with Dayananda.

Finally he was left alone with all the others against him. They made it so

hot for him that he thought the only way to save himself was by running

away. All the pundits shouted with one voice, 'Whatever Dayananda has

said is to be despised!'

Theosophy

"I saw Colonel Olcott too. The Theosophists believe in the existence of

mahatmas. They also speak of the 'lunar', 'solar', 'stellar', and other planes.

A Theosophist can go in his 'astral body' to all these planes. Oh, Olcott said

many such things. Well, sir, what do you think of Theosophy?"

MASTER: "The one essential thing is bhakti, loving devotion to God. Do

the Theosophists seek bhakti? They are good if they do. If Theosophy

makes the realization of God the goal of life, then it is good. One cannot

seek God if one constantly busies oneself with the mahatmas and the lunar,

solar, and stellar planes. A man should practise sādhanā

and pray to God with a longing heart for love of His Lotus Feet. He should

direct his mind to God alone, withdrawing it from the various objects of the

world."

The Master sang:

How are you trying, O my mind, to know the nature of God?

You are groping like a madman locked in a dark room.

He is grasped through ecstatic love; how can you fathom Him Without it? . .

And, for that love, the mighty yogis practise yoga from age to age;

When love awakes, the Lord, like a magnet, draws to Him the soul.

Continuing, the Master said: "You may speak of the scriptures, of

philosophy, of Vedānta; but you will not find God in any of these. You will

never succeed in realizing God unless your soul becomes restless for Him.

Only through affirmation, never negation, can you know Him, Neither

through Veda nor through Tantra nor the six darsanas.

It is in love's elixir only that He delights, O mind; He dwells in the body's

inmost depths, in Everlasting Joy.

"One must be very earnest about God. Listen to another song: Can everyone

have the vision of Radha? Can everyone taste her love?

This, the rarest treasure of all, no earthly wealth can buy; Without

devotions and sādhanā none can ever obtain it.

The raindrop falling upon the deep when Svati shines on high Is formed

within the oyster's shell into a priceless pearl.

Can such a pearl be formed from rain that falls at other times?

Mothers with their babes in arms may beckon to the moon To leave the sky

and come to them; but only the babes are fooled.

Does the moon ever leave the sky and dwell upon the earth?

Preparation for God vision

"One must practise intense spiritual discipline. Can one obtain the vision of

God all of a sudden, without any preparation?

"A man asked, 'Why don't I see God?' I said to him, as the idea came to my

mind: 'You want to catch a big fish. First make arrangements for it. Throw

spiced bait into the water. Get a line and a rod. At the smell of the bait the

fish will come from the deep water. By the movement of the water you will

know that a big fish has come.'

"You want to eat butter. But what will you achieve by simply repeating that

there is butter in milk? You have to work hard for it. Only thus can you

separate butter from milk. Can one see God by merely repeating, 'God

exists'? One needs sādhanā.

"The Divine Mother Herself practised austere sādhanā to set an example

for mankind. Sri Krishna, who is none other than the Ultimate Brahman,

also practised sādhanā to set an example to others.

Purusha and Prakriti

"Sri Krishna is the Purusha and Radha the Prakriti, the ChitŚakti, the

Ādyāśakti. Radha is the Prakriti, the embodiment of the three Gunās. Sattva,

rajas, and tamas are in her. As you remove the layers of an onion, you will

first see tints of both black and red, then only red, and last of all only white.

The Vaishnava scriptures speak of 'Kam-Radha', 'Prem-Radha', and 'Nitya-

Radha'.

Chandravali is Kam-Radha, and Srimati is Prem-Radha; Nanda saw Nitya-

Radha holding Gopala in Her arms.

"The Brahman of Vedānta and the ChitŚakti are identical, like water and its

wetness. The moment you think of water you must also think of its wetness,

and the moment you think of water's wetness you must also think of water.

Or it is like the snake and its wriggling motion. The moment you think of

the snake you must a1so think of its wriggling motion, and the moment you

think of the snake's wriggling motion you must also think of the snake.

When do I call the Ultimate Reality by the name of Brahman?

When It is actionless or unattached to action. When a man puts on a cloth

he remains the same man as when he was naked. He was naked; now he is

clothed. He may be naked again. There is poison in the snake, but it doesn't

harm the snake. It is poison to him who is bitten by the snake.

Brahman Itself is unattached.

"Names and forms are nothing but the manifestations of the power of

Prakriti. Sita said to Hanuman: 'My child, in one form I am Sita, in another

form I am Rāma. In one form I am Indra, in another I am IndRani. In one

form I am Brahma, in another, Brahmani. In one form I am Rudra, in

another, Rudrani.' Whatever names and forms you see are nothing but the

manifestations of the power of ChitŚakti. Everything is the power of

ChitŚakti-even meditation and he who meditates. As long as I feel that I am

meditating, I am within the jurisdiction of Prakriti. (To M.) Try to assimilate

what I have said. One should hear what the Vedas and the Puranas say, and

carry it out in life.

(To the pundit) "It is good to live in the company of holy men now and

then. The disease of worldliness has become chronic in man. It is mitigated,

to a great extent, in holy company.

Knowledge and ignorance

"'I' and 'mine'-that is ignorance. True knowledge makes one feel: 'O God,

You alone do everything. You alone are my own. And to You alone belong

houses, buildings, family, relatives, friends, the whole world. All is Yours.'

But ignorance makes one feel: 'I am doing everything. I am the doer. House,

buildings, family, children, friends, and property are all mine.'

Hollowness of worldly love

"Once a teacher was explaining all this to a disciple. He said, 'God alone,

and no one else, is your own.' The disciple said: 'But, revered sir, my

mother, my wife, and my other relatives take very good care of me. They

see nothing but darkness when I am not present. How much they love me!'

The teacher said: 'There you are mistaken. I shall show you presently that

nobody is your own. Take these few pills with you. When you go home,

swallow them and lie down in bed. People will think you are dead, but you

will remain conscious of the outside world and will see and hear everything.

Then I shall visit your home.

"The disciple followed the instructions. He swallowed the pills and lay as if

unconscious in his bed. His mother, wife, and other relatives began to cry.

Just then the teacher came in, in the guise of a physician, and asked the

cause of their grief. When they had told him everything, he said to them:

'Here is a medicine for him. It will bring him back to life. But I must tell

you one thing. This medicine must first be taken by one of his relatives and

then given to him. But the relative who takes it first will die. I see his

mother, his wife, and others here. Certainly one of you will volunteer to

take the medicine. Then the young man will come back to life.'

"The disciple heard all this. First the physician called his mother, who was

weeping and rolling on the ground in grief. He said to her: 'Mother, you

don't need to weep any more.

Take this medicine and your son will come to life. But you will die.' The

mother took the medicine in her hand and began to think. After much

reflection she said to the physician, with tears in her eyes: 'My child, I have

a few more children. I have to think about them too. I am wondering what

will happen to them if I die. Who will feed them and look after them?' The

physician next called the wife and handed the medicine to her. She had been

weeping bitterly too. With the medicine in her hand she also began to

reflect. She had heard that she would die from the effect of the medicine. At

last, with tears in her eyes, she said: 'He has met his fate. If I die, what will

happen to my young children? Who will keep them alive? How can I take

the medicine?' In the mean time the disciple had got over the effect of the

pills. He was now convinced that nobody was really his own. He jumped

out of bed and left the place with his teacher. The guru said to him, 'There is

only one whom you may call your own, and that is God.'

"Therefore a man should act in such a way that he may have bhakti for the

Lotus Feet of God and love God as his very own. You see this world around

you. It exists for you only for a couple of days. There is nothing to it."

PUNDIT (smiling): "Revered sir, I feel a spirit of total renunciation when I

am here. I feel like going away, giving up the world."

MASTER: "No, no! Why should you give up? Give up mentally. Live

unattached in the world.

"Surendra wanted to spend the night here occasionally. He brought a bed

and even spent a day or two here. Then his wife said to him, 'You may go

anywhere you like during the day-time, but at night you must not leave

home.' What could poor Surendra do? Now he has no way of spending the

night away from home.

Reason and love

"What will you achieve by mere reasoning? Be restless for God and learn to

love Him.

Reason, mere intellectual knowledge, is like a man who can go only as far

as the outer court of the house. But bhakti is like a woman who goes into

the inner court.

Different attitudes toward God

"One must take up a definite attitude toward God. Then alone can one

realize Him.

Rishis like Sanaka cherished the attitude of Śānta; Hanuman the attitude of

a servant; the cowherd boys of Vrindāvan, like Sridāmā and Sudāmā, the

attitude of a friend; Yaśoda the attitude of a mother; and Radha the attitude

of a sweetheart.

" 'O God, Thou art the Lord and I am Thy servant' - that is the servant's

attitude, a very good one for aspirants."

PUNDIT: "Yes, sir."

The pundit from Sinthi left. It was dusk. Twilight hung over the Panchavati,

the temples, and the river. Evening worship began in the different temples,

accompanied by the sound of bells, gongs, and conchshells. Sri

Ramakrishna bowed before the pictures of the deities in his room. He was

sitting on the small couch in an abstracted mood. A few devotees were on

the floor. There was silence in the room.

Master and Ishan

An hour passed. Ishan and Kishori entered and sat down on the floor after

saluting Sri Ramakrishna. Ishan was a great ritualist. He was devoted to the

performance of the, various rites and ceremonies prescribed by the

scriptures. The Master opened the conversation.

Characteristics of Knowledge

MASTER: "Can one attain knowledge of God by merely repeating the word

'God'? There are two indications of such knowledge. First, longing,that is to

say, love for God. You may indulge in reasoning or discussion, but if you

feel no longing or love, it is all futile.

Second, the awakening of the Kundalini. As long as the Kundalini remains

asleep, you have not attained knowledge of God. You may be spending

hours poring over books or discussing philosophy, but if you have no inner

restlessness for God, you have no knowledge of Him.

Path of devotion

"When the Kundalini is awakened, one attains bhava, bhakti, prema, and so

on. This is the path of devotion.

Path of karma

"The path of karma is very difficult. Through it one obtains some powers-I

mean occult powers."

ISHAN: "Let me go and see Hazra."

Sri Ramakrishna sat in silence. After a while Ishan returned to the room

accompanied by Hazra. The Master was still silent. A few moments later

Hazra whispered to Ishan: "Let's leave him alone. Perhaps he will meditate

now." Both left the room.

Sri Ramakrishna was still silent. In a few moments the devotees noticed that

he was really meditating. Then he performed japa. He placed his right hand

on his head, then on his forehead, then on his throat, then on his heart, and

last of all on his navel. Was it meditation on the Primordial Energy in the

six centres of the body?

Ishan and Hazra had gone to the Kāli temple. Sri Ramakrishna was

absorbed in meditation. Meanwhile Adhar had arrived. It was about half

past seven.

A little later the Master. went to the Kāli temple. He looked at the image,

took some sacred Rowers from the feet of the Mother, and placed them on

his head. He prostrated himself before the Mother and went round the

image. He waved the chamara. He appeared ecstatic with divine fervour.

Coming out, he found Ishan performing the sandhya with the kosakusi.

Rituals are only steps

MASTER (to Ishan): "What? You are still here? Are you still performing

the sandhya?

Listen to a song:

Why should I go to Ganga or Gaya, to Kasi, Kanchi, or Prabhas,

So long as I can breathe my last with Kāli's name upon my lips?

What need of rituals has a man, what need of devotions any more,

If he repeats the Mother's name at the three holy hours?

Rituals may pursue him close, but never can they overtake him.

Charity, vows, and giving of gifts do not appeal to Madan's mind;

The Blissful Mother's Lotus Feet are his whole prayer and sacrifice. . . .

"How long must a man continue the sandhya? As long as he has not

developed love for the Lotus Feet of God, as long as he does not shed tears

and his hair does not stand on end when he repeats God's name.

I bow my head, says Prasad, before desire and liberation; Knowing the

secret that Kāli is one with the highest Brahman, I have discarded, once for

all, both dharma and adharma.

"When the fruit grows, the flower drops off. When one has developed love

of God and has beheld Him, then one gives up the sandhya and other rites.

When the young daughter-in-law is with child, the mother-in-law reduces

her activities. When she has been pregnant for nine months, she is not

allowed to perform any household duty. After the birth of the child, she

only carries the child on her arm and nurses it. She has no other duty. After

the attainment of God, the sandhya and other rites are given up.

Master exhorts Ishan

"You cannot achieve anything by moving at such a slow pace. You need

stern renunciation. Can you achieve anything by counting fifteen months as

a year? You seem to have no strength, no grit. You are as mushy as flattened

rice soaked in milk. Be up and doing! Gird your loins!

"I don't like that song:

Brother, joyfully cling to God;

Thus striving, some day you may attain Him.

I don't care for the line, 'Thus striving, some day you may attain Him.' You

need stern renunciation. I say the same thing to Hazra.

"You ask me why you don't feel stern renunciation. There is a reason for it.

You have desires and tendencies within you. The same is true of Hazra. In

our part of the country I have seen peasants bringing water into their paddy-

fields. The fields have low ridges on all sides to prevent the water from

leaking out; but these are made of mud and often have holes here and there.

The peasants work themselves to death to bring the water, which, however,

leaks out through the holes. Desires are the holes. You practise japa and

austerities, no doubt, but they all leak out through the holes of your desires.

"They catch fish with a bamboo trap. The bamboo is naturally straight. But

why is it bent in the trap? In order to catch the fish. Desires are the fish.

Therefore the mind is bent down toward the world. If there are no desires,

the mind naturally looks up toward God.

"Do you know what it is like? It is like the needles of a balance. On account

of the weight of 'woman and gold' the two needles are not in line. It is

'woman and gold' that makes a man stray from the path of yoga. Haven't

you noticed the flame of a candle? The slightest wind makes it waver. The

state of yoga is like the candle-flame in a windless place.

"The mind is dispersed. Part of it has gone to Dāccā, part to Delhi, and

another part to Coochbehar. That mind is to be gathered in; it must be

concentrated on one object. If you want sixteen ānnā’s worth of cloth, then

you have to pay the merchant the full sixteen ānnās. Yoga is not possible if

there is the slightest obstacle. If there is a tiny break in the telegraph-wire,

then the news cannot be transmitted.

"You are no doubt in the world. What if you are? You must urrender the

fruit of your action to God. You must not seek any result for yourself. But

mark one thing. The desire for bhakti cannot be called a desire. You may

desire bhakti and pray for it. Practise the tamas of bhakti and force your

demand upon the Divine Mother.

This bitterly contested suit between the Mother and Her son-What sport it

is! says Ramprasad. I shall not cease tormenting Thee

Till Thou Thyself shalt yield the fight and take me in Thine arms at last.

"Trailokya once remarked, 'As I was born into the family, I have a share in

the estate.'

"God is your own Mother. Is She a stepmother? Is it an artificial

relationship? If you cannot force your demand on Her, then on whom can

you force it? Say to Her: Mother, am I Thine eight-months child? Thy red

eyes cannot frighten me!.

A deed of gift I hold in my heart, attested by Thy Husband Śiva; I shall sue

Thee, if I must, and with a single point shall win.

"God is your own Mother. Enforce your demand. If you are part of a thing,

you feel its attraction. Because of the element of the Divine Mother in me I

feel attracted to Her. A true Saiva has some of the characteristics of Śiva; he

has in him some of the elements of Śiva. He who is a true Vaishnava is

endowed with some of the elements of Narayana.

"Nowadays you don't have to attend to worldly duties. Spend a few days

thinking of God.

You have seen that there is nothing to the world."

The Master sang:

Remember this, O mind! Nobody is your own:

Vain is your wandering in this world.

Trapped in the subtle snare of māyā as you are, Do not forget the Mother's

name.

Only a day or two men honour you on earth

As lord and master; all too soon

That form, so honoured now, must needs be cast away, When Death, the

Master, seizes you.

Even your beloved wife, for whom, while yet you live, You fret yourself

almost to death,

Will not go with you then; she too will say farewell, And shun your corpse

as an evil thing.

Continuing, the Master said: "What are these things you busy yourself with-

this arbitration and leadership? I hear that you settle people's quarrels and

that they make you the arbiter. You have been doing this kind of work a

long time. Let those who care for such things do them. Now devote your

mind more and more to the Lotus Feet of God. The saying goes: 'Ravana

died in Lanka and Behula wept bitterly for him!'

"Sambhu, too, said, 'I shall build hospitals and dispensaries.' He was a

devotee of God; so I said to him, 'Will you ask God for hospitals and

dispensaries when you see Him?'

"Keshab Sen asked me, 'Why do I not see God?' I said, 'You do not see God

because you busy yourself with such things as name and fame and

scholarship.' The mother does not come to the child as long as it sucks its

toy-a red toy. But when, after a few minutes, it throws the toy away and

cries, then the mother takes down the rice-pot from the hearth and comes

running to the child.

"You are engaged in arbitration. The Divine Mother says to Herself:'My

child over there is now busy arbitrating and is very happy. Let him be.' "

In the mean time Ishan had been holding Sri Ramakrishna's feet. He said

humbly, "It is not my will that I should do those things."

MASTER: "I know it. This is the Divine Mother's play-Her lila. It is the

will of the Great Enchantress that many should remain entangled in the

world. Do you know what it is like?

How many are the boats, O mind,

That float on the ocean of this world!

How many are those that sink!

Again,

Out of a hundred thousand kites, at best but one or two break free;

And Thou dost laugh and clap Thy hands, O

Mother, watching them!

Only one or two in a hundred thousand get liberation. The rest are

entangled through the will of the Divine Mother.

"Haven't you seen the game of hide-and-seek? It is the 'granny's' will that

the game should continue. If all touch her and are released, then the playing

comes to a stop.

Therefore it is not her will that all should touch her.

You see, in big grain stores the merchants keep rice in great heaps that

touch the ceiling. Beside them there are heaps of lentils. To protect the grain

from the mice, the merchants leave trays of puffed rice and sweetened rice

near it. The mice like the smell and the sweet taste of these and so

stayaround the trays. They don't find the big heaps of grain. Similarly, men

are deluded by 'woman and gold'; they do not know where God is.”

"Rāma said to Nārada, 'Ask a boon of Me.' Nārada said: 'O Rāma, is there

anything I lack? What shall I ask of Thee? But if Thou must give me a

boon, grant that I may have selfless love for Thy Lotus Feet and that I may

not be deluded by Thy world-bewitching māyā.' Rāma said, 'Nārada, ask

something else.' Nārada again replied: O Rāma, I don't want anything else

Be gracious to me and see that I have pure love for Thy Lotus Feet.'”

"I prayed to the Divine Mother: 'O Mother, I don't want name and fame I

don't want the eight occult powers. I don't want a hundred occult powers O

Mother, I have no desire for creature comforts. Please, Mother, grant me the

boon that I may have pure love for Thy Lotus Feet.'”

"It is written in the Adhyātma Rāmāyana that Lakshmana asked Rāma

'Rāma, in how many forms and moods do You exist? How shall I be able to

recognize You?' Rāma said: 'Brother, remember this. You may be certain

that I exist wherever you find the manifestation of ecstatic love.' That love

makes one laugh and weep and dance and sing; if anyone has developed

such love, you may know for certain that God Himself is manifest there.

Chaitanyadeva reached that state."

The devotees listened spellbound to Sri Ramakrishna. His burning words

entered their souls, spurring them along the path of renunciation.

Now he spoke to Ishan in a serious voice.

MASTER: "Don't forget yourself because of what you hear from your

flatterers. Flatterers gather around a worldly man. Vultures gather around

the carcass of a cow.

"Worldly people have no stuff in them. They are like a heap of cow-dung.

Flatterers come to them and say: 'You are so charitable and wise! You are so

pious!' These are not mere words but pointed bamboos thrust at them. How

foolish it is! To be surrounded day and night by a bunch of worldly brahmin

pundits and hear their flattery!

"Worldly men are slaves of three things: they are slaves of their wives,

slaves of their money, slaves of their masters. Can they have any inner

stuff? There is a certain person whom I shall not name; he earns eight

hundred rupees a month but is the slave of his wife. He stands up or sits

down at her bidding.

"Arbitration and leadership? How trifling these are! Charity and doing good

to others?

You have had enough of these. Those who are to devote themselves to such

things belong to a different class. Now the time is ripe for you to devote

your mind to the Lotus Feet of God. If you realize God, you will get

everything else. First God, then charity, doing good to others, doing good to

the world, and redeeming people. Why need you worry about these things.

'Ravana died in Lanka and Behula wept for him bitterly!'

"That's the trouble with you. It will be very good if a world-renouncing

sannyāsi gives you some spiritual instruction. The advice of the worldly

man will not be right, be he a brahmin pundit or anyone else.

"Be mad! Be mad with love of God! Let people know that Ishan has gone

mad and cannot perform worldly duties any more. Then people will no

longer come to you for leadership and arbitration. Throw aside the kosakusi

and justify your name of Ishan."

Ishan quoted:

O Mother, make me mad with Thy love!

What need have I of knowledge or reason?

MASTER: "Mad! That's the thing! Shivanath once said that one 'loses one's

head' by thinking too much of God. 'What?' said I. 'Can anyone ever

become unconscious by thinking of Consciousness? God is of the nature of

Eternity, Purity, and Consciousness.

Through His Consciousness one becomes conscious of everything; through

His Intelligence the whole world appears intelligent.' Shivanath said that

some Europeans had gone insane, that they had 'lost their heads', by

thinking too much about God. In their case it may be true; for they think of

worldly things. There is a line in a song: 'Divine fervour fills my body and

robs me of consciousness.' The consciousness referred to here is the

consciousness of the outer world."

Ishan was seated touching Sri Ramakrishna's feet and listening to his words.

Now and then he cast a glance at the basalt image of Kāli in the shrine. In

the light of the lamp She appeared to be smiling. It was as if the living

Deity, manifesting Herself through the image, was delighted to hear the

Master's words, holy as the words of the Vedas.

ISHAN (pointing to the image); "Those words from your sacred lips have

really come from there."

MASTER: "I am the machine and She is the Operator. I am the house and

She is the Indweller. I am the chariot and She is the Charioteer. I move as

She moves me; I speak as She speaks through me. In the Kaliyuga one does

not hear the voice of God, it is said, except through the mouth of a child or

a madman or some such person.

"A man cannot be a guru. Everything happens by the will of God. Heinous

sins-the sins of many births-and accumulated ignorance all disappear in the

twinkling of an eye, through the grace of God. When light enters a room

that has been kept dark a thousand years, does it remove the thousand years'

darkness little by little, or instantly? Of course, at the mere touch of light all

the darkness disappears.

"What can a man do? He may speak many words, but after all is said and

done everything rests with God. The lawyer says: 'I have said all that can be

said. Now the verdict rests with the judge.'

"Brahman is actionless. When It is engaged in creation, preservation, and

dissolution, It is called the Primal Power, Ādyāśakti. This Power must be

propitiated. Don't you know that it is so written in the Chandi? The gods

first sang a hymn to the Ādyāśakti in order to propitiate Her. Only then did

Hari wake up from His yoga sleep."

ISHAN: "Yes, sir. Brahma and the other gods sang this hymn at the timeof

the death of the demons Madhu and Kaitabha:

Svaha, Vashat, and Svadha art Thou; Thou the inner Self of the mantra;

Thou the Nectar of Immortality, O Everlasting One!

Eternal and unutterable art Thou, and yet Thou art manifest In the three

matras and the half matra:

O Goddess, Thou art Savitri; Thou art the Ultimate Mother; All things have

their support in Thee, by whom this universe was made.

O Goddess, Thou sustainest all, and all by Thee is devoured!

Thou it is that we call the Creator, when Thou createst the world,

O Embodiment of creation!

Thou it is that we call the Preserver, when Thou preservest it; Thou it is that

we call the Destroyer, when Thou destroyest it."

MASTER: "Yes, but you must assimilate that."

The Master rose. He mounted the platform in front of the shrine and saluted

the Mother, touching the ground with his forehead. The devotees quickly

gathered around him and fell at his feet. They all begged his grace. He

descended from the platform and started toward his room, conversing with

M. First he sang: I bow my head, says Prasad, before desire and liberation;

Knowing the secret that Kāli is one with the highest Brahman,

I have discarded, once for all, both dharma and adharma.

The Master continued: "Do you know the meaning of dharma and adharma?

Here dharma means religious acts enjoined by the scriptures, suchas charity,

sraddha, feeding the poor, and the like.

"The performance of this dharma is called the path of karma. It is an

extremely difficult path: it is very hard to act without motive. Therefore one

is asked to pursue the path of devotion.

"A man was performing the sraddha ceremony at his house. He was feeding

many people. Just then a butcher passed, leading a cow to slaughter. He

could not control the animal and became exhausted. He said to himself: 'Let

me go into that house and enjoy the feast of the sraddha ceremony and

strengthen my body. Then I shall be able to drag the cow along.' So he

carried out his intention. But when he killed the cow, the sin of the

slaughter fell also on the performer of the sraddha. That is why I say the

path of devotion is better than the path of action."

The Master entered his room accompanied by M. He was humming a song.

The forceful words of renunciation that he had just spoken to Ishan found

expression through its words. He sang the lines:

Mother, take everything else away from me,

But leave me my necklace of bones and my pot of hemp!

Sri Ramakrishna sat down on the small couch, and Adhar, Kishori, and the

other devotees sat on the foor.

MASTER (to tile devotees): "I was noticing Ishan, Why, he hasn't achieved

anything!

What can be the reason? He practised the purascharana for five months.

That would have caused a revolution in any other person.'

ADHAR: "It wasn't wise of you to say those things to him in front of us."

MASTER: "How is that? He is so much given to japa! How can words

affect him?"

After a while Sri Ramakrishna said to Adhar, "Ishan is very charitable, and

he practises japa and austerity a great deal." The Master remained quiet a

few moments. The eyes of the devotees were fixed on him. Suddenly Sri

Ramakrishna said to Adhar, "You have both-yoga and bhoga."

Saturday, October 18, 1884

It was the day of the worship of Kāli, the Divine Mother. The worship was

to begin at eleven o'clock at night. Several devotees arrived at the temple.

All creation is the sport of my mad Mother Kāli; By Her māyā the three

worlds are bewitched.

Mad is She and mad is Her Husband; mad are Her two disciples!

None can describe Her loveliness, Her glories, gestures, moods;

Śiva, with the agony of the poison in His throat, Chants Her name again

and again.

The Personal does She oppose to the Impersonal, Breaking one stone with

another;

Though to all else She is agreeable,

Where duties are concerned She will not yield.

Keep your raft, says Ramprasad, afloat on the sea of life, Drifting up with

the flood-tide, drifting down with the ebb.

The Master was quite overwhelmed with the song. He said that songs like

these denoted a state of divine inebriation. He sang one after another:

This time I shall devour Thee utterly, Mother Kāli!

For I was born under an evil star,

And one so born becomes, they say, the eater of his mother. . . .

Then:

O Kāli, my Mother full of Bliss! Enchantress of the Almighty Śiva!

In Thy delirious joy Thou dancest, clapping Thy hands together! . . .

And then:

If at the last my life-breath leaves me as I repeat the name of Kāli,

I shall attain the realm of Śiva. What does Benares mean to me?

Infinite are my Mother's glories; who can find the end of Her virtues?

Śiva, beholding their smallest part, lies prostrate at Her Lotus Feet.

The singing was over. Two sons of Rajnarayan entered the room and bowed

low before the Master. In the afternoon they had sung with their father the

glories of the Divine Mother. The Master sang again with them:

All creation is the sport of my mad Mother Kāli The younger brother

requested Sri Ramakrishna to sing a certain song about Sri Gaurānga. The

Master sang:

Gaur and Nitai, ye blessed brothers!

I have heard how kind you are,

And therefore I have come to you. . . .

Ramlal entered the room. The Master said to him: "Please sing something

about the Divine Mother. It is the day of Her worship."

Ramlal sang:

Who is the Woman yonder who lights the field of battle?

Darker Her body gleams even than the darkest storm-cloud, And from Her

teeth there flash the lightning's blinding flames!

Dishevelled Her hair is flying behind as She rushes about, Undaunted in

this war between the gods and the demons.

Laughing Her terrible laugh, She slays the fleeing asuras, And with Her

dazzling flashes She bares the horror of war. . . .

Again Ramlal sang:

Who, is this terrible Woman, dark as the sky at midnight?

Who is this Woman dancing over the field of battle? . . .

Sri Ramakrishna began to dance to the song. Then he himself sang: The

black bee of my mind is drawn in sheer delight To the blue lotus flower of

Mother Syama's feet, The blue flower of the feet of Kāli, Śiva's Consort.

Tasteless, to the bee, are the blossoms of desire.

My Mother's feet are black, and black, too, is the bee; Black is made one

with black! This much of the mystery These mortal eyes behold, then hastily

retreat.

But Kamalakanta's hopes are answered in the end; He swims in the Sea of

Bliss, unmoved by joy or pain.

After the music and dancing Sri Ramakrishna sat on the couch and the

devotees sat on the floor. He said to M.: "It is a pity you weren't here in the

afternoon. The musical recital of the Chandi was very fine."

Some of the devotees went to the temple to salute the image of the Divine

Mother.

Others sat quietly performing japa on the steps leading to the Ganges. It

was about eleven o'clock, the most auspicious time for contemplation of the

Divine Mother. The flood-tide was rising in the Ganges, and the lights on its

banks were reflected here and there in its dark waters.

From outside the shrine M. was looking wistfully at the image. Ramlal

came to the temple with a book in his hand containing the rules of the

worship. He asked M. if he wanted to come in. M. felt highly favoured and

entered the shrine. He saw that the Divine Mother was profusely decorated.

The room was brilliantly illuminated by a large chandelier that hung from

the ceiling. Two candles were burning in front of the image.

On the floor were trays full of offerings. Red hibiscus flowers and bel-

leaves adorned Her feet. She wore garlands round Her neck, M.'s eyes fell

on the chamara. Suddenly he remembered that Sri Ramakrishna often

fanned the Divine Mother with it. With some hesitation he asked Ramlal if

he might fan the image. The priest gave his permission. M.

joyously fanned the image. The regular worship had not yet begun.

The devotees again entered the Master's room. Beni Pāl had invited Sri

Ramakrishna to visit the Sinthi Brahmo Samaj the next day, but had made a

mistake in his letter with regard to the date.

MASTER (to M.): "Beni Pāl has sent me an invitation. But why has he put

the wrong date?"

M: "The date was not written correctly. He wrote the letter carelessly."

As Sri Ramakrishna spoke, he was standing in the middle of the room with

Baburam by his side. He leaned toward the disciple, touching his body.

Suddenly he went into samādhi. The devotees stood around with their eyes

fixed on him.

The Master's left foot was advanced a little; the shoulder was slightly

inclined to one side; his arm rested on Baburam's neck near the ear. After a

while he came down from the ecstatic state. As he stood there he put one

hand to his cheek and appeared to be brooding over something. Then,

smiling, he addressed the devotees.

MASTER: "I saw everything-how far the devotees had advanced. I saw

Rākhāl, him (pointing to M.), Surendra, Baburam, and many others."

HAZRA: "Me?"

MASTER: "Yes."

HAZRA: "Many more obstacles?"

MASTER: "No."

HAZRA: "What about Narendra?"

MASTER: "I didn't see him. But I can tell about him. He is a little

entangled. But I saw that everyone will succeed. (To M.) I saw that all are

in hiding."

The devotees listened to these words with great wonder. It seemed to them

that they were hearing an oracle.

MASTER: "But I got into that mood by touching Baburam."

HAZRA: "Who is first?"

Sri Ramakrishna was quiet for a time. Then he said, "I wish I had a few like

Nityagopal."

Again he appeared thoughtful. He remained standing. He said: "I wish

Adhar Sen's duties would become fewer. But I am afraid the English officer

will scold him. He may say, 'What is all this nonsense?'" (All smile.) Sri

Ramakrishna sat on the small couch, and the devotees on the floor.

Baburam. and Kishori came quickly to the Master and began to stroke his

feet gently.

MASTER (to Kishori): "What's the matter? Why so much service today?

The worship in the temple

Ramlal entered the room and saluted Sri Ramakrishna, touching the ground

with his forehead. Then with great respect he touched the Master's feet. He

was ready to worship the Divine Mother in the temple.

RAMLAL: "Please permit me to go to the shrine."

The Master twice uttered the words "Om Kāli" and said: "Perform the

worship carefully.

There is also a sheep to be slaughtered."

It was midnight. The worship began in the Kāli temple. The Master went to

watch the ceremony. During the worship he stood near the image. Now the

sheep was going to be slaughtered. The animal was consecrated before the

Deity. People stood in lines watching the ceremony. While the sheep was

being taken to the block Sri Ramakrishna returned to his room. He could

not bear the sight.

Several devotees remained in the temple till two o'clock in the morning.

Haripada came and asked them to take the prasad to the Master's room.

After finishing their meal they lay down wherever they could for the

remainder of the night.

It was morning. The dawn service in the temples was over and the theatrical

performance was going on in the open hall in front of the shrine. M. was

coming through the courtyard with Sri Ramakrishna. He wanted to take

leave of the Master.

MASTER: "Why should you go now?"

M: "You are going to Sinthi in the afternoon. I too intend to be there. So I

should like to go home for a few hours."

They came to the Kāli temple. At the foot of the steps M. saluted the

Master.

MASTER: "You are going? All right. Please bring two pieces of cheap

cloth for me. I shall use them while taking my bath."

--------------------

Chapter 32

VISIT TO THE SINTHI BRAMO SAMAJ

October 19, 1884

ON THIS DAY Sri Ramakrishna again visited the Sinthi Brahmo Samaj. It

was the occasion of the autumn festival of the Samaj, which was being

celebrated at Benimadhav Pal's garden house. The hall was decorated with

flowers and greens, flags and festoons, of various colours. Outside, the blue

autumn sky with its fleecy clouds was reflected in the water of the lake.

Sri Ramakrishna arrived at half past four in the afternoon. Entering the hall,

he bowed down before the altar. The Brahmo devotees, among whom could

be noticed Vijay and Trailokya, sat around him. A sub-judge, who was a

member of the Brahmo Samaj, was with them.

Trailokya was entertaining the devotees with his melodious music.

MASTER (to Trailokya): "That song of yours, 'O Mother, make me mad

with Thy love', I enjoy very much. Won't you sing it?"

Trailokya sang:

O Mother, make me mad with Thy love!

What need have I of knowledge or reason?

Make me drunk with Thy love's Wine;

O Thou who stealest Thy bhaktas' hearts,

Drown me deep in the Sea of Thy love!

Here in this world, this madhouse of Thine,

Some laugh, some weep, some dance for joy:

Jesus, Buddha, Moses, Gaurānga,

All are drunk with the Wine of Thy love.

O Mother, when shall I be blessed

By joining their blissful company?

As he listened to the song, the Master's mind underwent a transformation,

and presently he went into deep samādhi. Coming down a little to the plane

of the sense world, he gave instruction to the devotees. His mind was still

charged with the divine experience.

His words were spoken as if in a state of intoxication. Gradually he became

again fully conscious of the world.

MASTER: "O Mother! I don't want the bliss of divine inebriation. I shall

eat siddhi.

Occult powers

(To the devotees) "By 'siddhi' I mean the attainment of the spiritual goal and

not one of the eight occult powers. About the occult powers, Sri Krishna

said to Arjuna, 'Friend, if you find anyone who has acquired even one of the

eight powers, then know for certain he will not realize Me.' For powers

surely beget pride, and God cannot be realized if there is the slightest trace

of pride.

Four classes of devotees

"According to a certain school of thought there are four classes of devotees:

the pravartaka, the sadhaka, the siddha, and the siddha of the siddha. He

who has just begun religious life is a pravartaka. Such a man puts his

denominational marks on his body and forehead, wears a rosary around his

neck, and scrupulously follows other outer conventions. The sadhaka has

advanced farther. His desire for outer show has become less. He longs for

the realization of God and prays to Him sincerely. He repeats the name of

God and calls on Him with a guileless heart. Now, whom should we call the

siddha? He who has the absolute conviction that Cod exists and is the sole

Doer; he who has seen God. And who is the siddha of the siddha? He who

has not merely seen God, but has intimately talked with Him as Father, Son,

or Beloved.

Difference between intellectual understanding and actual vision "It is

one thing to believe beyond a doubt that fire exists in wood, but it is quite

another to get the fire from the wood, cook rice with its help, appease one's

hunger, and so be satisfied. These are two entirely different things.

"No one can put a limit to spiritual experience. If you refer to one

experience, there is another beyond that, and still another, and so on.

Advice to Brahmo

(In an ecstatic mood, referring to the Brahmos) 'They are Brahma jnanis.

They believe in the formless Deity. That is good.

(To the Brahmo devotees) "Be firm in one ideal-either in God with form or

in the formless God. Then alone will you realize God; otherwise not. With

firm and unwavering belief the followers of God with form will realize

Him, as will those who speak of Him as formless. You may eat a cake with

icing either straight or sidewise; it will taste sweet either way. (All laugh.)

Need of firmness and conviction

"But you must have firm conviction, you must pray to Him whole-

heartedly.

Faith of the worldly-minded

Do you know what the God of worldly people is like? It is like children's

saying to one another while at play, 'I swear by God.' They have learnt the

word from the quarrels of their aunts or grandmothers. Or it is like God to a

dandy. The dandy, all spick and span, his lips red from chewing betel-leaf,

walks in the garden, cane in hand, and, plucking a flower, exclaims to his

friend, 'Ah! What a beautiful flower God has made!' But this feeling of a

worldly person is momentary. It lasts as long as a drop of water on a red-hot

frying-pan.

"You must be firm in one ideal. Dive deep. Otherwise you cannot get the

gems at the bottom of the ocean. You cannot pick up the gems if you only

float on the surface."

With these words the Master sang in the sweet voice that had bewitched the

hearts of devotees like Keshab:

Dive deep, O mind, dive deep in the Ocean of God's Beauty; If you descend

to the uttermost depths,

There you will find the gem of Love. . . .

The devotees felt as if they were in paradise itself.

Seek the Creator and not the world's beauty

MASTER (to the Brahmos): "Dive deep. Learn to love God. Plunge into

divine love. You see, I have heard how you pray. Why do you Brahmos

dwell so much on the glories of God? Is there such great need of your

saying over and over again, 'O God, You have created the sky, the great

oceans, the lunar world, the solar world, and the stellar world'?

"Everybody is wonder-struck at the mere sight of a rich man's garden house.

People become speechless at the sight of the trees, the flowers, the ponds,

the drawing-room, the pictures. But alas, how few are they who seek the

owner of all these! Only one or two inquire after him. He who seeks God

with a longing heart can see Him, talk to Him as I am talking to you.

Believe my words when I say that God can be seen. But ah! To whom am I

saying these words? Who will believe me?

Futility of mere study

"Can one find God in the sacred books? By reading the scriptures one may

feel at the most that God exists. But God does not reveal Himself to a man

unless he himself dives deep. Only after such a plunge, after the revelation

of God through His grace, is one's doubt destroyed. You. may read

scriptures by the thousands and recite thousands of texts; but unless you

plunge into God with yearning of heart, you will not comprehend Him. By

mere scholarship you may fool man, but not God.

"Scriptures and books-what can one achieve with these alone? Nothing can

be realized without His grace. Strive with a longing heart for His grace.

Through His grace you will see Him and He will talk to you."

Different degrees of divine manifestation

SUB-JUDGE: "Sir, does God show more grace to one than to another? If

so, He can be accused of the fault of partiality."

MASTER: "What are you saying? Do you mean to say that the moon and a

glowworm are the same, though both give light? Iswar Vidyāsāgar asked

me the same question. He said, 'Is it a fact, sir, that God gives more power

to one and less to another?' 'God', I said, 'exists in every being as the All

pervading Spirit. He is in the ant as well as in me.

But there are different manifestations of His Power in different beings. If all

are the same, then why have we come here to see you, attracted by your

renown? Have you grown a pair of horns? Oh, no! It is not that. You have

compassion; you have scholarship; there is a greater degree of these virtues

in you than in others. That is the reason you are so well known.' Don't you

see that there are men who, single-handed, can defeat a hundred persons?

Again, one man takes to his heels in fear of another; you see such a person,

too. If there are not different manifestations of power in different beings,

then why did people respect Keshab Sen so much?

"It is said in the Gitā that if a man is respected and honoured by many,

whether it be for his scholarship or his music or his oratory or anything else,

then you may know for certain that he is endowed with a special divine

power."

A BRAMO (to the sub-judge): "Why don't you accept what he says?"

MASTER (sharply, to the Brahmo): "What sort of man are you? To accept

words without conviction! Why, that is hypocrisy! I see you are only a

counterfeit."

The Brahmo was much embarrassed.

Advice to the worldly-minded & Prayer in solitude SUB-JUDGE: "Sir,

must we renounce the world?"

MASTER: "No. Why should you? A man can realize God even in the

world. But at the beginning he must spend a few days in solitude. He must

practise spiritual discipline in a solitary place. He should take a room near

his house, so that he may come home only for his meals. Keshab, Pratap,

and others said to me, 'Sir, we follow the ideal of King Janaka.' 'Mere words

don't make a King Janaka', I replied. 'How many austerities King Janaka

first had to perform in solitude-standing on his head, and so on! Do

something first; then you may become a King Janaka.' You see a man

writing English fluently; but could he do that at the very start? Perhaps he

was the son of poor parents; he was cook in a family and earned his meals

by his service. Perhaps he had to struggle hard to go on with his studies. It

is after all these efforts that he can now write such fluent English.

Danger of "woman and gold"

"I said to Keshab Sen further, 'How can the worldly man be cured of his

serious disease unless he goes into solitude?' A worldly man is suffering

from delirious fever, as it were.

Suppose there are pickled tamarind and jars of water in the room of such a

patient.

Now, how can you expect him to get rid of the disease? Just see, the very

mention of pickled tamarind is making my mouth water! (All laugh.) You

can very well imagine what will happen if the tamarind is actually put in

front of me. To a man, a woman is the pickled tamarind, and his desire for

enjoyment, the jars of water. There is neither end nor limit to this desire for

worldly enjoyment. And the things are in the patient's very room. Can you

expect the patient to get rid of the delirious fever in this fashion? He must

be removed for a few days to another place where there are neither pickled

tamarind nor water-jars. Then he will be cured. After that if he returns to his

old room he will have nothing to fear. 'Woman and gold' cannot do any

harm to the man who lives in the world after attaining God. Only then can

he lead a detached life in the world as King Janaka did. But he must be

careful at the beginning. He must practise spiritual discipline in strict

solitude. The peepal-tree, when young, is fenced around to protect it from

cattle. But there is no need for the fence when the trunk grows thick and

strong.

Then no harm will be done to the tree even if an elephant is tied to it.

'Woman and gold'

will not be able to harm you in the least, if you go home and lead a

householder's life after increasing your spiritual strength and developing

love for the Lotus Feet of God through the practice of spiritual discipline in

solitude.

"A man sets milk in a quiet place to curdle, and then he extracts butter from

the curd.

After once extracting the butter of Devotion and Knowledge from the milk

of the mind, if you keep that transformed mind in the water of the world, it

will float in the world unattached. But if the mind in its 'unripe' state-that is

to say, when it is just like liquid milk-is kept in the water of the world, then

the milk and water will get mixed. In that case it will be impossible for the

mind to float unattached in the world.

"Live in the world but, in order to realize God, hold fast to His Lotus Feet

with one hand and with the other do your duties. When you get a respite

from your duties, cling to God's Lotus Feet with both hands-live in solitude

and meditate on Him and serve Him ceaselessly."

SUB-JUDGE (joyously): "Sir, these are very beautiful words indeed. Of

course one must practise spiritual discipline in solitude. But we forget all

about it. We think we have become King Janaka outright! (The Master and

the devotees laugh.) I feel very happy and peaceful even to hear that there is

no need to give up the world and that God can be realized from home as

well."

MASTER: "Why should you give up the world? Since you must fight, it is

wise for you to fight from a fort. You must fight against your sense-organs,

against your hunger and thirst. Therefore you will be wise to face the battle

from the world. Further, in the Kaliyuga the life of a man depends on his

food. If one day you have nothing to eat, then you will forget all about God.

A man once said to his wife, 'I am going to leave the world.' She was a

sensible woman. She said: 'Why should you wander about? If you don't

have to knock at ten doors for your stomach's sake, go. But if that is the

case, then better live in this one place.'

"Again I say, why should you give up the world? You will find it more

convenient at home. You won't have to worry about food. You may even

live with your wife. It isn't harmful. You will find near at hand all that the

body needs at different times. When you are ill, you will have someone near

you to nurse you.

"Sages like Janaka, Vyāsa, and Vasishtha lived in the world after attaining

Knowledge.

They fenced with two swords, the one of Knowledge and the other of

action."

SUB-JUDGE: "How can we know that we have Knowledge?"

MASTER: "When one has Knowledge one does not see God any more at a

distance. One does not think of Him any more as 'He'. He becomes 'This'.

Then He is seen in one's own heart. God dwells in every man. He who seeks

God realizes Him."

Sin and God's name

SUB-JUDGE: "Sir, I am a sinner. How can I say that God dwells in me?"

MASTER: "That's the one trouble with you Brahmos. With you it is always

sin and sin!

That's the Christian view, isn't it? Once a man gave me a Bible.A part of it

was read to me, and it was full of that one thing-sin and sin! One must have

such faith that one can say: 'I have uttered the name of God; I have repeated

the name of Rāma or Hari. How can I be a sinner?' One must have faith in

the glory of God's name."

SUB-JUDGE: "Sir, how can one have such faith?"

MASTER: "Have passionate love for God. One of your Brahmo songs says:

O Lord, is it ever possible to know Thee without love, However much one

may perform worship and sacrifice?

Pray to God in secret and with yearning, that you may have that passionate

attachment and devotion to Him. Shed tears for Him. A man sheds a jugful

of tears because his wife is sick or because he is losing money or because

he is worrying about getting a job. But tell me, who ever weeps for God?'

Self-surrender to God

TRAlLOKYA: "Sir, where is people's leisure? They must serve their

English masters."

MASTER: "Well, then give God the power of attorney. If a man entrusts his

affairs to a good person, will the latter do him any harm? With all the

sincerity of your heart resign yourself to God and drive all your worries out

of your mind. Do whatever duties He has assigned to you. The kitten does

not have a calculating mind. It only cries, 'Mew, mew!'

It lies in the kitchen contentedly if the mother cat leaves it there, and only

calls the mother, crying, 'Mew, mew!' It has the same feeling of

contentment when the mother cat puts it on the soft bed of the master of the

house. It only cries for its mother."

Duty to wife and children

SUB-JUDGE: "Sir, we are householders. How long should we perform our

worldly duties?"

MASTER: "Surely you have duties to perform. You must bring up your

children, support your wife, and provide for her in case of your death. If

you don't, then I shall call you unkind. Sages like Sukadeva had

compassion. He who has no compassion is no man."

SUB-JUDGE: "How long should one support one's children?"

MASTER: "As long as they have not reached their majority. When the

chick becomes a full-grown bird and can look after itself, then the mother

bird pecks it and doesn't allow it to come near her." (All laugh.)

SUB-JUDGE: "What is a householder's duty to his wife?"

MASTER: "You should give her spiritual advice and support her during

your lifetime and provide for her livelihood after your death, if she is a

chaste wife.

"But if you are intoxicated with the Knowledge of God, then you have no

more duties to perform. Then God Himself will think about your morrow if

you yourself cannot do so.

God Himself will think about your family if you are intoxicated with Him.

If a landlord dies leaving behind a minor son, then a guardian appointed by

the court takes charge of the son. These are all points of law; you know

them."

SUB-JUDGE: "Yes, sir."

VIJAY: "Ah! Priceless words! God Himself carries on His shoulders all the

responsibilities of a person who thinks of Him with single-minded devotion

and is mad with divine love.

A minor gets his guardian without seeking him. Alas, when shall I have that

state of mind? How lucky they are who feel that way!"

TRAILOKYA: "Is it ever possible, sir, to have true knowledge of God while

living in the world? Can one realize God here?"

MASTER (with a smile): "Why do you worry? You are enjoying both

treacle and refined sugar. (All laugh.) You are living in the world with your

mind in God. Isn't that true? Why shouldn't a man realize God in the

world'? Certainly he can."

TRAILOKYA: What are the signs of a householder having attained

Knowledge?"

MASTER: "His tears will flow, and the hair on his body will stand on end.

No sooner does he hear the sweet name of God than the hair on his body

stands on end from sheer delight, and tears roll down his cheeks. "A man

cannot get rid of body-consciousness as long as he is attached to worldly

things and loves 'woman and gold'. As he becomes less and less attached to

worldly things, he approaches nearer and nearer to the Knowledge of Self.

He also becomes less and less conscious of his body. He attains Self-

Knowledge when his worldly attachment totally disappears. Then he

realizes that body and soul are two separate things. It is very difficult to

separate with a knife the kernel of a coconut from the shell before the milk

inside has dried up. When the milk dries up, the kernel rattles inside the

shell. At that time it loosens itself from the shell. Then the fruit is called a

dry coconut.

Signs of God-vision

"The sign of a man's having realized God is that he has become like a dry

coconut. He has become utterly free from the consciousness that he is the

body. He does not feel happy or unhappy with the happiness or unhappiness

of the body. He does not seek the comforts of the body. He roams about in

the world as a jivanmukta, one liberated in life.

'The devotee of Kāli is a jivanmukta , full of Eternal Bliss.'

"When you find that the very mention of God's name brings tears to your

eyes and makes your hair stand on end, then you will know that you have

freed yourself from attachment to 'woman and gold' and attained God. If the

matches are dry, you get a spark by striking only one of them. But if they

are damp, you don't get a spark even if you strike fifty. You only waste

matches. Similarly, if your mind is soaked in the pleasure of worldly things,

in 'woman and gold', then God-Consciousness will not be kindled in you.

You may try a thousand times, but all your efforts will be futile. But no

sooner does attachment to worldly pleasure dry up than the spark of God

flashes forth."

Force your demand on the Divine Mother

TRAILOKYA: "What is the way to dry up the craving for worldly

pleasure?"

MASTER: "Pray to the Divine Mother with a longing heart. Her vision

dries up all craving for the world and completely destroys all attachment to

'woman and gold'. It happens instantly if you think of Her as your own

mother. She is by no means a godmother. She is your own mother. With a

yearning heart persist in your demands on Her. The child holds to the skirt

of its mother and begs a penny of her to buy a kite. Perhaps the mother is

gossiping with her friends. At first she refuses to give the penny and says to

the child: 'No, you can't have it. Your daddy has asked me not to give you

money. When he comes home I'll ask him about it. You will get into trouble

if you play with a kite now.'

The child begins to cry and will not give up his demand. Then the mother

says to her friends: 'Excuse me a moment. Let me pacify this child.'

Immediately she unlocks the cash-box with a click and throws the child a

penny.

"You too must force your demand on the Divine Mother. She will come to

you without fail. I once said the same thing to some Sikhs when they visited

the temple at Dakshineswar. We were conversing in front of the Kāli

temple. They said, 'God is compassionate.' 'Why compassionate?' I asked.

They said, 'Why, revered sir, He constantly looks after us, gives us

righteousness and wealth, and provides us with our food.' 'Suppose', I said,

'a man has children. Who will look after them and provide them with food-

their own father, or a man from another village?'

SUB-JUDGE: "Is not God, then, compassionate, sir?"

MASTER: "Why should you think that? I just made a remark. What I mean

to say is that God is our very own. We can exert force on Him. With one's

own people one can even go so far as to say, 'You rascal! Won't you give it

to me?'

Futility of egotism

(To the sub-judge) "Let me ask you one thing. Are vanity and egotism the

result of knowledge or of ignorance? Egotism is of the nature of tamas; it is

begotten by ignorance. On account of the barrier of ego one does not see

God. 'All troubles come to an end when the ego dies.' It is futile to be

egotistic. Neither body nor wealth will last.

Once a drunkard was looking at the image of Durga. At the sight of Her

decorations, he said, 'Well, Mother! However You may fix Yourself up,

after two or three days they will drag You out and throw You into the

Ganges.' (All laugh.) "So I say to you all, you may be a judge or anybody

else, but it is all for two days only.

Therefore you should give up vanity and pride.

Sattva, rajas, and tamas

"The characteristics of sattva, rajas, and tamas are very different. Egotism

sleep, gluttony, lust, anger, and the like, are the traits of' people with tamas.

Men with rajas entangle themselves in many activities. Such a man has

clothes all spick and span. His house is immaculately clean. A portrait of

the Queen hangs on a wall in his drawing-room. When he worships God he

wears a silk cloth. He has a string of rudraksha beads around his neck, and

in between the beads he puts a few gold ones. When someone comes to visit

the worship hall in his house, he himself acts as guide. After showing the

hall, he says to the visitor: 'Please come this way, sir. There are other things

too-the floor of white marble and the natmandir with its exquisite carvings.'

When he gives in charity he makes a show of it. But a man endowed with

sattva is quiet and peaceful. So far as dress is concerned, anything will do.

He earns only enough money to give his stomach the simplest of food; he

never flatters men to get money. His house is out of repair. He never

worries about his children's clothing. He does not hanker for name and

fame. His worship, charity, and meditation are all done in secret; people do

not know, about them at all. He meditates inside his mosquito curtain.

People think he doesn't sleep well at night and for that reason sleeps late in

the morning. Sattva is the last step of the stairs; next is the roof. As soon as

sattva is acquired there is no further delay in attaining God. One step

forward and God is realized. (To the sub-judge) Didn't you say that all men

were equal? Now you see that there are so many varieties of human nature.

Four classes of men

"There are still other classes and kinds of people. For instance, there are

those who are eternally free, those who have attained liberation, those

struggling for liberation, and those entangled in the world. So many

varieties of men! Sages like Nārada and Sukadeva are eternally free. They

are like a steamship, which not only crosses the ocean but can carry big

animals, even an elephant. Further, the soul that is eternally free is like the

superintendent of an estate. After bringing one part of the estate under

control, he goes to another. Those struggling for liberation strive heart and

soul to free themselves from the net of the world. One or two of them may

get out of the net. They are called the liberated. The souls that are eternally

free are like clever fish; they are never caught in the net.

"But the souls that are entangled, involved in worldliness, never come to

their senses.

They lie in the net but are not even conscious that they are entangled. If you

speak of God before them, they at once leave the place. They say: 'Why

God now? We shall think of Him in the hour of death.' But when they lie on

their death-beds, they say to their wives or children: 'Why have you put so

many wicks in the lamp? Use only one wick.

Otherwise too much oil will be burnt.' While dying they think of their wives

and children, and weep, 'Alas! What will happen to them after my death?'

The entangled soul

"The entangled souls repeat those very actions that make them suffer so

much. They are like the camel, which eats thorny bushes till the blood

streams from its mouth, but still will not give them up. Such a man may

have lost his son and be stricken with grief, but still he will have children

year after year. He may ruin himself by his daughter's marriage, but still he

will go on having daughters every year. And he says: 'What can I do? It's

just my luck!' When he goes to a holy place he doesn't have any time to

think of God. He almost kills himself carrying bundles for his wife.

Entering the temple, he is very eager to give his child the holy water to

drink or make him roll on the floor; but he has no time for his own

devotions. These bound creatures slave for their masters to earn food for

themselves and their families; and they earn money by lying, cheating,

flattery.

They laugh at those who think of God and meditate on Him, and call them

lunatics.

"So you see how many different kinds of men there are. You said that all

men were equal. But how many varieties of men there are! Some have more

power and some less.

Thought of God at the hour of death

"The entangled creatures, attached to worldliness, talk only of worldly

things in the hour of death. What will it avail such men if they outwardly

repeat the name of God, take a bath in the Ganges, or visit sacred places? If

they cherish within themselves attachment to the world, it must show up at

the hour of death. While dying they rave nonsense.

Perhaps they cry out in a delirium, 'Turmeric powder! Seasoning! Bay-leaf!'

The singing parrot, when at ease, repeats the holy names of Radha and

Krishna, but when it is seized by a cat it utters its own natural sound; it

squawks, 'Kaa! Kaa!' It is said in the Gitā that whatever one thinks in the

hour of death, one becomes in the after-life. King Bharata gave up his body

exclaiming, 'Deer! Deer!' and was born as a deer in his next life. But if a

man dies thinking of God, then he attains God, and he does not have to

come back to the life of this world."

A BRAMO DEVOTEE: "Sir, suppose a man has thought of God at other

times during his life, but at the time of his death forgets Him. Would he, on

that account, come back to this world of sorrow and suffering? Why should

it be so? He certainly thought of God some time during his life."

MASTER: "A man thinks of God, no doubt, but he has no faith in Him.

Again and again he forgets God and becomes attached to the world. It is

like giving the elephant a bath; afterwards he covers his body with mud and

dirt again. 'The mind is a mad elephant.'

But if you can make the elephant go into the stable immediately after

bathing him, then he stays clean. Just so, if a man thinks of God in the hour

of death, then his mind becomes pure and it gets no more opportunity to

become attached to 'woman and gold'.

"Man has no faith in God. That is the reason he suffers so much. They say

that when you plunge into the holy waters of the Ganges your sins perch on

a tree on the bank. No sooner do you come out of the water after the bath

than the sins jump back on your shoulders. (All laugh.) A man must prepare

the way beforehand, so that he may think of God in the hour of death. The

way lies through constant practice. If a man practises meditation on God, he

will remember God even on the last day of his life."

A BRAHMO DEVOTEE: "You have spoken very beautifully, sir. Beautiful

words, indeed."

Master's humility

MASTER: "Oh, this is just idle talk. But do you know my inner feeling? I

am the machine and God is the Operator. I am the house and He is the

Indweller. I am the engine and He is the Engineer. I am the chariot and He

is the Charioteer. I move as He moves me; I do as He makes me do."

Presently Trailokya began to sing to the accompaniment of drums and

cymbals. Sri Ramakrishna danced, intoxicated with divine love. Many

times he went into samādhi. He stood still, his eyes fixed, his face beaming,

with one hand on the shoulder of a beloved disciple. Coming down a little

from the state of ecstasy, he danced again like a mad elephant. Regaining

consciousness of the outer world, he improvised lines to the music: O

Mother, dance about Thy devotees!

Dance Thyself and make them dance as well.

O Mother, dance in the lotus of my heart;

Dance, O Thou the ever blessed Brahman!

Dance in all Thy world-bewitching beauty.

An indescribable scene. The exquisite and celestial dance of a child

completely filled with ecstatic love of God and identified heart and soul

with the Divine Mother! The Brahmo devotees danced around the Master

again and again, attracted like iron to a magnet. In ecstatic voices they

chanted the name of Brahman. Again, they chanted the name of the Divine

Mother. Many of them wept like children, crying, "Mother! Mother!"

When the music was over, the devotees and the Master sat down. Although

it was about eight o'clock, the evening worship of the Brahmo Samaj had

not yet begun. In the joy of this divine music they had forgotten all about

their formal worship. Vijay, who was to conduct the evening service, sat

facing the Master. His mother-in-law and the other Brahmo ladies wanted to

see Sri Ramakrishna; so the Master went to meet them in another room.

After a time the Master came back and said to Vijay: "What devotion to

God your mother-in-law has! About the worldly life she said to me: 'Oh,

you needn't tell me about the world. No sooner does one wave disappear

than another rises up.' 'But', I said, 'what is that to you? You have

knowledge.' She replied: 'Where is my knowledge? I haven't yet been able

to go beyond Vidyā-māyā and Avidyā-māyā. It won't help me much to go

beyond just the illusion of ignorance; I shall have to transcend the illusion

of knowledge as well. Only then shall I have true knowledge of God. I am

quoting your own words.' "

While they were talking, Beni Pāl, their host, entered the room.

BENI (to Vijay): "Sir, please get up. It is already late. Please begin the

worship."

VIJAY: "What further need is there of worship? I find that according to

your arrangement the rice pudding is served first, and then the soup and

other dishes."

MASTER (with a smile): 'The devotees provide offerings according to their

temperaments. The sattvic devotee offers the Deity simple rice pudding, and

the rajasic devotee, fifty different dishes. The tamasic devotee slaughters

goats and other animals."

Vijay began to hesitate about going to the platform to conduct the worship.

He said to the Master, "I shall conduct the worship from the platform only if

you give me your blessing."

MASTER: "It will be all right if you don't feel any egotism, if you don't

have the vain feeling: 'I am giving a lecture. Listen to me.' What begets

egotism? Knowledge or ignorance? It is only the humble man who attains

Knowledge. In a low place rain-water collects. It runs down from a mound.

"A man achieves neither Knowledge nor liberation as long as he has

egotism. He comes back again and again to the world. The calf bellows,

'Hamba! Hamba!', that is, 'I! I!' That is why it suffers such agony. The

butcher slaughters it and the shoe-maker makes shoes from its hide.

Besides, its hide is used for the drum, which is beaten mercilessly. Still no

end to its misery! At long last a carding machine is made from its entrails.

While carding the cotton the machine makes the sound 'Tuhu! Tuhu!', that

is, 'Thou! Thou!' Then the poor calf is released from all suffering. It no

longer says, 'Hamba! Hamba!' but repeats, 'Tuhu! Tuhu!' The calf says, as it

were, 'O God, Thou art the Doer and I am nothing.

Thou art the Operator and I am the machine. Thou art everything.'

"Three words-'master', 'teacher', and 'father'-prick me like thorns. I am the

son of God, His eternal child. How can I be a 'father'? God alone is the

Master and I am His instrument. He is the Operator and I am the machine.

"If somebody addresses me as guru, I say to him: 'Go away, you fool! How

can I be a teacher?' There is no teacher except Satchidananda. There is no

refuge except Him. He alone is the Ferryman to take one across the ocean

of the world. (To Vijay) It is very difficult to act as an Āchārya. It harms the

Āchārya himself. Finding a number of men doing him reverence, he sits

you put four seers of milk in a oneseer jar? If God, through His grace, ever

reveals Himself to His devotee and makes him understand, then he will

know; but not otherwise.

"That which is Brahman is Śakti, and That, again, is the Mother.

He it is, says Ramprasad, that I approach as Mother; But must I give away

the secret, here in the marketplace?

From the hints I have given, 0 mind, guess what that Being is!

Ramprasad implies that he has known the truth of Brahman. He addresses

Brahman as Mother.

"In another song Ramprasad expresses the same idea thus: Knowing the

secret that Kāli is one with the highest Brahman,

I have discarded, once for all, both dharma and adharma.

Adharma means unrighteous actions, actions forbidden by religion. Dharma

means the pious actions prescribed by religion, as, for instance, charity to

the poor, feeding the brahmins, and so on."

VIJAY: "What remains if one renounces both dharma and dharma?"

MASTER: "Pure love of God. I prayed to the Divine Mother: 'O Mother;

here, take Thy dharma; here, take Thy adharma; and give me pure love for

Thee. Here, take Thy virtue; here, take Thy vice; and give me pure love for

Thee. Here, take Thy knowledge; here, take Thy ignorance; and give me

pure love for Thee.' You see, I didn't ask even for knowledge or public

recognition. When one renounces both dharma and adharma, there remains

only pure love of God-love that is stainless, motiveless, and that one feels

only for the sake of love."

A BRAMO DEVOTEE: "Is God different from His Śakti?"

MASTER: "After attaining Perfect Knowledge one realizes that they are not

different.

They are the same, like the gem and its brilliance. Thinking of the gem, one

cannot but think of its brilliance. Again, they are like milk and its

whiteness. Thinking of the one, you must also think of the other. But you

cannot realize this non-duality before the attainment of Perfect Knowledge.

Attaining Perfect Knowledge, one goes into samādhi, beyond the twenty-

four cosmic principles. Therefore the principle of 'I' does not exist in that

stage. A man cannot describe in words what he feels in samādhi.Coming

down, he can give just a hint about it. I come down a hundred cubits, as it

were, when I say 'Om'

after samādhi. Brahman is beyond the injunctions of the Vedas and cannot

be described. There neither 'I' nor 'you' exists.

"As long as a man is conscious of 'I' and 'you', and as long as he feels that it

is he who prays or meditates, so long will he feel that God is listening to his

prayer and that God is a Person. Then he must say: 'O God, Thou art the

Master and I am Thy servant. Thou art the whole and I am a part of Thee.

Thou art the Mother and I am Thy child.' At that time there exists a feeling

of difference: 'I am one and Thou art another.' It is God Himself who makes

us feel this difference; and on account of this difference one sees man and

woman, light and darkness, and so on. As long as one is aware of this

difference, one must accept Śakti, the Personal God. It is God who has put

'I-consciousness' in us. You may reason a thousand times; still this 'I' does

not disappear.

As long as 'I-consciousness' exists, God reveals Himself to us as a Person.

"Therefore, as long as a man is conscious of 'I' and of differentiation, he

cannot speak of the attributeless Brahman and must accept Brahman with

attributes. This Brahman with attributes has been declared in the Vedas, the

Puranas, and the Tantra, to be Kāli, the Primal Energy."

Way to Brahmajnana

VIJAY: "How, sir, can one have the vision of the Primal Energy and attain

Brahmajnana, the Knowledge of the attributeless Brahman?"

MASTER: "Pray to Him with a yearning heart, and weep. That will purify

your heart. You see the reflection of the sun in clear water. In the mirror of

his 'I-consciousness' the devotee sees the form of the Primal Energy,

Brahman with attributes. But the mirror must be wiped clean. One does not

see the right reflection if there is any dirt on the mirror.

"As long as a man must see the Sun in the water of his 'I-consciousness' and

has no other means of seeing It, as long as he has no means of seeing the

real Sun except through Its reflection, so long is the reflected sun alone one

hundred per cent real to him. As long as the 'I' is real, so long is the

reflected sun real-one hundred per cent real.

That reflected sun is nothing but the Primal Energy.

"But if you seek Brahmajnana, the Knowledge of the attributeless Brahman,

then proceed to the real Sun through Its reflection. Pray to Brahman with

attributes, who listens to your prayers, and He Himself will give you full

Knowledge of Brahman; for that which is Brahman with attributes is verily

Brahman without attributes, that which is Brahman is verily Śakti. One

realizes this non-duality after the attainment of Perfect Knowledge.

"The Divine Mother gives Her devotee Brahmajnana too. But a true lover

of God generally does not seek the Knowledge of Brahman.

"There is another path, the path of knowledge, which is very difficult. You

members of the Brahmo Samaj are not jnanis. You are bhaktas. The Jnāni

believes that Brahman alone is real and the world illusory as a dream. To

him, 'I' and 'you' are illusory as a dream.

"God is our Inner Controller. Pray to Him with a pure and guileless heart.

He will explain everything to you. Give up egotism and take refuge in Him.

You will realize everything."

The Master sang:

Dwell, O mind, within yourself;

Enter no other's home.

If you but seek there, you will find

All you are searching for.

God, the true Philosopher's Stone,

Who answers every prayer,

Lies hidden deep within your heart,

The richest gem of all.

How many pearls and precious stones

Are scattered all about

The outer court that lies before

The chamber of your heart!

He continued: "When you mix with people outside your Samaj, love them

all. When in their company be one of them. Don't harbour malice toward

them. Don't turn up your nose in hatred and say: 'Oh, this man believes in

God with form and not in the formless God. That man believes in the

formless God and not in God with form. This man is a Christian. This man

is a Hindu. And this man is a Musslman.' It is God alone who makes people

see things in different ways. Know that people have different natures.

Realize this and mix with them as much as you can. And love all. But enter

your own inner chamber to enjoy peace and bliss.

Lighting the lamp of Knowledge in the chamber of your heart, Behold the

face of the Mother, Brahman's Embodiment.

You can see your true Self only within your own chamber. The cowherds

take the cows to graze in the pasture. There the cattle mix. They all form

one herd. But on returning to their sheds in the evening they are separated.

Then each stays by itself in its own stall.

Therefore I say, dwell by yourself in your own chamber."

It was ten o'clock in the evening. The Master got into a carriage to return to

Dakshineswar. One or two attending devotees got in with him. The carriage

stood under a tree, in deep darkness. Beni Pāl wanted to send some sweets

and other food with Sri Ramakrishna for Ramlal, the Master's nephew.

BENI PĀL: "Sir, Ramlal was not here this evening. With your permission I

should like to send some sweets for him by your attendants."

MASTER (with great anxiety): "Oh, Beni Pāl! Oh, sir! Please don't send

these things with me. That will do me harm. It is never possible for me to

lay up anything. I hope you won't mind."

BENI PĀL: "As you please, sir. Please give me your blessing."

MASTER: "Oh, we have been very happy today! You see, he alone is a true

man who has made money his servant. But those who do not know the use

of money are not men even though they have human forms. They may have

human bodies, but they behave like animals. You are blessed indeed. You

have made so many devotees happy today."

Monday, October 20, 1884

Two days after the worship of Kāli, the Mārwāris of the Burrabazar section

of Calcutta were celebrating the Annakuta festival. Sri Ramakrishna had

been invited by the Mārwāri devotees to the ceremony at 12 Mallick Street.

It was the second day of the bright fortnight of the moon. The festival

connected with the worship of Kāli, known as the "Festival of Light", was

still going on at Burra bazar.

About three o'clock in the afternoon M. and the younger Gopal came to

Burrabazar. M.

had in his hand a bundle of cloths he had purchased for Sri Ramakrishna.

Mallick Street was jammed with people, bullock-carts, and carriages. As M.

and Gopal approached Mallick Street they noticed Sri Ramakrishna in a

carriage, which could hardly move because of the jam. Baburam and Ram

Chakravarty were with the Master. He smiled at M. and Gopal.

Sri Ramakrishna alighted from the carriage. With Baburam he proceeded on

foot to the house of his host, M. leading the way. They saw the courtyard of

the house filled with big bales of clothes which were being loaded into

bullock-carts for shipment. The Mārwāri host greeted the Master and led

him to the third floor of the house. A painting of Kāli hung on the wall. Sri

Ramakrishna bowed before it. He sat down and became engaged in

conversation with the devotees. One of the Mārwāris began to stroke his

feet. The Master asked him to stop. After reflecting a minute he said, "All

right, you can stroke them a little." His words were full of compassion.

MASTER (to M.): "What about your school?"

M: "Today is a holiday, sir."

MASTER (smiling): "Tomorrow there will be a musical recital of the

Chandi at Adhar's house."

Master and the Mārwāri pundit

The host sent a pundit to Sri Ramakrishna. He saluted the Master and took a

seat. Soon they were engaged in conversation. They talked about spiritual

things.

MASTER: "God incarnates Himself for the bhakta and not for the Jnāni."

PUNDIT: "'I incarnate Myself in every age for the protection of the good,

for the destruction of the wicked, and for the establishment of dharma.' God

becomes man, first, for the joy of the bhakta, and secondly, for the

destruction of the wicked. The Jnāni has no desire."

MASTER (smiling): "But I have not got rid of all desires. I have the desire

for love of God." The pundit's son entered the room. He saluted the Master

and took a seat.

MASTER (to the pundit): "Well, what is bhava and what is bhakti?"

PUNDIT: "Meditation on God mellows the mind. This mellowness is called

bhava. It is like the thawing of ice when the sun rises."

MASTER: "Well, what is prema?"

The pundit and Sri Ramakrishna were talking in Hindusthani. The former

gave some sort of explanation of prema.

MASTER (to the pundit): "No! No! That is not the meaning. Prema means

such love for God that it makes a man forget the world and also his body,

which is so dear to him.

Chaitanyadeva had prema."

PUNDIT: "Yes, sir. One behaves like a drunkard."

MASTER: "Some people develop bhakti and others do not; how do you

explain that, sir?"

PUNDIT: "There is no partiality in God. He is the Wish-fulfilling Tree.

Whatever a man asks of God he gets. But he must go near the Tree to ask

the boon."

The pundit said all this in Hindusthani. The Master explained it to M.in

Bengali.

Different kinds of samādhi

MASTER: "Sir, please describe samādhi to us."

PUNDIT: "There are two kinds of

samādhi: savikalpa and nirvikalpa. In

nirvikalpa samādhi the functioning of the mind stops altogether."

MASTER: "Yes. The mind completely takes the form of Reality. The

distinction between the meditator and the object of meditation does not

exist. There are two other kinds of samādhi: chetana and jada. Nārada and

Sukadeva attained chetana samādhi. Isn't that true, sir?"

PUNDIT: "Yes, sir, that is so."

MASTER: "Further, there are the unmana samādhi and the sthita samādhi.

Isn't that true, sir?"

The pundit remained silent. He did not venture an opinion.

MASTER: "Well, sir, through the practice of japa and austerity one can get

occult powers, such as walking on the water of the Ganges. Isn't that true?"

PUNDIT: "Yes, one can. But a devotee doesn't want them." The

conversation continued for some time. The pundit said he would visit the

Master at Dakshineswar the next ekadasi day.

MASTER: "Ah! Your boy is very nice."

PUNDIT: "Well, revered sir, all this is transitory. It is like the waves in a

river-one goes down and another comes up."

MASTER: "You have substance in you."

After a few minutes the pundit saluted Sri Ramakrishna. He said: "I shall

have to perform my daily devotions. Please let me go."

MASTER: "Oh, sit down! Sit down!"

The pundit sat down again. The conversation turned to hathayoga. The

pundit discussed the subject with the Master in Hindusthani. Sri

Ramakrishna said: "Yes, that is also a form of austerity. But the hathayogi

identifies himself with his body. His mind dwells on his body alone." The

pundit took leave of the Master. Sri Ramakrishna conversed with the

pundit's son.

MASTER: "One can understand the Bhagavata well if one has already

studied the Nyaya, the Vedānta , and the other systems of philosophy. Isn't

that so?"

PUNDIT'S SON: "Yes, sir. It is very necessary to study the Samkhya

philosophy."

The conversation went on. Sri Ramakrishna was leaning against a big

pillow; the devotees were sitting on the floor. Lying in that position, the

Master began to sing: Brother, joyfully cling to God;

Thus striving, some day you may attain Him.

Their host entered the room and saluted Sri Ramakrishna. He was a pious

man and devoted to the Master. The pundit's son was still there. The Master

asked if the Panini, the Sanskrit grammar, was taught in the schools. He

further asked about the Nyaya and the Vedānta philosophies. The host did

not show much interest in the discussion and changed the subject.

HOST: "Revered sir, what is the way for us?"

MASTER: "Chanting the name and glories of God, living in the company

of holy men, and earnestly praying to God."

HOST: "Please bless me, sir, that I may pay less and less attention to

worldly things."

MASTER (smiling): "How much attention do you give to the world? Fifty

per cent?"

(Laughter.)

HOST: "You know that, sir. We cannot achieve anything without the grace

of a holy person like yourself."

MASTER: "If you please God, everyone will be pleased. It is God alone

that exists in the heart of the holy man."

HOST: "Nothing, of course, remains unrealized when one attains God. If a

man attains God, he can give up everything else. If a man gets a rupee, he

gives up the joy of a penny."

MASTER: "A little spiritual discipline is necessary. Through the practice of

discipline one gradually obtains divine joy. Suppose a jar with money inside

is hidden deep under the earth and someone wants to possess it. In that case

he must take the trouble of digging for it. As he digs, he perspires. After

much digging the spade strikes the metal jar. He feels a thrill at the sound.

The more sound the spade makes, striking against the jar, the more joy he

feels. "Pray to Rāma. Meditate on Him. He will certainly provide you with

everything."

HOST: "Revered sir, you are Rāma Himself."

MASTER: "How is that? The waves belong to the river; does the river

belong to the waves?"

HOST: "Rāma dwells only in the hearts of holy men. He cannot be seen in

any other way. There is no Incarnation of God at the present time."

MASTER (smiling): "How do you know there is no Divine Incarnation?"

The host remained silent.

MASTER: "All cannot recognize an Incarnation. When Nārada visited

Rāma, Rāma prostrated Himself before Nārada and said: 'We are worldly

creatures. How can we be sanctified unless holy men like you visit us?'

Further, Rāma went into exile in the forest to redeem His father's pledges.

He saw that, since hearing of His exile, the rishis of the forest had been

fasting. Many of them did not know that Rāma was none other than the

Supreme Brahman."

HOST: "You too are that same Rāma."

MASTER: "For heaven's sake! Never say that."

As, Sri Ramakrishna spoke these words, he bowed down to the host and

said, with folded hands: "'That Rāma dwells in all beings; He exists

everywhere in the universe. "I am your servant. It is Rāma Himself who has

become all men, animals, and other living beings."

HOST: "But sir, we do not know that."

MASTER: "Whether you know it or not, you are Rāma."

HOST: "You are free from love and hatred."

MASTER: "How so? I engaged a carriage to bring me to Calcutta and

advanced the coachman three ānnās. But he didn't turn up. I became very

angry with him. He is a very wicked man. He made me suffer a lot."

Sri Ramakrishna was resting. The Mārwāri devotees had been singing

bhajan on the roof. They were celebrating the Krishna festival.

Arrangements had been made for worship and food offering. At the host's

request the Master went to see the image. He bowed down before the Deity.

Sri Ramakrishna was profoundly moved as he stood before the image. With

folded hands he said: "O Govinda, Thou art my soul! Thou art my life!

Victory to Govinda! Hallowed be the name of Govinda! Thou art the

Embodiment of Satchidananda! Oh, Krishna! Ah, Krishna! Krishna is

knowledge. Krishna is mind. Krishna is life. Krishna is soul. Krishna is

body. Krishna is caste. Krishna is family. O Govinda, my life and soul!"

Uttering these words," Sri Ramakrishna went into samādhi. He remained

standing. Ram Chatterji supported him.

After a long time the Master regained consciousness of the world. The

Mārwāri devotees were about to take out the image. The offering of food

was to take place outside the room. The Master joined the procession of

devotees. The food was offered with Ārati and music. Sri Ramakrishna

fanned the image.

Then began the ceremony of feeding the brahmins. They were seated on the

roof. The Master and his devotees also partook of the prasad.

Sri Ramakrishna took leave of the host. It was evening and the street was

jammed as before with people and vehicles. He said: "Let us get out of the

carriage. It can go by a back street." Proceeding on foot, he found that a

betel-leaf seller had opened his stall in front of a small room that looked

like a hole. One could not possibly enter it without bending one's head. The

Master said: "How painful it is to be shut in such a small space!

That is the way of worldly people. And they are happy in such a life."

The carriage came up after making the detour. The Master entered it with

Baburam, M., and Ram Chatterji. The younger Gopal sat on the roof of the

carriage.

A beggar woman with a baby on her arm stood in front of the carriage

waiting for alms.

The Master said to M., "Have you any money?" Gopal gave her something.

The carriage rolled along Burra bazar. Everywhere there were signs of great

festivity.

The night was dark but illuminated with myriads of lights. The carriage

came to the Chitpur road, which was also brightly lighted. The people

moved in lines like ants. The crowd looked at the gaily decorated stores and

stalls on both sides of the road. There were sweetmeat store and perfume

stalls. Pictures, beautiful and gaudy, hung from the walls. Well-dressed

shopkeepers sprayed the visitors with rose-water. The carriage stopped in

front of a perfume stall. The Master looked at the pictures and lights and

felt happy like a child. People were talking loudly. He cried out; "Go

forward! Move on!" He laughed. He said to Baburam with a loud laugh:

"Move on! What are you doing?" The devotees laughed too. They

understood that the Master wanted them to move forward to God and not to

be satisfied with their present state.

The carriage drove on. The Master noticed that M. had brought some cloths

for him. M.

had with him two pieces of unbleached and two pieces of washed cloth. But

the Master had asked him only for the unbleached ones. He said to M.:

"Give me the unbleached ones. You may keep the others. All right. You

may give me one of them."

M: "Then shall I take back one piece?"

MASTER: "Then take both."

M: "As you please, sir."

MASTER: "You can give me those when I need them. You see, yesterday

Beni Pāl wanted me to carry away some food for Ramlal. I told him I

couldn't. It is impossible for me to lay up for the future."

M: 'That's all right, sir. I shall take back the two pieces of washed cloth."

MASTER (tenderly): "Don't you see, if any desire arises in my mind, it is

for the good of you all? You are my own. I shall tell you if I need anything."

M. (humbly): "Yes, sir."

Referring to a devotee, Sri Ramakrishna said: "I said to him yesterday,

'Tomorrow I shall go to Burra bazar; please meet me there.' Do you know

what he said? He said: The tram fare will be one ānnā. Where shall I get it?'

He had been to Beni Pāl's garden yesterday and had officiated there as

priest. No one had asked him to do it. He had put on the show himself. He

wanted people to know that he was a member of the Brahmo Samaj.

(To M.) Can you tell me what he meant when he said that the tram would

cost him one ānnā?"

The conversation turned to the Annakuta festival of the Mārwāris.

MASTER (to the devotees): "What you have seen here one sees at

Vrindāvan too.

Rākhāl has been seeing the same thing there. But the mound of food at

Vrindāvan is higher, and more people gather there. There you also see the

Govardhan hill. That's the only difference.

"Did you notice the Mārwāris' devotion? That is the real Hindu ideal. That

is the Sanatana Dharma. Did you notice their joy when they carried the

image in procession?

They were happy to think that they bore the throne of God on their

shoulders.

"The Hindu religion alone is the Sanatana Dharma. The various creeds you

hear of nowadays have come into existence through the will of God and

will disappear again through His will. They will not last forever. Therefore I

say, 'I bow down at the feet of even the modern devotees.' The Hindu

religion has always existed and will always exist."

M. was going home. He saluted the Master and got out of the carriage near

Sobha bazar.

Sri Ramakrishna proceeded to Dakshineswar in a happy mood.

--------------------

Chapter 33

WITH VARIOUS DEVOTEES

Sunday, October 26, 1884

IT WAS AFTERNOON, and many devotees were present in the Master's

room. Among them were Manomohan, Mahimacharan, and M. They were

joined later by Ishan and Hazra. Balarām and Rākhāl were still staying at

Vrindāvan. The many young boys who at this time began to seek the

Master's company later became his intimate disciples. Lātu lived with the

Master, and Jogin, who lived in the village, was a frequent visitor.

Sri Ramakrishna, happy child of the Divine Mother that he was, radiated a

joy and peace that were reflected in the hearts of his devotees and found

expression in their happy faces. They were seated on the floor and had their

eyes fixed on the Master, who was standing in a pensive mood, like a boy.

God in all beings

MASTER (to Manomohan): "I see Rāma in all things. You are all sitting

here, but I see only Rāma in everyone of you."

MANOMOHAN: "Yes, sir. It is Rāma who has become everything. But, as

you say, though all water is Narayana, yet some water is fit for drinking,

some for washing the hands and face, and some only for cleaning pots and

pans."

MASTER: "It is true. But I see that it is God Himself who has become

everything-the universe and its living beings."

Presently the Master sat down on the small couch near his bed.

MASTER (to Mahimacharan): "There is no question of my being truthful;

but must I develop a mania for it? If I once say that I shall not eat, then it is

impossible for me to eat, even if I am hungry. Again, if I ask a particular

man to take my water-jug to the pine-grove, he alone must carry it. If

another man carries it, he will have to take it back.

What a fix I am in! Is there no way out of it?

"Besides, I can't carry anything with me, neither food nor betel-leaf; for that

means laying up for the future. I can't carry a little clay in my hand."

Just then a man entered the room and told the Master that Hriday was

waiting to see him in Jadu Mallick's garden, near the gate.

The Master said to the devotees: "I shall have to see Hriday. Please don't

leave the room." He put on his slippers and went toward the east gate of the

temple garden, M.

accompanying him. The road through the garden was covered with red

brick-dust. The manager of the temple, who was standing on the road,

saluted Sri Ramakrishna. The Master passed the north entrance of the

temple compound, where the bearded sentries sat. On his left he passed the

kuthi, the building used by the proprietors of the temple.

Then he walked on down the road which was lined on both sides with

flowering trees, passing the reservoir on his right, and went outside the

temple garden. He found Hriday waiting for him near the gate of Jadu

Mallick's garden.

God in all beings

At the sight of the Master, Hriday, who had been standing there with folded

hands, prostrated himself before him. When the Master told him to get up,

he rose and began to cry like a child. How strange! Tears also appeared in

the Master's eyes. He wiped them away with his hands. Hriday had made

him suffer endless agonies, yet the Master wept for him.

MASTER: "Why are you here now?"

HRIDAY (weeping): "I have come to see you. To whom else shall I tell my

sorrows?"

Sri Ramakrishna smiled and said to him by way of consolation: "One

cannot avoid such sorrows in the world. Pleasure and pain are inevitable in

worldly life. (Pointing to M.) That is why they come here now and then.

They get peace of mind by hearing about God. What is your trouble?"

HRIDAY (weeping): "I am deprived of your company and so I suffer."

MASTER: "Why, was it not you who said to me, 'You follow your ideal and

let me follow mine'?"

HRIDAY: "Yes, I did say that. But what did I know?"

MASTER: "I shall say good-bye to you now. Come another day and we

shall talk together. Today is Sunday and many people have come to see me.

They are waiting in my room. Have you had a good crop in the country?"

HRIDAY: 'It isn't bad."

MASTER: "Let me say good-bye. Come another day."

Hriday again prostrated himself before the Master, who started back to his

room with M.

MASTER (to M.): "He tormented me as much as he served me. When my

stomach trouble had reduced my body to a couple of bones and I couldn't

eat anything, he said to me one day: 'Look at me-how well I eat! You've just

taken a fancy that you can't eat.'

Again he said: 'You are a fool! If I weren't living with you, where would

your profession of holiness be?' One day he tormented me so much that I

stood on the embankment ready to give up my body by jumping into the

Ganges, which was then at flood-tide."

M. became speechless at these words of the Master. For such a man he had

shed tears a few minutes before!

MASTER (to M.): "Well, he served me a great deal; then why should he

have fallen on such evil days? He took care of me like a parent bringing up

a child. As for me, I would remain unconscious of the world day and night.

Besides, I was ill for a long time. I was completely at his mercy."

M. did not know how to answer Sri Ramakrishna; so he kept silent.

Sri Ramakrishna returned to his room and sat on the small couch. The

devotees had been waiting for him eagerly. Several devotees from

Konnagar had arrived. One of them came forward to question the Master.

Bhava and Mahabhava

DEVOTEE: "Sir, we hear that you go into samādhi and experience ecstasy.

Please explain why and how you get into that mood."

MASTER: "Sri Radha used to experience Mahabhava. If any of her

companions wanted to touch her while she was in that state, another of

them would say: 'Please do not touch that body, the playground of Sri

Krishna. Krishna is now sporting in her body.' It is not possible to

experience bhava or mahabhava without the realization of God. When a fish

comes up from a great depth, you see a movement on the surface of the

water; and if it is a big one there is much splashing about. That is why a

devotee 'laughs and weeps and dances and sings in the ecstasy of God'.

"One cannot remain in bhava very long. People take a man to be crazy if he

sits before a mirror and looks at his face all the time."

Discipline for God-vision

DEVOTEE: "Sir, we hear that you see God. If you do, please show Him to

us."

MASTER: "Everything depends on God's will. What can a man do? While

chanting God's name, sometimes tears flow and at other times the eyes

remain dry. While meditating on God, some days I feel a great deal of inner

awakening, and some days I feel nothing.

"A man must work. Only then can he see God. One day, in an exalted

mood, I had a vision of the Haldārpukur. I saw a low-caste villager drawing

water after pushing aside the green scum. Now and then he took up the

water in the palm of his hand and examined it. In that vision it was revealed

to me that the water cannot be seen without pushing aside the green scum

that covers it; that is to say, one cannot develop love of God or obtain His

vision without work. Work means meditation, japa, and the like. The

chanting of God's name and glories is work too. You may also include

charity, sacrifice, and so on.

"If you want butter, you must let the milk turn to curd. It must be left in a

quiet place.

When the milk becomes curd, you must work hard to churn it. Only then

can you get butter from the milk."

Futility of mere study

MAHIMACHARAN: "That is true, sir. Work is certainly necessary. One

must labour hard.

Only then does one succeed. There is so much to read! The scriptures are

endless."

MASTER (to Mahimacharan): "How much of the scriptures can you read?

What will you gain by mere reasoning? Try to realize God before anything

else. Have faith in the guru's words, and work. If you have no guru, then

pray to God with a longing heart. He will let you know what He is like.

"What will you learn of God from books? As long as you are at a distance

from the marketplace you hear only an indistinct roar. But it is quite

different when you are actually there. Then you hear and see everything

distinctly. You hear people saying: 'Here are your potatoes. Take them and

give me the money.' "From a distance you hear only the rumbling noise of

the ocean. Go near it and you will see many boats sailing about, birds

flying, and waves rolling.

"One cannot get true feeling about God from the study of books. This

feeling is something very different from book-learning. Books, scriptures,

and science appear as mere dirt and straw after the realization of God.

"The one thing needful is to be introduced to the master of the house. Why

are you so anxious to know beforehand how many houses and gardens, and

how many government securities, the master possesses? The servants of the

house would not allow you even to approach these, and they would

certainly not tell you about their master's investments.

Therefore, somehow or other become acquainted with the master, even if

you have to jump over the fence or take a few pushes from the servants.

Then the master himself will tell you all about his houses and gardens and

his government securities. And what is more, the servants and the door-

keeper will salute you when you are known to the master.' (All laugh.)

Yearning for God

DEVOTEE: "Now the question is how to become acquainted with the

master." (Laughter.) MASTER: "That is why I say that work is necessary. It

will not do to say that God exists and then idle away your time. You must

reach God somehow or other. Call on Him in solitude and pray to Him, 'O

Lord! reveal Thyself to me.' Weep for Him with a longing heart. You roam

about in search of 'woman and gold' like a madman; now be a little mad for

God. Let people say, 'This man has lost his head for God.' Why not

renounce everything for a few days and call on God in solitude?

Work hard for His realization

"What will you achieve by simply saying that God exists and doing nothing

about it?

There are big fish in the Haldārpukur; but can you catch them by merely

sitting idly on the bank? Prepare some spiced bait and throw it into the lake.

Then the fish will come from the deep water and you will see ripples. That

will make you happy. Perhaps a fish will jump with a splash and you will

get a glimpse of it. Then you will be so glad!

"Milk must be turned to curd and the curd must be churned. Only then will

you get butter. (To Mahima) What a nuisance! Someone must show God to

a man, while he himself sits idly by all the while! Someone must extract the

butter and hold it in front of his mouth! (All laugh.) What a bother!

Someone else must catch the fish and give it to him!

"A man wanted to see the king. The king lived in the inner court of the

palace, beyond seven gates. No sooner did the man pass the first gate than

he exclaimed, 'Oh, where is the king?' But there were seven gates, and he

must pass them one after another before he could see the king."

MAHIMACHARAN: "By what kind of work can one realize God?"

MASTER: "It is not that God can be realized by this work and not by that.

The vision of God depends on His grace. Still a man must work a little with

longing for God in his heart. If he has longing he will receive the grace of

God.

Favourable conditions for realization of God

"To attain God a man must have certain favourable conditions: the company

of holy men, discrimination, and the blessings of a real teacher. Perhaps his

elder brother takes the responsibility for the family; perhaps his wife has

spiritual qualities and is very virtuous; perhaps he is not married at all or

entangled in worldly life. He succeeds when conditions like these are

fulfilled.

"In a certain family a man lay seriously ill. He was at the point of death.

Someone said: 'Here is a remedy: First it must rain when the star Svati is in

the ascendant; then some of that rain-water must collect in a human skull;

then a frog must come there and a snake must chase it; and as the frog is

about to be bitten by the snake, it must jump away and the poison of the

snake must drop into the skull. You must prepare a medicine from this

poison and give it to the patient. Then he will live.' The head of the family

consulted the almanac about the star and set out at the right moment. With

great longing of heart he began to search for the different ingredients. He

prayed to God, 'O

Lord, I shall succeed only if You bring together all the ingredients.' As he

was roaming about he actually saw a skull lying on the ground. Presently

there came a shower of rain. Then the man exclaimed: 'O gracious Lord, I

have got the rain-water under Svati, and the skull too. What is more, some

of the rain has fallen into the skull. Now be kind enough to bring together

the other ingredients.' He was reflecting with a yearning heart when he saw

a poisonous snake approaching. His joy knew no bounds. He became so

excited that he could feel the thumping of his own heart. 'O God,' he

prayed, 'now the snake has come too. I have procured most of the

ingredients. Please be gracious and give me the remaining ones.' No sooner

did he pray thus than a frog hopped up. The snake pursued it. As they came

near the skull and the snake was about to bite the frog, the frog jumped over

the skull and the snake's poison fell into it. The man began to dance,

clapping his hands for joy. So I say that one gets everything through

yearning.

"A man cannot realize God unless he renounces everything mentally. A

sādhu cannot lay things up. 'Birds and wandering monks do not make

provision for the morrow.' Such is the state of my mind that I cannot carry

even clay in my hand. Once, when Hriday tormented me, I thought of

leaving this place and going to Benares. I thought of taking some clothes

with me. But how could I take money? So I could not go to Benares. (All

laugh.)

(To Mahima) "You are a householder. Therefore you should hold both to

'this' and to 'that'-both to the world and to God."

MAHlMA: "Sir, can one who holds to 'that' also hold to 'this'?"

MASTER: "Once, sitting on the bank of the Ganges neat the Panchavati,

holding a rupee in one hand and clay in the other, I discriminated, 'The

rupee is the clay-the clay is verily the rupee, and the rupee is verily the

clay', and then threw the rupee into the river. But I was a little frightened.

'How foolish of me to offend the goddess of fortune!' I thought.

'What shall I do if she doesn't provide me with food any more?' Then, like

Hazra, I sought help in a ruse. I said to the goddess, 'Mother, may you dwell

in my heart.' Once the Divine Mother was pleased with a man's austerities

and said to him, 'You may ask a favour of Me.' 'O Mother,' said he, 'if You

are so pleased. with me, then grant that I may eat from a gold plate with my

grandchildren.' Now, in one boon the man got everything: grandchildren,

wealth, and gold plate. (All laugh.) "When the mind is freed from 'woman

and gold', it can be directed to God and become absorbed in Him. It is the

bound alone who can be freed.

The moment the mind 'turns away from God, it is bound. When does the

lower needle of a pair of scales move away from the upper one? When one

pan is pressed down by a weight. 'Woman and gold' is the weight.

"Why does a child cry on coming out of its mother's womb? With its cry it

says, as it were: 'Just see where I am now! In my mother's womb I was

meditating on the Lotus Feet of God; but see where I am now!'

(To Mahima) "You should renounce mentally. Live the life of a house

holder in a spirit of detachment."

MAHIMA: "Can a man live in the world if his mind is once directed to

God?"

See God in the world

MASTER: "Why not? Where will he go away from the world? I realize that

wherever I live I am always in the Ayodhya of Rāma. This whole world is

Rāma's Ayodhya. After receiving instruction from His teacher, Rāma said

that He would renounce the world.

Daśaratha sent the sage Vasishtha to Rāma to dissuade Him. Vasishtha

found Him filled with intense renunciation. He said to Rāma: 'First of all,

reason with me, Rāma; then You may leave the world. May I ask You if this

world is outside, God? If that is so, then You may give it up.' Rāma found

that it is God alone who has become the universe and all its living beings.

Everything in the world appears real on account of God's reality behind it.

Thereupon Rāma became silent.

"In the world a man must fight against passions like lust and anger, against

many desires, against attachment. It is convenient to fight from inside a

fort-from his own home. At home he gets his food and other help from his

wife. In the Kaliyuga the life of a man depends entirely on food. It is better

to get food at one place than to knock at seven doors for it. Living at home

is like facing the battle from a fort.

"Live in the world like a cast-off leaf in a gale. Such a leaf is sometimes

blown inside a house and sometimes to a rubbish heap. The leaf goes

wherever the wind blows-sometimes to a good place and sometimes to a

bad. Now God has put you in the world.

That is good. Stay here. Again, when He lifts you from here and puts you in

a better place, that will be time enough to think about what to do then.

"God has put you in the world. What can you do about it? Resign

everything to Him.

Surrender yourself at His feet. Then there will be no more confusion. Then

you will realize that it is God who does everything. All depends on 'the will

of Rāma'."

Story of "the will of Rāma"

A DEVOTEE: "What is that story about 'the will of Rāma'?"

MASTER: "In a certain village there lived a weaver. He was a very pious

soul. Everyone trusted him and loved him. He used to sell his goods in the

marketplace. When a customer asked him the price of a piece of cloth, the

weaver would say: 'By the will of Rāma the price of the yarn is one rupee

and the labour four ānnās; by the will of Rāma the profit is two ānnās . The

price of the cloth, by the will of Rāma, is one rupee and six ānnās.' Such

was the people's faith in the weaver that the customer would at once pay the

price and take the cloth. The weaver was a real devotee of God. After

finishing his supper in the evening, he would spend long hours' in the

worship hall meditating on God and chanting His name and glories. Now,

late one night the weaver couldn't get to sleep.

He was sitting in the worship hall, smoking now and then, when a band of

robbers happened to pass that way. They wanted a man to carry their goods

and said to the weaver, 'Come with us.' So saying, they led him off by the

hand. After committing a robbery in a house, they put a load of things on

the weaver's head, commanding him to carry them. Suddenly the police

arrived and the robbers ran away. But the weaver, with his load, was

arrested. He was kept in the lock-up for the night. Next day he was brought

before the magistrate for trial. The villagers learnt what had happened and

came to court. They said to the magistrate, 'Your Honour, this man could

never commit a robbery.' Thereupon the magistrate asked the weaver to

make his statement.

'The weaver said: 'Your Honour, by the will of Rāma I finished my meal at

night. Then by the will of Rāma I was sitting in the worship hall. It was

quite late at night by the will of Rāma. By the will of Rāma I had been

thinking of God and chanting His name and glories, when by the will of

Rāma a band of robbers passed that way. By the will of Rāma they dragged

me with them; by the will of Rāma they committed a robbery in a house;

and by the will of Rāma they put a load on my head. Just then, by the will

of Rāma the police arrived, and by the will of Rāma I was arrested. Then by

the will of Rāma the police kept me in the lock-up for the night, and this

morning by the will of Rāma I have been brought before Your Honour.' The

magistrate realized that the weaver was a pious man and ordered his release.

On his way home the weaver said to his friends, 'By the will of Rāma I have

been released.'

"Whether a man should be a householder or a monk depends on the will of

Rāma.

Surrender everything to God and do your duties in the world. What else can

you do? A clerk was once sent to prison. After the prison term was over he

was released. Now, what do you think he did? Cut capers or do his old

clerical work?

"If the householder becomes a jivanmukta, then he can easily live in the

world if he likes. A man who has attained Knowledge does not differentiate

between 'this place' and 'that place'. All places are the same to him. He who

thinks of 'that place' also thinks of 'this place'.

Master's first meeting with Keshab

"When I first met Keshab at Jaygopal's garden house, I remarked, 'He is the

only one who has dropped his tail.' At this people laughed. Keshab said to

them: 'Don't laugh.

There must be some meaning in his words. Let us ask him.' Thereupon I

said to Keshab: The tadpole, so long as it has not dropped its tail, lives only

in the water. It cannot move about on dry land. But as soon as it drops its

tail it hops out on the bank; then it can live both on land and in water.

Likewise, as long as a man has not dropped his tail of ignorance, he can live

only in the water of the world. But when he drops his tail, that is to say,

when he attains the Knowledge of God, then he can roam about as a free

soul, or live as a householder if he likes.' "

Mahimacharan and. the other devotees remained spellbound, listening to the

Master's words.

Master and Devendra Tagore

MASTER: "Once I visited Devendranath Tagore with Mathur Babu. I said

to Mathur: 'I have heard that Devendra Tagore thinks of God. I should like

to see him.' 'All right,' said Mathur, 'I will take you to him. We were fellow

students in the Hindu College and. I am very friendly with him.' We went to

Devendra's house. Mathur and Devendra had not seen each other for a long

time. Devendra said to Mathur: 'You have changed a little.

You have grown fat around the stomach.' Mathur said, referring to me: 'He

has come to see you. He is always mad about God.' I wanted to see

Devendra's physical marks and said to him, 'Let me see your body.' He

pulled up his shirt, and I found that he had very fair skin tinted red. His hair

had not yet turned grey.

"At the outset I noticed a little vanity in Devendra. And isn't that natural?

He had such wealth, such scholarship, such name and fame! Noticing that

streak of vanity, I asked Mathur: 'Well, is vanity the outcome of knowledge

or ignorance? Can a knower of Brahman have such a feeling as, "I am a

scholar; I am a Jnāni; I am rich"?'

"While I was talking to Devendra, I suddenly got into that state of mind in

which I can see a man as he really is. I was convulsed with laughter inside.

In that state I regard scholars and the book-learned as mere straw. If I see

that a scholar has no discrimination and renunciation, I regard him as

worthless straw. I see that he is like a vulture, which soars high but fixes its

look on a charnel-pit down below.

"I found that Devendra had combined both yoga and bhoga in his life. He

had a number of children, all young. The family physician was there. Thus,

you see, though he was a Jnāni, yet he was preoccupied with worldly life. I

said to him: 'You are the King Janaka of this Kaliyuga.

Holding to one as well as the other,

He drank his milk from a brimming cup!

I have heard that you live in the world and think of God; so I have come to

see you.

Please tell me something about God.'

"He recited some texts from the Vedas. He said, 'This universe is like a

chandelier and each living being is a light in it.' Once, meditating in the

Panchavati, I too, had had a vision like that. I found his words agreed with

my vision, and I thought he must be very great man. I asked him to explain

his words. He said: 'God has created men to manifest His own glory;

otherwise, who could know this universe? Everything becomes dark

without the lights in the chandelier. One cannot even see the chandelier

itself.'

"We talked a long time. Devendra was pleased and said to me, 'You must

come to our Brahmo Samaj festival.' 'That', I said, 'depends on the will of

God. You can see the state of my mind. There's no knowing when God will

put me into a particular state.' Devendra insisted: 'No, you must come. 'But

put on your cloth and wear a shawl over your body.

Someone might say something. unkind about your untidiness, and that

would hurt me.'

'No,' I replied, 'I cannot promise that. I cannot be a babu.' Devendra and

Mathur laughed.

"The very next day Mathur received a letter from Devendra forbidding me

to go to the festival. He wrote that it would be ungentlemanly of me not to

cover my body with a shawl. (All laugh.)

Colonel Viswanath

"There is another big man: Captain. Though a man of the world, he is a

great lover of God. (To Mahima) Talk to him some time. He knows the

Vedas, the Vedānta, the Bhagavata, the Gitā, the Adhyātma Rāmāyana, and

other scriptures by heart. You will find that out when you talk to him.

"He has great piety. Once I was going along a street in Baranagore and he

held an umbrella over my head. He invites me to his house and shows me

great attention. He fans me, massages my feet, and feeds me with various

dishes. Once at his house I went into samādhi in the toilet; and he took care

of me there though he is so particular about his orthodox habits. He didn't

show any abhorrence for the place.

"He has many expenses. He supports his brothers who live in Benares. His

wife was a miserly woman at first. Now she is so burdened by the expenses

of the family that she cannot spend all the money she would like to.

"Captain's wife said to me: 'He doesn't enjoy worldly life. That is why he

once said he would renounce the world.' True, every now and then he

expressed that desire.

"Captain was born in a family of devotees. His father was a soldier. I have

heard that on the battlefield he would worship Śiva with one hand and hold

a naked sword in the other.

"Captain is a strong upholder of orthodox conventions. Because of my

visiting Keshab Chandra Sen, he stopped coming here for a month. He said

to me that Keshab had violated the social conventions: he dined with the

English, had married his daughter into another caste, and had lost his own

caste. I said to Captain: 'What do I care for such things? Keshab chants the

name of God; so I go to him to hear about God. I eat only the plum; what do

I care about the thorns?' But Captain remained stubborn. He said to me,

'Why do you see Keshab?' I answered him rather sharply: 'But I don't go to

him for money; I go there to hear the name of God; And how is it that you

visit the Viceroy's house? He is a mlechchha. How can you be in his

company?' That silenced him a little.

"But he is a great devotee. When he worships he performs Ārati with

camphor. When he recites hymns he becomes a totally different person. He

becomes absorbed.

Essence of Vedānta

(To Mahimacharan) "In the light of Vedantic reasoning the world is illusory,

unreal as a dream. The Supreme Soul is the Witness-the witness of the three

states of waking, dream, and deep sleep. These things are in your line of

thought. The waking state is only as real as the dream. Let me tell you a

story that agrees with your attitude.

"There was a farmer who lived in the countryside. He was a real Jnāni. He

earned his living by farming. He was married, and after many years a son

was born to him, whom he named Haru. The parents loved the boy dearly.

This was natural, since he was the one precious gem in the family. On

account of his religious nature the farmer was loved by the villagers. One

day he was working in the field when a neighbour came and told him that

Haru had had an attack of cholera. The farmer at once returned home and

arranged for treatment for the boy. But Haru died. The other members of the

family were grief-stricken, but the farmer acted as if nothing had happened.

He consoled his family and told them that grieving was futile. Then he went

back to his field. On returning home he found his wife weeping even more

bitterly. She said to him: "How heartless you are! You haven't shed one tear

for the child.' The farmer replied quietly: 'Shall I tell you why I haven't

wept? I had a very vivid dream last night. I dreamt I had become a king; I

was the father of eight sons and was very happy with them. Then I woke up.

Now I am greatly perplexed. Should I weep for those eight sons or for this

one Haru?'

'The farmer was a Jnāni; therefore he realized that the waking state is as

unreal as the dream state. There is only one eternal Substance, and that is

the Ātman.

"But for my part I accept everything: Turiya and also the three states of

waking, dream; and deep sleep. I accept all three states. I accept all-

Brahman and also māyā, the universe, and its living beings. If I accepted

less I should not get the full weight."

A DEVOTEE: "The full weight? How is that?" (All laugh.) Qualified

Advaita

MASTER: "Brahman is qualified by the universe and its living beings. At

the beginning, while following the method of 'Not this, not this', one has to

eliminate the universe and its living beings. But as long as 'I-consciousness'

remains, one cannot but feel that it is God Himself who has become

everything. He alone has become the twenty-four cosmic principles.

"When a man speaks of the essential part of the bel-fruit, he means its flesh

only, and not the seeds and shell. But if he wants to speak of the total

weight of the fruit, it will not do for him to weigh only the flesh. He must

accept the whole thing: seeds and shell and flesh. Seeds and shell and flesh

belong to one and the same fruit.

Synthesis of Sankara and Ramanuja

"The Nitya and the Lila belong to the same Reality. Therefore I accept

everything, the Relative as well as the Absolute. I don't explain away the

world as māyā. Were I to do that I should get short weight."

MAHIMACHARAN: "It is a good synthesis: from the Absolute to the

Relative, and from the Relative to the Absolute."

MASTER: 'The jnanis regard everything as illusory, like a dream; but the

bhaktas accept all the states. The milk flows only in dribblets from the

Jnāni. (All laugh.) There are some cows that pick and choose their fodder;

hence their milk flows only in dribblets. But cows that don't discriminate so

much, and eat whatever they get, give milk in torrents. A superior devotee

of God accepts both the Absolute and the Relative; therefore he is able to

enjoy the Divine even when his mind comes down from the Absolute. Such

a devotee is like the cows that give milk in torrents." (All laugh.)

MAHIMA: "But the milk of a cow that eats without discrimination smells a

little."

(Laughter.)

MASTER (with a smile): "That's true, no doubt: Therefore that milk should

be boiled.

One should boil such milk over the fire a little while; there will be no smell

whatever if you boil the milk over the fire of Knowledge. (All laugh.)

Explanation of "Aum"

(To Mahima) "You explain 'Aum' with reference to 'a', 'u', and 'm' only."

AHIMA: "'A', 'u', and 'm' mean creation, preservation, and destruction."

MASTER: "But I give the illustration of the sound of a gong: 'tom', t-o-m.

It is the merging of the Lila in the Nitya: the gross, the subtle, and the

causal merge in the Great Cause; waking, dream, and deep sleep merge in

Turiya. The striking of the gong is like the falling of a heavy weight into a

big ocean. Waves begin to rise: the Relative rises from the Absolute; the

causal, subtle, and gross bodies appear out of the Great Cause; from Turiya

emerge the states of deep sleep, dream, and waking. These waves arising

from the Great Ocean merge again in the Great Ocean. From the Absolute

to the Relative, and from the Relative to the Absolute. Therefore I give the

illustration of the gong's sound, 'tom'. I have clearly perceived all these

things. It has been revealed to me that there exists an Ocean of

Consciousness without limit. From It come all things of the relative plane,

and in It they merge again. Millions of Brahmandas rise in that Chidakasa

and merge in It again. All this has been revealed to me; I don't know, much

about what your books say."

MAHlMA: "Those to whom such things were revealed did not write the

scriptures. They were rapt in their own experiences; when would they

write? One needs a somewhat calculating mind to write. Others learnt these

things from the seers and wrote the books."

MASTER: "Worldly people ask why one does not get rid of attachment to

'woman and gold'. That attachment disappears after the realization of God.

If a man once tastes the Bliss of Brahman, then his mind no longer runs

after the enjoyment of sense pleasures or wealth or name and fame. If the

moth once sees the light, it no longer goes into the darkness.

"Some friends said to Ravana: You have been assuming different forms for

Sita. Why don't you go to her in the form of Rāma?' Ravana replied: 'When

I contemplate Rāma, even the position of Brahma appears insignificant to

me, not to speak of the company of another man's wife! How could I take

the form of Rāma for such a purpose?'

"All worship and spiritual discipline are directed to one end alone, namely,

to get rid of worldly attachment. The more you meditate on God, the less

you will be attached to the trifling things of the world. The more you love

the Lotus Feet of God, the less you will crave the things of the world or pay

heed to creature comforts. You will look on another man's wife as your

mother and regard your own wife as your companion in spiritual life.

You will get rid of your bestial desires and acquire godly qualities. You will

be totally unattached to the world. Though you may still have to live in the

world, you will live as a jivamnukta. The disciples of Sri Chaitanya lived as

householders in a spirit of detachment. "You may quote thousands of

arguments from Vedānta philosophy to a true lover of God, and try to

explain the world as a dream, but you cannot shake his devotion to God. In

spite of all your efforts he will come back to his devotion.

"A man born with an element of Śiva becomes a Jnāni; his mind is always

inclined to the feeling that the world is unreal and Brahman alone is real.

But when a man is born with an element of Vishnu he. develops ecstatic

love of God. That love can never be destroyed. It may wane a little now and

then, when he indulges in philosophical reasoning, but it ultimately returns

to him increased a thousandfold."

After the devotees had left the Master, Mahimacharan brought Hazra to the

room. M.

was present. Mahima said to Sri Ramakrishna: "Sir, I have a complaint

against you. Why have you asked Hazra to go home? He has no desire to

return to his family."

Duty to one's mother

MASTER: "His mother has told Ramlal how much she is suffering on

account of his being away from home; so I have asked Hazra to go home, at

least for three days, and see her. Can anyone succeed in spiritual discipline

if it causes suffering for, his mother?

While visiting Vrindāvan, I had almost made up my mind to live there. But,

when I remembered my mother, I said to myself, 'My mother will weep if I

stay away from her.'

So I returned here with Mathur Babu. Besides, why should a Jnāni like

Hazra be afraid of going back to the world?"

MAHIMA, (with a smile): "Sir, that would be a pertinent question if Hazra

were a Jnāni."

MASTER (smiling): "Oh, Hazra has attained everything. He has just a little

attachment to the world because of his children and a small debt. As people

say, my aunt is now in perfect health, only she is slightly ill!"

MAHIMA: "Where, sir, is Hazra's knowledge?"

MASTER (smiling): "Oh, you don't know! Everybody says Hazra is quite a

man.

Everybody knows that he lives in the Dakshineswar temple garden. People

talk of nothing but Hazra. Who would bother to mention my name?" (All

laugh.) AZRA: "You, sir, are incomparable. You have no peer in the world.

Therefore nobody understands you."

MASTER: "There you are! To be sure, no one can have dealings with the

incomparable.

So why should people mention me at all?"

MAHIMA: "What does he know, sir? He will do your bidding."

MASTER: "That is not so. You had better ask him about it. He said to me,

'You and I are on even terms.'"

MAHIMA: "He argues a great deal."

MASTER: "Now and then he teaches me a lesson. (All laugh.) Sometimes I

scold him when he argues too much. Later, when I am lying in bed inside

the mosquito curtain, I feel unhappy at the idea of having offended him. So

I leave the bed, go to Hazra, and salute him. Then I feel peace of mind.

(To Hazra) "Why do you address the Pure Ātman as 'Isvara'? The Pure

Ātman is inactive and is the Witness of the three states. When I think of the

acts of creation, preservation, and destruction, then I call the Pure Ātman

'Isvara'. What is the Pure Ātman like? It is like a magnet lying at a great

distance from a needle. The needle moves, but the magnet lies motionless,

inactive."

Toward evening Sri Ramakrishna was pacing the room. M. was sitting

alone, thinking.

Suddenly the Master said to him tenderly: "Please give me a couple of linen

shirts. As you know, I cannot use everybody's things. I thought of asking

Captain for the shirts, but you had better give them to me." M. felt highly

gratified and said, "As you please, sir."

At dusk incense was burnt in Sri Ramakrishna's room, and, as usual, he

bowed before the pictures of gods and goddesses on the walls and chanted

their names softly. From outside one could hear the murmuring of the

Ganges and the music of the evening worship in the temples of Kāli,

Vishnu, and Śiva. Through the door one could see the priest at a distance

moving from one temple to another, a bell in his left hand and a light in his

right, an attendant carrying the gong. The evening melody was in harmony

with the spirit of the hour and place and with the innermost thoughts of the

worshippers. For the time being the sordid things of daily life were

forgotten.

Later Sri Ramakrishna was seated in his room in his usual blissful mood.

Ishan had come from Calcutta. He had burning faith in God. He used to say,

"If a man leaves the house with the hallowed name of Durga on his lips,

then Śiva Himself protects him with His celestial weapons."

MASTER (to Ishan): "You have great faith. But I haven't so much. (All

laugh.) God can be realized only through faith."

ISHAN; "Yes, sir."

MASTER: "You practise religious rites-japa, fasting, and the like. That is

very good. If a man feels sincerely drawn to God, then God makes him

practise all these disciplines. The devotee will certainly realize God if he

practises them without desiring their results. A devotee observes many rites

because of the injunctions of the scriptures. Such devotion is called

vaidhibhakti. But there is a higher form of devotion known as raga-bhakti,

which springs from yearning and love for God. Prahlada had such devotion.

When the devotee develops that love, he no longer needs to perform

prescribed rites.

November 9, 1884

Sri Ramakrishna was in his room, seated on the small couch and facing the

east. The devotees were sitting on the floor. It was about midday when M.

arrived and took a seat after saluting the Master. Gradually other devotees

began to gather. Vijaykrishna Goswami was there with several Brahmo

devotees. The priest Ram Chakravarty was present also. Mahimacharan,

Narayan, and Kishori arrived a few minutes later.

It was the beginning of winter. Sri Ramakrishna had felt the need of some

shirts and had asked M. to bring them. Besides two broad cloth shirts, M.

had brought another of a heavy material, for which Sri Ramakrishna had not

asked.

MASTER (to M.): "You had better take that one back with you. You can use

it yourself.

There is nothing wrong in that. Tell me, what kind of shirt did I ask you to

bring?"

M: "Sir, you told me to get you plain ones. You didn't ask me to buy the

heavier one."

MASTER: "Then please take that one back. (To Vijay and the others) You

see, Dwarika Babu gave me a shawl. The Mārwāri devotees also brought

one for me. I couldn't accept."

Vijay interrupted the Master, saying: "That is right, sir. If a man needs a

thing, he must accept it. And there must be a man to give it. Who but a man

will give?"

God supplies the needs of devotees

MASTER: 'The giver is the Lord Himself. The mother-in-law said to her

daughter-in-law: 'My child, I see that everybody has someone to render him

a little personal service. It would be so nice if you could find someone to

massage your feet.' The daughter-in-law said: 'Mother, God Himself will

massage my feet. I don't need anyone else.' She spoke thus because she was

a sincere lover of God.

"Once a fakir went to the Emperor Akbar to ask for money. The Emperor

was saying his prayers. He prayed, 'O Lord, give me money; give me

wealth.' The fakir started to leave the palace, but the Emperor motioned to

him to wait. After finishing his prayers, Akbar came to the holy man and

said, 'Why were you going away?' The fakir replied, 'You yourself were

begging for money and wealth; so I thought that if I must beg, I would beg

of God and not of a beggar.'"

VIJAY: "I saw a sādhu at Gaya. He did not take the initiative in anything.

One day he wanted to feed some devotees. Suddenly we found that butter,

flour, fruits, and other foodstuff had arrived from no one knew where."

Three classes of sādhus

MASTER (to Vijay and the others): 'There are three classes of sādhus:

good, mediocre, and bad. The good sādhu makes no effort to get his food.

The dandis, among others, belong to the mediocre and bad classes. To get

food the mediocre sādhu will knock at the door of a house and say, 'Namo

Narayana'. The bad sādhu starts a quarrel if he doesn't get his alms.

"The good sādhu behaves like a python. He sits in one place and the food

comes to him.

The python doesn't move from where it is. A young sādhu, who had been a

am Brahmachari from his boyhood, went out to beg. A young girl offered

him alms. The sādhu saw her breasts and thought she had abscesses. He

asked about them. The elderly women of the family explained that she

would some day be a mother and that God had given her breasts to give

milk to her children; God had provided for all this beforehand. At these

words the sādhu was struck with wonder. He said: Then 1 don't need to beg.

God must have provided for me too."

Some of the devotees thought that in that case they should not take any

initiative either.

MASTER: "But those who think that an effort is needed must make the

effort."

VIJAY: 'There is a nice story about that in the Bhaktamala."

MASTER: "Tell it to us."

VIJAY: "Please tell us yourself."

MASTER: "No, you tell it. 1 don't remember it very well. "One should hear

these things at the beginning. That is why I listened to them years ago. But

now I am no longer in that mood. Hanuman said: 'I don't know the position

of the stars or the phase of the moon. I only think of Rāma.'

'The chatak bird craves only rain-water. Even when it is dying of thirst, it

turns its beak upward and wants only water from the sky. The Ganges, the

Jamuna, and the seven oceans are filled to the brim, but still it will not

touch the water of the earth.

'Rāma and Lakshmana visited Pampa Lake. Lakshmana saw a crow very

eager for water.

Again and again it went to the edge of the water but would not drink.

Lakshmana asked Rāma about it. Rāma said: 'Brother, this crow is a great

devotee of God. Day and night it repeats the name of Rāma. Its throat is

parched with thirst, but still it won't drink for fear of missing a repetition of

Rāma's name.'

"On a full-moon night I said to Haladhāri, 'Brother, is it the night of the new

moon?' (All laugh.)

(Smiling) "Yes, it is true. Once I was told that a characteristic of a man of

Perfect Knowledge is that he cannot distinguish between the full moon and

the new moon. But how could one convince Haladhāri of that? He said:

This is certainly the dark Kaliyuga.

He cannot distinguish the full moon from the new moon! And people

respect him!"

Mahimacharan entered the room.

MASTER (respectfully): "Come in. Come in, sir. Please take a seat.

(To Vijay and the other devotees) "In the ecstatic state of mind I cannot

remember a date. The other day there was a religious festival at Beni Pāl's

garden. I forgot the date.

I can no longer remember the last day of the month, when it is very

auspicious to repeat the name ofGod."

Sri Ramakrishna remained thoughtful a few minutes.

MASTER: "But I remember if a man makes an engagement to visit me.

"A man attains this state when his mind is one hundred per cent absorbed in

God. When Hanuman returned from Ceylon, Rāma said to him: 'You have

seen Sita. Tell me, how did you find her?' Hanuman said: 'O Rāma, I saw

that only the body of Sita lay there; it held neither her mind nor her soul.

She has indeed consecrated her mind and soul to Your Lotus Feet.

Therefore I saw only her body in Ceylon. Further, I saw the King of Death

prowling about. But what could he do? It was only a body; it had neither

mind nor soul.'

"If you meditate on an ideal you will acquire its nature. If you think of God

day and night, you will acquire the nature of God. A salt doll went into the

ocean to measure its depth. It became one with the ocean. What is the goal

of books or scriptures? The attainment of God. A man opened a book

belonging to a sādhu. He saw the word 'Rāma'

written on every page. There was nothing else.

"If a man loves God, even the slightest thing kindles spiritual feeling in

him. Then, repeating the name of Rāma but once, he gets the fruit of ten

million sandhyas. At the sight of a cloud the peacock's emotion is

awakened: he dances, spreading his tail.

Radha had the same experience. Just the sight of a cloud recalled Krishna to

her mind.

"Chaitanyadeva was passing a village. He heard that drums were made from

the earth of that place. At once he was overwhelmed with ecstasy because

drums are used in kirtan.

"But who can have this spiritual awakening? Only he who has renounced

his attachment to worldly things. If the sap of attachment is totally dried up

in a man, the slightest suggestion kindles his spiritual emotion. Though you

strike a wet match a thousand times, it will not produce a spark. But if it is

dried, the slightest rubbing will set it aflame.

"Pain and pleasure are inevitable in a body. He who has realized God

dedicates his mind and life, his body and soul, to God. When Rāma and

Lakshmana went to take their bath in Pampa Lake, they thrust their bows

into the ground. Coming out of the water, Lakshmana took out his bow and

found its tip stained with blood. Rāma said to him: 'Look, brother! Look.

Perhaps we have hurt some creature." Lakshmana dug in the earth and

found a big bullfrog. It was dying. Rāma said to the frog in a sorrowful

voice: 'Why didn't you croak? We should have tried to save you. You croak

lustily enough when you are in the jaws of a snake.' The frog said: 'O Lord,

when I am attacked by a snake I croak, saying: "O Rāma, save me! O

Rāma, save me!" This time I found that it was Rāma who was killing me; so

I kept still.'"

Sri Ramakrishna remained silent a few moments watching the devotees. He

had heard that Mahimacharan did not believe in following a guru. He began

the conversation again.

Faith in guru

MASTER: "A man should have faith in the words of his guru. He doesn't

have to look into his guru's character. 'Though my guru visits the grog-shop,

still he is the Embodiment of Eternal Bliss.'

"A man who used to give recitals of the Chandi and the Bhagavata once

said, 'A broomstick is itself unclean, but it cleans dirty places.' "

Mahimacharan studied the Vedānta. His aim was to attain Brahmajnana. He

followed the path of knowledge and was always reasoning.

MASTER (to Mahima): "The aim of the Jnāni is to know the nature of his

own Self. This is Knowledge; this is liberation. The true nature of the Self

is that It is the Supreme Brahman: I and the Supreme Brahman are one. But

this Knowledge is hidden on account of māyā.

"I said to Harish; 'This is the whole thing: the gold is hidden under a few

basketfuls of earth, and you must remove the earth.'

"I-consciousness"

"The bhaktas retain 'I-consciousness'; the jnanis do not. Nangta used to

teach how to establish oneself in the true Self, saying, 'Merge the mind in

the buddhi and the buddhi in the Ātman; then you will be established in

your true Self."

"But the 'I' persists. It cannot be got rid of. Imagine a limitless expanse of

water: above and below, before and behind, right and left, everywhere there

is water. In that water is placed a jar filled with water. There is water inside

the jar and water outside, but the jar is still there. The 'I' is the jar.

"Even after attaining Knowledge, the Jnāni keeps his body as before. But

the fire of Knowledge burns away his lust and other passions. Many days

ago, during an electric storm, a thunderbolt struck the Kāli temple. We saw

that no injury had been done to the doors; only the points of the screws

were broken. The doors are the body, and the passions-lust and so forth-are

the screws.

"A Jnāni loves to talk only about God. He feels pained if one talks about

worldly things.

But a worldly man belongs to a different class. He always has the turban of

ignorance on his head. He always comes back to worldly topics.

"The Vedas speak of the 'seven planes' of mind. When the Jnāni's mind

ascends to the fifth plane, he cannot listen to anything or talk of anything

but God. At that stage only words of wisdom come from his lips.

"The Vedas speak of Satchidananda Brahman. Brahman is neither one nor

two; It is between one and two. It cannot be described either as existence or

as non-existence; It is between existence and non-existence.

Sincere and formal devotion

"When the devotee develops raga-bhakti, passionate love of God, he

realizes Him. But one loses vaidhibhakti, formal devotion, as easily as one

gains it. This is formal devotion: so much japa, so much meditation, so

much sacrifice and homa, so many articles of worship, and the recitation of

so many mantras, before the Deity. Such devotion comes in a moment and

goes in a moment. Many people say: 'Well, friend, we have lived on

havishya for so many days! How many times we have worshipped the Deity

at our home! And what have we achieved?' But there is no falling away

from raga-bhakti. And who gets this passionate love for God? Those who

have performed many meritorious deeds in their past births, or those who

are eternally perfect. Think of a dilapidated house, for instance: while

clearing away the undergrowth and rubbish one suddenly discovers a

fountain fitted with a pipe. It has been covered with earth and bricks, but as

soon as they are removed the water shoots up.

Sign of a true devotee

"Those who have passionate love for God do not say any such thing as: 'O

brother, how strict I have been about food! But what have I achieved?' New

farmers give up cultivating if their fields do not yield any crops. But

hereditary farmers will continue to cultivate their fields whether they get a

crop or not. Their fathers and grandfathers were farmers; they know that

they too must accept farming as their means of livelihood.

"Only those who have developed raga-bhakti for God may be called His

sincere devotees. God becomes responsible for them. If you enter your

name in a hospital register, the doctor will not discharge you until you are

cured. Those who are held by God have nothing to fear. The son who holds

to his father, while walking along the narrow ridge of a paddy-field, may

slip if he absent-mindedly lets go his father's hand; but if the father holds

the son by the hand, there is no such danger.

"Is there anything that is impossible for faith? And a true devotee has faith

in everything: the formless Reality, God with form, Rāma, Krishna and the

Divine Mother.

"Once, while going to Kamarpukur, I was overtaken by a storm. I was in the

middle of a big meadow. The place was haunted by robbers. I began to

repeat the names of all the deities: Rāma, Krishna, and Bhagavati. I also

repeated the name of Hanuman. I chanted the names of them all. What does

that mean? Let me tell you. While the servant is counting out the money to

purchase supplies, he says, 'These pennies are for potatoes these for

eggplants, these for fish.' He counts the money separately, but after the list

is completed, he puts the coins together.

"When one develops love of God, one likes to talk only of God. If you love

a person, you love to talk and hear about him. A worldly person's mouth

waters while he talks about his son. If someone praises his son, he will at

once say to the boy, 'Go and get some water for your uncle to wash his feet.

"Those who love pigeons are highly pleased if you praise pigeons before

them. But if you speak ill of pigeons, they will at once exclaim, 'Has anyone

in your line for fourteen generations ever raised pigeons?'"

Advantage of a householder's life

Sri Ramakrishna now addressed Mahimacharan, who was a householder.

MASTER: "What need is there of renouncing the world altogether? It is

enough if you can rid yourself of attachment. But you must have sādhanā

you have to fight the sense-organs.

"It is a great advantage to fight from inside a fort. You get much help from

the fort. The world is the place for enjoyment. After enjoying different

things, you should give them up one by one. Once I had a desire to put a

gold chain around my waist. I obtained one at last and put it on, but I had to

take it off immediately.

"Once I ate some onion. While eating it I discriminated, 'O mind, this is

onion.' Then I moved it to different places in my mouth and at last spat it

out."

A musician was expected. He was to sing with his party. Sri Ramakrishna

asked the devotees every now and then, "Where is the musician?"

MAHIMA: "We are quite all right as we are."

MASTER: "No, sir. You get this all through the year."

A devotee outside the room said, "The musician has come."

Sri Ramakrishna was filled with joy and said, "Ah! Has he?"

Mats were spread on the floor of the long verandah northeast of the Master's

room. Sri Ramakrishna said: "Sprinkle a little Ganges water on the mats.

Many worldly people have sat on them."

The ladies of Pyari Babu's family, from Bali, had come to visit the temples.

They wanted to listen to the kirtan. A devotee said to Sri Ramakrishna:

"These ladies have been inquiring whether there would be any place in the

room for them. Can they have seats?"

The kirtan had already begun. The Master said, "No, no! Where is any room

here?"

Master and Narayan

Narayan arrived and saluted Sri Ramakrishna. The latter said tenderly:

"Why have you come? Your people at home have beaten you so much!" He

signed to Baburam to give Narayan something to eat. Narayan entered the

Master's room. Suddenly Sri Ramakrishna followed him. He wanted to feed

Narayan with his own hands. Afterwards he returned to the verandah.

Many devotees were present, including Vijay, Mahimacharan, Narayan, M.,

and the younger Gopal. Soon Narayan came back to the verandah and took

his seat by the Master.

About three o'clock Adhar arrived. At the sight of him Sri Ramakrishna

appeared excited.

The devotee saluted the Master and sat on the floor. Sri Ramakrishna

beckoned to him to come nearer.

When the music was over the gathering of devotees broke up. Some began

to stroll in the garden and some went to the temples to watch the evening

service.

In the evening arrangements were made for kirtan inside the Master's room.

Sri Ramakrishna eagerly asked a devotee to have an extra lamp. The two

lamps lit the room brightly.

Sri Ramakrishna said to Vijay: "Why are you sitting there? Come nearer to

me." This time the kirtan created an intense atmosphere. The Master danced

in an ecstasy of joy; the devotees also danced encircling him. While Vijay

was dancing his cloth dropped. He was unconscious.

When the music was over, Vijay began to look for his key, which had fallen

somewhere.

The Master said to him with a laugh, "Why bother about it any more?"

He meant that Vijay should have nothing more to do with boxes and keys.

Kishori saluted Sri Ramakrishna and was about to take his leave. The

Master blessed him, touching his chest tenderly, and bade him good-bye.

His words were full of love. M.

and Gopal saluted the Master. They too were about to take their leave. He

said to them with the same affection: "Couldn't you go tomorrow morning?

You may catch cold at night."

M. and Gopal decided to spend the night with Sri Ramakrishna. They sat on

the floor with a few other devotees.

Sri Ramakrishna had had no rest the whole day: the devotees had been with

him all the time. He went out for a few minutes. Returning to the room he

saw M. taking down a song from Ramlal.

MASTER: "What are you doing?"

M. said that he was writing down a song. On being told what the song was,

the Master remarked that it was a rather long song. M. wrote a line or two

and then stopped writing.

A little later Sri Ramakrishna took his supper of farina pudding and one or

two luchis. A lighted lamp stood on a stand by his side. M. sat near him.

The Master asked if there were any sweets in the room. M. had brought

some sandesh which he had put on the shelf. Sri Ramakrishna asked M. to

give him a sweet. M. searched for the sweets but could not find them. He

was embarrassed. They had been given to the devotees.

After finishing his supper, Sri Ramakrishna sat on the small couch and M.

seated himself on the foot-rug. The Master, talking about Narayan, was

overcome with emotion.

MASTER: "I saw Naran today."

M: "Yes, sir. His eyes were moist. When I looked at his face I felt like

weeping."

MASTER: 'The sight of him arouses a mother's love in me, as it were. His

relatives beat him at home because he comes here. There is none to defend

him."M : 'The other day he left his books at Haripada's house and fled to

you.

MASTER: "It was not good for him to do that."

Sri Ramakrishna was silent. After a few minutes he continued.

MASTER: "You see, he has much substance in him. Otherwise, how could I

be attracted to him even though I was listening to the kirtan at the time? I

had to leave the music and go into the room. That never happened before."

Again Sri Ramakrishna fell silent. A few minutes later he began to talk.

MASTER: "In an ecstatic state I asked him how he was feeling. He just said

he was happy. (To M.) Feed him now and then-as parents do their child."

Sri Ramakrishna then spoke about Tejchandra.

MASTER (to M.): "Please ask him what he thinks of me. Does he thinkof

me as a Jnāni?

Or what does he say about me? I understand that he is very reticent. (To

Gopal) Ask Tejchandra to come here Saturdays and Tuesdays. (To M.)

Suppose I go to your school and look for-"

M. thought that Sri Ramakrishna wanted to go to his school to see Narayan.

He said to the Master, "You might as well wait at our house."

MASTER: "No, I have something else in mind. I should like to see

whetherthere are other worth-while boys in the school."

M: "Of course you can go. Other visitors come to the school. You cancome

too."

Sri Ramakrishna was smoking. M. and Gopal finished their supper. They

decided to sleep in the nahabat. M. again sat on the floor near Sri

Ramakrishna.

MASTER (to M.): 'There may be some pots and pans in the nahabat.Why

not sleep here in this room?"

M: "Very well, sir."

It was ten or eleven o'clock at night. Sri Ramakrishna was sitting on the

small couch, resting against a pillow. M. sat on the floor. The Master was

conversing with him. A lamp burnt on a stand near the wall. The Master felt

great compassion for his devotees. He wanted to bless M. by accepting his

personal service.

MASTER: "My feet ache. Please rub them gently."

M. seated himself on the small couch and took the Master's feet on his lap.

He stroked them. Now and then Sri Ramakrishna would ask his disciple a

question.

MASTER (smiling): "How did you like today's conversation?"

M: "Very much indeed."

MASTER (smiling): "How I spoke about the Emperor Akbar!"

M: "It was very good."

MASTER: "Repeat it to me."

M: "A fakir came to visit Akbar. The Emperor was saying his prayers. In

his prayers he was asking God to give him wealth and riches. Thereupon

the fakir was about to leave the room quietly. Later, when the Emperor

asked him about it, the fakir said, 'If I must beg, why should I beg of a

beggar?'"

MASTER: "What else did we talk about?"

M: "You told us a great deal about saving up for the future."

MASTER (smiling): "What did I say?"

M: "As long as a man feels that he must try, he should make an effort. How

well you told us about it at Sinthi!"

MASTER: "What did I say?"

M: "God takes upon Himself complete responsibility for one who totally

depends upon Him. It is like a guardian taking charge of a minor. You also

told us that at a feast a child cannot by himself find a place to eat his meal;

someone finds a place for him."

MASTER: "No, that is not quite to the point. I said that the child doesn't fall

if the father leads him and holds his hand."

M: "You also described the three classes of sādhus. The best sādhu does not

move about to get his food; he lives in one place and gets his food there,

You told us about that young sādhu who said, when he saw the breasts of a

young girl, 'Why has she those abscesses?' You told us many other things."

MASTER (smiling): "What else?"

M: "About the crow of Pampa Lake. He repeated the name of Rāma day

and night. That is why he couldn't drink the water though he went to its

edge. And about the holy man in whose book was written only 'Om Rāma'.

And what Hanuman said to Rāma."

MASTER: "What did he say?"

M: "Hanuman said to Rāma: 'I saw Sita in Ceylon; but it was only her body.

Her mind and soul were lying at Your feet.'

"And about the chatak bird. He will not drink anything but rain-water. And

about jnanayoga and bhaktiyoga."

MASTER: "What did I say about them?"

M: "As long as one is conscious of the 'jar', the ego will certainly remain.

As long as one is conscious of 'I', one cannot get rid of the idea, 'I am the

devotee and Thou art God'."

MASTER: "No, it is not that; the 'jar' doesn't disappear whether one is

conscious of it or not. One cannot get rid of the 'I'. You may reason a

thousand times; still it will not go."

M. remained silent a few moments.

M: "You had that talk with Ishan Mukherji in the Kāli temple. We were very

lucky to be there."

MASTER (smiling): "Yes, yes. Tell me, what did I say?"

M: "You said that work is only the first step. You told us that you said to

Sambhu Mallick, 'If God appears before you, will you ask Him for a

number of hospitals and dispensaries?'

"You said another thing: God does not reveal Himself to a person as long as

he is attached to work. You said that to Keshab Sen."

MASTER: "What did I say?"

M: "As long as the baby plays with the toy and forgets everything else, its

mother looks after her cooking and other household duties; but when the

baby throws away the toy and cries, then the mother puts down the rice-pot

and comes to the baby.

"You said another thing that day: Lakshmana asked Rāma where one could

find God; after a great deal of explanation, Rāma said to him, 'Brother, I

dwell in the man in whom you find ecstatic love-a love which makes him

laugh and weep and dance and sing.' "

MASTER: "Ah me! Ah me!"

Sri Ramakrishna sat in silence a few minutes.

M: "That day you spoke only words of renunciation to Ishan. Since then

many of us have come to our senses. Now we are eager to reduce our

duties. You said that day, 'Ravana died in Ceylon and Behula wept bitterly

for him.'"

Sri Ramakrishna laughed aloud.

M. (humbly): "Sir, isn't it desirable to reduce the number of one's duties and

entanglements?"

MASTER: "Yes. But it is a different thing if you happen to come across a

sādhu or a poor man. Then you should serve him."

M: "And. that day you spoke very rightly to Ishan about flatterers. They are

like vultures on a carcass. You once said that to Padmalochan also."

MASTER: "No, to Vamandas of Ulo."

After a while M. sat on the floor near the small couch. Sri Ramakrishna felt

sleepy; he said to M.: "Go to sleep. Where is Gopal? Please shut the door."

Next morning Sri Ramakrishna left his bed very early. As usual, he chanted

the holy names of the different gods and goddesses. Now and then he

looked at the sacred river.

The morning worship began in the temples of Radhakanta and Mother Kāli.

M. had spent the night on the floor of the Master's room. He left his bed and

watched the worship in.

the different temples.

Sri Ramakrishna finished his bath and went with M. to the Kāli temple. He

asked the disciple to lock the door of his room.

In the temple he took the seat in front of the image of Kāli and offered

flowers, sometimes at Her feet and sometimes on his own head. He fanned

the Deity. Then he returned to his room and asked M. to unlock the door.

Entering the room, he sat on the small couch. He was completely

overwhelmed with divine fervour and began to chant the name of God. M.

sat alone on the floor. Sri Ramakrishna began to sing about the Divine

Mother:

Who is there that can understand what Mother Kāli is?

Even the six darsanas are powerless to reveal Her.

It is She, the scriptures say, that is the Inner Self Of the yogi, who in Self

discovers all his joy; She that, of Her own sweet will, inhabits every living

thing. .

Then he sang:

All creation is the sport of my mad Mother Kāli; By Her māyā the three

worlds are bewitched. . . .

He continued:

O Kāli, who can know Thee? Numberless are Thy forms. . .

Again he sang:

O Mother, redeem me speedily!

From terror of the King of Death I am about to die.

M. said to himself, "I wish he would sing: Mother, Thou canst not trick me

any more,

For I have seen Thy crimson Lotus Feet."

Strangely enough, no sooner had the thought passed through M.'s mind than

Sri Ramakrishna sang the song. A few minutes later he said to M., "What

do you think of the present state of my mind?"

M. (smiling): "It is your simple and natural state."

Sri Ramakrishna sang to himself the following refrain of a song: Unless a

man is simple, he cannot recognize God, the Simple One.

--------------------

Chapter 34

BANKIM CHANDRA

Saturday, December 6, 1884

Adhar

ADHAR, A GREAT DEVOTEE of Sri Ramakrishna, lived in Sobha bazar

in the northern section of Calcutta. Almost every day, after finishing his

hard work at the office and returning home in the late afternoon, he paid Sri

Ramakrishna a visit. From his home in Calcutta he would go to

Dakshineswar in a hired carriage. His sole delight was to visit the Master.

But he would hear very little of what Sri Ramakrishna said; for, after

saluting the Master and visiting the temples, he would lie down, at the

Master's request, on a mat spread on the floor and would soon fall asleep.

At nine or ten O'clock he would be awakened to return home. However, he

considered himself blessed to be able to visit the God-man of

Dakshineswar. At Adhar's request Sri Ramakrishna often visited his home.

His visits were occasions for religious festivals. Devotees in large numbers

would assemble, and Adhar would feed them sumptuously. One day, while

Sri Ramakrishna was visiting his home, Adhar said to him: "Sir, you haven't

come to our house for a long time. The rooms seemed gloomy; they had a

musty smell. But today the whole house is cheerful; the sweetness of your

presence fills the atmosphere. Today I called on God earnestly. I even shed

tears while praying. "Is that so?" the Master said tenderly, casting a kindly

glance on his disciple.

Sri Ramakrishna arrived at Adhar's house with his attendants. Everyone was

in a joyous mood. Adhar had arranged a rich feast. Many strangers were

present. At Adhar's invitation, several other deputy magistrates had come;

they wanted to watch the Master and judge his holiness. Among them was

Bankim Chandra Chatterji, perhaps the greatest literary figure of Bengal

during the later part of the nineteenth century. He was one of the creators of

modern Bengali literature and wrote on social and religious subjects.

Bankim was a product of the contact of India with England. He gave

modern interpretations of the Hindu scriptures and advocated drastic social

reforms.

Sri Ramakrishna had been talking happily with the devotees when Adhar

introduced several of his personal friends to him.

ADHAR (introducing Bankim): "Sir, he is a great scholar and has written

many books. He has come here to see you. His name is Bankim Babu."

MASTER (smiling): "Bankim! Well, what has made you bent?"

BANKIM (smiling): "Why, sir, boots are responsible for it. The kicks of our

white masters have bent my body."

Meaning of Radha and Krishna

MASTER: "No, my dear sir! Sri Krishna was bent on account of His

ecstatic love. His body was bent in three places owing to His love for

Radha. That is how some people explain Sri Krishna's form. Do you know

why He has a deep-blue complexion? And why He is of such small stature-

only three and a half cubits measured by His own hand? God looks so as

long as He is seen from a distance. So the water of the ocean looks blue

from afar.

But if you go near the ocean and take the water in your hand, you will no

longer find it blue; it will be very clear, transparent. So the sun appears

small because it is very far away; if you go near it, you will no longer find it

small. When one knows the true nature of God, He appears neither blue nor

small. But that is a far-off vision;one does not see it except in samādhi. As

long as 'I' and 'you' exist, name and form will also exist.

Everything is God's lila. His sportive pleasure. As long as a man is

conscious of 'I' and 'you', he will experience the manifestations of God

through diverse forms.

Purusha and Prakriti imply and, Their inner harmony "Sri Krishna is

the Purusha; Srimati is His Śakti, the Primal Power. The two are Purusha

and Prakriti. What is the meaning of the Yugala Murti, the conjoined

images of Radha and Krishna? It is that Purusha and Prakriti are not

different; there is no difference between them. Purusha cannot exist without

Prakriti, and Prakriti cannot exist without Purusha. If you mention the one,

the other is understood. It is like fire and its power to burn; one cannot think

of fire without its power to burn; again, one cannot think of fire's power to

burn without fire. Therefore in the conjoined images of Radha and Krishna,

Krishna's eyes are fixed on Radha and Radha's on Krishna. Radha's

complexion is golden, like lightning; so Krishna wears yellow apparel.

Krishna's complexion is blue, like a dark cloud; so Radha wears a blue

dress; she has also decked herself with blue sapphires. Radha has tinkling

anklets; so Krishna has them too. In other words, there is inner and outer

harmony between Purusha and Prakriti."

As Sri Ramakrishna finished these words, Bankim and his friends began to

whisper in English.

MASTER (smiling, to Bankim and the others): "Well, gentlemen! What are

you talking about in English?"

ADHAR: "We are discussing what you have just said, your explanation of

Krishna's form."

MASTER (smiling): "That reminds me of a funny story. It makes me want

to laugh. Once a barber was shaving a gentleman. The latter was cut slightly

by the razor. At once he cried out, 'Damn!' But the barber didn't know the

meaning of the word. He put his razor and other shaving articles aside,

tucked up his shirt-sleeves-it was winter-, and said: 'You said "damn" to me.

Now you must tell me its meaning.' The gentleman said: 'Don't be silly. Go

on with your shaving. The word doesn't mean anything in particular; but

shave a little more carefully.' But the barber wouldn't let him off so easily.

He said, 'If "damn" means something good, then I am a "damn", my father

is a "damn", and all my ancestors are "damns". (All laugh.) But if it means

something bad, then you are a "damn", your father is a "damn", and all your

ancestors are "damns". (All laugh.) They are not only "damns", but "damn-

damn-damn-da-damn-damn".'"(Loud laughter.) As the laughter stopped,

Bankim began the conversation.

Master and preaching

BANKIM: "Sir, why don't you preach?"

MASTER (smiling): "Preaching? It is only a man's vanity that makes him

think of preaching. A man is but an insignificant creature. It is God alone

who will preach-God who has created the sun and moon and so illumined

the universe. Is preaching such a trifling affair? You cannot preach unless

God reveals Himself to you and gives you the command to preach. Of

course, no one can stop you from preaching. You haven't received the

command, but still you cry yourself hoarse. People will listen to you couple

of days and then forget all about it. It is like any other sensation; as long as

you speak, people will say, 'Ah! He speaks well'; and the moment you stop,

everything will disappear.

"The milk in the pot hisses and swells as long as there is heat under it. Take

away the heat, and the milk will quiet down as before.

Preaching without God's command

"One must increase one's strength by sādhanā; otherwise one cannot

preach. As the proverb goes: 'You have no room to sleep yourself and you

invite a friend to sleep with you.' There is no place for you to lie down and

you say: 'Come, friend! Come and lie down with me.' (Laughter.)

"Some people used to befoul the bank of the Haldārpukur at Kamarpukur

every morning.

The villagers would notice it and abuse the offenders. But that didn't stop it.

At last the villagers filed a petition with the Government. An officer visited

the place and put up a sign: 'Commit no nuisance. Offenders will be

punished.' That stopped it completely.

Afterwards there was no more trouble. It was a government order, and

everyone had to obey it.

"Likewise, if God reveals Himself to you and gives you the command, then

you can preach and teach people. Otherwise, who will listen to you?"

The visitors were listening seriously.

Life after death

MASTER (to Bankim): "I understand you are a great pundit and have

written many books. Please tell me what you think about man's duties?

What will accompany him after death? You believe in the hereafter, don't

you?"

BANKIM: "The hereafter? What is that?"

MASTER: "True. When a man dies after attaining Knowledge, he doesn't

have to go to another plane of existence; he isn't born again. But as long as

he has not attained Knowledge, as long as he has not realized God, he must

come back to the life of this earth; he can never escape it. For such a person

there is a hereafter. A man is liberated after attaining Knowledge, after

realizing God. For him there is no further coming back to earth. If a boiled

paddy-grain is sown, it doesn't sprout. Just so, if a man is boiled by the fire

of Knowledge, he cannot take part any more in the play of creation; he

cannot lead a worldly life, for he has no attachment to 'woman and gold'.

What will you gain by sowing boiled paddy?"

BANKIM (smiling): "Sir, neither does a weed serve the purpose of a tree.'

MASTER: "But you cannot call a Jnāni a weed. He who has realized God

has obtained the fruit of Immortality-not a common fruit like a gourd or a

pumpkin. He is free from rebirth. He is not born anywhere-on earth, in the

solar world, or in the lunar world.

"Analogy is one-sided. You are a pundit; haven't you read logic? Suppose

you say that a man is as terrible as a tiger. That doesn't mean that he has a

fearful tail or a tiger's pot-face! (All laugh.) "I said the same thing to

Keshab. He asked me, 'Sir, is there an after-life?' I didn't commit myself

either way. I said that the potters put their pots in the sun to bake.

Among them you see both baked and soft pots. Sometimes cattle trample

over them.

When the baked pots are broken, the potters throw them away; but when the

soft ones are broken they keep them. They mix them with water and put the

clay on the wheel and make new pots. They don't throwaway the unbaked

pots. So I said to Keshab: 'The Potter won't let you go as long as you are

unbaked. He will put you on the wheel of the world as long as you have not

attained Knowledge, as long as you have not realized Him.

He won't let you go. You will have to return to the earth again and again;

there is no escape. You will be liberated only when you realize God. Then

alone will the Potter let you go. It is because then you won't serve any

purpose in this world of māyā.' The Jnāni has gone beyond māyā. What will

he do in this world of māyā?

"But God keeps some jnanis in the world of māyā to be teachers of men. In

order to teach others the Jnāni lives in the world with the help of Vidyā-

māyā. It is God Himself who keeps the Jnāni in the world for His work.

Such was the case with Sukadeva and Sankaracharya.

Duties of life

(To Bankim, smiling) "Well, what do you say about man's duties?"

BANKIM (smiling): "If you ask me about them, I should say they are

eating, sleeping, and sex-life."

Master scolds Bankim

MASTER (sharply): "Eh? You are very saucy! What you do day and night

comes out through your mouth. A man belches what he eats. If he eats

radish, he belches radish; if he eats green coconut, he belches green

coconut. Day and night you live in the midst of 'woman and gold'; so your

mouth utters words about that alone. By constantly thinking of worldly

things a man becomes calculating and deceitful. On the other hand, he

becomes guileless by thinking of God. A man who has seen God will never

say what you have just said. What will a pundit's scholarship profit him if

he does not think of God and has no discrimination and renunciation? Of

what use is erudition if the mind dwells on 'woman and gold'?

"Kites and vultures soar very high indeed, but their gaze is fixed only on the

charnel-pit.

The pundit has no doubt studied many books and scriptures; he may rattle

off their texts, or he may have written books. But if he is attached to

women, if he thinks of money and honour as the essential things, will you

call him a pundit? How can a man be a pundit if his mind does not dwell on

God?

Devotees and the worldly-minded

"Some may say about the devotees: 'Day and night these people speak about

God. They are crazy; they have lost their heads. But how clever we are!

How we enjoy pleasure-money, honour, the senses!' The crow, too thinks he

is a clever bird; but the first thing he does when he wakes up in the early

morning is to fill his stomach with nothing but others' filth. Haven't you

noticed how he struts about? Very clever indeed!"

There was dead silence.

Sri Ramakrishna continued: "But like the swan are those who think of God,

who pray day and night to get rid of their attachment to worldly things and

their love for 'woman and gold', who do not enjoy anything except the

nectar of the Lotus Feet of the Lord, and to whom worldly pleasures taste

bitter. If you put a mixture of milk and water before the swan, it will leave

the water and drink only the milk. And haven't you noticed the gait of a

swan? It goes straight ahead in one direction. So it is with genuine

devotees: they go toward God alone. They seek nothing else; they enjoy

nothing else.

(Tenderly, to Bankim) "Please don't take offence at my words."

BANKIM: "Sir, I haven't come here to hear sweet things."

MASTER (to Bankim): "'Woman and gold' alone is the world; that alone is

māyā. Because of it you cannot see or think of God. After the birth of one

or two children, husband and wife should live as brother and sister and talk

only of God. Then both their minds will be drawn to God, and the wife will

be a help to the husband on the path of spirituality. None can taste divine

bliss without giving up his animal feeling. A devotee should pray to God to

help him get rid of this feeling. It. must be a sincere prayer. God is our Inner

Controller; He will certainly listen to our prayer if it is sincere.

"And 'gold'. Sitting on the bank of the Ganges below the Panchavati, I used

to say, 'Rupee is clay and clay is rupee;' Then I threw both into the Ganges."

BANKIM: "Indeed! Money is clay! Sir, if you have a few pennies you can

help the poor. If money is clay, then a man cannot give in charity or do

good to others."

Charity -The sannyāsi's duty

MASTER (to Bankim): "Charity! Doing good! How dare you say you can

do good to others? Man struts about so much; but if one pours foul water

into his mouth when he is asleep, he doesn't even know it; his mouth

overflows with it. Where are his boasting, his vanity, his pride, then?

"A sannyāsi must give up 'woman and gold'; he cannot accept it any more.

One must not swallow one's own spittle. When a sannyāsi gives something

to another, he knows that it is not himself who gives. Kindness belongs to

God alone. How can a man lay claim to it? Charity depends on the will of

Rāma. A true sannyāsi renounces 'woman and gold'

both mentally and outwardly. He who eats no molasses must not even keep

molasses about. If he does, and yet tells others not to eat it, they won't listen

to him.

"A householder, of course, needs money, for he has a wife and children. He

should save up to feed them. They say that the bird and the sannyāsi should

not provide for the future. But the mother bird brings food in her mouth for

her chicks; so she too provides.

A householder needs money. He has to support his family.

The householder's duty

"If a householder is a genuine devotee he performs his duties without

attachment; he surrenders the fruit of his work to God-his gain or loss, his

pleasure or pain-and day and night he prays for devotion and for nothing

else. This is called motiveless work, the performance of duty without

attachment. A sannyāsi, too, must do all his work in that spirit of

detachment; but he has no worldly duties to attend to, like a householder.

"If a householder gives in charity in a spirit of detachment, he is really

doing good to himself and not to others. It is God alone that he serves-God,

who dwells in all beings; and when he serves God, he is really doing good

to himself and not to others. If a man thus serves God through all beings,

not through men alone but through animals and other living beings as well;

if he doesn't seek name and fame, or heaven after death; if he doesn't seek

any return from those he serves; if he can carry on his work of service in

this spirit-then he performs truly selfless work, work without attachment.

Through such selfless work he does good to himself. This is called karma

yoga. This too is a way to realize God. But it is very difficult, and not suited

to the Kaliyuga.

"Therefore I say, he who works in such a detached spirit-who is kind and

charitable-benefits only himself. Helping others, doing good to others-this

is the work of God alone, who for men has created the sun and moon, father

and mother, fruits, flowers, and corn.

The love that you see in parents is God's love: He has given it to them to

preserve His creation. The compassion that you see in the kind-hearted is

God's compassion: He has given it to them to protect the helpless. Whether

you are charitable or not, He will have His work done somehow or other.

Nothing can stop His work.

"What then is man's duty? What else can it be? It is just to take refuge in

God and to pray to Him with a yearning heart for His vision.

Difficulty of karmayoga

"Sambhu said to me: 'It is my desire to build a large number of hospitals

and dispensaries. Thus I can do much good to the poor.' I said to him: 'Yes,

that is not bad if you can do it in a detached spirit. But to be detached is

very difficult unless you sincerely love God. And further, if you entangle

yourself in many activities, you will be attached to them in a way unknown

to yourself. You may think you have no motive behind your work, but

perhaps there has already grown a desire for fame and the advertising of

your name. Then again, if you are entangled in too many activities, the

pressure of them will make you forget God.' I also said to him: 'Sambhu, let

me ask you one thing. If God appears before you, will you want Him or a

number of hospitals and dispensaries?' If one realizes God, one doesn't

enjoy anything else. One who has tasted syrup of sugar candy cannot enjoy

a drink made from common treacle.

"Those who build hospitals and dispensaries, and get pleasure from that, are

no doubt good people; but they are of a different type. He who is a real

devotee of God seeks nothing but God. If he finds himself entangled in too

much work, he earnestly prays, 'Lord, be gracious and reduce my work; my

mind, which should think of Thee day and night, has been wasting its

power; it thinks of worldly things alone.' Pure-souled devotees are in a class

by themselves. You cannot have real love of God unless you know that God

alone is real and all else illusory. You cannot have real love of God unless

you know that the world is impermanent, only of two days' existence, while

its Creator alone is real and eternal. "Janaka and sages like him worked in

the world at the command of God.

Spirituality and book-learning

(To Bankim) "Some people think that God cannot be realized without the

study of books and scriptures. They think that first of all one should learn of

this world and its creatures; that first of all one should study 'science'. (All

laugh.) They think that one cannot realize God without first understanding

His creation. Which comes first, 'science'

or God? What do you say?"

BANKIM: "I too think that we should first of all know about the different

things of the world. How can we know of God without knowing something

of this world? We should first learn from books."

MASTER: "That's the one cry from all of you. But God comes first and

then the creation.

After attaining God you can know everything else, if it is necessary.

"If you can somehow get yourself introduced to Jadu Mallick, then you will

be able to learn, if you want to, the number of his houses and gardens and

the amount of his money invested in government securities. Jadu Mallick

himself will tell you all about them. But if you haven't met him and if you

are stopped by his door-keepers when you try to enter his house, then how

will you get the correct information about his houses, gardens, and

government securities? When you know God you know all else; but then

you don't care to know small things. The same thing is stated in the Vedas.

You talk about the virtues of a person as long as you haven't seen him, but

no sooner does he appear before you than all such talk stops. You are beside

yourself with joy simply to be with him. You feel overwhelmed by simply

conversing with him. You don't talk about his virtues any more.

"First realize God, then think of the creation and other things. Valmiki was

given the name of Rāma to repeat as his mantra, but was told at first to

repeat 'mara'. 'Ma' means God and 'ra' the world. First God and then the

world. If you know one you know all. If you put fifty zeros after a one, you

have a large sum; but erase the one and nothing remains. It is the one that

makes the many. First one, then many. First God, then His creatures and the

world.

God and the world

"The one thing you need is to realize God. Why do you bother so much

about the world, creation, 'science', and all that? Your business is to eat

mangoes. What need have you to know how many hundreds of trees there

are in the orchard, how many thousands of branches, and how many

millions of leaves? You have come to the garden to eat mangoes. Go and eat

them. Man is born in this world to realize God; it is not good to forget that

and divert the mind to other things. You have come to eat mangoes. Eat the

mangoes and be happy."

BANKIM: "Where do we get the mangoes?"

MASTER: "Pray to God with a longing heart. He will surely listen to your

prayer if it is sincere. Perhaps He will direct you to holy men with whom

you can keep company; and that will help you on your spiritual path.

Perhaps someone will tell you, 'Do this and you will attain God.'"

BANKIM: "Who? The guru? He enjoys all the good mangoes himself and

gives us the bad ones!" (Laughter.)

MASTER: "Why should that be so? The mother knows what food suits the

stomachs of her different children. Can all of them digest pilau and Kalia?

Suppose a fish has been procured. The mother doesn't give pilau and Kalia

to all the children. For the weak child with a poor stomach she prepares

simple soup. But does that mean she loves him the less?

Faith in guru

"One must have faith in the guru's words. The guru is none other than

Satchidananda.

God Himself is the Guru. If you only believe his words like a child, you

will realize God.

What faith a child has! When a child's mother says to him about a certain

man, 'He is your brother', the child believes he really is his brother. The

child believes it one hundred and twenty-five percent, though he may be the

son of a brahmin, and the man the son of a blacksmith. The mother says to

the child, 'There is a bugaboo in that room', and the child really believes

there is a bugaboo in the room. Such is the faith of a child! One must have

this childlike faith in the guru's words. God cannot be realized by a mind

that is hypocritical, calculating, or argumentative. One must have faith and

sincerity.

Hypocrisy will not do. To the sincere, God is very near; but He is far, far

away from the hypocrite.

Yearning for God-vision

"One must have for God the yearning of a child. The child sees nothing but

confusion when his mother is away. You may try to cajole him by putting a

sweetmeat in his hand; but he will not be fooled. He only says, 'No, I want

to go to my mother.' One must feel such yearning for God. Ah, what

yearning! How restless a child feels for his mother!

Nothing can make him forget his mother. He to whom the enjoyment of

worldly happiness appears tasteless, he who takes no delight in anything of

the world-money, name, creature comforts, sense pleasure-, becomes

sincerely grief-stricken for the vision of the Mother. And to him alone the

Mother comes running, leaving all Her other duties.

"Ah, that restlessness is the whole thing. Whatever path you follow-whether

you are a Hindu, a Mussalman, a Christian, a Sakta, a Vaishnava, or a

Brahmo-the vital point is restlessness. God is our Inner Guide. It doesn't

matter if you take a wrong path-only you must be restless for Him. He

Himself will put you on the right path.

"Besides, there are errors in all paths. Everyone thinks his watch is right;

but as a matter of fact no watch is absolutely right. But that doesn't hamper

one's work. If a man is restless for God he gains the company of sādhus and

as far as possible corrects his own watch with the sādhu's help."

Trailokya of the Brahmo Samaj began to sing. Presently Sri Ramakrishna

stood up and lost consciousness of the outer world. He became completely

indrawn, absorbed in samādhi. The devotees stood around him in a circle.

Pushing aside the crowd, Bankim came near the Master and began to watch

him attentively. He had never seen anyone in samādhi.

After a few minutes Sri Ramakrishna regained partial consciousness and

began to dance in an ecstatic mood. It was a never-to-be-forgotten scene.

Bankim and his Anglicized friends looked at him in amazement. Was this

the God-intoxicated state? The devotees also watched him with wondering

eyes.

The singing and dancing over, the Master touched the ground with his

forehead, saying, 'Bhagavata - Bhakta - Bhagavan! Salutations to the jnanis,

yogis, and bhaktas!

Salutations to all!" He sat down again and all sat around him.

BANKIM (to the Master): "Sir, how can one develop divine love?"

MASTER: "Through restlessness-the restlessness a child feels for his

mother. The child feels bewildered when he is separated from his mother,

and weeps longingly for her. If a man can weep like that for God he can

even see Him.

"At the approach of dawn the eastern horizon becomes red. Then one

knows it will soon be sunrise. Likewise, if you see a person restless for

God, you can be pretty certain that he hasn't long to wait for His vision.

"A disciple asked his teacher, 'Sir, please tell me how I can see God.' 'Come

with me,'

said the guru, 'and I shall show you.' He took the disciple to a lake, and both

of them got into the water. Suddenly the teacher pressed the disciple's head

under the water. After a few moments he released him and the disciple

raised his head and stood up. The guru asked him, 'How did you feel?' The

disciple said, 'Oh! I thought I should die; I was panting for breath.' The

teacher said, 'When you feel like that for God, then you will know you

haven't long to wait for His vision.'

(To Bankim) "Let me tell you something. What will you gain by floating on

the surface?

Dive a little under the water. The gems lie deep under the water; so what is

the good of throwing your arms and legs about on the surface? A real gem

is heavy. It doesn't float; it sinks to the bottom. To get the real gem you

must dive deep."

BANKIM: "Sir, what can we do? We are tied to a cork. It prevents us from

diving." (All laugh.)

MASTER: "All sins vanish if one only remembers God. His name breaks

the fetters of death. You must dive; otherwise you can't get the gem. Listen

to a song."

The Master sang in his sweet voice:

Dive deep, O mind, dive deep in the Ocean of God's Beauty; If you descend

to the uttermost depths,

There you will find the gem of Love.

Go seek, O mind, go seek Vrindāvan in your heart, Where with His loving

devotees

Sri Krishna sports eternally.

Light up, O mind, light up true wisdom's shining lamp, And let it burn with

steady flame

Unceasingly within your heart.

Who is it that steers your boat across the solid earth?

It is your guru, says Kubir;

Meditate on his holy feet.

All listened spellbound. Again Sri Ramakrishna began to talk.

MASTER (to Bankim): "There are some who do not want to dive. They say,

'Won't we become deranged if we go to excess about God?' Referring to

those who are intoxicated with divine love, they say, 'These people have

lost their heads.' But they don't understand this simple thing: God is the

Ocean of Amrita, Immortality. Once I said to Narendra: 'Suppose there were

a cup of syrup and you were a fly. Where would you sit to drink the syrup?'

Narendra said, 'I would sit on the edge of the cup and stretch out my neck to

drink it.' 'Why?' I asked. 'What's the harm of plunging into the middle of the

cup and drinking the syrup?' Narendra answered, 'Then I should stick in the

syrup and die.' 'My child,' I said to him, 'that isn't the nature of the Nectar of

Satchidananda. It is the Nectar of Immortality. Man does not die from

diving into It. On the contrary he becomes immortal.'

"Therefore I say, dive deep. Don't be afraid. By diving deep in God one

becomes immortal."

Bankim bowed low before the Master. He was about to take his leave.

BANKIM: "Sir, I am not such an idiot as you may think. I have a prayer to

make. Please be kind enough to grace my house with the dust of your holy

feet."

MASTER: "That's nice. I shall go if God wills."

BANKIM: "There too you will see devotees of God."

MASTER (smiling):"How so? What kind of devotees are they? Are they

like those who said, 'Gopal! Gopal! Kesava! Kesava!'?"(All laugh.) A

DEVOTEE: "What is the story of 'Gopal', sir?"

MASTER (smiling): "Let me tell you. At a certain place there is a

goldsmith's shop. The workers there are known as pious Vaishnavas: they

have strings of beads around their necks, religious marks on their foreheads,

and bags containing rosaries in their hands.

They repeat the names of God aloud. One can almost call them sādhus; only

they have to work as goldsmiths to earn their bread and support their wives

and children. Many customers, hearing of their piety, come to the shop

because they believe that in that shop there will be no trickery with their

gold or silver. When the customers enter the shop, they see the workers

repeating the name of Hari with their tongues and doing their work with

their hands. No sooner do the customers take seats in the shop than one of

the workers cries out, 'Kesava! Kesava! Kesava!' A few minutes later

another says, 'Gopal! Gopal! Gopal!' After they talk a little while, the third

man cries out, 'Hari! Hari!

Hari!' In the mean time the customers have almost finished their

transactions. Then the fourth exclaims, 'Hara! Hara! Hara!' The customers

are very much impressed with the devotion and fervour of the owners and

feel themselves quite secure in handing them the money. They are sure they

won't be cheated.

"But do you know what lies behind all this? The man who says 'Kesava!

Kesava!' after the arrival of the customers means, 'Who are they?' In other

words, he wants to know how intelligent they are. The man who says

'Gopal! Gopal!' means to say he finds them no better than a herd of cows.

The man saying 'Hari! Hari!' means, 'May I rob them?'; he suggests that

since they are like a herd of cows they can be robbed. And the last man,

who says 'Hara! Hara!', replies, 'Yes, rob them.' He means that since the

customers are like a herd of cows, they can certainly be robbed. Here, too,

you see a group of pious men, very much devoted to God!" (All laugh.)

Bankim took his leave; but he was absent-minded. When he reached the

door he discovered that he had dropped his shawl in the room; he was in his

short-sleeves. A gentleman handed him his shawl.

Of the devotees at Adhar's house, Sarat and Sannyal were brahmins. But

Adhar belonged to the lower caste of the goldsmiths, and so the two

brahmins quickly left, lest they should be pressed by their host to take their

meal there. Sarat and Sannyal had been coming to the Master only a short

time and did not know how fond the Master was of Adhar. The Master used

to say that the devotees formed a separate caste by themselves; among them

there could be no caste distinction.

Adhar entertained the Master and the devotees with a feast. It was quite late

in the evening when the devotees returned home, cherishing in their hearts

the image of the Master in his spiritual ecstasy and remembering his words

of great wisdom.

Since Bankim had invited Sri Ramakrishna to visit his home, the Master a

few days later sent Girish and M. to his Calcutta residence. At that time

Bankim had a long discussion with these two devotees about the Master. He

told them that he wanted to visit Sri Ramakrishna again. But his desire was

not fulfilled.

--------------------

Chapter 35

AT THE STAR THEATRE (II)

Sunday, December 14, 1884

SRI RAMAKRISHNA arrived at the Star Theatre on Beadon Street in

Calcutta to see a play about the life of Prahlada. M., Baburam, Narayan,

and other devotees were with him. The hall was brightly lighted. The play

had not yet begun. The Master was seated in a box, talking with Girish.

MASTER (smiling): "Ah! You have written nice plays."

Assimilation of spiritual ideas

GIRISH: "But, sir, how little I assimilate! I just write."

MASTER: "No, you assimilate a great deal. The other day I said to you that

no one could sketch a divine character unless he had love of God in his

heart.

"Yes, one needs to assimilate spiritual ideas. I went to Keshab's house to see

the play, Nava-Vrindāvan. I saw a deputy magistrate there who earned eight

hundred rupees a month. Everyone said that he was a very learned man; but

I found him restless because of a boy, his son. He was very anxious to find

a good seat for the boy; he paid no attention to the spiritual conversation of

the players. The boy was pestering him with questions: 'Father! What is

this? What is that?' He was extremely busy with the boy. You see, he merely

read books; but he didn't assimilate their ideas."

GIRISH: "I often ask myself, 'Why bother about the theatre any more?'"

MASTER: "No, no! Let things be as they are. People will learn much from

your plays."

Master sees a performance

The performance began. Prahlada was seen entering the schoolroom as a

student. At the sight of him Sri Ramakrishna uttered once or twice the word

"Prahlada" and went into samādhi.

During another scene Sri Ramakrishna wept to see Prahlada under an

elephant's feet. He cried when the boy was thrown into the fire.

The scene changed. Lakshmi and Narayana were seen seated in Goloka.

Narayana was worried about Prahlada. This scene, too, threw Sri

Ramakrishna into an ecstatic mood.

After the performance Girish conducted Sri Ramakrishna to his private

room in the theatre. He said to the Master, "Would you care to see the farce,

Vivaha Vibhrata [The Confusion of Marriage']?"

MASTER: "Oh, no! Why something like that after the life of Prahlada? I

once said to the leader of a theatrical troupe, 'End your performance with

some religious talk.' We have been listening to such wonderful spiritual

conversation; and now to see 'The Confusion of Marriage'! A worldly topic!

We should become our old selves again. We should return to our old mood."

GIRISH: "How did you like the performance?"

MASTER: "I found that it was God Himself who was acting the different

parts. Those who played the female parts seemed to me the direct

embodiments of the Blissful Mother, and the cowherd boys of Goloka the

embodiments of Narayana Himself. It was God alone who had become all

these.

Signs of God-vision & Different moods of liberated souls "There are

signs by which you can know whether a man has truly seen God. One of

these is joy; there is no hesitancy in him. He is like the ocean: the waves

and sounds are on the surface; below are profound depths. The man who

has seen God behaves sometimes like a madman; sometimes like a ghoul,

without any feeling of purity or impurity; sometimes like an inert thing,

remaining speechless because he sees God within and without; sometimes

like a child, without any attachment, wandering about unconcernedly with

his cloth under his arm. Again, in the mood of a child, he acts in different

ways: sometimes like a boy, indulging in frivolity; sometimes like a young

man, working and teaching with the strength of a lion.

"Man cannot see God on account of his ego. You cannot see the sun when a

cloud rises in the sky. But that doesn't mean there is no sun; the sun is there

just the same.

"But there is no harm in the 'ego of a child'. On the contrary, this ego is

helpful. Greens are bad for the stomach; but hinche is good. So hinche

cannot properly be called greens.

Sugar candy, likewise, cannot be classed with other sweets. Other sweets

are injurious to the health, but not sugar candy.

"So I said to Keshab, 'If I tell you more than I have already said, you won't

be able to keep your organization together.' That frightened him. Then I said

to him, 'There is no harm in the "ego of a child" or the "ego of a servant".'

"He who has seen God finds that God alone has become the world and all

its living beings; it is He who has become all. Such a person is called a

superior devotee."

The ego of the devotee & Three classes of devotees GIRISH (smiling);

"Yes, God is everything. But the devotee keeps a trace of ego; that is not

harmful."

MASTER (smiling): "Yes, there is no harm in that. That trace of ego is kept

in order to enjoy God. You can enjoy divine bliss only when you make a

distinction between yourself and God-the distinction between the servant

and the Master.

"There is also the devotee of the mediocre class: he sees that God dwells in

all beings as their Inner Guide. But the inferior devotee says, 'God exists;

He is up there', that is to say, beyond the sky. (All laugh.)

"When I saw the cowherd, boys of Goloka in your performance I felt that

God has become all. He who has seen God knows truly that God alone is

the Doer, that it is He who does everything."

GIRISH: "Sir, I know truly that it is God who does everything."

MASTER: "I say, 'O Mother, I am the machine and You are the Operator; I

am inert and You make me conscious; I do as You make me do; I speak as

You make me speak.' But the ignorant say, 'I am partly responsible, and God

is partly responsible.' "

GIRISH: "Sir, I am not really doing anything. Why should I bother about

work at all?"

MASTER: "No, work is good. When the ground is well cultivated and

cleared of stones and pebbles, whatever you plant will grow. But one should

work without any personal motive.

"There are two types of paramahamsas: the Jnāni and the premi. The Jnāni

is self-centred; he feels that it is enough to have Knowledge for his own

self. The premi, like Sukadeva, after attaining his own realization, teaches

men. Some eat mangoes and wipe off the traces from their mouths; but

some share their mangoes with others. Spades and baskets are needed to dig

a well. After the digging is over, some throw the spades and baskets into the

well. But others put them away; for a neighbour may use them.

Sukadeva and a few others kept the spades and baskets for the benefit of

others. (To Girish) You should do the same."

GIRISH: "Please bless me, sir."

MASTER: "Have faith in the Divine Mother and you will attain

everything."

GIRISH: "But I am a sinner."

MASTER: "The wretch who constantly harps on sin becomes a sinner."

GIRISH: "Sir, the very ground where I used to sit would become unholy."

MASTER: "How can you say that? Suppose a light is brought into a room

that has been dark a thousand years; does it illumine the room little by little,

or all in a flash?"

GIRISH: "Then you have blessed me."

MASTER: "If you sincerely believe it. What more shall I say? I eat and

drink and chant the name of God."

GIRISH: "I have no sincerity. Please give it to me."

MASTER: "I? Sages like Nārada and Sukadeva could have done that."

GIRISH: "I don't see Nārada and Sukadeva. 'But you are here before me."

MASTER (smiling): "All right. You have faith."

All remained silent. The conversation began again.

GIRISH: "I have one desire: love of God for its own sake."

MASTER: "Only the Isvarakotis have such love. It is not for ordinary men."

All sat in silence. The Master began to sing in an absent-minded mood, his

gaze turned upward:

Can everyone have the vision of Syama? Is Kāli's treasure for everyone?

Oh, what a pity my foolish mind will not see what is true!

Even with all His penances, rarely does Śiva Himself behold The mind-

bewitching sight of Mother Syama's crimson feet.

To him who meditates on Her the riches of heaven are poor indeed;

If Syama casts Her glance on him, he swims in Eternal Bliss.

The Prince of yogis, the King of the gods, meditate on Her feet in vain;

Yet worthless Kamalakanta yearns for the Mother's blessed feet!

Girish repeated:

Yet worthless Kamalakanta yearns for the Mother's blessed feet!

Restlessness for God-vision

MASTER (to Girish): "One can realize God through intense renunciation.

But the soul must be restless for Him, as restless as one feels for a breath of

air when one's head is pressed under water.

"A man can see God if he unites in himself the force of these three

attractions: the attraction of worldly possessions for the worldly man, the

husband's attraction for the chaste wife, and the child's attraction for its

mother. If you can unite these three forms of love and give it all to God,

then you can see Him at once.

Cry to your Mother Syama with a real cry, O mind!

And how can She hold Herself from you?

"If a devotee prays to God with real longing, God cannot help revealing

Himself to him.

"The other day I told you the meaning of bhakti. It is to adore God with

body, mind, and words. 'With body' means to serve and worship God with

one's hands, go to holy places with one's feet, hear the chanting of the name

and glories of God with one's ears, and behold the divine image with one's

eyes. 'With mind' means to contemplate and meditate on God constantly and

to remember and think of His lila. 'With words' means to sing hymns to

Him and chant His name and glories.

"Devotion as described by Nārada is suited to the Kaliyuga. It means to

chant constantly the name and glories of God. Let those who have no

leisure worship God at least morning and evening by whole-heartedly

chanting His name and clapping their hands.

"The 'ego of a devotee' begets no pride; it does not create ignorance. On the

contrary it helps one realize God. This ego is no more like the ordinary ego

than hinche is like ordinary greens. One generally becomes indisposed by

eating greens; but hinche removes excessive bile; it does one good. Sugar

candy is not like ordinary sweets.

Sweets are generally harmful, but sugar candy removes acidity.

"Nishtha leads to bhakti; bhakti, when mature, becomes bhava; bhava,

when concentrated, becomes mahabhava; and last of all is prema. Prema is

like a cord: by prema God is bound to the devotee; He can no longer run

away. An ordinary man can at best achieve bhava. None but an Isvarakoti

attains mahabhava and prema.

Chaitanyadeva attained them.

"What is the meaning of jnanayoga? It is the path by which a man can

realize the true nature of his own Self; it is the awareness that Brahman

alone is his true nature.

Prahlada sometimes was aware of his identity with Brahman. And

sometimes he would see that God was one and he another; at such times he

would remain in the mood of bhakti.

"Hanuman said, 'O Rāma, sometimes I find that You are the whole and I a

part, sometimes that You are the Master and I Your servant; but, O Rāma,

when I have the Knowledge of Reality, I see that You are I and I am You.'"

GIRISH: "Ah!"

Worldly man's spiritual discipline

MASTER: "Why shouldn't a man be able to realize God in the world? But

he must have discrimination and dispassion; he must have the unshakable

awareness that God alone is real and all else is unreal and has but a two

days' existence. It will not do to float on the surface. You must dive deep."

With these words, the Master sang:

Dive deep, O mind, dive deep in the Ocean of God's Beauty; If you descend

to the uttermost depths,

There you will find the gem of Love. . . .

MASTER: "You must remember another thing: in the ocean there is danger

of alligators, that is to say, of lust and the like."

GIRISH: "I am not afraid of the King of Death."

MASTER: "But I am speaking of the danger of the alligators of lust and the

like. Because of them one should smear one's body with turmeric before

diving in-the turmeric of discrimination and dispassion.

"Some attain knowledge of God in the world. Mention is made of two

classes of yogis: the hidden and the known. Those who have renounced the

world are 'known' yogis: all recognize them. But the 'hidden' yogis live in

the world. They are not known. They are like the maidservant who

performs her duties in the house but whose mind is fixed on her children in

the country. They are also, as I have told you, like the loose woman who

performs her household duties zealously but whose mind constantly dwells

on her lover.

It is very hard to cultivate discrimination and dispassion. It is not easy to get

rid of the idea, 'I am the master and all these are mine.' I saw a deputy

magistrate, who earns a salary of eight hundred rupees, paying no attention

to a religious discourse. He had brought one of his children with him and

was busy finding a good place for him to sit. I know another man, whom I

shall not name, who used to devote a great deal of time to japa; but he bore

false witness in court for the sake of ten thousand rupees. Therefore I say

that a man can realize God in the world, too, but only if he has

discrimination and dispassion."

Master and Girish

GIRISH: "What will happen to this sinner?"

Sri Ramakrishna sang in a tender voice, turning his eyes upward: Meditate

on the Lord, the Slayer of hell's dire woes, He who removes the fear of

death;

Thinking of Him, the soul is freed from worldly grief And sails across the

sea of life in the twinkling of an eye.

Consider, O my mind, why you have come to earth; What gain is there in

evil thoughts and deeds?

Your way lies not through these: perform your penance here By meditating

long and deep on the everlasting Lord.

MASTER: "'Sails across the sea of life in the twinkling of an eye.' One

attains the vision of God if Mahamaya steps aside from the door.

Mahamaya's grace is necessary: hence the worship of Śakti. You see, God is

near us, but it is not possible to know Him because Mahamaya stands

between. Rāma, Lakshmana, and Sita were walking along. Rāma walked

ahead, Sita in the middle, and Lakshmana last. Lakshmana was only two

and a half cubits away from Rāma, but he couldn't see Rāma because Sita-

Mahamaya-was in the way.

"While worshipping God, one should assume a definite attitude. I have

three attitudes: the attitude of a child, the attitude of a maidservant, and the

attitude of a friend. For a long time I regarded myself as a maidservant and

a woman companion of God; at that time I used to wear skirts and

ornaments, like a woman. The attitude of a child is very good.

"The attitude of a 'hero' is not good. Some people cherish it. They regard

themselves as Purusha and woman as Prakriti; they want to propitiate

woman through intercourse with her. But this method often causes disaster."

GIRISH: "At one time I too cherished that idea."

Sri Ramakrishna looked at Girish pensively.

GIRISH: "I still have that twist in my mind. Tell me what I should do."

Sri Ramakrishna reflected a minute and said, "Give God your power of

attorney. Let Him do whatever He likes."

The conversation then turned to Sri Ramakrishna's young devotees.

MASTER (to Girish and the others): "In meditation I see the inner traits of

these youngsters. They have no thought of acquiring house and property.

They do not crave sex pleasure. Those of the youngsters who are married

do not sleep with their wives.

The truth is that unless a man has got rid of rajas and has acquired sattva, he

cannot steadily dwell in God; he cannot love God and realize Him."

GIRISH: "You have blessed me."

MASTER: "How is that? I said that you would succeed if you were

sincere."

Saying this, the Master exclaimed, "Ānandamayi!" and went into samādhi.

He remained in that state a long time. Regaining partial consciousness, he

said, "Where are those rascals?" M. brought Baburam to him. Sri

Ramakrishna looked at Baburam and the other devotees and said, still in

ecstasy.

"The bliss of Satchidananda is indeed good; but what about the bliss of

divine inebriation?"

He began to sing:

Once for all, this time, I have thoroughly understood; From One who knows

it well, I have learnt the secret of bhava…

Again he sang:

Why should I go to Ganga or Gaya, to Kasi, Kanchi, or Prabhas,

So long as I can breathe my last with Kāli's name upon my lips?

The Master continued, saying, "While praying to the Divine Mother, I said,

'O Mother, I don't seek anything else: give me only pure love for Thee.' "

Sri Ramakrishna was pleased with Girish's calm mood. He said to him,

"This mood of yours is good; the calm mood is the best."

The Master was seated in the manager's room. A man entered and said,

"Will you see the farce. 'The Confusion of Marriage'? It is being played

now."

Sri Ramakrishna said to Girish: "What have you done? This farce after the

life of Prahlada! First sweets and rice pudding and then a dish of bitter

herbs!"

After the theatre, the actresses, following Girish's instructions, came to the

room to salute Sri Ramakrishna. They bowed before him, touching the

ground with their foreheads. The devotees noticed that some of the

actresses, in saluting the Master, touched his feet. He said to them very

tenderly, "Please don't do that, mother!"

After the actresses had left the room, Sri Ramakrishna said to the devotees,

"It is all He, only in different forms."

The carriage was ready at the door. Girish and the others came to the street

to see the Master off. As soon as Sri Ramakrishna stepped into the carriage,

he went into deep samādhi. Narayan and several other devotees were with

him. The carriage started for Dakshineswar.

Saturday, December 27, 1884

It was the Christmas season. Taking advantage of the holiday, many

devotees came to the temple garden to visit the Master, some of them

arriving in the morning. Among these were Kedār, Ram, Nityagopal, Tārak,

Surendra, M., Sarada Prasanna, and a number of young devotees. This was

Sarada Prasanna's first visit.

MASTER (to M.): "Where is Bankim? Haven't you brought him with you?"

Bankim was a school boy whom Sri Ramakrishna had met in Bagh bazar.

Noticing him even from a distance, the Master had said that he was a fine

boy.

After a while Sri Ramakrishna went to the Panchavati with the devotees.

They surrounded him, some sitting and some standing. He was seated on

the cement platform around the tree, facing the southwest. He asked M.

with a smile, "Have you brought the book?"

M: "Yes, sir."

MASTER: "Read a little to me."

The devotees were eager to know the name of the book. It was called Devi

Choudhurani. The Master had heard that the book dealt with motiveless

action. He had also heard of the great renown of its author, Bankim Chandra

Chatterji, whom he had met some days before, and he wanted to gauge the

author's mind from the book.

M. said: "A young girl-the heroine-fell into the hands of a robber named

Bhavani Pathak.

Her name had been Prafulla, but the robber changed it to 'Devi

Choudhurani'. At heart Bhavani was a good man. He made Prafulla go

through many spiritual disciplines; he also taught her how to perform

selfless action. He robbed wicked people and with that money fed the poor

and helpless. He said to Prafulla, 'I chastise the wicked and protect the

virtuous.'"

MASTER: "But that is a king's duty."

M: "In one place the author writes of bhakti. Bhavani Pathak sent a girl

named Nishi to keep Prafulla company. Nishi was full of piety and looked

on Krishna as her husband.

Prafulla was already married; she had lost her father and lived with her

mother. The neighbours had created a scandal about her character and

avoided her, and so her father-in-law had not allowed her to live with his

son. Later her husband had married again; but Prafulla was extremely

devoted to her husband.

(To Sri Ramakrishna) "Now, sir, you can follow the story."

M. read:

NISHI: "I am a daughter of Bhavani Pathak. He is my father. He has also, in

a way, given me in marriage."

PRAFULLA: "What do you mean?"

NISHI: "I have surrendered my all to Krishna."

PRAFULLA: "How is that?"

NISHI: "My beauty, youth, and soul."

PRAFULLA: "Then He is your husband."

NISHI: "Yes, because he alone is my husband who completely possesses

me."

PRAFULLA (with a sigh): "I do not know. You talk that way because you

do not know what a husband is. If you had a real husband, you could never

have liked Sri Krishna.

The foolish Brajeswar-Prafulla's husband-was unaware that his wife loved

him so much.

NISHI: "All can love Sri Krishna, because He has infinite beauty, infinite

youth, and infinite splendour."

This young lady was a disciple of Bhavani and well-versed in logic. But

Prafulla was illiterate; she could not answer Nishi's arguments.But the

writers of the Hindu social laws knew the reply. God is infinite, no doubt;

but one cannot keep the infinite in the small cage of the heart. One can do

so only with the finite. Therefore the infinite Creator of the universe is

worshipped by the Hindu in the cage of his heart as Sri Krishna, the finite

Personal God. The husband of a woman has a still more definite form.

Therefore if the wife cherishes pure conjugal love, the husband becomes the

first step toward God.

Hence the husband is the only Deity to the Hindu woman. Other societies

are inferior to Hindu society in this respect.

Prafulla was an ignorant girl; she could not understand Nishi's arguments.

She said, "Friend, I do not understand all these arguments; but you haven't

yet told me your name."

NISHI: "Bhavani Pathak has given me the name of Nishi, Night. I am the

sister of Diva, Day. One day I shall introduce my sister to you. Let me

continue what I was saying. God alone is the real Husband; and to a woman

the husband is her only God. Sri Krishna is the God of all. Why should we

cherish two Deities, two Gods? If you divide to little bhakti of this small

heart, how little there will be!"

PRAFULLA: "Don't be silly. Is there any limit to a woman's bhakti?"

NISHI: "There is no end to a woman's love. But bhakti is one thing, and

love another"

Summarizing part of the book, M. said that Bhavani initiated Prafulla into

spiritual life.

He continued reading:

During the first year Bhavani did not allow any man to enter Prafulla's

house nor did he allow her to speak to any man outside the house. During

the second year the rule about speaking was withdrawn, but no man was

allowed inside her house. In the third year Prafulla shaved her head. Now

Bhavani allowed his select disciples to see her. The shaven-headed disciple

would converse with them on scriptural topics, keeping her eyes cast on the

ground.

M. then read that Prafulla began the study of the scriptures; that she

finished grammar and read Raghuvamsa, Kumara Sambhava, Sakuntala,

and Naishadha; and that she studied a little of the Samkhya, Vedānta, and

Nyaya philosophies.

Master and book-learning

MASTER: "Do you know what that means? People like the author of this

book believe that knowledge is impossible without the study of books. They

think that first comes the knowledge of books and then comes the

knowledge of God. In order to know God one must read books! But if I

want to know Jadu Mallick, must I first know the number of his houses and

the amount of money he has in government securities? Do I really need all

this information? Rather I should somehow enter his house, be it by

flattering his gate-keepers or by disregarding their rough treatment, and talk

to Jadu Mallick himself. Then, if I want to know about his wealth or

possessions, I shall only have to ask him about them. Then it will be a very

easy matter for me.

First God and then the world

First comes Rāma, then His riches, that is, the universe, This is why

Valmiki repeated the mantra, 'mara'. 'Ma' means God, and 'ra' the world, that

is to say, His riches."

The devotees listened to the Master's words with rapt attention.

M. continued with the story of Prafulla:

Prafulla finished her studies and then practised spiritual austerity for many

days. Then one day Bhavani visited her; he wanted to instruct her about

selfless work. He quoted to her from the Gitā: "Therefore do thou always

perform obligatory actions without attachment; by performing action

without attachment one attains to the highest."

He told her the three characteristics of disinterested action: first, control of

the sense-organs; second, absence of egotism; and third, surrendering the

fruit of action to Sri Krishna. He further told her that no dharma is possible

for the egotistic person. Quoting from the Gitā, he said: "The Gunās of

Prakriti perform all action. With the understanding deluded by egotism,

man thinks, I am the doer."

Bhavani next spoke to her about surrendering the fruit of action to Sri

Krishna. Again he quoted from the Gitā : "Whatever thou doest, whatever

thou eatest, whatever thou givest away, whatever austerity thou practisest,

O son of Kunti, do that as an offering unto Me."

MASTER: "This is fine. These are the words of the Gitā; one cannot refute

them. But something else must be noted. The author speaks about

surrendering the fruit of action to Sri Krishna, but not about cultivating

bhakti for Him."

M: "No, that is not especially mentioned here.

"Next Prafulla and Bhavani talked about the use of money. Prafulla said that

she offered all her wealth to Krishna."

M. read from the book again.

PRAFULLA: "Like my actions, I offer all my wealth to Sri Krishna."

BHAVANI: "All?"

PRAFULLA: "Yes, all."

BHAVANI: "In that case you won't he able to perform action in a detached

spirit. If you have to work to earn your food, you will be attached to that

work. Hence there are two alternatives before you: either you will have to

get your food by begging, or you will have to live on your money. Even a

beggar becomes attached to the alms he receives; therefore you must use

your own money to maintain your body."

M. (to the Master, smiling): "That is the nature of the calculating mind."

MASTER: "Yes, that is the nature of the calculating mind; that is the way

the worldly man thinks. But he who seeks God plunges headlong; he

doesn't calculate about how much or how little he needs for the protection

of his body."

M: "Next Bhavani asked Prafulla, 'How will you offer all this money to Sri

Krishna?'

Prafulla said: 'Why, Sri Krishna dwells in all beings. I shall distribute the

money among them.' Bhavani answered, 'Good! Good!'

"Quoting from the Gitā , Bhavani said: 'He who sees Me in all things and all

things in Me, never becomes separated from Me, nor do I become separated

from him. That yogi who, established in unity, worships Me dwelling in all

beings, abides in Me, whatever his mode of life. O Arjuna, that yogi is

regarded as the highest who judges the pleasure and pain of all beings by

the same standard that he applies to himself."

MASTER: "These are the characteristics of the highest bhakta."

M. again read from the book:

A man must work hard if he wants to help all beings with charity. Hence it

is necessary for him to make a little display of clothes, of pomp and luxury.

Therefore Bhavani said, "A little shopkeeping is necessary."

MASTER (sharply): "'A little shopkeeping is necessary!' One speaks as one

thinks. If a man thinks of worldly things day and night, and deals with

people hypocritically, then his words are coloured by his thoughts. If one

eats radish, one belches radish. Instead of talking about 'shopkeeping', he

should rather have said, 'A man should act as if he were the doer, knowing

very well that he is really not the doer.' The other day a man was singing

here. The song contained words like 'profit' and 'loss'. I stopped him. If one

contemplates a particular subject day and night, one cannot talk of anything

else."

The reading continued. The author was describing the realization of God.

Prafulla had become Devi Choudhurani. It was the month of Vaiśākh. Devi

was seated on the roof of her house-boat talking with Diva and another

woman companion. The moon was up. The boat had cast anchor in the

Ganges. The conversation turned to the question of whether one could see

God. Devi said, "As the aroma of a flower is directly perceived by the nose,

so God is directly perceived by the mind."

At this point the Master interrupted and said: "Yes, God is directly

perceived by the mind, but not by this ordinary mind. It is the pure mind

that perceives God, and at that time this ordinary mind does not function. A

mind that has the slightest trace of attachment to the world cannot be called

pure. When all the impurities of the mind are removed, you may call that

mind Pure Mind or Pure Ātman."

M: "The author says a little later that God cannot easily be perceived by the

mind.

He says that one needs a telescope to have that direct vision. Yoga is the

telescope.

Yoga, as it is described in the Gitā, is of three kinds: jnāna, bhakti, and

karma. One is able to see God through this telescope of yoga."

MASTER: "That is very good. These are the words of the Gitā."

M: "At last Devi Choudhurani met her husband. She showed him great

devotion and said to him: 'You are my God. I wanted to learn the worship of

another God but I did not succeed. You have taken the place of all gods.' "

MASTER (smiling): "'I did not succeed.' This is the dharma of a woman

totally devoted to her husband. This also is a path."

The reading was over. The Master was smiling. The devotees looked at him,

eagerly waiting to hear what he would say.

MASTER (to the devotees, smiling): "This is not so bad; it is called the

dharma of chastity, the single-minded devotion of a wife to her husband. If

God can be worshipped through an image, why shouldn't it be possible to

worship Him through a living person?

It is God Himself who sports in the world as men.

Master's spiritual experiences

"Oh, what a state I passed through! I passed some days absorbed in Śiva

and Durga; some days absorbed in Radha and Krishna, and some days

absorbed in Sita and Rāma.

Assuming Radha's attitude, I would cry for Krishna, and assuming Sita's

attitude, I would cry for Rāma.

"But lila is by no means the last word. Passing through all these states, I

said to the Divine Mother: 'Mother, in these states there is separation. Give

me a state where there is no separation.' Then I remained for some time

absorbed in the Indivisible Satchidananda. I removed the pictures of the

gods and goddesses from my room. I began to perceive God in all beings.

Formal worship dropped away. You see that bel-tree. I used to go there to

pluck its leaves. One day, as I plucked a leaf, a bit of the bark came off. I

found the tree full of Consciousness. I felt grieved because I had hurt the

tree. One day I tried to pluck some Durva grass, but I found I couldn't do it

very well.

Then I forced myself to pluck it.

"I cannot cut a lemon. The other day I managed to cut one only with great

difficulty; I chanted the name of Kāli and cut the fruit as they slaughter an

animal before the Goddess. One day I was about to gather some flowers.

They were everywhere on the trees. At once I had a vision of Virat; it

appeared that His worship was just over. The flowers looked like a bouquet

placed on the head of the Deity. I could not pluck them.

"God sports through man as well. I see man as the embodiment of

Narayana. As fire is kindled when you rub two pieces of wood together, so

God can be seen in man if you have intense devotion. If there is suitable

bait, big fish like carp gulp it down at once.

When one is intoxicated with prema, one sees God in all beings. The gopis

saw Krishna in everything; to them the whole world was filled with

Krishna. They said that they themselves were Krishna. They were then in a

God-intoxicated state. Looking at the trees, they said, 'These are hermits

absorbed in meditation on Krishna.' Looking at the grass they said, 'The hair

of the earth is standing on end at the touch of Krishna.'

"Devotion to the husband is also a dharma. The husband is God. Why

shouldn't it be so?

If God can be worshipped through an image, why not also through a living

man? But three things are necessary in order to feel the presence of God in

an image: first, the devotion of the priest; second, a beautiful image; and

third, the devotion of the householder. Vaishnavcharan once said that in the

end the mind of the devotee is absorbed in the human manifestation of God.

"But you must remember one thing. One cannot see God sporting as man

unless one has had the vision of Him. Do you know the sign of one who has

God-vision? Such a man acquires the nature of a child. Why a child?

Because God is like a child. So he who sees God becomes like a child.

"God-vision is necessary. Now the question is, how can one get it? Intense

renunciation is the means. A man should have such intense yearning for

God that he can say, 'O

Father of the universe, am I outside Your universe? Won't You be kind to

me, You wretch?'.

"You partake of the nature of him on whom you meditate. By worshipping

Śiva you acquire the nature of Śiva. A devotee of Rāma meditated on

Hanuman day and night. He used to think he had become Hanuman. In the

end he was firmly convinced that he had even grown a little tail. Jnāna is

the characteristic of Śiva, and bhakti of Vishnu. One who partakes of Śiva's

nature becomes a Jnāni, and one who partakes of Vishnu's nature becomes a

bhakta."

Chaitanya & The Divine Incarnation and the ordinary man M: "But

what about Chaitanyadeva? You said he had both knowledge and devotion."

MASTER (sharply): "His case was different. He was an Incarnation of God.

There is a great difference between him and an ordinary man. The fire of

Chaitanya's renunciation was so great that when Sarvabhauma poured sugar

on his tongue, instead of melting, it evaporated into air. He was always

absorbed in samādhi. How great was his conquest of lust! To compare him

with a man! A lion eats meat and yet it mates only once in twelve years; but

a sparrow eats grain and it indulges in sex-life day and night. Such is the

difference between a Divine Incarnation and an ordinary human being. An

ordinary man renounces lust; but once in a while he forgets his vow. He

cannot control himself.

(To M):"He who has realized God looks on man as a mere worm. 'One

cannot succeed in religious life if one has shame, hatred, or fear.' These are

fetters. Haven't you heard of the eight fetters?

"How can one who is eternally perfect be afraid of the world? He knows

how to play his game. An eternally perfect soul can even lead a worldly life

if he desires. There are people who can fence with two swords at the same

time; they are such expert fencers that, if stones are thrown at them, the

stones hit the swords and come back."

Yoga and God-vision

A DEVOTEE: "Sir, how can one see God?"

MASTER: "Can you ever see God if you do not direct your whole mind

toward Him? The Bhagavata speaks about Sukadeva. When he walked

about he looked like a soldier with fixed bayonet. His gaze did not wander;

it had only one goal and that was God. This is the meaning of yoga.

"The chatak bird drinks only rain-water. Though the Ganges, the Jamuna,

the Godavari, and all other rivers are full of water, and though the seven

oceans are full to the brim, still the chatak will not touch them. It will drink

only the water that falls from the clouds.

"He who has developed such yoga can see God. In the theatre the audience

remains engaged in all kinds of conversation, about home, office, and

school, till the curtain goes up; but no sooner does it go up than all

conversation comes to a stop, and the people watch the play with fixed

attention. If after a long while someone utters a word or two, it is about the

play.

"After a drunkard has drunk his liquer, he talks only about the joy of

drunkenness."

Nityagopal was seated in front of Sri Ramakrishna. He was always in

ecstasy. He sat there in silence.

MASTER (to Nityagopal, smiling): "Gopal! Why are you always silent?"

Nityagopal answered like a child, "I-do-not-know."

MASTER: "I understand why you don't say anything; perhaps you are

afraid of committing a transgression. You are right. Jaya and Vijaya were

gate-keepers for Narayana. They refused Sanaka, Sanātana, and other

rishis’ admission into His palace.

For this transgression, Jaya and Vijaya had to be born three times on earth.

"Again, there is the instance of Sridāmā; he was Viraja's gate-keeper in

Goloka. Sri Krishna was in Virajā's house. Rādhika went there to surprise

Krishna and wanted to enter the house. Sridāmā would not admit her, and

so Radhika cursed him to be born as a demon on earth. But Sridāmā, too,

cursed her.

"But there is one thing you should remember. When a boy walks holding

his father's hand, he may fall into the gutter; but what has he to fear if the

father holds him by the hand?"

The story of Sridāmā is narrated in the Brahma-vaivarta Purana.

Kedār, who was a government official, had been living at Dāccā for

sometime. He had been transferred there from Calcutta. He was a devotee

of Sri Ramakrishna and had gathered together at Dāccā many devotees,

who came to him regularly for spiritual instruction. As one should not come

empty handed to a religious man, the devotees would bring Kedār sweets

and other offerings.

KEDĀR (to the Master, humbly): "Should I eat those offerings?"

MASTER: "It won't injure you if the offerings are given out of love for

God. But they are harmful if they are given with any selfish motive."

KEDĀR: "I have explained everything to the devotees and now I feel

relieved. I have told them that he who has given me his blessing knows all."

MASTER (smiling): "That is true. You see, people of all sorts come here.

So they find here different things."

KEDĀR: "I do not need to know different things."

MASTER (smiling): "Why not? One should know a little of everything. If a

man starts a grocery-shop, he keeps all kinds of articles there, including a

little lentil and tamarind.

An expert musician knows how to play a little on all instruments."

Sri Ramakrishna left the room and went toward the pine-grove. The

devotees began to walk about in the garden. Several went to the Panchavati.

Sri Ramakrishna met them there and said: "I have indigestion. I took a meal

at the Mallicks'. They are very worldly people."

A few of the Master's personal things lay scattered on the cement platform

of the Panchavati, and he asked M. to bring them. He proceeded to his room

and the devotees followed.

In the afternoon the Master rested awhile. Afterwards a few devotees

arrived. The Master sat on the small couch reclining against a pillow.

A DEVOTEE: "Sir, can one know God's attributes through the intellect?"

MASTER: "Certainly not by this ordinary intellect. Can one know God so

easily? One must practise sādhanā. One must also adopt a particular

attitude toward God, for instance, the attitude of a servant toward his

master. The rishis of old had the attitude of Śānta. Do you know the attitude

of the jnanis? It is to meditate on one's own Self. (To a devotee, with a

smile) What is your attitude?"

The devotee gave no answer.

MASTER (smiling): "You have two attitudes: you meditate on your own

Self and also cherish toward God the attitude of a servant. Am I not right?"

DEVOTEE (hesitating and smiling): "Yes, sir."

MASTER (smiling): "You see, as Hazra says, I can read people's thoughts.

"One can maintain those two attitudes only at a very advanced stage.

Prahlada maintained them. But one must work hard in order to practise this

ideal.

"Let me give an illustration. Suppose a man is grasping the thorny branch of

a plum-tree. His hand bleeds profusely; but he says, 'There is nothing the

matter with me; I am not hurt.' If you ask him about his wound, he will say,

'It's all right; I am quite well.'

Now is there any meaning in the mere utterance of these words? One must

practise discipline in keeping with this ideal."

The devotees were giving their whole attention to what the Master was

saying.

--------------------

Chapter 36

THE MASTER'S BIRTHDAY

Sunday, February 22, 1885

SRI RAMAKRISHNA was sitting on the northeast verandah outside his

room at Dakshineswar. It was about eight o'clock in the morning. Many

devotees, including Narendra, Rākhāl, Girish, Baburam, and Surendra, were

present. They were celebrating the Master's birthday, which had fallen on

the previous Monday. M. arrived and saluted him. The Master signed to him

to take a seat near him.

Narottam was singing kirtan. Sri Ramakrishna was in partial ecstasy. The

subject was Krishna's meeting with His cowherd friends in the meadow.

Krishna had not yet arrived.

The cowherd boys were restless for Him. One of them said that Mother

Yaśoda was preventing Krishna from coming. Balāi [Balaram’s pet name]

said in a determined voice that he would bring Krishna with the sound of

his horn. Balāi's love for Krishna knew no bounds. The music went on. The

cowherd boys and girls heard Krishna's flute and were filled with spiritual

emotion.

Master's love for Narendra

Suddenly Sri Ramakrishna's eyes fell on Narendra, who was sitting very

near him. He stood up and went into samādhi; he stood there touching

Narendra's knee with his foot.

Regaining consciousness he took his seat again. Narendra left the room.

The music went on.

Sri Ramakrishna whispered to Baburam: "There is Kshir [sweet milk

preparation] in the room. Give Narendra some."

Did the Master see Narendra as the embodiment of God?

After the kirtan Sri Ramakrishna returned to his room. Tenderly he began to

feed Narendra with sweets. It was Girish's belief that God Himself had been

born in the person of Sri Ramakrishna.

GIRISH (to the Master): "Your ways are like Krishna's. He too pretended

many things to His mother Yaśoda."

MASTER: "True. It was because Krishna was an Incarnation of God. When

God is born as a man He acts that way. You see, Krishna easily lifted the

hill of Govardhan with His hand, but He made Nanda believe that He found

it very hard to carry a footstool."

GIRISH: "Yes, sir, I have understood you now."

Sri Ramakrishna was sitting on the small couch. It was about eleven

o'clock. Ram and the other devotees wanted to dress him in a new cloth.

The Master said, "No, no."

Pointing to an English-educated man, he said "What will he say about it?"

At the earnest request of the devotees he said "Well, since you insist, I shall

have to agree."

The devotees were arranging the Master's meal in the room. He asked

Narendra to sing.

Narendra sang:

In dense darkness, O Mother, Thy formless beauty sparkles; Therefore the

yogis meditate in a dark mountain cave.

In the lap of boundless dark, on Mahanirvana's waves upborne, Peace

flows serene and inexhaustible.

Taking the form of the Void, in the robe of darkness wrapped, Who art Thou,

Mother, seated alone in the shrine of samādhi?

From the Lotus of Thy fear-scattering Feet flash Thy love's lightnings;

Thy Spirit-Face shines forth with laughter terrible and loud!

Master's samādhi

As Narendra sang the line, "Who art Thou, Mother, seated alone in the

shrine of samādhi?", Sri Ramakrishna went into deep samādhi and lost all

outer consciousness.

After a long time, when he was regaining partial consciousness, the

devotees seated him on the carpet and placed a plate of food before him.

Still overcome with divine emotion, he began to eat the rice with both

hands. He said to Bhavanāth, "Feed me." Because of his ecstatic mood he

could not use his own right hand. Bhavanāth began to feed him Sri

Ramakrishna could eat very little. Rām said to him, "Nityagopāl will eat

from your plate."

MASTER: "Why from my plate? Why?"

RAM: "Why not?"

Nityagopal was also in an ecstatic mood. The Master put a morsel or two

into his mouth with his own hand.

Some devotees from Konnagar arrived by boat. They entered Sri

Ramakrishna's room singing kirtan; afterwards they went out to take some

refreshments. Narottam was in the room. The Master said to him and the

other devotees: "The music of the Konnagar devotees was dull. Music

should be so lively as to make everyone dance. One should sing a song like

this:

See how all Nadia is shaking

Under the waves of Gaurānga's love!

And along with it these lines:

Behold, the two brothers have come, who weep while chanting Hari's name,

The brothers who, in return for blows, offer to sinners Hari's love. . . .

And these too:

Gaur and Nitai, ye blessed brothers!

I have heard how kind you are,

And therefore I have come to you.

The devotees were taking the prasad. It was a sumptuous feast. Sri

Ramakrishna said to M.: "Haven't you invited the Mukherjis? Ask Surendra

to feed the musicians."

Bepin Sarkar arrived. The devotees introduced him to the Master. Sri

Ramakrishna sat up and said to the devotees, "Give him a seat and some

betel-leaf." He said to Bepin humbly: "I am sorry not to be able to talk to

you. There is a great crowd today."

Pointing to Girindra, Sri Ramakrishna said to Baburam, "Give him a

carpet." Nityagopal was sitting on the floor. The Master asked a devotee to

give him a carpet too.

Physician Mahendra of Sinthi arrived. The Master, smiling, asked Rākhāl

by a sign to have the physician examine his pulse.

Turning to Ramlal, the Master said, "Be friendly with Girish Ghosh; then

you will get a free ticket to the theatre."

Narendra had been talking a long time with Hazra on the porch. Since his

father's death Narendra had been having financial worries. He entered the

room and took a seat.

Hazra's eccentricities

MASTER (to Narendra): "Were you with Hazra? Both of you are in the

same boat. You know the saying about the two friends: 'You are away from

your country and he is away from his beloved.' Hazra, too, needs fifteen

hundred rupees. (Laughter.) "Hazra says: 'Narendra has acquired one

hundred per cent sattva, though still there is in him a pink glow of rajas. But

I have one hundred and twenty-five per cent pure sattva.'

(All laugh.)

"I say to Hazra, 'You indulge in reasoning only: that is why you are so dry.'

He retorts, 'No, I am dry because I drink the nectar of the sun.'

"Speaking of pure bhakti, I say to Hazra, 'A real devotee does not pray to

God for money or riches.' Hazra replies: 'When the flood of divine grace

descends, the rivers overflow; and further, the pools and canals are filled.

By the grace of God one gets not only pure devotion but also the six

supernatural powers, and money too.' "

Narendra and many other devotees were seated on the floor. Girish entered

the room and joined them.

MASTER (to Girish): "I look on Narendra as Ātman. I obey him."

GIRISH: "Is there anyone you don't obey?"

MASTER (smiling): "He has a manly nature and I have the nature of a

woman. He is a noble soul and belongs to the realm of the Indivisible

Brahman."

Girish went out to have a smoke.

NARENDRA (to the Master): "I had a talk with Girish Ghosh. He is indeed

a great man.

We talked about you."

MASTER: "What did you say about me?"

NARENDRA: "That you are illiterate and we are scholars. Oh, we talked in

that vein!"

(Laughter.)

MANI MALLICK (to the Master): "You have become a pundit without

reading a book."

Goal of scriptural study

MASTER (to Narendra and the others): "Let me tell you this: really and

truly I don't feel sorry in the least that I haven't read the Vedānta or the other

scriptures. I know that the essence of the Vedānta is that Brahman alone is

real and the world illusory. And what is the essence of the Gitā? It is what

you get by repeating the word ten times. Then it is reversed into, 'Tagi',

which refers to renunciation. The pupil should hear the essence of the

scriptures from the guru; then he should practise austerity and devotions. A

man needs the letter he has received from home as long as he has not learnt

its contents.

After reading it, however, he sets out to get the thing he has been asked to

send.

Likewise, what need is there of the scriptures if you know their essence?

The next thing is the practice of spiritual discipline."

Girish entered the room.

MASTER (to Girish): "Hello! What were you saying about me? I eat, drink,

and make merry."

GIRISH: "What should we have been saying about you? Are you a holy

man?"

MASTER: "No, nothing of the sort. Truly I do not feel I am a holy man.

GIRISH: "I am not your equal even in joking."

MASTER: "I once went to Jaygopal Sen's garden house wearing a red

bordered cloth.

Keshab was there. Looking at the red borders Keshab said: 'What's this?

Such a flash of colour today! Such a display of red border I said, 'I have to

cast a spell on Keshab; hence this display.' "

Narendra was going to sing again. Sri Ramakrishna asked M. to take down

the Tānpura from the wall. Narendra was a long time tuning it. The Master

and the devotees became impatient. Binode said, "He will tune it today and

sing another day." (Laughter.) Sri Ramakrishna laughed. He said: "I feel

like breaking the Tānpura to pieces! What is this? Only 'Tong-tong'! Then

he will practise: 'Tana-nana -nere-num'!"

BHAVANĀTH: "Everybody feels annoyed like this before a musical

performance begins."

NARENDRA (still tuning): "If you don't understand it."

MASTER (smiling): "There! He explains away our complaints!"

Narendra began to sing. Sri Ramakrishna was seated on the small couch.

Nityagopal and the other devotees were on the floor.

Narendra sang:

O Mother, Thou my Inner Guide, ever awake within my heart!

Day and night Thou holdest me in Thy lap.

Why dost Thou show such tenderness to this unworthy child of Thine?..

Then he sang:

O my lute of a single string!

Sing the blessed Mother's name,

For She is the solace of my soul. . . .

And again:

In dense darkness, O Mother, Thy formless beauty sparkles; Therefore the

yogis meditate in a dark mountain cave. . . .

In an ecstatic mood Sri Ramakrishna came down and sat by Narendra's side.

He began to talk, still in ecstasy.

MASTER: "Shall I sing? Fie! (To Nityagopal) What do you say? One

should listen to singing to awaken the inner spirit. Nothing matters

afterwards. "He has kindled the fire.

That is nice. Now all is silence. That's nice too. I am silent; you be silent

too. The thing is to dive into the Elixir of Bliss.

"Shall I sing? Well, I may. Water is water whether it is still or in waves."

Narendra was seated near the Master. He was constantly worried about his

financial difficulties at home. He was now twenty-three years old. Sri

Ramakrishna looked at him intently.

MASTER (to Narendra, smiling): "Undoubtedly you are 'Kha'. But you

have to worry about 'taxes'; that's the trouble." By "taxes" the Master meant

Narendra's financial difficulties at home.

MASTER: "Krishnakishore used to say that he was 'Kha'. One day I visited

him at his home and found him worried. He wouldn't talk to me freely. I

asked him: 'What's the matter? Why are you brooding like this?' Krishna

kishore said: 'The tax-collector came today. He said my pots and pans

would be sold at auction if I didn't pay my taxes. That's what I am worrying

about.' I laughed and said: 'How is that? You are surely 'Kha', the Ākāśa.

Let the rascals take away your pots and pans. What is that to you?'

Occult powers

(To Narendra) "So I am saying that you are 'Kha'. Why are you so worried?

Don't you know that Sri Krishna said to Arjuna, 'If you have one of the

eight siddhis, you may get a little power, but you will not realize Me.' By

siddhis one may acquire powers, strength, money, and such things, but not

God.

Go beyond duality

"Let me tell you something else. Go beyond knowledge and ignorance.

People say that such and such a one is a Jnāni; but in reality it is not so.

Vasishtha was a great Jnāni, but even he was stricken with grief on account

of the death of his sons. At this Lakshmana said to Rāma: 'This is amazing,

Rāma. Even Vasishtha is so grief-stricken!'

Rāma said: 'Brother, he who has knowledge has ignorance as well. He who

is aware of light is also aware of darkness. He who knows good also knows

bad. He who knows happiness also know misery. Brother, go beyond

duality, beyond pleasure and pain, beyond knowledge and ignorance.' (To

Narendra) So I am asking you to go beyond both knowledge and

ignorance."

Sri Ramakrishna went back to his small couch. The devotees were seated on

the floor.

Surendra sat by his side. The Master cast an affectionate look on him and

began to give him advice.

Advice to Surendra

MASTER (to Surendra): "Come here every now and then. Nangta used to

say that a brass pot must be polished every day; otherwise it gets stained.

One should constantly live in the company of holy men.

"The renunciation of 'woman and gold' is for sannyāsis. It is not for you.

Now and then you should go into solitude and call on God with a yearning

heart. Your renunciation should be mental.

"Unless a devotee is of the heroic type he cannot pay attention to both God

and the world. King Janaka lived a householder's life only after attaining

perfection through austerity and prayer. He fenced with two swords, the one

of Knowledge and the other of action."

The Master sang:

This very world is a mansion of mirth;

Here I can eat, here drink and make merry.

Janaka's might was unsurpassed; What did he lack of the world or the

Spirit?

Holding to one as well as the other,

He drank his milk from a brimming cup!

Duties of householders

MASTER: "For you, as Chaitanya said, the disciplines to be practised are

kindness to living beings, service to the devotees, and chanting the name of

God.

(To Surendra) "Why do I say all this to you? You work in a merchant's

office. I say this to you because you have many duties to perform there.

"You tell lies at the office. Then why do I eat the food you offer me?

Because you give your money in charity; you give away more than you

earn. 'The seed of the melon is bigger than the fruit', as the saying goes.

"I cannot eat anything offered by miserly people. Their wealth is

squandered in these ways: first, litigation; second, thieves and robbers;

third, physicians; fourth, their wicked children's extravagance. It is like that.

Master praises charity

"Your giving money away in charity is very good. Those who have money

should give in charity. The miser's wealth is spirited away, but the money of

the charitable person is saved. He spends it for a righteous purpose. At

Kamarpukur I have seen the farmers cutting channels to irrigate their fields.

Sometimes the water rushes in with such force that the ridges around the

fields are washed away and the crops destroyed. For this reason the farmers

make holes here and there in the ridges. Since the water escapes through the

holes, the ridges are not destroyed by the rush of the water. Furthermore,

the escaping water deposits soft clay in the fields, which increases their

fertility and gives a richer crop. He who gives away in charity achieves

great results. He achieves the four fruits: dharma, artha, kama, and

moksha."

The devotees listened with great attention to Sri Ramakrishna's words.

SURENDRA: "I cannot meditate well. I repeat the Divine Mother's name

now and then.

Lying in bed, I repeat Her name and fall asleep."

MASTER: "That is enough. You remember Her, don't you?

"There are two kinds of yoga: Mano Yoga and Karma Yoga. To perform,

following the guru's instructions, such pious acts as worship, pilgrimage,

and service to living beings is called karmayoga. The duties that Janaka

performed are also called karmayoga. The meditation and contemplation of

the yogis is called manoyoga.”

"Sometimes I say to myself in the Kāli temple, 'O Mother, the mind is

nothing but Yourself.' Therefore Pure Mind, Pure Buddhi, and Pure Ātman

are one and the same thing."

It was about dusk. Many of the devotees saluted Sri Ramakrishna and

started to go home. The Master went to the west porch. Bhavanāth and M.

were with him.

MASTER (to Bhavanāth): "Why do you come here so seldom?"

BHAVANĀTH (smiling): "Sir, I visit you once in a fortnight. I saw you in

the street the other day, so I didn't come here."

MASTER: "What do you mean? What can you gain by mere seeing? Touch

and talk are also necessary."

The evening worship had begun in the temples. It was the eighth day of the

bright fortnight of the moon; the temple domes, the courtyard, the gardens,

and the trees were shining in the moonlight. The Ganges was flowing north

with a murmuring sound.

Sri Ramakrishna sat on the small couch in his room absorbed in

contemplation of the Divine Mother.

The evening worship was over. One or two devotees were still in the temple

garden.

Narendra had left. Sri Ramakrishna was pacing the verandah northeast of

his room. M.

stood there looking at him. Suddenly he said to M., "Ah, how sweet

Narendra's music is!"

M: "Yes, sir. That song beginning with 'In dense darkness' is particularly

beautiful."

MASTER: "You are right. That song has a deep meaning. A part of my

mind is still drawn to it."

M: "Yes, sir."

MASTER: "Meditation in darkness is prescribed in the Tantra."

Master and Girish

Girish Ghosh came and stood by Sri Ramakrishna, who had started to sing:

Is Kāli, my Mother, really black?

The Naked One, of blackest hue,

Lights the Lotus of the Heart. . . .

Sri Ramakrishna was filled with divine fervour. Standing with one arm

resting on Girish's body he sang:

Why should I go to Ganga or Gaya, to Kasi, Kanchi, or Prabhas,

So long as I can breathe my last with Kāli's name upon my lips?

What need of rituals has a man, what need of devotions any more,

If he repeats the Mother's name at the three holy hours?

Rituals may pursue him close, but never can they overtake him.

. . .

Then he sang:

Once for all, this time, I have thoroughly understood; From One who knows

it well, I have learnt the secret of bhava.

A man has come to me from a country where there is no night, And now I

cannot distinguish day from night any longer; Rituals and devotions have

all grown profitless for me.

My sleep is broken; how can I slumber any more?

For now I am wide awake in the sleeplessness of yoga.

O Divine Mother, made one with Thee in yoga-sleep at last, My slumber I

have lulled asleep for evermore.

I bow my head, says Prasad, before desire and liberation; Knowing the

secret that Kāli is one with the highest Brahman, I have discarded, once for

all, both righteousness and sin.

As Sri Ramakrishna looked at Girish, his ecstatic fervour became more

intense.

He sang:

I have surrendered my soul at the fearless feet of the Mother; Am I afraid of

Death any more?

Unto the tuft of hair on my head

Is tied the almighty mantra, Mother Kāli's name.

My body I have sold in the marketplace of the world And with it have

bought Sri Durga's name. . .

Intoxicated with God, Sri Ramakrishna repeated the lines:

My body I have sold in the marketplace of the world And with it have

bought Sri Durga's name.

Looking at Girish and M. he said, "'Divine fervour fills my body and robs

me of consciousness.'

"Here 'consciousness' means consciousness of the outer world. One needs

the Knowledge of Reality and Brahman.

Selfless divine love

"Bhakti, love of God, is the only essential thing. One kind of bhakti has a

motive behind it. Again, there is a motiveless love, pure devotion, a love of

God that seeks no return.

Keshab Sen and the members of the Brahmo Samaj didn't know about

motiveless love.

In this love there is no desire; it is nothing but pure love of the Lotus Feet of

God.

"There is another kind of love, known as urjhitabhakti, an ecstatic love of

God that overflows, as it were. When it is awakened, the devotee 'laughs

and weeps and dances and sings'. Chaitanyadeva is an example of this love.

Rāma said to Lakshmana, 'Brother, if anywhere you see the manifestation

of urjhita bhakti, know for certain that I am there.'"

GIRlSH: "Everything is possible through your grace. What was I before?

And see what I am now."

MASTER: "You had latent tendencies; so they are manifesting themselves

now. Nothing happens except at the proper time. Take the case of a patient.

Nature has almost cured him, when the physician prescribes a herb and asks

him to drink its juice. After taking the medicine he is completely cured.

Now, is the patient cured by the medicine, or does he get well by himself?

Who can tell?

"Lakshmana said to Lava and Kusa: 'You are mere children; you don't know

Rāma's power. At the touch of His feet, Ahalyā, who had been turned into a

stone, got back her human form.' Lava and Kusa said: 'Revered sir, we

know that. We have heard the story.

The stone became Ahalyā because of the power of the holy man's words.

The sage Gautama said to her: "In the Tretayuga, Rāma will pass this

hermitage. You will become Hanuman being again at the touch of His feet."'

Now, who can tell whether the miracle happened in order that the sage's

words should be fulfilled or on account of Rāma's holiness?

"Everything happens by the will of God. If your spiritual consciousness has

been awakened at this place, know that I am only an instrument. 'Uncle

Moon is everybody's uncle.' All happens by the will of God."

GIRISH (smiling): "Did you say 'by the will of God'? What I am saying is

the very same thing." (All laugh.)

MASTER (to Girish): "By being guileless one can speedily realize God.

There are several kinds of people who do not attain divine knowledge. First,

a man with a perverse mind; he is not guileless. Second, one who is very

fastidious about outer purity. Third, a doubting person."

Sri Ramakrishna spoke highly of Nityagopal's ecstasy.

Three or four devotees stood near Sri Ramakrishna on the verandah and

listened to his words about the exalted state of the paramahamsa. The

Master said: "A Paramahamsa is always conscious that God alone is real

and all else illusory. Only the swan has the power to separate milk from a

mixture of milk and water. The swan's tongue secretes an acid that separates

the milk from the mixture. The paramahamsa also possesses such a juice; it

is his ecstatic love for God. That separates the Real from the mixture of the

Real and the unreal. Through it one becomes aware of God and sees Him."

Wednesday, February 25, 1885

Knowledge of Brahman

Sri Ramakrishna was at the house of Girish Ghosh in Bosepara Lane,

Calcutta. It was about three o'clock when M. arrived and prostrated himself

before him. The Master was going to see a play at the Star Theatre. He was

talking with the devotees about the Knowledge of Brahman.

MASTER: "Man experiences three states of consciousness: waking, dream,

and deep sleep. Those who follow the path of knowledge explain away the

three states. According to them, Brahman is beyond the three states. It is

also beyond the gross, the subtle, and the causal bodies, and beyond the

three Gunās-sattva, rajas, and tamas. All these are māyā, like a reflection in

a mirror. The reflection is by no means the real substance.

Brahman alone is the Substance and all else is illusory.

"The knowers of Brahman say, further, that it is the identification of the

soul with the body that creates the notion of duality. In that state of

identification the reflection appears real. When this identification

disappears, a man realizes, 'I am He; I am Brahman.'

Two paths of Brahmajnana

A DEVOTEE: "Then shall we all follow the path of reasoning?"

MASTER: "Reasoning is one of the paths; it is the path of the Vedantists.

But there is another path, the path of bhakti. If a bhakta, weeps longingly

for the Knowledge of Brahman, he receives that as well. These are the two

paths: jnāna and bhakti.

The ego of the Divine Incarnation

"One may attain the Knowledge of Brahman by either path. Some retain

bhakti even after realizing Brahman, in order to teach humanity. An

Incarnation of God is one of these.

"A man cannot easily get rid of the ego and the consciousness that the body

is the soul.

It becomes possible only when, through the grace of God, he attains

samādhi-nirvikalpa samādhi, jada samādhi.

"The ego of the Incarnations returns to them when they come down from

the plane of samādhi; but then it is the 'ego of Knowledge' or the 'ego of

Devotion'. Through the 'ego of Knowledge' they teach men. Sankaracharya

kept the 'ego of Knowledge'.

"Through the 'ego of Devotion' Chaitanyadeva tasted divine love and

enjoyed the company of the devotees. He talked about God and chanted His

name.

The path of bhakti

"Since one cannot easily get rid of the ego, a bhakta does not explain away

the states of waking, dream, and deep sleep. He accepts all the states.

Further, he accepts the three Gunās-sattva, rajas, and tamas. A bhakta sees

that God alone has become the twenty-four cosmic principles, the universe,

and all living beings. He also sees that God reveals Himself to His devotees

in a tangible form, which is the embodiment of Spirit.

"The bhakta takes shelter under Vidyā-māyā. He seeks holy company, goes

on pilgrimage, and practises discrimination, devotion, and renunciation. He

says that, since a man cannot easily get rid of his ego, he should let the

rascal remain as the servant of God, the devotee of God.

Meaning of liberation

"But a bhakta also attains the Knowledge of Oneness; he sees that nothing

exists but God. He does not regard the world as a dream, but says that it is

God Himself who has become everything. In a wax garden you may see

various objects, but everything is made of wax.

"But a man realizes this only when his devotion to God has matured. One

gets jaundice when too much bile accumulates. Then one sees everything as

yellow. From constantly meditating on Krishna, Radhika saw everything as

Krishna; moreover, she even felt that she herself had become Krishna. If a

piece of lead is kept in a lake of mercury a long time, it turns into mercury.

The cockroach becomes motionless by constantly meditating on the kumira

worm; it loses the power to move. At last it is transformed into a kumira.

Similarly, by constantly meditating on God the bhakta loses his ego; he

realizes that God is he and he is God. When the cockroach becomes the

kumira everything is achieved.

Instantly one obtains liberation.

"As long as God retains the ego in a man, he should establish a definite

relationship with God, calling on Him as Master, Mother, Friend, or the

like. I spent one year as a handmaid-the handmaid of the Divine Mother, the

Embodiment of Brahman. I used to dress myself as a woman. I put on a

nose-ring. One can conquer lust by assuming the attitude of a woman.

Master warns against lust

"One must worship the Ādyāśakti. She must be propitiated. She alone has

assumed all female forms. Therefore I look on all women as mother. The

attitude of looking on woman as mother is very pure. The Tantra mentions

the Vamachara method also. But that is not a good method; it causes the

aspirant's downfall. A devotee keeping an object of enjoyment near him has

reason to be afraid.

"Looking on woman as mother is like fasting on the Ekadasi day without

touching even a drop of water; in this attitude there is not the slightest trace

of sensual enjoyment.

Another way of observing the Ekadasi allows the taking of fruit and the

like. One can also observe the day by eating luchi and curries! But my

attitude is not to touch even a drop of water while I observe the fast. I

worshipped the Shorasi as my mother; I looked on all parts of her body as

those of my mother. This attitude of regarding God as Mother is the last

word in sādhanā. 'O God, Thou art my Mother and I am Thy child'-this is

the last word in spirituality.

Sannyāsi's discipline

"The sannyāsi's way of living is like observing the ekadasi fast without

taking even a drop of water. If he clings to enjoyment, then he has reason to

be afraid. 'Woman and gold' is enjoyment. If a monk enjoys it, he is

swallowing his own spittle, as it were.

There are different kinds of enjoyment: money, wealth, name, fame, and

sense pleasures. It is not good for a sannyāsi to sit in the company of a

woman devotee, or even to talk to her. This injures him and others as well.

Then others cannot learn from him; he cannot set an example to humanity.

A sannyāsi keeps his body in order to teach mankind.

"To sit with a woman or talk to her a long time has also been described as a

kind of sexual intercourse. There are eight kinds. To listen to a woman and

enjoy her conversation is one kind; to speak about a woman is another kind;

to whisper to her privately is a third kind; to keep something belonging to a

woman and enjoy it is a fourth kind; to touch her is a fifth. Therefore a

sannyāsi should not salute his guru's young wife, touching her feet. These

are the rules for sannyāsis.

Householders discipline

"But the case is quite different with householders. After the birth of one or

two children, the husband and wife should live as brother and sister. The

other seven kinds of sexual intercourse do not injure them much.

"A householder has various debts: debts to the gods, to the fathers, and to

the rishis. He also owes a debt to his wife. He should make her the mother

of one or two children and support her if she is a chaste woman.

"Householders do not know who is a good wife and who is a bad wife, who

is a vidyaŚakti and who is an avidyaŚakti. A vidyaŚakti, a good wife, has

very little lust and anger. She sleeps little. She pushes her husband's head

away from her. She is full of affection, kindness, devotion, modesty, and

other noble qualities. Such a wife serves all, looking on all men as her

children. Further, she helps increase her husband's love of God. She doesn't

spend much money lest her husband should have to work hard and thus not

get leisure to think of God.

"Mannish women have different traits. These are bad traits: squint eyes and

hollow eyes, catlike eyes, lantern jaws like a calf's, and pigeon-breast."

GIRISH: "What is the way for people like us?"

Different aspects of bhakti

MASTER: "Bhakti is the only essential thing. Bhakti has different aspects:

the sattvic, the rajasic, and the tamasic. One who has sattvic bhakti is very

modest and humble. But a man with tamasic bhakti is like a highwayman in

his attitude toward God. He says: 'O

God, I am chanting. Your name; how can I be a sinner? O God, You are my

own Mother; You must reveal yourself to me.' "

GIRISH (smiling): "It is you, sir, who teach us tamasic bhakti."

Different kinds of samādhi

MASTER (smiling): "There are certain signs of God-vision. When a man

sees God he goes into samādhi. There are five kinds of samādhi. First, he

feels the Mahāvāyu rise like an ant crawling up. Second, he feels It rise like

a fish swimming in the water. Third, he feels It rise like a snake wriggling

along. Fourth, he feels It rise like a bird flying-flying from one branch to

another. Fifth, he feels It rise like a monkey making a big jump; the

Mahāvāyu reaches the head with one jump, as it were, and samādhi follows.

"There are two other kinds of samādhi. First, the sthita samādhi, when the

aspirant totally loses outer consciousness: he remains in that state a long

time, it may be for many days. Second, the Unmana Samādhi: it is to

withdraw the mind suddenly from all sense-objects and unite it with God.

(To M.) "Do you understand this?"

M: "Yes, sir."

GIRISH: "Can one realize God by sādhanā?"

MASTER: "People have realized God in various ways. Some through much

austerity, worship, and devotion; they have attained perfection through their

own efforts. Some are born perfect, as for example Nārada and Sukadeva;

they are called nityasiddha, eternally perfect. There are also those who have

attained perfection all of a sudden; it is like a man's unexpectedly coming

into a great fortune. Again, there are instances of people's realizing God in a

dream and by divine grace."

Saying this, Sri Ramakrishna sang, intoxicated with divine fervour: Can

everyone have the vision of Syama? Is Kāli's treasure for everyone?

Oh, what a pity my foolish mind will not see what is true! . . .

Sri Ramakrishna remained in ecstasy a few moments. Girish and the other

devotees were seated before him. A few days earlier Girish had been very

rude to the Master at the Star Theatre; but now he was in a calm state of

mind.

MASTER (to Girish): "This mood of yours is very good; it is peaceful. I

prayed about you to the Divine Mother, 'O Mother, make him peaceful so

that he won't abuse me.' "

GIRISH (to M.): "I feel as if someone were pressing my tongue. I can't

talk."

Sri Ramakrishna was still in an indrawn mood; he seemed to be gradually

forgetting the men and the objects around him. He tried to bring his mind

down to the relative world.

He looked at the devotees.

Looking at M., he said: "They all come to Dakshineswar. Let them. Mother

knows everything." To a young man of the neighbourhood he said: "Hello!

What do you think?

What is the duty of man?" All sat in silence. To Narayan he said: "Don't you

want to pass the examinations? But, my dear child, a man freed from

bondage is Śiva; entangled in bondage, he is jiva."

Sri Ramakrishna was still in the God-intoxicated mood. There was a glass

of water near him. He drank the water. He said to himself, "Why, I have

drunk water in this mood!"

It was not yet dusk. Sri Ramakrishna was talking to Atul, who was seated in

front of him. Atul was Girish's brother and a lawyer of the High Court of

Calcutta. A brahmin neighbour was also seated near him.

MASTER (to Atul): "All I want to tell you is this. Follow both; perform

your duties in the world and also cultivate love of God."

BRAHMIN: "Can anyone but a brahmin achieve perfection?"

MASTER: "Why should you ask that? It is said that in the Kaliyuga the

sudras achieve love of God. There are the instances of Savari, Ruhidas, the

untouchable Guhaka, and others."

NARAYAN (smiling): "Brahmins and sudras-all are one."

BRAHMIN: "Can a man realize God in one birth?"

MASTER: "Is anything impossible for the grace of God? Suppose you

bring a light into a room that has been dark a thousand years; does it

remove the darkness little by little?

The room is lighted all at once. (To Atul) Intense renunciation is what is

needed. One should be like an unsheathed sword. When a man has that

renunciation, he looks on his relatives as black cobras and his home as a

deep well.

"One should pray to God with sincere longing. God cannot but listen to

prayer if it is sincere."

All sat in silence, pondering Sri Ramakrishna's words.

MASTER (to Atul): "What is worrying you? Is it that you haven't that grit,

that intense restlessness for God?"

How to cultivate longing for God

ATUL: "How can we keep our minds on God?"

MASTER: "Abhyāsa Yoga, the yoga of practice. You should practise calling

on God every day. It is not possible to succeed in one day; through daily

prayer you will come to long for God.

"How can you feel that restlessness if you are immersed in worldliness day

and night?

Formerly Jadu Mallick enjoyed spiritual talk; he liked to engage in it

himself. But nowadays he doesn't show that much interest. He surrounds

himself with flatterers day and night and indulges in worldly talk."

It was dusk. The lamp was lighted in the room. Sri Ramakrishna chanted

the divine names. He was singing and praying. He said, "Chant the name of

Hari, repeat the name of Hari, sing the name of Hari." Again he said,

"Rāma! Rāma! Rāma!" Then: "O Mother!

Thou dost ever enjoy Thine eternal Sports. Tell us, O Mother, what is the

way? We have taken refuge in Thee; we have taken shelter at Thy feet."

Finding Girish restless, Sri Ramakrishna remained silent a moment. He

asked Tejchandra to sit near him. The boy sat near the Master. He

whispered to M. that he would have to leave soon.

MASTER (to M.): "What did he say?"

M: "He said he would have to go home."

MASTER: "Why do I attract these boys to me so much? They are pure

vessels untouched by worldliness. A man cannot assimilate instruction if his

mind is stained with worldliness. Milk can be safely kept in a new pot; but

it turns sour if kept in a pot in which curd has been made. You may wash a

thousand times a cup that has held a solution of garlic, but still you cannot

remove the smell."

Master at the theatre

Sri Ramakrishna arrived at the Star Theatre, on Beadon Street, to see a

performance of Vrishaketu He sat in a box, facing the south. M. and other

devotees were near him.

MASTER (to M.): "Has Narendra come?"

M: "Yes, sir."

The performance began. Karna and his wife Padmavati sacrificed their son

to please God, who had come to them in the guise of a brahmin to test

Karna's charity. During this scene one of the devotees gave a suppressed

sigh. Sri Ramakrishna also expressed his sorrow.

After the play Sri Ramakrishna went to the recreation room of the theatre.

Girish and Narendra were already there. The Master stood near Narendra

and said, "I have come."

Sri Ramakrishna took a seat. The orchestra was playing in the auditorium.

MASTER (to the devotees): "I feel happy listening to the concert. The

musicians used to play on the sanai at Dakshineswar and I would go into

ecstasy. Noticing this, a certain sādhu said, 'This is a sign of the Knowledge

of Brahman.'"

The orchestra stopped playing and Sri Ramakrishna began the conversation.

MASTER (to Girish): "Does this theatre belong to you?"

GIRISH: "It is ours, sir."

MASTER: "'Ours' is good; it is not good to say 'mine'. People say 'I' and

'mine'; they are egotistic, small-minded people."

NARENDRA: "The whole world is a theatre."

MASTER: "Yes, yes, that's right. In some places you see the play of vidyā

and in some, the play of avidyā."

NARENDRA: "Everything is the play of vidyā."

MASTER: "True, true. But a man realizes that when he has the Knowledge

of Brahman; But for a bhakta, who follows the path of divine love, both

exist-Vidyā-māyā and Avidyā-

māyā.

"Please sing a little."

Narendra sang:

Upon the Sea of Blissful Awareness waves of ecstatic love arise:

Rapture divine! Play of God's Bliss!

Oh, how enthralling!

Wondrous waves of the sweetness of God, ever new and ever enchanting,

Rise on the surface, ever assuming

Forms ever fresh.

Then once more in the Great Communion all are merged, as the barrier

walls

Of time and space dissolve and vanish:

Dance then, O mind!

Dance in delight with hands upraised, chanting Lord Hari's holy name.

As Narendra sang the words, "Then once more in the Great Communion all

are merged", Sri Ramakrishna said to him, "One realizes this after attaining

the Knowledge of Brahman; then all is vidyā, Brahman, as you said." As

Narendra sang the line, "Dance in delight with hands upraised, chanting

Lord Hari's holy name", the Master said to him, "Sing that line twice."

After the song Sri Ramakrishna resumed the conversation.

GIRISH: "Devendra Babu hasn't come. He says in a mood of wounded

pride: 'We haven't any stuff inside us, no filling of thickened milk. We are

filled only with worthless lentil-paste. Why should we go there?"

MASTER (surprised): "Does he say that? He never said so before."

Sri Ramakrishna took some refreshments and handed some to Narendra.

JATIN DEVA (to the Master): "You always say: 'Narendra, eat this! Eat

that!' Are the rest of us fools? Are we like straw washed ashore by the

flood-tide?"

Sri Ramakrishna loved Jatin dearly. Jatin visited the Master now and then at

Dakshineswar and occasionally spent the night there. He belonged to an

aristocratic family of Sobhabazar. The Master said laughingly to Narendra,

"He is talking about you."

Sri Ramakrishna laughed and showed his affection to Jatin by touching his

chin. He said to Jatin, "Come to Dakshineswar; I'll give you plenty to eat."

The Master went into the auditorium to see a farce. He sat in a box. He

laughed at the conversation of the maidservant. After a while he became

absent-minded and whispered a few words to M.

MASTER (to M.): "Well, is what Girish Ghosh says true?"

Girish had lately been speaking of Sri Ramakrishna as an Incarnation of

God.

M: "Yes, sir, it must be true. Otherwise why should it appeal to our minds?"

MASTER: "You see, a change is coming over me. The old mood has

changed. I am not able to touch any metal now."

M. listened to these words in wonder.

MASTER: "There is a very deep meaning in this new mood." Was the

Master hinting that a God-man cannot bear any association with worldly

treasure?

MASTER (to M.): "Well, do you notice any change in me?"

M: "In what respect, sir?"

MASTER: "In my activities."

M: "Your activities are increasing as more people come to know about

you."

MASTER: "Do you see? What I said before is now coming true."

After a few moments he said, "Can you tell me why Paltu can't meditate

well?"

Sri Ramakrishna was ready to leave for Dakshineswar. He had remarked to

a devotee about Girish, "You may wash a thousand times a cup that has held

a solution of garlic; but is it ever possible to get rid of the smell altogether?"

Girish was offended by this remark. When the Master was about to leave,

Girish spoke.

GIRISH: "Will this smell of garlic go?"

MASTER: "Yes, it will."

GIRISH: "So you say it will."

MASTER: "All smell disappears when a blazing fire is lighted. If you heat

the cup smelling of garlic, you get rid of the smell; it becomes a new cup.

"The man who says he will not succeed will never succeed. He who feels he

is liberated is indeed liberated; and he who feels he is bound verily remains

bound. He who forcefully says, 'I am free' is certainly free; and he who says

day and night, 'I am bound' is certainly bound."

--------------------

Chapter 37

THE MASTER AND NARENDRA

Sunday, March 1, 1885

SRl RAMAKRISHNA was seated on the small couch in his room, absorbed

in deep samādhi. Mahimacharan, Ram, Manomohan, Nabai Chaitanya, M.,

and other devotees were sitting on a mat spread on the floor. They were

watching the Master intently.

It was the day of the Dolayatra, a Hindu religious festival. Sri Krishna and

Radha are the central figures of this celebration, their images being placed

on a swing, which is rocked now and then. A red powder is showered on the

images. Later, friends and relatives throw the powder at one another. This

festival is celebrated when winter passes into spring, on a full-moon day

rendered doubly sacred by its association with the birth of Sri Chaitanya.

The devotees saw that the Master was returning to consciousness of the

world, though his mind still lingered in the realm of God-vision.

The Master said to Mahimacharan, "My dear sir, please tell us something

about love of God."

What need is there of penance if God is worshipped with love?

What is the use of penance if God is not worshipped with love?

What need is there of penance if God is seen within and without?

What is the use of penance if God is not seen within and without?

O Brahman! O my child! Cease from practising further penances.

Hasten to Sankara, the Ocean of Heavenly Wisdom; Obtain from Him the

love of God, the pure love praised by devotees, which snaps in twain the

shackles that bind you to the world.

Mahima said, "Once while the great sage Nārada was practising austerity,

he suddenly heard a heavenly voice repeating those lines."

Two kinds of devotion

MASTER; "There are two classes of devotees: jivakotis, or ordinary men,

and Isvarakotis, or Divine Messengers. The jivakoti's devotion to God is

called vaidhi, formal; that is, it conforms to scriptural laws. He worships

God with a fixed number of articles, repeats God's holy name a specified

number of times, and so on and so forth. This kind of devotion, like the path

of knowledge, leads to the Knowledge of God and to samādhi.

The jivakoti does not return from samādhi to the relative plane.

"But the case of the Isvarakoti is different. He follows the process of

'negation' and 'affirmation'. First he negates the world, realizing that it is not

Brahman; but then he affirms the same world, seeing it as the manifestation

of Brahman. To give an illustration: a man wanting to climb to the roof first

negates the stairs as not being the roof, but on reaching the roof he finds

that the stairs are made of the same materials as the roof: brick, lime, and

brick-dust. Then he can either move up and down the stairs or remain on the

roof, as he pleases.

Vision of God

"Sukadeva was absorbed in samādhi-nirvikalpa samādhi, jada samādhi.

Since Suka was to recite the Bhagavata to King Parikshit, the Lord sent the

sage Nārada to him.

Nārada saw him seated like an inert thing, absolutely unconscious of the

world around him. Thereupon Nārada sang four couplets on the beauty of

Hari, to the accompaniment of the vina. While the first couplet was being

sung the hair on Suka's body stood on end.

Next he shed tears; for he saw the form of God, the Embodiment of Spirit,

within himself, in his heart. Thus Sukadeva saw the form of God even after

jada samādhi. He was an Isvarakoti.

How a liberated soul lives in the world

"Hanuman, after having the vision of God both with form and without,

remained firmly devoted to the form of Rāma, the Embodiment of

Consciousness and Bliss.

"Prahlada sometimes realized, 'I am He'; sometimes he felt that he was the

servant of God. How can such a person live without love of God? That is

why he must accept the relationship of master and servant, feeling that God

is the Master and himself the servant. This enables him to enjoy the Bliss of

Hari. In this attitude he feels that God is the Bliss and he himself is the

enjoyer.

"The 'ego of Devotion', the 'ego of Knowledge', and the 'ego of a child' do

not harm the devotee. Sankaracharya kept the ego of Knowledge'.

Detachment of a child

The 'ego of a child' is not attached to anything. The child is beyond the

three Gunās; he is not under the control of any of them. One moment you

find him angry; the next moment it is all over. One moment you see him

building his play house; the next moment he forgets all about it. Now you

see him love his playmates; but if they are out of his sight a few days he

forgets all about them. A child is not under the control of any of the Gunās-

sattva, rajas, or tamas.

"I-consciousness"after God-realization "The bhakta feels, 'O God, Thou

art the Lord and I am Thy devotee.' This 'I' is the 'ego of bhakti'. Why does

such a lover of God retain the 'ego of Devotion'? There is a reason.

The ego cannot begot rid of; so let the rascal remain as the servant of God,

the devotee of God.

"You may reason a thousand times, but you cannot get rid of the ego. The

ego is like a pitcher, and Brahman like the ocean-an infinite expanse of

water on all sides. The pitcher is set in this ocean. The water is both inside

and out; the water is everywhere; yet the pitcher remains. Now, this pitcher

is the 'ego of the devotee'. As long as the ego remains, 'you' and 'I' remain,

and there also remains the feeling, 'O God, Thou art the Lord and I am Thy

devotee; Thou art the Master and I am Thy servant.' You may reason a

million times, but you cannot get rid of it. But it is different if there is no

pitcher."

Narendra entered the room and saluted the Master. They began to talk

together.

Presently the Master came down from the couch and sat on the floor, on

which a mat had been spread. In the mean time the room had become filled

with people, both devotees and visitors.

Master warns Narendra about householders

MASTER (to Narendra): "Are you well? I hear that you often visit Girish

Ghosh at his house. Is it true?"

NARENDRA: "Yes, sir, I go there now and then."

Girish had been visiting Sri Ramakrishna for some months. The Master said

that none could fathom the depth of Girish's faith. And his longing for God

was as intense as his faith was deep. At home, he was always absorbed in

the thought of Sri Ramakrishna.

Many of the Master's devotees visited him; they talked only about Sri

Ramakrishna. But Girish was a householder who had had varied

experiences of worldly life, and the Master knew that Narendra would

renounce the world, that he would shun "woman and gold"

both mentally and outwardly.

MASTER: "Do you visit Girish frequently? No matter how much one

washes a cup that has contained a solution of garlic, still a trace of the smell

will certainly linger. The youngsters who come here are pure souls-

untouched by 'woman and gold'. Men who have associated a long time with

'woman and gold' smell of the garlic, as it were. They are like a mango

pecked by crows. Such a fruit cannot be offered to the Deity in the temple,

and you would hesitate to eat it yourself. Again, take the case of a new pot

and another in which curd has been made. One is afraid to keep milk in the

second pot, for the milk very often turns sour.

"Householder devotees like Girish form a class by themselves. They desire

yoga and also bhoga. Their attitude is that of Ravana, who wanted to enjoy

the maidens of heaven and at the same time realize Rāma. They are like the

asuras, the demons, who enjoy various pleasures and also realize

Narayana."

NARENDRA: "But Girish has given up his old associates."

MASTER: "Yes, yes. He is like a bull castrated in old age. In Burdwan I

once saw an ox moving about the cows. I asked a bullock-cart driver: 'what

is this? an ox? How strange!'

He said to me: 'True, sir. But it was castrated in old age, and so it hasn't

altogether shaken off the old tendencies.'

"In a certain place there sat some sannyāsis. A young woman happened to

pass by. All continued as before to meditate on God, except one of them,

who cast sidelong glances at her. Before becoming a monk he had been the

father of three children.

"If you make a solution of garlic in a cup, won't it be hard to remove the

smell from it?

Can a worthless tree like the babui produce mangoes? Of course such a

thing may become possible through the occult powers of a yogi; but can

everyone acquire such powers?

Worldly people have no time for spiritual practice "When have worldly

people time to think of God? A man wanted to engage a pundit who could

explain the Bhagavata to him. His friend said: 'I know of an excellent

pundit. But there is one difficulty: he does a great deal of farming. He has

four ploughs and eight bullocks and is always busy with them; he has no

leisure.' Thereupon the man said: 'I don't care for a pundit who has no

leisure. I am not looking for a Bhagavata scholar burdened with ploughs

and bullocks. I want a pundit who can really expound the sacred book to

me.'

"There was a king who used to listen daily to a pundit's exposition of the

Bhagavata.

Every day at the end of their study the pundit would ask the king, 'O King,

have you understood what I have read?' To this question the king would

daily give the same reply: 'Sir, you had better understand it first yourself.'

Each day, when the pundit returned home, he would ponder the meaning of

the king's words. He was a pious man, devoted to prayer and meditation.

Gradually he came to his senses and realized that the only real thing in the

world is the Lotus Feet of God, and that all else is illusory. He felt

dispassion for the world and took up the life of a monk. As he was leaving

the world he sent a man to the king with the message: 'Yes, O King! Now I

have understood.'

"But do I look down on worldly people? Of course not. When I see them, I

apply the Knowledge of Brahman, the Oneness of Existence. Brahman

itself has become everything; all are Narayana Himself. Regarding all

women as so many forms of the Divine Mother, I see no difference between

a chaste woman and a streetwalker.

"Alas! I find no customers who want anything better than kalai pulse. No

one wants to give up 'woman and gold'. Man, deluded by the beauty of

woman and the power of money, forgets God. But to one who has seen the

beauty of God, even the position of Brahma, the Creator, seems

insignificant.

"A man said to Ravana, 'You have been going to Sita in different disguises;

why don't you go to her in the form of Rāma?' 'But', Ravana replied 'when I

meditate on Rāma in my heart, the most beautiful women-celestial maidens

like Rambha and Tilottama-appear no better than ashes of the funeral pyre.

Then even the position of Brahma appears trivial to me, not to speak of the

beauty of another man's wife.'

"Alas! I find that all the customers here seek worthless Kalai Pulse. Unless,

the soul is pure, it cannot have genuine love of God and single-minded

devotion to the ideal. The mind wanders away to various objects.

(To Manomohan) "You may take offence at my words; but I said to Rākhāl,

'I would rather hear that you had drowned yourself in the Ganges than learn

that you had accepted a job under another person and become his servant.'

"One day a Nepalese girl came here. She sang devotional songs to the

accompaniment of the esraj. When someone asked her if she was married,

she said sharply: 'What? I am the handmaid of God! Whom else could I

serve?'

"How can a man living in the midst of 'woman and gold' realize God? It is

very hard for him to lead an unattached life. First, he is the slave of his

wife, second, of money, and third, of the master whom he serves.

Akbar and the holy man

"When Akbar was Emperor of Delhi there lived a hermit in a hut in the

forest. Many people visited the holy man. At one time he felt a great desire

to entertain his visitors.

But how could he do so without money? So he decided to go to the

Emperor for help, for the gate of Akbar's palace was always open to holy

men. The hermit entered the palace while the Emperor was at his daily

devotions and took a seat in a corner of the room. He heard the Emperor

conclude his worship with the prayer, 'O God, give me money; give me

riches', and so on and so forth. When the hermit heard this he was about to

leave the prayer hall; but the Emperor signed to him to wait. When the

prayer was over, Akbar said to him, 'You came to see me; how is it that you

were about to leave without saying anything to me?' 'Your Majesty need not

trouble yourself about it', answered the hermit.

'I must leave now.' When the Emperor insisted, the hermit said, 'Many

people visit my hut, and so I came here to ask you for some money.' 'Then',

said Akbar, 'why were you going away without speaking to me?' The hermit

replied: 'I found that you too were a beggar; you too prayed to God for

money and riches. Thereupon I said to myself, "Why should I beg of a

beggar? If I must beg, let me beg of God." ' "

NARENDRA: "Nowadays Girish Ghosh thinks of nothing but spiritual

things."

MASTER: "That is very good. But why is he so abusive? Why does he use

such vulgar language to me? In my present state of mind I cannot bear such

rudeness. When a thunderbolt strikes near a house, the heavy things inside

the house are not much affected; but the window-panes rattle. Nowadays I

cannot bear such roughness. A man living on the plane of sattva cannot bear

noise and uproar. That is why Hriday was sent away. It was the Divine

Mother who sent him away. During the later part of his stay he went to

extremes; he became very rough and abusive. (To Narendra) Do you agree

with Girish about me?"

NARENDRA: "He said he believed you to be an Incarnation of God. I

didn't say anything in answer to his remarks."

MASTER: "But how great his faith is! Don't you think so?"

The devotees listened intently to the Master's words. He was still seated on

the mat spread on the floor, with M. by his side and Narendra in front of

him. The devotees were sitting around.

After a few minutes silence he said to Narendra tenderly, "My child, you

will not attain God without renouncing 'woman and gold'." As he said this,

great emotion welled up in his heart. Fixing on Narendra an earnest and

tender look, he sang: We are afraid to speak, and yet we are afraid to keep

still; Our minds, O Radha, half believe that we are about to lose you!

We tell you the secret that we know-

The secret whereby we ourselves, and others, with our help, Have passed

through many a time of peril;

Now it all depends on you.

Sri Ramakrishna seemed to be afraid lest Narendra should leave him.

Narendra looked at the Master with tears in his eyes.

A visitor who was there for the first time heard and saw all this. He said to

the Master, "Sir, if one must renounce 'woman and gold', then what shall a

householder do?"

MASTER: "You may enjoy 'woman and gold'. What has passed between us

is no concern of yours." Mahimacharan, a householder devotee, heard

everything and sat speechless.

MASTER (to Mahima): "Go forward. Push on. You will discover the forest

of sandalwood.

Go farther and you will find the silver-mine. Go farther still and you will

see the gold-mine. Do not stop there. Go forward, and you will reach the

mines of rubies and diamonds. Therefore I say, go forward."

MAHIMA: "But, sir, something holds us back. We can't move."

MASTER (with a smile): "Why? Cut the reins. Cut them with the sword of

God's name.

'The shackles of Kala, Time, are cut by Kāli's name.'

"Every now and then, the Master cast his gracious look on Narendra. He

said, "Have you now become an experienced physician?" Quoting a

Sanskrit verse he said, "He who has killed only a hundred patients is a

novice in medicine; but he becomes an expert after killing a thousand!"

Was the Master hinting that Narendra, even though still young, had had

many painful experiences of life? Narendra smiled and kept silent.

It was afternoon. The devotees were seated around the Master, listening to

Nabai Chaitanya's singing.

Suddenly the Master left the room, but the music continued. M.

accompanied the Master.

Sri Ramakrishna walked across the courtyard and entered the temple of

Radhakanta. He bowed down before the images, M. following him. There

was some red powder in a tray.

The Master offered a little powder to the images and bowed down again.

Next he proceeded to the Kāli temple. Passing up the seven steps, he stood

on the open porch and looked at the image. Then he entered the shrine,

offered red powder to the Divine Mother, and saluted Her. As he left the

temple he asked M., "Why didn't you Bring Baburam with you?"

Sri Ramakrishna returned to his room accompanied by M. and another

devotee carrying the tray of red powder. He offered a little of it to all the

pictures of gods and goddesses in his room, but not to those of Jesus Christ

and himself. Then he threw the powder on the bodies of Narendra and the

other devotees. They all took the dust of his feet.

In the cool shade of the late afternoon the devotees walked about in the

temple garden, leaving the Master and M. in the room. The Master

whispered to M.: "All say that they meditate well. But why is it different

with Paltu? What do you think of Narendra? He is utterly guileless. Just

now he is faced with many difficult family problems and so his spiritual

progress is a little checked; but it will not be so for long."

Narendra was arguing on the verandah with a Vedantist. Now and then the

Master went out to look at them. As the devotees gathered in the room he

asked Mahima to recite a hymn. Mahima chanted a verse from the

Mahanirvana Tantra: We worship the Brahman-Consciousness in the Lotus

of the Heart,

The Undifferentiated, who is adored by Hari, Hara, and Brahma. . . .

Mahima recited a few more hymns and at last one to Śiva, by

Sankaracharya, that compared the world to a deep well and a wilderness.

Mahima was a householder.

The hymn ran thus:

O Great God! O Thou Auspicious One, with the moon shining in Thy crest!

Slayer of Madana! Wielder of the trident! Unmoving One! Lord of the

Himalayas!

O Consort of Durga, Lord of all creatures! Thou who scatterest the distress

of the fearful!

Rescue me, helpless as I am, from the trackless forest of this miserable

world.

O Beloved of Parvati's heart! O Thou moon-crested Deity!

Master of every being! Lord of hosts! O Thou, the Lord of Parvati!

O Vamadeva, Self-existent One! O Rudra, Wielder of the bow!

Rescue me, helpless as I am, from the trackless forest of this miserable

world.

O blue-throated God! Śiva, whose ensign is the bull! O Five-faced One!

Lord of the worlds, who wearest snakes upon Thy wrists! O Thou

Auspicious One!

O Śiva! O Pasupati! O Thou, the Lord of Parvati!

Rescue me, helpless as I am, from the trackless forest Of this miserable

world.

O Lord of the Universe! O Śiva Sankara! OGod of Gods!

Thou who dost bear the river Ganges in Thy matted locks!

Thou, the Master of Pramatha and Nandika! O Hara, Lord of the world!

Rescue me, helpless as I am, from the trackless forest of this miserable

world.

O King of Kasi, Lord of the cremation ground of Manikarnika!

O mighty Hero, Thou the Destroyer of Daksha's sacrifice! O All-pervasive

One!

O Lord of hosts! Omniscient One, who art the sole Indweller in every heart!

O Lord!

Rescue me, helpless as I am, from the trackless forest of this miserable

world.

O Great God! Compassionate One! O Benign Deity!

O Byomakesa! Blue-throated One! O Lord of hosts!

Thy body is smeared with ashes! Thou art garlanded with human skulls!

Rescue me, helpless as I am, from the trackless forest of this miserable

world.

O Thou who dwellest on Mount Kailas! Thou whose carrier is thebull!

O Conqueror of death! O Three-eyed One! Lord of the three worlds!

Beloved of Narayana! Conqueror of lust! Thou, Śakti's Lord!

Rescue me, helpless as I am, from the trackless forest of this miserable

world.

Lord of the Universe! Refuge of the whole world! O Thou of infinite forms!

Soul of the Universe! O Thou in whom repose the infinite virtues of the

world!

O Thou adored by all! Compassionate One! O Friend of the poor!

Rescue me, helpless as I am, from the trackless forest of this miserable

world.

MASTER (to Mahima): "Why do you call the world a deep well or a

trackless forest? An aspirant may think so in the beginning; but how can he

be frightened by the world if he holds fast to God? Then he finds that-

This very world is a mansion of mirth;

Here I can eat, here drink and make merry.

"Why should you be frightened? Hold fast to God. What if the world is like

a forest of thorns? Put on shoes and walk on the thorns. Whom should you

fear? You won't have to play again the part of the 'thief' in the game of hide-

and-seek, once you touch the granny'.

"King Janaka used to fence with two swords-the one of Knowledge and the

other of action. Nothing can frighten an expert player. (To M.) "My mind is

still drawn to what he just recited."

Sri Ramakrishna referred to the hymns chanted by Mahima.

Nabai Chaitanya and the other devotees began to sing. They were joined by

the Master, who danced, drunk with divine love. Afterwards he said: "This

is the one thing needful, the chanting of God's name. All else is unreal.

Love and devotion alone are real, and other things are of no consequence."

Later Sri Ramakrishna went out in the direction of the Panchavati. He asked

M. about Binode, a student in M.'s school, who now and then experienced

ecstasy while thinking of God. The Master loved him dearly. As he was

returning to his room with M., he asked: "Well, some speak of me as an

Incarnation of God. What do you think about it?" The Master came back to

his room and sat on the small couch. He repeated the question to M. The

other devotees were seated at a distance and could not follow the

conversation.

MASTER: "What do you say?"

M: "I think so too. You are like Sri Chaitanya."

MASTER: "Is it a full manifestation of God, or a part? Tell me how much.'

M: "I don't know, sir. But it is true that there is in you an Incarnation of the

Divine Power. There is no doubt that God alone dwells in you."

MASTER: "That is true. Chaitanya also wanted to realize Śakti, the Divine

Power."

Narendra was engaged in a heated discussion. Ram, who had recently

recovered from, an illness, joined him.

MASTER (to M.): "I don't like such discussions. (To Ram) Will you stop

that? You haven't been well. All right, go on softly; don't get so excited. (To

M.) I don't like these discussions. I used to weep and pray to the Divine

Mother saying: 'O Mother, any man says it is this, while another says it is

that. Do Thou tell me, O Mother, what is the truth.'"

Saturday, March. 7, 1885

At three o'clack in the afternoon Sri Ramakrishna was in his room at

Dakshineswar conversing happily with his devotees. Baburam, the younger

Naren, Paltu, Haripada, Mohinimohan, and others were present. A young

brahmin who had been staying with the Master a few days was also

there.The Holy Mother, Sri Ramakrishna's wife, was living in the nahabat.

Occasianally she would come to Sri Ramakrishna's room to attend to his

needs. Mohinimohan had braught his wife and Nabin's mother with him to

the temple garden from Calcutta. The ladies were with the Holy Mother;

they were waiting far an opportunity to visit the Master when the men

devotees would leave the room.

Master talks about his young disciples

Sri Ramakrishna was sitting on the small couch. As he looked at the young

devotees his face beamed with joy.

Rākhāl was not then liying at Dakshineswar with the Master. Since his

return from Vrindāvan he had been living at home.

MASTER (smjling): "Rākhāl is now enjoying his 'pension'. Since his return

from Vrindāvan he has been staying at home. His wife is there. But he said

to me that he would not accept any work even if he were offered a salary of

a thousand rupees.

"Rākhāl would lie down here and say to me that he didn't care even for my

campany. He was then passing through such an exalted state.

"Bhavanāth is married; but he spends the whole night in spiritual

conversation with his wife. The couple passes their time talking of God

alone: I said to him, 'Have a little fun with your wife now and then.' 'What?'

he retorted angrily. 'Shall we too indulge in frivolity?' "

Sri Ramakrishna began to talk about Narendra.

MASTER (to the devotees): "I haven't felt the same strong longing for the

younger Naren that I felt for Narendra.

(To Haripada) "Do you go to Girish Ghosh's house?"

HARIPADA: "Yes, I go there very often. He is our neighbour."

MASTER: "Does Narendra, too, go there?"

HARIPADA: "Yes, I see him there occasionally."

MASTER: "What does he say in reply to Girish?" [Girish Ghosh spoke of

Sri Ramakrishna as an Incarnation of God.]

HARIPADA: "Narendra has been defeated in the argument."

MASTER: "No, Narendra says, 'Girish Ghosh has such strong faith; why

should I contradict him?' "

The brother of Judge Anukal Mukhopadhyaya's son-in-law was in the room.

The Master asked him, "Do you know Narendra?"

BROTHER: "Yes, sir. He is a very intelligent young man."

MASTER (to the devotees): "He must be a good man because he speaks

highly of Narendra. Narendra was here the other day and sang with

Trailokya Sannyal. But that day his singing seemed flat to me."

Baburam was a student in the Entrance Class in the school where M. taught.

MASTER (to Baburam): "Where are your books? Aren't you attending to

your studies?

(To M.) He wants to stick to both.

"That is very difficult. What will you gain by knowing God partially?

Vasishthadeva, great sage that he was, was overcome at the death of his

sons. That amazed Lakshmana and he asked Rāma the reason. Rāma said:

'Brother, what is there to wonder at? He who has knowledge has ignorance

also. Brother, go beyond both knowledge and ignorance.' If a thorn enters

the sole of your foot, you get anothet thorn to take out the first one.

Afterwards you throw both away. Likewise, one procures the thorn of

knowledge to remove the thorn of ignorance; then one goes beyond both

knowledge and ignorance."

BABURAM (smiling): "That's what I want."

MASTER (smiling): "But, my child, can you attain it by holding to both? If

you want that, then come away."

BABURAM (smiling): "Take me away from the world."

MASTER (to M.): "Rākhāl lived with me, but that was different; his father

agreed to it. If these boys stay here there will be trouble.

(To Baburam) "You have no strength of mind; you haven't much courage.

Just see how the younger Naren says, 'I will come away for good."

Sri Ramakrishna came down from the small couch and sat among the

youngsters on the floor. M. sat by his side.

Master's eagerness for a spiritual companion MASTER (to M.): "I have

been seeking one who has totally renounced woman and gold.

When I find a young man, I think that perhaps he will live with me; but

everyone raises some objection or other.

"A ghost sought a companion. It is said that a man who dies on a Saturday

or Tuesday becomes a ghost. Therefore, whenever the ghost saw anybody

fall from a roof or stumble and faint on the road on either of those days, he

would run to him, hoping that the man, through an accidental death, would

become a ghost and be his companion. But such was his ill luck that

everyone revived. The poor thing could not get a companion.

"Just see, Rākhāl always gives his wife as an excuse. He says, 'What will

become of her?'

When I touched Narendra on the chest, he became unconscious; then he

cried out: 'Oh, what have you done to me? Don't you know that I have a

father and mother?'

"Why has God made me lead this kind of life? Chaitanyadeva became a

sannyāsi so that all would salute him. Whoever salutes an Incarnation, even

once, obtains liberation."

Mohinimohan had brought a basket of sweetmeats for Sri Ramakrishna.

MASTER: "Who has brought these sweets?”

Baburam pointed to Mohinimohan.

Sri Ramakrishna touched the sweets, uttering the word "Om", and ate a

little. Then he distributed them among the devotees. To the surprise of the

others, he fed the younger Naren and a few of the boys with his own hand.

MASTER (to M): "This has a meaning. There is a greater manifestation of

God in men of pure heart. In former years, when I used to go to

Kamarpukur, I would feed some of the young boys with my own hand.

Chine Sankhari would say, 'Why doesn't he feed us that way?' But how

could I? They led an immoral life. Who would feed them?"

Sri Ramakrishna was in the happiest mood with his young and pure-souled

devotees. He was seated on the small couch and was doing funny imitations

of a kirtani. The devotees laughed heartily. The kirtani is dressed lavishly

and covered with ornaments. She sings standing on the floor, a coloured

kerchief in her hand. Now and then she coughs to draw people's attention

and blows her nose, raising her nose-ring. When a respectable gentleman

enters the room she welcomes him with appropriate words, still continuing

her song. Now and then she pulls her sari from her arms to show off her

jewels.

The devotees were convulsed, with laughter at this mimicry by Sri

Ramakrishna. Paltu rolled on the ground. Pointing to him, the Master said

to M.: "Look at that child! He is rolling with laughter." He said to Paltu

with a smile: "Don't report this to your father, or he will lose the little

respect he has for me. You see, he is an 'Englishman."

False piety

MASTER (to the devotees): "There are people who indulge in all kinds of

gossip at the time of their daily devotions. As you know, one is not

permitted to talk then; so they make all kinds of signs, keeping their lips

closed. In order to say, 'Bring this', 'Bring that', they make sounds like 'Huh',

'Uhuh'. All such things they do! (Laughter.) "Again, there are some who

bargain for fish while telling their beads. As they count the rosary, with a

finger they point out the fish, indicating, That one, please.' They reserve all

their business for that time! (Laughter.)

"There are women who come to the Ganges for their bath and, instead of

thinking of God, gossip about no end of things. 'What jewels did you offer

at the time of your son's marriage?'- 'Has so-and-so returned from her

father-in law's house?' - 'So-and-so is seriously ill.' - 'So-and-so went to see

the bride; we hope that they will offer a magnificent dowry and that there

will be a great feast.' - 'Harish always nags at me; he can't stay away from

me even an hour.' - 'My child, I couldn't come to see you all these days; I

was so busy with the betrothal of so-and-so's daughter.'

"You see, they have come to bathe in the holy river, and yet they indulge in

all sorts of worldly talk."

The Master began to look intently at the younger Naren and went into

samādhi. Did he see God Himself in the pure-souled devotee?

The devotees silently watched the figure of Sri Ramakrishna motionless in

samādhi. A few minutes before there had been so much laughter in the

room; now there was deep silence, as if no one were there. The Master sat

with folded hands as in his photograph.

After a short while his mind began to come down to the relative plane. He

heaved a long sigh and became aware of the outer world. He looked at the

devotees and began to talk with them of their spiritual progress.

MASTER (to the younger Naren): "I have been eager to see you. You will

succeed. Come here once in a while. Well, which do you prefer-jnāna or

bhakti?"

THE YOUNGER NAREN: "Pure bhakti."

MASTER: "But how can you love someone unless you know him?

(Pointing to M, with a smile) How can you love him unless you know him?

(To M.) Since a pure-souled person has asked for pure bhakti, it must have

some meaning.

Genuine bhakti

"One does not seek bhakti of one's own accord without inborn tendencies.

This is the characteristic of prema-bhakti. There is another kind of bhakti,

called jnāna-bhakti, which is love of God based on reasoning.

(To the younger Naren) "Let me look at your body; take off your shirt.

Fairly broad chest. You will succeed. Come here now and then."

Sri Ramakrishna was still in the ecstatic mood. He spoke tenderly to the

other devotees about their future.

MASTER (to Paltu): "You will succeed, too, but, it will take a little time.

(To Baburam) "Why don't I attract you to me? It is just to avoid trouble.

(To Mohinimohan) "As for you you are all right. There is a little yet to be

done. When that is achieved, nothing will remain-neither duty nor work nor

the world itself. Is it good to get rid of everything?"

As Sri Ramakrishna spoke these words he looked at Mohini affectionately,

as if scanning his inmost feelings. Was Mohini really wondering whether it

would, be wise to renounce all for God? After a while Sri Ramakrishna

said, "God binds the Bhagavata pundit to the world with one tie; otherwise,

who would remain to explain the sacred book? He keeps the pundit bound

for the good of men. That is why the Divine Mother has kept you in the

world."

Now Sri Ramakrishna spoke to the young brahmin.

MASTER: "Give up knowledge and reasoning; accept bhakti. Bhakti alone

is the essence.

Is this the third day of your stay here?"

BRAHMIN (with folded hands): "Yes, sir."

MASTER: "Have faith. Depend on God. Then you will not have to do

anything yourself.

Mother Kāli will do everything for you.

"Jnāna goes as far as the outer court, but bhakti can enter the inner court.

The Pure Self is unattached. Both vidyā and avidyā are in It, but It is

unattached. Sometimes there is a good and sometimes a bad smell in the air,

but the air itself is unaffected.

Nature of Ātman

"Once Vyasadeva was about to cross the Jamuna. The gopis also were there.

They wanted to go to the other side of the river to sell curd, milk, and

cream. But there was no ferry at that time. They were all worried about how

to cross the river, when Vyāsa said to them, 'I am very hungry.' The

milkmaids fed him with milk and cream. He finished almost all their food.

Then Vyāsa said to the river, 'O Jamuna, if I have not eaten anything, then

your waters will part and we shall walk through.' It so happened.

The river parted and a pathway was formed between the waters. Following

that path, the gopis and Vyāsa crossed the river. Vyāsa had said, 'If I have

not eaten anything'. That means, the real man is Pure Ātman. Ātman is

unattached and beyond Prakriti. It has neither hunger nor thirst; It knows

neither birth nor death; It does not age, nor does It die. It is immutable as

Mount Sumeru.

Jeevanmukta & Separation of body and soul "He who has attained this

Knowledge of Brahman is a jivanmukta, liberated while living in the body.

He rightly understand that the Ātman and the body are two separate things.

After realizing God one does not identify the Ātman with the body. These

two are separate, like the kernel and the shell of the coconut when its milk

dries up. The Ātman moves, as it were, within the body. When the 'milk' of

worldly-mindedness has dried up, one gets Self-knowledge. Then one feels

that Ātman and body are two separate things.

The kernel of a green almond or betel-nut cannot be separated from the

shell; but when they are ripe the juice dries up and the kernel separates from

the shell. After the attainment of the Knowledge of Brahman, the 'milk' of

worldly-mindedness dries up.

"But it is extremely difficult to attain the Knowledge of Brahman. One

doesn't get it by merely talking about it. Some people feign it. (Smiling)

There was a man who was a great liar; but, on the other hand, he used to say

he had the Knowledge of Brahman.

When someone took him to task for telling lies, he said: 'Why, this world is

truly like a dream. If everything is unreal, then can truth itself be real? Truth

is as unreal as falsehood.'" (All laugh.)

Sri Ramakrishna sat with the devotees on the mat on the floor. He was

smiling. He said to the devotees, "Please stroke my feet gently." They

carried out his request. He said to M., "There is great significance in this."

Placing his hand on his heart, the Master said, "If there is anything here,

then through this service the ignorance and illusion of the devotees will be

completely destroyed."

Suddenly Sri Ramakrishna became serious, as if about to reveal a secret.

Revelation about himself

MASTER (to M.): "There is no outsider here. The other day, when Harish

was with me, I saw Satchidananda come out of this sheath, It said, 'I

incarnate Myself in every age.' I thought that I myself was saying these

words out of mere fancy. I kept quiet and watched. Again Satchidananda

Itself spoke, saying, 'Chaitanya, too, worshipped Śakti.' "

The devotees listened to these words in amazement. Some wondered

whether God Himself was seated before them in the form of Sri

Ramakrishna. The Master paused a moment. Then he said, addressing M.,

"I saw that it is the fullest manifestation of Satchidananda; but this time the

Divine Power is manifested through the glory of sattva."

The devotees sat spellbound.

MASTER (to M.): "Just now I was saying to the Mother, 'I cannot talk

much.' I also said to Her, 'May people's inner consciousness be awakened

by only one touch!' You see, such is the power of Yogamaya that She can

cast a spell. She did so at Vrindāvan. That is why Subol was able to unite

Sri Krishna and Radhika. Yogamaya, the Primal Power, has a power of

attraction. I applied that power myself.

(To M.) "Well, do you think that those who come here are realizing

anything?"

M: "Yes, sir, it must be so."

MASTER: "How do you know?"

M. (smiling): "Everyone says, 'Whoever goes to him doesn't return to the

world.'

MASTER (smiling): "A bullfrog was caught by a water-snake. The snake

could neither swallow the frog nor let it go. As a result the frog suffered

very much; he croaked continuously. And the snake suffered too. But if the

frog had been seized by a cobra, he would have been quiet after one or two

croaks. (All laugh.) (To the young devotees) "Read the Bhaktichaitanya-

chandrika by Trailokya. Ask Trailokya for a copy. He has written well about

Chaitanyadeva."

A DEVOTEE: "Will he give it to us?"

MASTER (smiling): "Why not? If a farmer has a good crop of melons he

can easily give away two or three. (All laugh.) Won't Trailokya give you the

book free?

(To Paltu) "Come here now and then."

PALTU: "I shall come whenever I can."

MASTER: "Will you see me in Calcutta when I go there?"

PALTU: "Yes, I shall try."

MASTER; "That's the answer of a calculating mind."

PALTU: "If I don't say, 'I shall try', I may be a liar."

MASTER (to M.): "I don't mind the lies of these boys. They are not free.

(To Haripada) "Why hasn't Mahendra Mukherji come here lately?"

HARlPADA: "I'm not quite sure why."

M. (smiling): "He's practising jnanayoga!"

MASTER: "No, it's not that. The other day he promised to send me in his

carriage to the theatre to see a play about the life of Prahlada; but he didn't

send the carriage. Perhaps that is why he doesn't come."

M: "One day I saw Mahima Chakravarty and had a talk with him. It seems

that Mahendra visits him."

MASTER: "But Mahima talks about bhakti also. He loves to recite the

hymn: 'what need is there of penance if God is worshipped with love?' "

M. (smiling): "He says that because you make him say it."

About Girish

Girish Chandra Ghosh was always talking to the devotees about the Master.

HARIPADA: "Girish Ghosh sees many visions nowadays. After going

home from here he remains absorbed in spiritual moods and sees many

things."

MASTER: 'That may be true. Coming to the Ganges, one sees many things-

boats, ships, and what not."

HARIPADA: "Girish Ghosh says: 'From now on I shall occupy myself only

with my work.

In the morning, on the stroke of the clock, I shall sit down with my pen and

ink-pot and write for the whole day.' He makes the resolve, no doubt, but

cannot carry it out. No sooner do we visit him than he begins to talk about

you. You asked him to send Narendra here in a carriage. He said, 'I shall

hire a carriage for Narendra.' "

At five o'clock the younger Naren was ready to go home. Sri Ramakrishna

stood by his side on the northeast verandah and gave him various

instructions. Then the boy saluted the Master and departed. Many of the

devotees also took their leave.

Sri Ramakrishna was sitting on the small couch talking to Mohini. Mohini's

wife was almost mad with grief on account of her son's death. Sometimes

she laughed and sometimes she wept. But she felt peaceful in Sri

Ramakrishna's presence.

MASTER: "How is your wife now?"

MOHINI: "She becomes quiet whenever she is here; but sometimes at

home she becomes very wild. The other day she was going to kill herself."

When Sri Ramakrishna heard this he appeared worried. Mohini said to him

humbly, "Please give her a few words of advice."

MASTER: "Don't allow her to cook. That will heat her brain all the more.

And keep her in the company of others so that they may watch her."

It was dusk. Preparations were going on in the temples for the evening

worship. The lamp was lighted in the Master's room and incense was burnt.

Seated on the small couch, Sri Ramakrishna saluted the Divine Mother and

chanted Her name in a tender voice. There was nobody in the room except

M, who was sitting on the floor.

Sri Ramakrishna rose from the couch. M also stood up. The Master asked

him to shut the west and north doors of the room. M obeyed and stood by

Sri Ramakrishna on the porch.

The Master said that he wanted to go to the Kāli temple. Leaning on M.'s

arm, he came down to the terrace of the temple. He asked M. to call

Baburam and sat down.

After visiting the Divine Mother, the Master returned to his room across the

court, chanting, "O Mother! Mother! Rajarajesvari!"

Sri Ramakrishna entered his room and sat on the small couch. He had been

passing through an extraordinary state of mind: he could not touch any

metal. He had said a few days before, "It seems that the Divine Mother has

been removing from my mind all ideas of possession." He had been eating

from plantain-leaves and drinking water from an earthen tumbler. He could

not touch a metal jar; so he had asked the devotees to get a few earthen jars

for him. If he touched metal plates or pots, his hand ached as if stung by a

horned fish.

Prasanna had brought a few earthen pots, but they were very small. The

Master said with a smile: These pots are too small. But he is a nice boy.

Once I asked him to take off his clothes, and he stood naked in front of me.

What a child he is!"

Tārak of Belgharia arrived with a friend and bowed low before Sri

Ramakrishna, who was sitting on the small couch. The room was lighted by

an oil lamp. A few devotees were sitting on the floor.

Tārak was about twenty years old, and married. His parents did not allow

him to come to Sri Ramakrishna. He lived mostly at his home near

Bowbazar. The Master was very fond of him. Tārak's friend had a tamasic

nature; he rather scoffed at the Master and religious ideas in general.

MASTER (to Tārak's friend): "Why don't you go and visit the temples?"

FRIEND: "Oh, I've seen them before."

MASTER: "Is it wrong for Tārak to come here?"

FRIEND: "You know best."

MASTER (pointing to M.): "He is a headmaster."

FRIEND: "Oh!"

Master warns Tārak

Sri Ramakrishna asked about Tatak's health and talked with him at length.

Tārak was ready to leave. Sri Ramakrishna asked him to be careful about

many things.

MASTER: "My good man, beware. Beware of 'woman and gold'. Once you

sink in the māyā of a woman, you will not be able to rise. It is the whirlpool

of the Viśālākśi. He who has fallen into it cannot pull himself out again.

Come here now and then."

TĀRAK: "My people at home don't let me."

A DEVOTEE: "Suppose someone's mother says to him, 'Don't go to

Dakshineswar.'

Suppose she curses him, saying, 'If you go there you will be drinking my

blood!'"

MASTER: "A mother who says that is no mother; she is the embodiment of

avidyā. There is no sin in disobeying such a mother. She obstructs her son's

path to God. There is no harm in disobeying your elders for the sake of

God. For Rāma's sake Bharat did not obey his mother Kaikeyi. The gopis

did not obey their husbands when they were forbidden to visit Krishna.

Prahlada disobeyed his father for God. Vali disregarded the words of

Sukracharya, his teacher, in order to please God. Bibhishana went against

the wishes of Ravana, his elder brother, to please Rāma. But you must obey

your elders in all other things. Let me see your hand."

Sri Ramakrishna took Tārak's hand into his own and seemed to feel its

weight. A few moments later he said: "There is a little crookedness in your

mind; but that will go. Pray to God a little and come here now and then.

Yes, that twist will go. Is it you that have hired the house at Bowbazar?"

TĀRAK: "Not I, sir, but my parents."

MASTER (smiling): "They or you? Is it because you are afraid of the

'tiger'?" Tārak had a young wife. Did the Master mean that a woman is like

a tiger to a man?

Tārak saluted Sri Ramakrishna and took his leave. The Master lay down on

the small couch. He seemed worried about Tārak. Suddenly he said to M.,

"Why do I worry so much about these young boys?" M. kept still. He was

thinking over a reply. The Master asked him, "Why don't you speak?"

Mohini's wife entered the room and sat at one side. Sri Ramakrishna spoke

to M. about Tārak's friend.

MASTER: "Why did Tārak bring that fellow with him?"

M: "Perhaps he wanted a companion for the road. It is a long way from

Calcutta; so he brought a friend with him."

The Master suddenly addressed Mohini's wife and said: "By unnatural death

one becomes an evil spirit. Beware. Make it clear to your mind. Is this what

you have come to after hearing and seeing so much?" Mohini was about to

take his leave. He saluted Sri Ramakrishna. His wife also saluted the

Master, who stood near the north door of the room. Mohini's wife spoke to

him in a whisper.

MASTER: "Do you want to stay here?"

MOHINI'S WIFE: "Yes, I want to spend a few days with the Holy Mother

at the Nahabat.

May I?"

MASTER: "That will be all right. But you talk of dying. That frightens me.

And the Ganges is so near!"

--------------------

Chapter 38

WITH THE DEVOTEES IN CALCUTTA

March 11, 1885

Balarām Bose

ON THE MORNING of Wednesday, March 11, Sri Ramakrishna and some

of his disciples visited Balarām Bose's house. Balarām was indeed blessed

among the householder disciples of the Master. Sri Ramakrishna often

described him as a rasaddar, or supplier of stores, appointed by the Divine

Mother to take care of his physical needs. Balarām's house in Calcutta had

been sanctified many times by the Master's presence. There he frequently

lost himself in samādhi, dancing, singing, or talking about God. Those of

the Master's disciples and devotees who could not go to Dakshineswar

visited him there and received his instruction. He often asked Balarām to

invite young disciples such as Rākhāl, Bhavanāth, and Narendra to his

house, saying: "These pure souls are veritable manifestations of God. To

feed them is to feed God Himself. They are born with special divine

attributes. By serving them you will be serving God." And so it happened

that whenever the Master was at Balarām's house the devotees would gather

there. It was the Master's chief vineyard in Calcutta. It was here that the

devotees came to know each other intimately.

M taught in a school in the neighbourhood. He often brought his young

students to visit the Master at Balarām's house. On this day, having learnt of

Sri Ramakrishna's arrival, M. went there at noon during the recess hour of

the school. He found the Master resting in the drawing room after his

midday meal. Several young boys were in the room. M

prostrated himself before the Master and sat by his side.

MASTER (tenderly): "How could you come now? Have you no school

work?"

M: "I have come directly from school. Just now I have no important work

to do."

A DEVOTEE: "No, sir; he is playing truant today." (All laugh.) M. said to

himself, "Alas! It is indeed as if some invisible power had drawn me here."

The Master, looking a little thoughtful, asked M. to come nearer. He said,

"Please wring out my wet towel and put my coat in the sun." Then he

continued: "My legs and feet ache. Please rub them gently."

M. felt very happy to be given the privilege of rendering these services to

the Master.

Master's exalted spiritual state

Sri Ramakrishna said to M.: "Can you tell me why I have been feeling like

this the past few days? It is impossible for me to touch any metal. When I

touched a metal cup I felt as if I had been stung by a horned fish. There was

an excruciating pain all over my arm.

But I must use a brass water-jar, and so I tried to carry it after covering it

with my towel. But the moment I touched the jar I felt the same acute pain

in my arm. It was an unbearable pain! At last I prayed to the Divine

Mother: 'O Mother, I shall never do it again. Please forgive me this time.'

The younger Naren

"The younger Naren often visits me. Do you think his people at home will

object? He is very pure and doesn't know what carnal pleasure is."

M: "He is a 'large receptacle'."

MASTER: "That is true. Further, he says he remembers spiritual things

after hearing them once only. He told me, 'I used to weep in my boyhood

because I couldn't see God.'"

The Master and M. were thus talking about the young devotee when

someone reminded M. of his school.

MASTER: "What is the time now?"

A DEVOTEE: "It is ten minutes to one."

MASTER (to M.): "You had better go now. It is getting late for you. You

have left your duties. (To Lātu) Where is Rākhāl?"

LĀTU: "He has gone home."

MASTER: "What? Has he gone away without seeing me?"

After school-hours M. returned to Balarām's house and found the Master

sitting in the drawing-room, surrounded by his devotees and disciples.

Among them were Girish, Suresh, Balarām, Lātu, and Chunilal. The

Master's face was beaming with a sweet smile, which was reflected in the

happy faces of those in the room. M. was asked to take a seat by the

Master's side.

MASTER (to Girish): "You had better argue this point with Narendra and

see what he has to say."

GIRISH: "Narendra says that God is infinite; we cannot even so much as

say that the things or persons we perceive are parts of God. How can

Infinity have parts? It cannot."

Mystery of Divine Incarnation

MASTER: "However great and infinite God may be, His Essence can and

does manifest itself through man by His mere will. God's Incarnation as a

man cannot be explained by analogy. One must feel it for oneself and

realize it by direct perception. An analogy can give us only a little glimpse.

By touching the horns, legs, or tail of a cow, we in fact touch the cow

herself; but for us the essential thing about a cow is her milk, which comes

through the udder. The Divine Incarnation is like the udder. God incarnates

Himself as man from time to time in order to teach people devotion and

divine love."

GIRISH: "Narendra says: 'Is it ever possible to know all of God? He is

infinite.' "

MASTER (to Girish): "Who can comprehend everything about God? It is

not given to man to know any aspect of God, great or small. And what need

is there to know everything about God? It is enough if we only realize Him.

And we see God Himself if we but see His Incarnation. Suppose a person

goes to the Ganges and touches its water. He will then say, 'Yes, I have seen

and touched the Ganges.' To say this it is not necessary for him to touch the

whole length of the river from Hardwar to Gangasagar. (Laughter.) "If I

touch your feet, surely that is the same as touching you. (Laughter.) If a

person goes to the ocean and touches but a little of its water, he has surely

touched the ocean itself. Fire, as an element, exists in all things, but in

wood it is present to a greater degree."

GIRISH (smiling): "I am looking for fire. Naturally I want to go to a place

where I can get it."

Seek God in man

MASTER (smiling): "Yes, fire, as an element, is present more in wood than

in any other object. If you seek God, then seek Him in man; He manifests

Himself more in man than in any other thing. If you see a man endowed

with ecstatic love, overflowing with prema, mad after God, intoxicated with

His love, then know for certain that God has incarnated Himself through

that man.

(To M.) "There is no doubt that God exists in all things; but the

manifestations of His Power are different in different beings. The greatest

manifestation of His Power is through an Incarnation. Again, in some

Incarnation there is a complete manifestation of God's Power. It is the Śakti,

the Power of God, that is born as an Incarnation."

GIRISH: "Narendra says that God is beyond our words and thought."

God known to the pure mind

MASTER: "That is not altogether true. He is, no doubt, unknowable by this

ordinary mind, but He can indeed be known by the pure mind. The mind

and intellect become pure the moment they are free from attachment to

'woman and gold'. The pure mind and pure intellect are one and the same.

God is known by the pure mind. Didn't the sages and seers of olden times

see God? They realized the All-pervading Consciousness by means of their

inner consciousness."

GIRISH (with a smile): "I defeated Narendra in the argument."

MASTER: "Oh, no! He said to me: 'When Girish Ghosh has so much faith

in God's Incarnation as man, what can I say to him? It is not proper to

meddle with such faith.'"

GIRISH (with a smile): "Sir, we are very free and easy with our words.

But M. is sitting there with his lips shut tight. What in the world is passing

through his mind? What do you say about it, sir?"

MASTER (with a laugh): "There is a common adage that tells people to

beware of the following: a man with a loose tongue, a man whose mind

cannot be fathomed even by an expert diver, a man who sticks the sacred

tulsi-leaf in his ears as a sign of holiness, a woman wearing a long veil to

proclaim her chastity, and the cold water of a reservoir covered with green

scum, by bathing in which one gets typhoid fever. These are all dangerous

things. (With a smile) But it is different with M. He is a serious man." (All

laugh.)

CHUNILAL: "People have begun to whisper about M.'s conduct. The

younger Naren and Baburam are his students, as are Naran, Paltu, Purna,

and Tejchandra. The rumour is that he brings these boys to you and so they

neglect their studies. The boys' guardians hold M. responsible."

MASTER: "But who would believe their words?"

Master's love for Narayan

They were thus talking when Naran entered the room and bowed low before

the Master.

He was a student seventeen or eighteen years old and of fair complexion.

He was dearly loved by the Master, who was very eager to see the boy and

feed him. Many a time at the temple garden at Dakshineswar the Master

wept silently for Naran. He looked on him as the manifestation of Narayana

Himself.

GIRISH (at the sight of Naran): "There! Who told him about this? Now we

realize that M.

is at the root of all the mischief." (All laugh.) MASTER (smiling): "Stop!

Hold your tongue. There is already an evil rumour about him."

The conversation next turned to Narendra.

A DEVOTEE: "Why doesn't he come to you so frequently nowadays?"

MASTER (quoting a proverb): "Man's worries over bread and butter are

simply amazing; they make even Kalidasa lose his wits."

BALARĀM: "Narendra frequently visits his friend Annada Guha of the

family of Shiva Guha."

MASTER: "Yes, I have heard that too. Narendra and his friends meet at the

house of a government officer and conduct meetings of the Brahmo Samaj

there."

A DEVOTEE: "The officer's name is Tarapada."

BALARĀM (smiling): "The brahmins say that Annada Guha is a very

egotistic man."

MASTER: "Never listen to what the brahmins say. You know their nature

very well. If a man doesn't give them money, they will call him bad; on the

other hand, if a man is generous to them, they will call him good. (All

laugh.) I know Annada. He is a good man."

The drawing-room was full of devotees. The Master wanted to hear some

songs. At his request Tarapada sang about Krishna:

O Kesava, bestow Thy grace

Upon Thy luckless servants here!

O Kesava, who dost delight

To roam Vrindāvan's glades and groves!

O Madhava, our mind's Bewitcher!

Sweet One, who dost steal our hearts,

Sweetly playing on Thy flute!

(Chant, O Mind, the name of Hari,

Sing aloud the name of Hari,

Praise Lord Hari's name!)

O Thou Eternal Youth of Braja,

Tamer of fierce Kaliya,

Slayer of the afflicted's fear!

Beloved, with the arching eyes

And crest with arching peacock feather,

Charmer of Sri Radha's heart!

Govardhan's mighty Lifter, Thou,

All garlanded with sylvan flowers!

O Damodara, Kamsa's Scourge!

O Dark One, who dost sport in bliss

With sweet Vrindāvan's gopi maids.

(Chant, O mind, the name of Hari,

Sing aloud the name of Hari,

Praise Lord Hari's name!)

MASTER (to Girish): "Ah! It is a beautiful song. Did you write it?"

A DEVOTEE: "Yes, sir, he wrote all the songs for his play, the

Chaitanyalila."

MASTER: "This one has really hit the mark."

At Sri Ramakrishna's request Tarapada sang two more songs. In the first,

Nitai exhorts people to share Radha's love for Sri Krishna:

Come one and all! Take Radha's love!

The high tide of her love flows by;

It will not last for very long.

Oh, come then! Come ye, one and all!

In countless streams it flows from her;

As much as you desire is yours.

Made all of love, she pours out love

Unstintingly for everyone;

Her love intoxicates the heart

With heavenly bliss, and thrills the soul.

Oh, come and sing Lord Hari's name,

Drawn by her love. Oh, come ye all!

Next he sang about Gaurānga:

Who art Thou, Gaur of the golden hue,

That quenchest the thirst of my soul?

Thou raisest a storm in the sea of Love,

And scarcely can I steady my boat.

Once as a cowherd boy in Vrindāvan

Thou didst tend the cows;

In Thy hands Thou heldest the flute

That so bewitched the gopi maids;

Lifting Govardhan's mount in Thine arms,

Thou shieldedst Vrindāvan from ill;

And at the wounded gopis' feet

Humbledst Thyself in repentant love.

The devotees pressed M. to sing; but M. was shy and asked them in a

whisper to excuse him.

GIRISH (to the Master): "Sir, we can't find a way to persuade M. to sing."

MASTER (annoyed): "Yes, he can bare his teeth at school, but shyness

overpowers him when he is asked to sing!"

M., feeling greatly distressed, remained speechless. Suresh Mitra, a beloved

householder disciple of the Master, was seated at a distance, The Master

cast an affectionate glance at him and said to him, pointing to Girish, "You

talk of having lived a wild life but here is one you could not surpass."

SURESH (with a smile): "Yes, sir, he is my elder brother in that respect."

(All laugh.) GIRISH (to the Master): "Well, sir, I didn't have any education

during my boyhood, but still people say I am a learned man."

MASTER: "Mahimacharan has studied many scriptures. A big man. (To

M.) Isn't that so?"

M: "Yes, sir."

GIRISH: "What? Book-learning? I have seen enough of it. It can't fool me

any more."

The purpose of the scriptures

MASTER (with a smile): "Do you know my attitude? Books, scriptures,

and things like that only point out the way to reach God. After finding the

way, what more need is there of books and scriptures? Then comes the time

for action.

"A man received a letter from home informing him that certain presents

were to be sent to his relatives. The names of the articles were given in the

letter. As he was about to go shopping for them, he found that the letter was

missing. He began anxiously to search for it, several others joining in the

search. For a long time they continued to search.

When at last the letter was discovered, his joy knew no bounds. With great

eagerness he opened the letter and read it. It said that he was to buy five

seers of sweets, a piece of cloth, and a few other things. Then he did not

need the letter any more, for it had served its purpose. Putting it aside, he

went out to buy the things. How long is such a letter necessary? As long as

its contents are not known. When the contents are known one proceeds to

carry out the directions. "In the scriptures you will find the way to realize

God. But after getting all the information about the path, you must begin to

work, Only then can you attain your goal.

Mere scholarship condemned

"What will it avail a man to have mere scholarship? A pundit may have

studied many scriptures, he may recite many sacred texts, but if he is still

attached to the world and if inwardly he loves 'woman and gold', then he

has not assimilated the contents of the scriptures. For such a man the study

of scriptures is futile.

"The almanac forecasts the rainfall for the year. You may squeeze the book,

but you won't get a drop of water-not even a single drop." (Laughter.)

GIRISH (sniiling): "What did you say, sir, about squeezing the almanac?

Won't a single drop of water come out of it?" (All laugh.)

MASTER (with a s1Ilile): "The pundits talk big, but where is their mind

fixed? On 'woman and gold', on creature comforts and money. The vulture

soars very high in the sky, but its eyes are fixed on the charnel-pit. It is

continually looking for charnel-pits, carcasses, and dead bodies.

Narendra's many virtues

(To Girish) "Narendra is a boy of a very high order. He excels in

everything: vocal and instrumental music and studies. Again, he has control

over his sense-organs. He is truthful and has discrimination and dispassion.

So many virtues in one person! (To M.) What do you say? Isn't he unusually

good?"

M: "Yes, sir, he is."

MASTER (aside to M.): "He [meaning Girish] has great earnestness and

faith."

M. looked at Girish, and marvelled at his tremendous faith. Girish had been

coming to Sri Ramakrishna only a short time and had already recognized

his spiritual power. To M. he seemed a familiar friend and kinsman, related

to him by the strong bond of spirituality.

Girish was one of the gems in the necklace of the Master's devotees.

Narayan asked the Master whether he would sing. Sri Ramakrishna sang of

the Divine Mother:

Cherish my precious Mother Syama

Tenderly within, O mind;

May you and I alone behold Her,

Letting no one else intrude.

O mind, in solitude enjoy Her,

Keeping the passions all outside;

Take but the tongue, that now and again

It may cry out, "O Mother! Mother!"

Suffer no breath of base desire

To enter and approach us there,

But bid true knowledge stand on guard,

Alert and watchful evermore.

Then he sang, as if he were one of the afflicted souls of the world: O

Mother, ever blissful as Thou art,

Do not deprive Thy worthless child of bliss!

My mind knows nothing but Thy Lotus Feet

The King of Death scowls at me terribly;

Tell me, Mother, what shall I say to him? . . .

Again he sang about the bliss of the Divine Mother: Behold my Mother

playing with Śiva, lost in an ecstasy of joy!

Drunk with a draught of celestial wine, She reels and yet She does not fall .

. .

The devotees listened to the songs in deep silence. After a few moments Sri

Ramakrishna said, "I have a slight cold; so I couldn't sing well."

Gradually it became dusk. The shadow of evening fell on Calcutta. For the

moment the noise of the busy metropolis was stilled. Gongs and

conchshells proclaimed the evening worship in many Hindu homes.

Devotees of God set aside their worldly duties and turned their minds to

prayer and meditation. This joining of day and night, this mystic twilight,

always created an ecstatic mood in the Master.

Master's prayer

The devotees seated in the room looked at Sri Ramakrishna as he began to

chant the sweet name of the Divine Mother. After the chanting he began to

pray. What was the need of prayer to a soul in constant communion with

God? Did he not rather want to teach erring mortals how to pray?

Addressing the Divine Mother, he said, "O Mother, I throw myself on Thy

mercy; I take shelter at Thy Hallowed Feet. I do not want bodily comforts; I

do not crave name and fame; I do not seek the eight occult powers. Be

gracious and grant that I may have pure love for Thee, a love unsmitten by

desire, untainted by any selfish ends-a love craved by the devotee for the

sake of love alone.

And grant me the favour, O mother, that I may not be deluded by Thy

world-bewitching māyā, that I may never be attached to the world, to

'woman and gold', conjured up by Thy inscrutable māyā! O mother, there is

no one but thee whom I may call my own.

Mother, I do not know how to worship; I am without austerity; I have

neither devotion nor knowledge. Be gracious, Mother, and out of Thy

infinite mercy grant me love for Thy Lotus Feet." Every word of this

prayer, uttered from the depths of his soul, stirred the minds of the devotees.

The melody of his voice and the childlike simplicity of his face touched

their hearts very deeply.

Girish invited the Master to his house, saying that he must go there that

very night.

MASTER: "Don't you think it will be late?"

GIRISH: "No, sir. You may return any time you like. I shall have to go to

the theatre tonight to settle a quarrel there."

It was nine o'clock in the evening when the Master was ready to start for

Girish's house.

Since Balarām had prepared supper for him, Sri Ramakrishna said to

Balarām: "Please send the food you have prepared for me to Girish's, I shall

enjoy it there." He did not want to hurt Balarām's feelings.

As the Master was coming down from the second floor of Balarām's house,

he became filled with divine ecstasy. He looked as if he were drunk.

Narayan and M. were by his side; a little behind came Ram, Chuni, and the

other devotees. No sooner did he reach the ground floor than he became

totally overwhelmed.

Narayan came forward to hold him by the hand lest he should miss his

footing and fall.

The Master expressed annoyance at this. A few minutes later he said to

Narayan affectionately: "If you hold me by the hand people may think I am

drunk. I shall walk by myself."

Girish's house was not far away. The Master passed the crossing at

Bosepara Lane.

Suddenly he began to walk faster. The devotees were left behind. Presently

Narendra was seen coming from a distance. At other times the Master's joy

would have been unbounded at the thought of Narendra or at the mere

mention of his name; but now he did not even exchange a word with his

beloved disciple.

As the Master and the devotees entered the lane where Girish lived, he was

able to utter words. He said to Narendra: "Are you quite well, my child? I

could not talk to you then."

Every word the Master spoke was full of infinite tenderness. He had not yet

reached the door of Girish's house, when suddenly he stopped and said,

looking at Narendra: "I want to tell you something.'This' is one and 'that' is

another." Who could know what was passing through his innermost soul at

that moment?

At Girish's house

Girish stood at the door to welcome the Master. As Sri Ramakrishna entered

the house, Girish fell at his feet and lay there on the floor like a rod. At the

Master's bidding he stood up, touching the Master's feet with his forehead.

Sri Ramakrishna was taken to the drawing-room on the second floor. The

devotees followed him and sat down, eager to get a view of the Master and

listen to every word that fell from his lips.

As Sri Ramakrishna was about to take the seat reserved for him, he saw a

newspaper lying near it. He signed to someone to remove the paper. Since a

newspaper contains worldly matters-gossip and scandal-, he regarded it as

unholy. After the paper was removed he took his seat. Nityagopal came

forward and bowed low before the Master.

MASTER: "Well! You haven't been to Dakshineswar for a long time."

NITYAGOPAL: "True, sir. I haven't been able to go there. I haven't been

well. I have had pains all over my body."

MASTER: "How are you now?"

NITYAGOPAL: "Not so well, sir."

MASTER: "Bring your mind down one or two notes."

NITYAGOPAL: "I don't like people's company. They say all kinds of things

about me. That sometimes frightens me, but again I feel great strength

within."

MASTER: "That's only natural. Who lives with you?"

NITYAGOPAL: "Tārak. He is always with me. But sometimes he too gets

on my nerves."

MASTER: "Nangta told me that there lived at his monastery an ascetic who

had acquired occult powers. He used to go about with his eyes fixed on the

sky. But when one of his companions left him, he became disconsolate."

Again the Master went into an ecstatic mood. Strange thoughts seemed to

stir his mind and he remained speechless. After a while he said: "Art Thou

come? I too am here."

Who could pretend to understand these words?

Narendra and Girish argue about God Many of his devotees were in the

room: Narendra, Girish, Ram, Haripada, Chuni, Balarām, and M. Narendra

did not believe that God could incarnate Himself in a human body. But

Girish differed with him; he had the burning faith that from time to time the

Almighty Lord, through His inscrutable Power, assumes a human body and

descends to earth to serve a divine purpose.

The Master said to Girish, "I should like to hear you and Narendra argue in

English."

The discussion began; but they talked in Bengali. Narendra said: "God is

Infinity. How is it possible for us to comprehend Him? He dwells in every

human being. It is not the case that He manifests Himself through one

person only."

SRI RAMAKRISHNA (tenderly): "I quite agree with Narendra. God is

everywhere. But then you must remember that there are different

manifestations of His Power in different beings. At some places there is a

manifestation of His avidyaŚakti, at others a manifestation of His

vidyaŚakti. Through different instruments God's Power is manifest in

different degrees, greater and smaller. Therefore all men are not equal."

RAM: "What is the use of these futile arguments?"

MASTER (sharply): "No! No! There is a meaning in all this."

GIRISH (to Narendra): "How do you know that God does not assume a

human body?"

NARENDRA: "God is beyond words or thought."

MASTER: "No, that is not true. He can be known by the pure buddhi,

which is the same as the Pure Self. The seers of old directly perceived the

Pure Self through their pure buddhi."

GIRISH (to Narendra): "Unless God Himself teaches men through, His

human Incarnation, who else will teach them spiritual mysteries? God takes

a human body to teach men divine knowledge and divine love. Otherwise,

who will teach?"

NARENDRA: "Why, God dwells in our own heart; He will certainly teach

us from within the heart."

MASTER (tenderly): "Yes, yes. He will teach us as our Inner Guide."

Gradually Narendra and Girish became involved in a heated discussion. If

God is Infinity, how can He have parts? What did Hamilton say? What were

the views of Herbert Spencer, of Tyndall, of Huxley? And so forth and so

on.

MASTER (to M.): "I don't enjoy these discussions. Why should I argue at

all? I clearly see that God is everything; He Himself has become all. I see

that whatever is, is God. He is everything; again, He is beyond everything. I

come to a state in which my mind and intellect merge in the Indivisible. At

the sight of Narendra my mind loses itself in the consciousness of the

Absolute. (To Girish) What do you say to that?"

GIRISH (with a smile): "Why ask me? As if I understood everything except

that one point!" (All laugh.)

MASTER: "Again, I cannot utter a word unless I come down at least two

steps from the plane of samādhi. Sankara's Non-dualistic explanation of

Vedānta is true, and so is the Qualified Non-dualistic interpretation of

Ramanuja."

Qualified Monism

NARENDRA: "What is Qualified Non-dualism?"

MASTER: "It is the theory of Ramanuja. According to this theory,

Brahman, or the Absolute, is qualified by the universe and its living beings:

These three-Brahman, the world, and living beings-together constitute One.

Take the instance of a bel-fruit. A man wanted to know the weight of the

fruit. He separated the shell, the flesh, and the seeds.

But can a man get the weight by weighing only the flesh? He must weigh

flesh, shell, and seeds together. At first it appears that the real thing in the

fruit is the flesh, and not its seeds or shell. Then by reasoning you find that

the shell, seeds, and flesh all belong to the fruit; the shell and seeds belong

to the same thing that the flesh belongs to.

Likewise, in spiritual discrimination one must first reason, following the

method of 'Not this, not this': God is not the universe; God is not the living

beings; Brahman alone is real, and all else is unreal. Then one realizes, as

with the bel-fruit, that the Reality from which we derive the notion of

Brahman is the very Reality that evolves the idea of living beings and the

universe. The Nitya and the Lila are the two aspects of one and the same

Reality; therefore, according to Ramanuja, Brahman is qualified by the

universe and the living beings. This is the theory of Qualified Non-dualism.

Futility of mere reasoning

(To M.) "I do see God directly. What shall I reason about? I clearly see that

He Himself has become everything; that He Himself has become the

universe and all living beings.

"But without awakening one's own inner consciousness one cannot realize

the All-pervading Consciousness. How long does a man reason? So long as

he has not realized God. But mere words will not do. As for myself, I

clearly see that He Himself has become everything. The inner

consciousness must be awakened through the grace of God.

Through this awakening a man goes into samādhi. He often forgets that he

has a body.

He gets rid of his attachment to 'woman and gold' and does not enjoy any

talk unless it is about God. Worldly talk gives him pain. Through the

awakening of the inner consciousness one realizes the All-pervading

Consciousness."

The discussion came to a close. Sri Ramakrishna said to M.: "I have

observed that a man acquires one kind of knowledge about God through

reasoning and another kind through meditation; but he acquires a third kind

of Knowledge about God when God reveals Himself to him, His devotee. If

God Himself reveals to His devotee the nature of Divine Incarnation-how

He plays in human form-, then the devotee doesn't have to, reason about the

problem or need an explanation. Do you know what it is like? Suppose a

man is in a dark room. He goes on rubbing a match against a match-box and

all of a sudden light comes. Likewise, if God gives us this flash of divine

light, all our doubts are destroyed. Can one ever know God by mere

reasoning?"

Sri Ramakrishna asked Narendra to sit by his side. He tenderly inquired

about his health and showed him much affection.

NARENDRA (to the Master): "Why, I have meditated on Kāli for three or

four days, but nothing has come of it."

Kāli and Brahman

MASTER: "All in good time, my child. Kāli is none other than Brahman

That which is called Brahman is really Kāli. She is the Primal Energy.

When that Energy remains inactive, I call It Brahman, and when It creates.

preserves, or destroys, I call It Śakti or Kāli. What you call Brahman I call

Kāli.

"Brahman and Kāli are not different. They are like fire and its power to

burn: if one thinks of fire one must think of its power to burn. If one

recognizes Kāli one must also recognize Brahman; again, if one recognizes

Brahman one must recognize Kāli. Brahman and Its Power are identical. It

is Brahman whom I address as Śakti or Kāli."

It was late at night: Girish asked Haripada to call a cab, for he had to go to

the theatre.

As Haripada was about to leave the room the Master said with a smile:

"Mind, a cab.

Don't forget to bring one." (All laugh.)

HARIPADA (smiling): "Yes, sir. I am going out just for that. How can I

forget it?"

GIRISH: "That I should have to go to the theatre and leave you here!"

MASTER: "No, no. You must hold to both. King Janaka paid attention to

both religious and worldly duties and 'drank his milk from a brimming

cup'." (All laugh.) GIRISH: "I have been thinking of leaving the theatre to

the youngsters."

MASTER: "No, no. It is all right. You are doing good to many."

Narendra said in a whisper, "Just a moment ago he [meaning Girish] was

calling him [meaning Sri Ramakrishna] God, an Incarnation, and now he is

attracted to the theatre!"

Master's love for Narendra

Narendra was sitting beside the Master. The latter looked at him intently

and suddenly moved closer to his beloved disciple. Narendra did not

believe in God's assuming a human body; but what did that matter? Sri

Ramakrishna's heart overflowed with more and more love for his disciple.

He touched Narendra's body and said, quoting from a song:

Do you feel that your pride is wounded?

So be it, then; we too have our pride.

Then the Master said to Narendra: "As long as a man argues about God, he

has not realized Him. You two were arguing. I didn't like it.

"How long does one hear noise and uproar in a house where a big feast is

being given?

So long as the guests are not seated for the meal. As soon as food is served

and people begin to eat, three quarters of the noise disappears. (All laugh.)

When the dessert is served there is still less noise. But when the guests eat

the last course, buttermilk, then one hears nothing but the sound 'soop, sup'.

When the meal is over, the guests retire to sleep and all is quiet.

"The nearer you approach to God, the less you reason and argue. When you

attain Him, then all sounds-all reasoning and disputing-come to an end.

Then you go into samādhi-sleep-, into communion with God in silence."

The Master gently stroked Narendra's body and affectionately touched his

chin, uttering sweetly the holy words, "Hari Om! Hari Om! Hari Om!" He

was fast becoming unconscious of the outer world. His hand was on

Narendra's foot. Still in that mood he gently stroked Narendra's body.

Slowly a change came over his mind. With folded hands he said to

Narendra: "Sing a song, please; then I shall be all right. How else shall I be

able to stand on my own legs?" Again he became speechless. He sat

motionless as a statue. Presently he became intoxicated with divine love

and said: "O Radha, watch your step! Otherwise you may fall into the

Jamuna. Ah! How mad she is with love of Krishna!"

The Master was in a rapturous mood. Quoting from a song, he said: Tell me,

friend, how far is the grove

Where Krishna, my Beloved, dwells?

His fragrance reaches me even here,

But I am tired and can walk no farther.

Then the Master completely forgot the outer world. He did not notice

anyone in the room, not even his beloved Narendra seated by his side. He

did not know where he himself was seated. He was totally merged in God.

Suddenly he stood up, shouting, "Deep drunk with the Wine of Divine

Love!" As he took his seat again, he muttered, "I see a light coming, but I

know not whence it comes."

Now Narendra sang:

Lord, Thou hast lifted all my sorrow with the vision of Thy face, And the

magic of Thy beauty has bewitched my mind; Beholding Thee, the seven

worlds forget their never-ending woe;

What shall I say, then, of myself, a poor and lowly soul? . . .

Listening to the song, Sri Ramakrishna again went into deep samādhi. His

eyes were closed and his body was transfixed.

Coming down from the ecstatic mood he looked around and said, "Who

will take me to the temple garden?" He appeared like a child who felt

confused in the absence of his companion.

It was late in the evening. The night was dark. The devotees stood by the

carriage that had been brought to take the Master to Dakshineswar. They

helped him in gently, for he was still in deep ecstasy. The carriage moved

down the street and they looked after it with wistful eyes. Soon the devotees

turned homeward, a gentle south wind blowing in their faces. Some were

humming the lines of the song:

Lord, Thou hast lifted all my sorrow with the vision of Thy face, And the

magic of Thy beauty has bewitched my mind.

April 6, 1885

Sri Ramakrishna sat in the drawing-room of Balarām's house talking to M.

It was a very hot day and long past three o'clock. He had come to Calcutta

to see some of his young disciples and also to visit Devendra's house.

MASTER (to M.): "I gave my word that I would be here at three o'clock; so

I have come.

But it is very hot."

M: "Yes, sir, you must have suffered very much."

The devotees were fanning Sri Ramakrishna.

About Puma

MASTER: "I have come here for Baburam and the younger Naren. Why

haven't you brought Purna?"

M: "He doesn't like to come to a gathering of people. He is afraid you might

praise him before others and his relatives might then hear about it."

MASTER: "Yes, that's true. I won't do it in the future. Well, I understand

that you are giving Purna religious instruction. That is fine."

M: "As a matter of fact, the same thing is written in one of the textbooks of

the school.

It says:

With all thy soul love God above;

And as thyself thy neighbour love.

If their guardians are displeased with such teachings, it can't be helped."

MASTER: "No doubt many things like that are written in those books; but

the authors themselves do not assimilate what they write. This power of

assimilation comes from associating with holy men. People listen to

instruction only when it is given by a sādhu who has truly renounced the

world; they are not much impressed by the writings or the words of a mere

scholar. Suppose a physician has a big jar of molasses by his side, and he

asks his patients not to eat molasses; the patients won't pay much attention

to his advice.

"Well, how do you find Purna? Does he go into ecstatic moods?"

M: "No, I haven't noticed in him any outer sign of such emotion. One day I

told him those words of yours."

MASTER: "What words?"

M: "You told us that if a man is a 'small receptacle' he cannot control

spiritual emotion; but if he is a 'large receptacle' he experiences intense

emotion without showing it outwardly. You said that a big lake does not

become disturbed when an elephant enters it; but when the elephant enters a

pool, one sees tremendous confusion and the water splashes on the banks."

MASTER: "Purna will not show his emotion outwardly; he hasn't that kind

of temperament. His other signs are good. What do you say?"

M: "His eyes are very bright and prominent."

MASTER: "Mere bright eyes are not enough. The eyes of a godly person

are different.

Did you ask him what he felt after meeting me?"

M: "Yes, sir, we talked about that. He has been telling me for the last four or

five days that whenever he thinks of God or repeats His name, tears flow

from his eyes and the hair on his body stands on end-such is his joy."

MASTER: "Indeed! That's all he needs."

The Master and M: were silent a few moments. Then M. said, "He is

waiting"

MASTER: "Who?"

M: "Purna. Perhaps he has been standing at the door of his house. When

any of us passes that way he will come running and salute us."

MASTER: "Ah! Ah!"

Sri Ramakrishna was resting, reclining against a bolster. M had brought

with him a twelve year-old boy who was a student in his school. His name

was Kshirode.

M: "He is a nice boy. He finds great joy in spiritual talk."

MASTER (smiling): "He has eyes like a deer's."

The boy saluted Sri Ramakrishna, touching his feet. Then he gently stroked

the Master's feet.

MASTER (to M.): "Rākhāl is staying at home now; he has an abscess and is

not well. I understand that his wife expects a baby."

Paltu and Binode were seated in front of Sri Ramakrishna.

MASTER (to Paltu, smiling): "What did you say to your father? (To M.)He

answered back when his father told him not to come here. (To Paltu) What

did you say?"

PALTU: "I said to him: 'Yes, I go to him. Is that wrong?' (The Master and

M. laugh.) I shall say more if necessary."

MASTER (to M., smiling): "No, no! Should he go so far?"

M: "No, sir, he should not go too far." (Sri Ramakrishna laughs.) MASTER

(to Binode): "How are you? Why haven't you come to Dakshineswar?"

BINODE: "I almost came, but then I was afraid of falling ill again. I have

been ill and am not doing well."

MASTER: "Come to Dakshineswar with me. The air is very good there.

You will recover."

The younger Naren entered the room. Sri Ramakrishna was going out to

wash his hands and face. The younger Naren followed him with a towel; he

wanted to pour water for the Master. M was with them.

MASTER: "It's very hot today."

M: "Yes, sir."

MASTER: "How do you live in that small room of yours? Doesn't it get

very hot on the upper floor?"

M: "Yes, sir, it gets very hot."

MASTER: "Besides, your wife has been suffering from brain trouble. You

should keep her in a cool room."

M: "Yes, sir. I have asked her to sleep downstairs."

Sri Ramakrishna returned to the drawing-room and took his seat.

MASTER (to M.): "Why didn't you come to Dakshineswar last Sunday?"

M: "Sir, there was no one else at home. My wife was not well and no one

was there to look after her."

Sri Ramakrishna was on his way in a carriage to Devendra's house in Nimu

Goswami's Lane. The younger Naren, M, and one or two other devotees

were with him. The Master felt great yearning for Purna. He began to talk

of the young disciple.

MASTER (to M.): "A great soul! Or how could he make me do japa for his

welfare? But Purna doesn't know anything about it."

M and the other devotees were amazed at these words.

MASTER: "It would have been nice if you had brought him here with you

today. Why didn't you?"

Seeing the younger Naren laugh, the Master and the other devotees laughed

too. The Master said to M., laughing and pointing to Naren: "Look at him!

Look! How naive he looks when he laughs, as if he knew nothing. He never

thinks of these three things: land, wife, and money. God cannot be realized

unless the mind is totally free from 'woman and gold'."

Master at Devendra's house

The carriage proceeded to Devendra's house. Once Sri Ramakrishna had

said to Devendra at Dakshineswar, "I have been thinking of visiting your

house one day."

Devendra had replied: "The same idea came to my mind today, and I have

come here to ask that favour of you. You must grace my house this

Sunday." "But", the Master had said, you have a small income. Don't invite

many people. The carriage hire will also run to a big amount." Devendra

had answered, laughing: "What if my income is small? 'One can run into

debt to eat butter!' "At these words Sri Ramakrishna had laughed a long

time.

Soon the carriage reached Devendra's house. Sri Ramakrishna said to him:

"Devendra, don't make elaborate arrangements for my meal. Something

very simple will do. I am not very well today."

Sri Ramakrishna seated himself in the drawing-room on the ground floor of

Devendra's house. The devotees sat around him. It was evening. The room

was well lighted. The younger Naren, Ram, M., Girish, Devendra, Akshay,

Upendra, and some other devotees were present. As the Master cast his

glance on a young devotee, his face beamed with joy. Pointing to the

devotee, Sri Ramakrishna said to the others: "He is totally free from

attachment to land, wife, and money, the three things that entangle one in

worldliness.

The mind that dwells on these three cannot be fixed on God. He saw a

vision, too. (To the devotee) Tell us, what did you see?"

DEVOTEE (laughing): "I saw a heap of dung. Some were seated on it, and

some sat at a distance."

MASTER: "It was a vision of the plight of the worldly people who are

forgetful of God. It shows that all these desires are disappearing from his

mind. Need one worry about anything if one's mind is detached from

'woman and gold'? How strange! Only after much meditation and japa

could I get rid of these desires; and how quickly he could banish them from

his mind! Is it an easy matter to get rid of lust? I myself felt a queer

sensation in my heart six months after I had begun my spiritual practice.

Then I threw myself on the ground under a tree and wept bitterly. I said to

the Divine Mother, 'Mother, if it comes to that, I shall certainly cut my

throat with a knife!'

(To the devotees) "If the mind is free from 'woman and gold', then what else

can obstruct a man? He enjoys then only the Bliss of Brahman."

Śaśi had recently been visiting Sri Ramakrishna. He was studying at the

Vidyāsāgar College for his Bachelor's degree. The Master began to talk

about him.

MASTER (to the devotees): "That boy will think of money for some time.

But there are some who will never do so. Some of the youngsters will not

marry."

The devotees listened silently to the Master.

MASTER : "It is hard to recognize an Incarnation of God unless the mind is

totally free from 'woman and gold'. A man asked a. seller of eggplants the

value of a diamond. He said, 'I can give nine seers of eggplants in exchange,

and not one more.'"

At these words all the devotees laughed. The younger Naren laughed very

loudly. Sri Ramakrishna noticed that he had quickly understood the

implication of these words.

MASTER: "What a subtle mind he has! Nangta also could understand

things that way, in a flash-the meaning of the Gitā, the Bhagavata, and other

scriptures.

Master praises renunciation

"Renunciation of 'woman and gold' from boyhood! Amazing indeed! It falls

to the lot of a very few. A person without such renunciation is like a mango

struck by a hail-stone. The fruit cannot be offered to the Deity, and even a

man hesitates to eat it.

"There are people who during their youth committed many sins, but in old

age chant the name of God. Well, that is better than nothing.

"The mother of a certain Mallick, who belonged to a very noble family,

asked me if prostitutes would ever be saved. She herself had led that kind of

life; that is why she asked the question. I said: 'Yes, they too will be saved,

if only they cry to God with a yearning heart and promise not to repeat their

sins.' What will the mere chanting of Hari's name accomplish? One must

weep sincerely."

The kirtan began to the accompaniment of drums and cymbals. The singer

was a professional. He sang about Sri Gaurānga's initiation as a monk by

Keshab Bharati: Oh, what a vision I have beheld in Keshab Bharati's hut!

Gora, in all his matchless grace,

Shedding tears in a thousand streams! . . .

Sri Ramakrishna went into ecstasy when he heard the song. The musician

sang again, describing the suffering of a milkmaid of Vrindāvan at her

separation from Sri Krishna.

She was seeking her Krishna in the madhavi bower: O madhavi, give me

back my Sweet One!

Give me, give me back my Sweet One!

Give Him back, for He is mine,

And make me your slave for ever.

He is my life, as water is to the fish;

O madhavi, you have hidden Him in your bosom!

I am a simple, guileless girl,

And you have stolen my Beloved.

O madhavi, I die for my Sweet One;

I cannot bear to live without Him.

Without my Madhava I shall die;

Oh, give Him, give Him back to me!

Now and then Sri Ramakrishna sang with the musicians, improvising Lines:

How far from here is Mathura,

Where dwells the Beloved of my soul?

Sri Ramakrishna went into samādhi. His body was motionless. He remained

in that state a long time.

Gradually he came down to the consciousness of the outer world. Still in a

spiritual mood, he began to talk, sometimes addressing the devotees,

sometimes the Divine Mother.

MASTER: "Mother, please attract him to Thee. I can't worry about him any

more. (To M.) My mind is inclined a little to your brother-in-law.

About Girish

(To Girish) "You utter many abusive and vulgar words; but that doesn't

matter. It is better for these things to come out. There are some people who

fall ill on account of blood-poisoning; the more the poisoned blood finds an

outlet, the better it is for them.

At the time when the Upādhi of a man is being destroyed, it makes a loud

noise, as it were. Wood crackles when it burns; there is no more noise when

the burning is over.

"You will be purer day by day. You will improve very much day by day.

People will marvel at you.

"I may not come many more times; but that doesn't matter. You will

succeed by yourself."

The Master's spiritual mood became very intense. Again he talked to the

Divine Mother.

MASTER: "Mother, what credit is there in making a man good who is

already good? O

Mother, what wilt Thou accomplish by killing one who is already dead?

Only if Thou canst kill a person who is still standing erect wilt Thou show

Thy glory."

Sri Ramakrishna remained silent a few moments. Suddenly he said in a

slightly raised voice: "I have come from Dakshineswar. I am going,

Mother!" It was as if a child had heard the call of its mother from a distance

and was responding to it. He again became motionless, absorbed in

samādhi. The devotees looked at him with unwinking eyes. Still in an

ecstatic mood he said, "I shall not eat any more luchi." At this point a few

Vaishnava priests, who had come from the neighbourhood, left the place.

Sri Ramakrishna began to talk with his devotees in a very joyous spirit. It

was the month of April and the day was very sultry. Devendra had made

ice-cream. He offered it to the Master and the devotees. M said in a low

voice, "Encore! Encore!" The devotees laughed.

At the sight of the ice-cream.

Sri Ramakrishna was happy as a child.

MASTER: "The kirtan was very nice. The song described beautifully the

gopis' state of mind: 'O madhavi, give me back my Sweet One!' The

milkmaids of Vrindāvan were drunk with ecstatic love for Krishna. How

wonderful! Mad for Krishna!"

A devotee, pointing to another devotee, said, "He has the attitude of the

gopis."

RAM: "No, he has both-the attitude of tender love and the attitude of

austere knowledge."

MASTER: "What is it you are talking about?"

Sri Ramakrishna inquired about Surendra.

RAM: "I sent him word, but he hasn't come."

MASTER: "He gets very tired from his heavy office-work."

A DEVOTEE: "Ram Babu has been writing about you."

MASTER (smiling): "What is he writing?"

DEVOTEE: "He is writing an article on The Bhakti of the Paramahamsa'."

MASTER: "Good! That will make Ram famous."

GIRISH (smiling): "He says he is your disciple."

MASTER: "I have no disciple. I am the servant of the servant of Rāma."

Some people of the neighbourhood had dropped in; but they did not please

the Master. He said: "What sort of place is this? I don't find a single pious

soul here."

Devendra took Sri Ramakrishna into the inner apartments and offered him

refreshments.

Afterwards the Master returned to the drawing-room with a happy face and

took his seat. The devotees sat around him'. Upendra and Akshay sat on

either side of him and stroked his feet. The Master spoke highly of the

women of Devendra's family, saying: "They are very nice. They come from

the country; so they are very pious."

The Master was absorbed in his own joy. In a happy mood he began to sing:

Unless a man is simple, he cannot recognize God, the Simple One. . .

Again he sang:

Stay your step, O wandering monk

Stand there with begging-bowl in hand,

And let me behold your radiant face . . .

Once more:

A mendicant has come to us, ever absorbed in divine moods; Holy alike is

he to Hindu and Musslman . . ..

Girish saluted the Master and took his leave. Devendra and the other

devotees took the Master to his carriage. Seeing that one of his neighbours

was sound asleep on a bench in the courtyard, Devendra woke him up. The

neighbour rubbed his eyes and said, "Has the Paramahamsa come?" All

burst into laughter. The man had come a long time before Sri Ramakrishna's

arrival, and because of the heat had spread a mat on the bench, lain down,

and gone sound asleep.

Sri Ramakrishna's carriage proceeded to Dakshineswar. He said to M.

happily, "I have eaten a good deal of ice-cream; bring four or five cones for

me when you come to Dakshineswar." Continuing, he said, "Now my mind

is drawn to these few youngsters: the younger Naren, Purna, and your

brother-in-law."

M: "Do you mean Dwija?"

MASTER: "No, he is all right; I mean his elder brother."

The carriage rolled on to the Kāli temple at Dakshineswar.

--------------------

Chapter 39

THE MASTER'S REMINISCENCES

April 12, 1885

Master's own reminiscences

SRI RAMAKRISHNA was sitting with the devotees in Balarām's drawing

room in Calcutta.

M. arrived at three o'clock. Girish, Balarām, the younger Naren, Paltu,

Dwija, Purna, Mahendra Mukherji, and many other devotees were there.

Shortly Trailokya Sannyal, Jaygopal Sen, and other members of the Brahmo

Samaj arrived. Many woman devotees were present also, seated behind a

screen. Among them was Mohini's wife, who had almost gone insane on

account of her son's death. There were a few other afflicted souls like her

who used to visit the Master to obtain peace of mind.

Sri Ramakrishna was describing to the devotees the various incidents of his

sādhanā and the phases of his spiritual realization.

Various forms of his meditation

MASTER: "During my sādhanā, when I meditated, I would actually see a

person sitting neat me with a trident in his hand. He would threaten to strike

me with the weapon unless I fixed my mind on the Lotus Feet of God,

warning me that it would pierce my breast if my mind strayed from God.

"The Divine Mother would put me in such a state that sometimes my mind

would come down from the Nitya to the Lila, and sometimes go up from the

Lila to the Nitya.

"Sometimes, when the mind descended to the Lila, I would meditate day

and night on Sita and Rāma. At those times I would constantly behold the

forms of Sita and Rāma.

Rāmlāla was my constant companion. Sometimes I would bathe Him and

sometimes feed Him.

"Again, I used to be absorbed in the ideal of Radha and Krishna and would

constantly see their forms. Or again, I would be absorbed in Gaurānga. He

is the harmonization of two ideals: the Purusha and the Prakriti. At such

times I would always see the form of Gaurānga.

Master's meditation on formless Spirit

"Then a change came over me. The mind left the plane of the Lila and

ascended to the Nitya. I found no distinction between the sacred tulsi and

the ordinary sajina plant. I no longer enjoyed seeing the forms of God; I

said to myself, 'They come and go.' I lifted my mind above them. I removed

all the pictures of gods and goddesses from my room and began to meditate

on the Primal Purusha, the Indivisible Satchidananda, regarding myself as

His handmaid.

Three kinds of sādhanā

"I practised all sorts of sādhanā. There are three classes of sādhanā: sattvic,

rajasic, and tamasic. In the sattvic sādhanā the devotee calls on the Lord

with great longing or simply repeats His name; he doesn't seek any result in

return. The rajasic sādhanā

prescribes many rituals: purascharana, pilgrimage, panchatapa, worship

with sixteen articles, and so forth. The tamasic sādhanā is a worship of God

with the help of tamas.

The attitude of a tamasic devotee is this: 'Hail, Kāli! What? Wilt Thou not

reveal Thyself to me? If not, I will cut my throat with a knife!' In this

discipline one does not observe conventional purity; it is like some of the

disciplines prescribed by the Tantra.

"During my sādhanā period I had all kinds of amazing visions. I distinctly

perceived the communion of Ātman. A person exactly resembling me

entered my body and began to commune with each one of the six lotuses.

The petals of these lotuses had been closed; but as each of them

experienced the communion, the drooping flower bloomed and turned itself

upward. Thus blossomed forth the lotuses at the centres of Muladhara,

Svadhisthana, Anāhata, Visuddha, Ājnā, and Sahasrara. The drooping

flowers turned upward. I perceived all these things directly.

"When I meditated during my sādhanā, I used to think of the unflickering

flame of a lamp set in a windless place.

Nature of deep concentration

"In deep meditation a man is not at all conscious of the outer world. A

hunter was aiming at a bird. A bridal procession passed along beside him,

with the groom's relatives and friends, music, carriages, and horses. It took

a long time for the procession to pass the hunter, but he was not at all

conscious of it. He did not know that the bridegroom had gone by.

"A man was angling in a lake all by himself. After a long while the float

began to move.

Now and then its tip touched the water. The angler was holding the rod tight

in his hands, ready to pull it up, when a passer-by stopped and said, 'Sir, can

you tell me where Mr. Bannerji lives?' There was no reply from the angler,

who was just on the point of pulling up the rod. Again and again the

stranger said to him in a loud voice, 'Sir, can you tell me where Mr.

Bannerji lives?' But the angler was unconscious of everything around him.

His hands were trembling, his eyes fixed on the float. The stranger was

annoyed and went on. When he had gone quite a way, the angler's float sank

under water and with one pull of the rod he landed the fish. He wiped the

sweat from his face with his towel and shouted after the stranger. 'Hey!' he

said. 'Come here! Listen!' But the man would not turn his face. After much

shouting, however, he came back and said to the angler, 'Why are you

shouting at me?' 'What did you ask me about?' said .the angler. The stranger

said, 'I repeated the question so many times and now you art asking me to

repeat it once more!' The angler replied, 'At that time my float was about to

sink; so I didn't hear a word of what you said.'

Single-mindedness in meditation

"A person can achieve such single-mindedness in meditation that he will

see nothing, hear nothing. He will not be conscious even of touch. A snake

may crawl over his body, but he will not know it. Neither of them will be

aware of the other.

"In deep meditation the sense-organs stop functioning; the mind does not

look outward.

It is like closing the gate of the outer court in a house. There are five objects

of the senses: form, taste, smell, touch, and sound. They are all left outside.

"At the beginning of meditation the objects of the senses appear before the

aspirant. But when the meditation becomes deep, they no longer bother

him. They are left outside.

How many things I saw during meditation! I vividly perceived before me a

heap of rupees, a shawl, a plate of sweets, and two women with rings in

their noses. 'What do you want?' I asked my mind. 'Do you want to enjoy

any of these things?' 'No,' replied the mind, 'I don't want any of them. I don't

want anything but the Lotus Feet of God.' I saw the inside and the outside

of the women, as one sees from out side the articles in a glass room. I saw

what is in them: entrails, blood, filth, worms, phlegm, and such things."

Girish Chandra Ghosh used to say now and then that he could cure illness

by the strength of the Master's name.

Occult powers

MASTER (to Girish and the other devotees): "People of small intellect seek

occult powers-powers to cure disease, win a lawsuit, walk on water, and

such things. But the genuine devotees of God don't want anything except

His Lotus Feet. One day Hriday said to me, 'Uncle, please ask the Mother

for some powers, some occult powers.' I have the nature of a child. While I

was practising japa in the Kāli temple, I said to Kāli, 'Mother, Hriday asked

me to pray to You for some occult powers.' The Divine Mother at once

showed me a vision. A middle-aged prostitute, about forty years old,

appeared and sat with her back to me. She had large hips and wore a black-

bordered sari. Soon she was covered with filth. The Mother showed me that

occult powers are as abominable as the filth of that prostitute. Thereupon I

went to Hriday and scolded him, saying: 'why did you teach me such a

prayer? It is because of you that I had such an experience.'

A false teacher

"People with a little occult power gain such things as name and fame. Many

of them want to follow the profession of guru, gain people's recognition,

and make disciples and devotees. Men say of such a guru: 'Ah! He is having

a wonderful time. How many people visit him! He has many disciples and

followers. His house is overflowing with furniture and other things. People

give him presents. He has such power that he can feed many people if he so

desires.'

"The profession of a teacher is like that of a prostitute. It is the selling of

oneself for the trifle of money, honour, and creature comforts. For such

insignificant things it is not good to prostitute the body, mind, and soul, the

means by which one can attain God. A man once said about a certain

woman: 'Ah! She is having a grand time now. She is so well off! She has

rented a room and furnished it with a couch, a mat, pillows, and many other

things. And how many people she controls! They are always visiting her.' In

other words, the woman has now become a prostitute. Therefore her

happiness is unbounded.

Formerly she was a maidservant in a gentleman's house; now she is a

prostitute. She has ruined herself for a mere trifle.

Master's visions during sādhanā

"How many other visions I saw while meditating during my sādhanā! Once

I was meditating under the bel-tree when 'Sin' appeared before me and

tempted me in various ways. He came to me in the form of an English

soldier. He wanted to give me wealth, honour, sex pleasure, various occult

powers, and such things. I began to pray to the Divine Mother. Now I am

telling you something very secret. The Mother appeared. I said to Her, 'Kill

him, Mother!' I still remember that form of the Mother, Her world

bewitching beauty. She came to me taking the form of Krishnamayi. But it

was as if her glance moved the world."

Sri Ramakrishna became silent. Resuming his reminiscences, he said: "How

many other visions I saw! But I am not permitted to tell them. Someone is

shutting my mouth, as it were. I used to find no distinction between the

sacred tulsi and the insignificant sajina leaf. The feeling of distinction was

entirely destroyed. Once I was meditating under the banyan when I was

shown a Musslman with a long beard. He came to me with rice in an

earthen plate. He fed some other Musslmans with the rice and also gave me

a few grains to eat. The Mother showed me that there exists only One, and

not two. It is Satchidananda alone that has taken all these various forms; He

alone has become the world and its living beings. Again, it is He who has

become food.

(To Girish, M., and the others) "I have the nature of a child. Hriday said to

me, 'Uncle, ask the Mother for some occult powers.' At once I went to the

temple to ask Her about them. At that time God had put me in such a state

that I had to listen to those who lived with me. I felt like a child who sees

darkness all around unless someone is with him. I felt as if I should die

unless Hriday was near me. You see I am in that state of mind just

now.While I am speaking to you my inner spirit is being awakened."

As Sri Ramakrishna uttered these words, he was on the point of plunging

into samādhi and losing consciousness of time and space. But he was trying

with the utmost difficulty to control himself. He said to the devotees in an

ecstatic mood: "I still see you. But I feel as if you had been sitting here

forever. I don't recall when you came or where you are."

Sri Ramakrishna was silent a few minutes. Then, regaining partial

consciousness, he said, "I shall have a drink of water." He often said things

like this after samādhi, in order to bring down his mind to the ordinary

plane of consciousness. Girish was a newcomer and did not know this; so

he started to bring some water. Sri Ramakrishna asked him not to, saying,

"No, my dear sir, I cannot drink now."

The Master and the devotees were silent a while. Sri Ramakrishna resumed

the conversation.

MASTER: (to M.):"Well,have I done any wrong in telling these secret

experiences?"

M. did not know what to say and kept quiet.

MASTER: "Why should there be any harm in it? I have told these things to

create faith in you all."

After a while he said to M. very humbly, "Will you kindly bring him here?"

He referred to Purna.

M. (hesitating): "Yes, Sir. I shall send for him this very moment.

MASTER (eagerly): "In Purna I have reached the 'post'.

Was Sri Ramakrishna hinting that Purna was perhaps the last devotee of his

inner circle?

Experience of mahabhava

Sri Ramakrishna then described to Girish, M., and the other devotees his

own experience of mahabhava.

MASTER (to the devotees): "My joy after that experience was equal to the

pain I suffered before it. Mahabhava is a divine ecstasy; it shakes the body

and mind to their very foundation. It is like a huge elephant entering a small

hut. The house shakes to its foundation. Perhaps it falls to pieces.

"The burning pain that one feels when one is separated from God is not an

ordinary feeling. It is said that the fire of this anguish in Rupa and Sanatana

scorched the leaves of the tree under which they sat. I was unconscious

three days in that state. I couldn't move. I lay in one place. When I regained

consciousness, the Brahmani took me out for a bath. But my skin couldn't

bear the touch of her hand; so my body had to be covered with a heavy

sheet. Only then could she hold me with her hand and lead me to the

bathing-place. The earth that had stuck to my body while I was lying on the

ground had become baked.

"In that state I felt as if a ploughshare were passing through my backbone. I

cried out: 'Oh, I am dying! I am dying!' But afterwards I was filled with

great joy."

The devotees listened breathlessly to these experiences of the Master.

MASTER (to Girish): "But it isn't necessary for you to go so far. My

experiences are for others to refer to. You busy yourself with five different

things, but I have one ideal only. I do not enjoy anything but God. This is

what God has ordained for me. (Smiling) There are different trees in the

forest, some shooting up with one trunk and others spreading out with five

branches. (All smile.)

"Yes, my experiences are for others to refer to. But you should live in the

world in a spirit of detachment. You will no doubt have dirt on your body,

but you must shake it off as the mudfish shakes off the mud. You may swim

in the black ocean of the world, but your body should not be stained."

GIRISH (smiling): "But you too had to marry." (Laughter.) MASTER

(smiling): "Marriage is necessary for the sake of samskara. But how could I

lead a worldly life? So uncontrollable was my divine fervour that every

time the sacred thread was put around my neck it dropped off.

Some believe that Sukadeva also had to marry for the sake of samskara.

They say he even had a daughter. (All laugh.)

Power of "woman and gold"

"'Woman and gold' alone is the world. It makes one forget God."

GIRISH: "But how can we get rid of 'woman and gold'?"

MASTER: "Pray to God with a yearning heart. Pray to Him for

discrimination. 'God alone is real and all else illusory'-this is discrimination.

One strains water through a fine sieve in order to separate the dirt from it.

The clear water goes through the sieve leaving the dirt behind. Apply the

sieve of discrimination to the world. Live in the world after knowing God.

Then it will be the world of vidyā.

"Just see the bewitching power of women! I mean the women who are the

embodiment of avidyā, the power of delusion. They fool men, as it were.

They take away their inner substance. When I see a man and woman sitting

together, I say to myself, 'Alas, they are done for' (Looking at M.) Haru,

such a nice boy, is possessed by a witch. People ask: 'Where is Haru?

Where is he?' But where do you expect him to be? They all go to the

banyan and find him sitting quietly under it. He no longer has his beauty,

power, or joy. Ah! He is possessed by the witch that lives in the banyan.

"If a woman says to her husband, 'Go there', he at once stands up, ready to

go. If she says, 'Sit down here', immediately he sits down.

"A job-seeker got tired of visiting the manager in an office. He couldn't get

the job. The manager said to him, 'There is no vacancy now; but come and

see me now and then.'

This went on for a long time, and the candidate lost all hope. One day he

told his tale of woe to a friend. The friend said: 'How stupid you are! Why

are you wearing away the soles of your feet going to that fellow? You had

better go to Golap. You will get the job tomorrow.' 'Is that so?' said the

candidate. 'I am going right away.' Golap was the manager's mistress. The

candidate called on her and said: 'Mother, I am in great distress. You must

help me out of it. I am the son of a poor brahmin. Where else shall I go for

help? Mother, I have been out of work many days. My children are about to

starve to death. I can get a job if you but say the word.' Golap said to him,

'Child, whom should I speak to?' She said to herself: 'Ah, the poor brahmin!

He has been suffering too much.' The candidate said to her, 'I am sure to get

the job if you just put in a word about it to the manager.' Golap said, 'I shall

speak to him today and settle the matter.' The very next morning a man

called on the candidate and said, 'You are to work in the manager's office,

beginning today.' The manager said to his English boss: 'This man is very

competent. I have appointed him. He will do credit to the firm.'

"All are deluded by 'woman and gold'. But I do not care for it at all. And I

swear to you that I do not know anything but God."

A DEVOTEE: "Sir, a new sect, named, 'Nava Hullol', has been started. Lalit

Chatterji is one of the members."

MASTER: "There are different views. All these views are but so many

paths to reach the same goal. But everyone believes that his view alone is

right, that his watch alone keeps correct time."

GIRISH (to M.): "Do you remember what Pope says about it?

'Tis with our judgments as our watches, none

Go just alike, yet each believes his own."

MASTER (to M.): "What does it mean?"

M: "Every one thinks that his own watch keeps the correct time. But

different watches do not give the same time."

MASTER: "But however wrong the watches may be, the Sun never makes

a mistake.

One should check one's watch with the sun."

A DEVOTEE: Mr. X-tells lies.

Efficacy of truthfulness

MASTER: "Truthfulness in speech is the tapasya of the Kaliyuga. It is

difficult to practise other austerities in this cycle. By adhering to truth one

attains God. Tulsidas said: 'Truthfulness, obedience to God, and the

regarding of others' wives as one's mother, are the greatest virtues. If one

does not realize God by practising them, then Tulsi is a liar.'

"Keshab Sen assumed his father's debts. Others would have repudiated

them. I visited Devendra's Samaj at Jorashanko and found Keshab

meditating on the dais. He was then a young man. I said to Mathur Babu,

'Of all who are meditating here, this young man's "float" alone has sunk

under water. The "fish" is biting at the hook.'

"There was a man-whom I shall not name-who for ten thousand rupees told

a lie in court. In order to win the lawsuit he made me give an offering to the

Divine Mother. He said to me, 'Father, please give this offering to the

Mother.' Trusting him like a child, I gave the offering."

DEVOTEE: "A nice man indeed!"

MASTER: "But he had such faith in me that he believed the Mother would

grant his prayer if I but made the offering."

Referring to Lalit Babu, Sri Ramakrishna said: "Is it an easy matter to get

rid of pride?

There are very few who are without pride. Balarām is one of them.

(Pointing to a devotee) And here is another. Other people in their position

would have swelled with pride. They would have parted their hair and

showed other traits of tamas. They would have been proud of their learning.

The 'fat brahmin' [referring to Prankrishna] still has a little of it.

To M.) Mahima Chakravarty has read many books, hasn't he?"

M: "Yes, sir, he has read a great deal."

MASTER (smiling): "I wish he and Girish could meet. Then we could

enjoy a little discussion."

GIRISH (smiling): "Doesn't he say that by means of sādhanā all people can

be like Sri Krishna?"

MASTER: "Not exactly that, but something like it."

DEVOTEE: "Sir, can all be like Sri Krishna?"

Special traits of a Divine Incarnation

MASTER: "An Incarnation of God or one born with some of the

characteristics of an Incarnation is called an Isvarakoti. An ordinary man is

called a jiva or jivakoti. By dint of sādhanā a jivakoti can realize God; but

after samādhi he cannot come back to the plane of relative consciousness.

"The Isvarakoti is like the king's son. He has the keys to all the rooms of the

seven-storey palace; he can climb to all the seven floors and come down at

will. A jivakoti is like a petty officer. He can enter some of the rooms of the

palace; that is his limit.

"Janaka was a Jnāni. He attained Knowledge by means of his sādhanā. But

Sukadeva was Knowledge itself."

GIRISH: "Ah!"

Nārada and Sukadeva

MASTER: "Sukadeva did not attain Knowledge through sādhanā. Like

Sukadeva, Nārada also had the Knowledge of Brahman. But he retained

bhakti in order to teach people.

Prahlada sometimes assumed the attitude of 'I am He', sometimes that of a

servant of God, and sometimes that of His child. Hanuman also was like

that.

"All may wish for such a lofty state, but all cannot attain it. Some bamboos

are hollower than others; some are more solid inside."

A DEVOTEE: "You say that your spiritual experiences are for others to

refer to. Tell us what we should do."

Master urges intense dispassion MASTER: "If you want to realize God,

then you must cultivate intense dispassion. You must renounce immediately

what you feel to be standing in your way. You should not put it off till the

future. 'Woman and gold' is the obstruction. The mind must be withdrawn

from it.

"One must not be slow and lazy. A man was going to bathe; he had his

towel on his shoulder. His wife said to him: 'You are worthless. You are

getting old and still you cannot give up some of your habits. You cannot

live a single day without me. But look at that man! What a renouncer he is!'

"HUSBAND: 'Why? What has he done?'

"WIFE: 'He has sixteen wives and he is renouncing them one by one. You

will never be able to renounce.'

HUSBAND: 'Renouncing his wives one by one! You are crazy. He won't be

able to renounce. If a man wants to renounce, does he do it little by little?'

WIFE (smiling): 'Still he is better than you.'

"HUSBAND: 'You are silly; you don't understand. He cannot renounce. But

I can. See!

Here I go!' "

The Master continued: "That is called intense renunciation. No sooner did

the man discriminate than he renounced. He went away with the towel on

his shoulder. He didn't turn back to settle his worldly affairs. He didn't even

look back at his home.

"He who wants to renounce needs great strength of mind. He must have a

dare-devil attitude like a dacoit's. Before looting a house, the dacoits shout:

'Kill! Murder! Loot!'

"Cultivate devotion and love of God and so pass your days. What else can

you do? When Krishna went away, Yaśoda became insane with grief and

visited Radha. Radha was moved by her sorrow and appeared before her as

Ādyāśakti. She said, 'My child, ask a boon of Me.' Yaśoda replied: 'Mother,

what else shall I ask of You? Bless me that I may serve Krishna alone with

my body, mind, and speech; that I may behold His devotees with these eyes;

that I may go with these feet to the place where His divine sport is

manifested; that I may serve Him and His devotees with these hands; and

that I may devote all my sense-organs to His service alone.' "

As Sri Ramakrishna uttered these words, he was about to go into ecstasy.

Suddenly he exclaimed: "Kāli, the Embodiment of Destruction! No,

Nityakali, my eternal Divine Mother" With great difficulty he restrained

himself. He was starting to say more about Yaśoda, when Mahendra

Mukherji arrived.

Advice to householders

Mahendra and his younger brother, Priya, had been visiting the Master for

some time.

Mahendra owned a flour-mill and other businesses. His brother was an

engineer. Both the brothers engaged people to manage their affairs and

therefore had considerable leisure. Mahendra was thirty-six or thirty-seven

and his brother two years younger.

Besides their country home at Kedeti, they had a house at Baghbazar,

Calcutta. A young devotee named Hari accompanied them on their visits to

Sri Ramakrishna. Hari was married but greatly devoted to the Master.

Mahendra and Hari had not visited Dakshineswar for a long time. They

saluted Sri Ramakrishna.

MASTER: "Hello! Why haven't you visited Dakshineswar for so long?"

MAHENDRA: "Sir, I have been away from Calcutta. I was at Kedeti."

MASTER: "You have no children. You don't serve anybody. And still you

have no leisure!

Goodness gracious!"

The devotees remained silent. Mahendra was a little embarrassed.

MASTER (to Mahendra): "Why am I saying all this to you? You are sincere

and generous.

You have love for God."

MAHENDRA: "You are saying these words for my good."

MASTER (smiling): "You see, we don't take any collection during the

performance at our place. Jadu's mother says to me, 'Other sādhus always

ask for money, but you do not.'

Worldly people feel annoyed if they have to spend money.

"A theatrical performance was being given at a certain place. A man felt a

great desire to take a seat and see it. He peeped in and saw that a collection

was being taken from the audience. Quietly he slipped away. Another

performance was being given at some other place. He went there and,

inquiring, found that no collection would be taken. There was a great rush

of people. He elbowed his way through the crowd and reached the center of

the hall. There he picked out a nice seat for himself, twirled his moustaches,

and sat through the performance. (All laugh.)

"You have no children to divert your mind. I know a deputy magistrate who

draws a salary of eight hundred rupees a month. He went to Keshab's house

to see a performance. I was there too. Rākhāl and a few other devotees were

with me and sat beside me. After a while Rākhāl went out for a few

minutes. The deputy magistrate came over and made his young son take

Rākhāl's seat. I said, 'He can't sit there.' 'At that time I was in such a state of

mind that I had to do whatever the person next to me would ask me to do;

so I had seated Rākhāl beside me. As long as the performance lasted the

deputy did nothing but gibber with his son. The rascal didn't look at the

performance even once. I heard, too, that he is a slave to his wife; he gets

up and sits down as she tells him to. And he didn't see the performance for

that snub-nosed monkey of a boy.

(To Mahendra) "Do you practise meditation?"

MAHENDRA: "Yes, sir. A little."

MASTER: "Come to Dakshineswar now and then."

MAHENDRA (smiling): "Yes, sir. I will. You know where my knots and

twists are. You will straighten them out."

MASTER (smiling): "First come to Dakshineswar; then I shall press your

limbs to see where your twists are. Why don't you come?"

MAHENDRA: "Because of the pressure of my duties. Besides, I have to go

to my country home now and then."

MASTER (to Mahendra, pointing his finger at the devotees): "Have they no

homes or dwelling-places? Have they no duties? How is it that they come?

(To Hari) "Why haven't you come to Dakshineswar? Is your wife living

with you?"

HARI: "No, sir."

MASTER: "Then why did you forget me?"

HARI: "I haven't been well, sir."

MASTER (to the devotees): "He looks thin. He has no small measure of

bhakti. He is overflowing with it, but it is of a rather troublesome nature."

(Laughter.) Sri Ramakrishna used to address a certain devotee's wife by the

name of "Habi's mother". Her brother, a college student aged about twenty,

was there. He stood up, ready to go and play cricket. His younger brother,

named Dwija, was also a devotee of the Master. Both brothers left the room.

A few minutes later Dwija returned. The Master said, "Why didn't you go?"

A devotee answered: "He wants to hear the music. Perhaps that is why he

has come back."

Trailokya, the Brahmo devotee, was to sing for the Master. Paltu arrived.

The Master said: "Who is this? Ah! It is Paltu."

Purna, another young devotee, also arrived. It was with great difficulty that

Sri Ramakrishna had managed to have him come. His relatives strongly

objected to his visiting the Master. Purna was a student in the fifth grade of

the school where M. taught.

The boy prostrated himself before Sri Ramakrishna. The Master seated him

by his side and was talking to him in a low voice. M. alone was sitting near

them. The other devotees were talking about various things. Girish, sitting

on the other side of the room, was reading a life of Keshab.

MASTER (to Purna): "Come nearer."

GIRISH(to M.): "Who is this boy?"

M. was afraid that others might notice the boy. This would make trouble for

him at home and M would be responsible for it.

M. (Sharply): "Don't you see he is a boy?"

GIRISH (smiling): "I need no ghost to tell me that."

The Master and the boy were talking in low tones.

MASTER: "Do you practise what I asked you to?"

PURNA: "Yes, sir."

MASTER: "Do you dream? Do you dream of a flame? A lighted torch? A

married woman?

A cremation ground? It is good to dream of these things."

PURNA: "I dreamt of you. You were seated and were telling me

something."

MASTER: "What? Some instructions? Tell me some of it."

PURNA: "I don't remember now."

MASTER: "Never mind. But it is very good. You will make progress. You

feel attracted to me, don't you?"

A few minutes later Sri Ramakrishna said to the boy, "Won't you come

there?" He meant Dakshineswar. "I can't promise", answered the boy.

MASTER: "Why? Doesn't one of your relatives live there?"

PURNA: "Yes, sir. But it won't be very convenient for me to go." Girish

was reading a life of Keshab written by Trailokya of the Brahmo Samaj. In

it Trailokya said that at first Sri Ramakrishna had been very much opposed

to the world but that after meeting Keshab he had changed his mind and had

come to believe that, one could lead a spiritual life in the world as well.

Several devotees had told the Master about this. They wanted to discuss it

with Trailokya. Those passages in the book had been read to the Master.

Noticing the book in Girish's hand, Sri Ramakrishna said to Girish, M.,

Ram, and the other devotees: "Those people are busy with the world. That

is why they set such a high value on worldly life. They are drowned in

'woman and gold'. One doesn't talk that way after realizing God. After

enjoying divine bliss, one looks on the world as crow-droppings. At the

very outset I utterly renounced everything. Not only did I renounce the

company of worldly people, but now and then the company of devotees as

well. I noticed that the devotees were dropping dead one by one, and that

made my heart writhe with pain. But now I keep one or two of them with

me."

Girish left for home, saying he would come back. Trailokya arrived with

Jaygopal Sen.

They bowed before the Master and sat down. He inquired about their

health. The younger Naren entered the room and saluted Sri Ramakrishna.

The Master said to him, "Why didn't you see me last Saturday?"

Trailokya was ready to sing.

MASTER: "Ah! You sang that day about the Blissful Mother. How sweetly

you sang!

Others' songs seem insipid to me. That day I didn't enjoy even Narendra's

singing. Why don't you sing those same songs again?"

Trailokya sang:

Victory to Gora, Sachi's son!

Hail, Abode of every virtue,

Touchstone of Love, Ocean of Bliss,

Man's bewitcher, beauteous of form,

Enchanting the eye like shining gold!

His tender arms that reach to the knee,

Graceful and long as lotus stalks,

Are lovingly stretched to all mankind,

His lotus face of matchless beauty

Overflows with the nectar of Love;

His cheeks are covered with curling hair!

Alight with heavenly love, his beauty

Charms the eye! Beaming with fervour,

Radiant with Bliss, his body trembling

With Hari's joy, Gaurānga the golden

Dances like a mad elephant, shaking

In all his limbs with the frenzy of love!

Gaurānga, singer of Hari's glories,

Prize of every sādhu's heart,

Rarest of men, the Ocean of Love,

Embraces the outcaste, calls him brother,

Takes him in his arms in fervent love!

He dances with both his arms upraised,

And sings Hari's name; the tears are streaming Down his cheeks; he weeps,

he cries,

He trembles, roars, and rages, saying,

"Where is Hari, the Jewel of my heart?"

The hair on his limbs is standing on end,

Like a kadamba flower is his body,

Covered with dust he rolls on the ground.

O Thou, the Abode of Hari's lila,

Fountain-head of Love's elixir,

Friend of the helpless, Glory of Banga,

Hail Chaitanya, Thou who shinest

Bright as the moon, in the bhakta's heart!

Sri Ramakrishna left the room for a minute. The women devotees were

seated near the screen. They were eager to see Sri Ramakrishna. Trailokya

went on with his music.

Sri Ramakrishna entered the room again and said to Trailokya, "Please sing

a little about the Blissful Mother."

Trailokya sang:

O Mother, how deep is Thy love for men!

Mindful of it, I weep for joy. . . .

Listening to the song, the younger Naren went into deep meditation. He

remained as still as a log. Sri Ramakrishna said to M.: "Look at him. He is

totally unaware of the outer world."

The song was over. At Sri Ramakrishna's request, Trailokya sang: O

Mother, make me mad with Thy love!

What need have I of knowledge or reason? . . .

Ram asked him to sing about Hari.

Trailokya sang:

Chant, O mind, the name of Hari,

Sing aloud the name of Hari,

Praise Lord Hari's name!

And praising Hari's name, O mind,

Cross the ocean of this world.

Hari dwells in earth, in water,

Hari dwells in fire and air;

In sun and moon He dwells.

Hari's ever living presence

Fills the boundless universe.

M. said in a low voice to Trailokya, "Please- 'Gaur and Nitai, ye blessed

brothers'."

Sri Ramakrishna, too, asked him to sing the song. Trailokya and the

devotees sang it in chorus, the Master joining them. When it was over, the

Master sang: Behold, the two brothers have come, who weep while chanting

Hari's name,

The brothers who, in return for blows, offer to sinners Hari's love,

Embracing everyone as brother, even the outcaste shunned by men.

Behold, the two brothers have come, who once were Kanai and Balāi of

Braja. . . .

Sri Ramakrishna sang again:

See how all Nadia is shaking

Under the waves of Gaurānga's love! . . .

Then:

Who are they that walk along, chanting Hari's name?

O Madhai, go out and see!

They seem to be Gaur and Nitai,

With golden anklets on their lovely feet;

Shaven of head and clad in rags,

They reel like madmen as they go. . . .

The younger Naren was about to leave.

MASTER: "Show great devotion to your parents; but don't obey them if

they stand in your way to God. You must gird your loins with great

determination and say, 'This rogue of a father!'"

NAREN: "Truly, I have no fear."

Girish arrived. Sri Ramakrishna introduced him to Trailokya. He asked

them to talk to each other. A few minutes later the Master said, "That song

again, please."

Trailokya sang:

Victory to Gora, Sachi's son!

Hail, Abode of every virtue,

Touchstone of Love, Ocean of Bliss,

Man's bewitcher, beauteous of form,

Enchanting the eye like shining gold! . . .

Sri Ramakrishna went into samādhi. He stood up, totally unconscious of the

world.

Regaining partial consciousness, he begged Trailokya to sing "Oh, what a

vision I have beheld".

Trailokya sang:

Oh, what a vision I have beheld in Keshab Bharati's hut!

Gora, in all his matchless grace

Shedding tears in a thousand streams!

Like a mad elephant

He dances in ecstasy and sings,

Drunk with an overwhelming love.

Rolling flat upon the ground and swimming in his tears, He weeps and

shouts Lord Hari's name,

Piercing the very heavens with his cries,

Loud as a lion's roar;

Then most humbly he begs men's love,

To feel himself the servant of God.

Shorn of his locks, he has put on the yogi's ochre robe; Even the hardest

heart must melt

To see his pure and heavenly love.

Smitten with man's deep woe,

He has abandoned everything

And pours out love unstintingly.

Oh, would that Premdas were his slave and, passing from door to door,

Might sing Gaurānga's endless praise!

The music was over. It was about dusk. Sri Ramakrishna was surrounded by

the devotees.

MASTER (to Ram): "There were no instruments to accompany the songs.

The singing creates an atmosphere when there is proper accompaniment.

(Smiling) Do you know how Balarām manages a festival? He is like a

miserly brahmin raising a cow. The cow must eat very little but give milk in

torrents. (All laugh.) Sing your own songs and beat your own drums: that's

Balarām's idea!" (All laugh.) Discussion with Trailokya

As evening came on, lamps were lighted in the drawing-room and on the

verandah. Sri Ramakrishna bowed to the Divine Mother and began to chant

the name of God. The devotees sat around and listened to his sweet

chanting. They wanted to discuss with Trailokya his remarks about the

Master's change of opinion on worldly life. Girish started the discussion.

GIRISH (to Trailokya): "You have written that, after coming in contact with

Keshab, Sri Ramakrishna changed his views about worldly life; but it isn't

true."

MASTER (to Trailokya and the other devotees): "If a man enjoys the Bliss

of God, he doesn't enjoy the world. Having tasted divine bliss, he finds the

world insipid. If a man gets a shawl, he doesn't care for broadcloth."

TRAILOKYA: "I referred to those who wanted to lead a worldly life. I

didn't mean renouncers"

Divine bliss is the highest

MASTER: "What are you talking about? People talk about leading a

religious life in the world. But if they once taste the bliss of God they will

not enjoy anything else. Their attachment to worldly duties declines. As

their spiritual joy becomes deeper, they simply cannot perform their worldly

duties. More and more they seek that joy. Can worldly pleasures and sex

pleasures be compared to the bliss of God? If a man once tastes that bliss he

runs after it ever afterwards. It matters very little to him then whether the

world remains or disappears.

"Though the chatak bird is about to die of a parched throat, and around it

there are seven oceans, rivers, and lakes overflowing with water, still it will

not touch that water.

Its throat is cracking with thirst, and still it will not drink that water. It looks

up, mouth agape, for the rain to fall when the star Svati is in the ascendant.

'To the chatak bird all waters are mere dryness beside Swati water.'

Holding to both God and the world

"People say they will hold to both God and the world. After drinking an

ounce of wine, a man may be pleasantly intoxicated and also conscious of

the world; but can he be both when he has drunk a great deal more?"

After the bliss of God nothing else tastes good. Then talk about 'woman and

gold' stabs the heart, as it were. (Intoning) 'I cannot enjoy the talk of

worldly people.' When a man becomes mad for God, he doesn't enjoy

money or such things."

TRAILOKYA: "But, sir, if a man is to remain in the world, he needs money

and he must also save. He has to give in charity and-"

Worldly man's charity

MASTER: "What? Do you mean that one must first save money and then

seek God? And you talk about charity and kindness! A worldly man spends

thousands of rupees for his daughter's marriage. Yet, all the while, his

neighbours are dying of starvation; and he finds it hard to give them two

morsels of rice; he calculates a thousand times before giving them even that

much. The People around him have nothing to eat; but what does he care

about that? He says to himself: 'What can I do? Let the rascals live or die.

All I care about is that the members of my family should live well.' And

they talk about doing good to others!"

TRAILOKYA: "But, sir, there are good people in the world as well. Take

the case of Pundarika Vidyanidhi, the devotee of Chaitanya. He lived in the

world."

MASTER: "He had drunk wine up to his neck. If he had drunk a little more,

he couldn't have led a worldly life."

Trailokya remained silent. M said aside to Girish, 'Then what he has written

is not true."

GIRISH (to Trailokya): "Then what you have written is not true."

TRAILOKYA: "Why so? Doesn't he [meaning Sri Ramakrishna] admit that

a man can lead a spiritual life in the world?"

MASTER: "Yes, he can. But such a man should first of all attain

Knowledge and then live in the world. First he should realize God. Then 'he

can swim in a sea of slander and not be stained.' After realizing God, a man

can live in the world like a mudfish. The world he lives in after attaining

God is the world of vidyā. In it he sees neither woman nor gold.

He finds there only devotion, devotee, and God. You see, I too have a wife,

and 'a few pots and pans in my room; I too feed a few vagabonds; I too

worry about the devotees-Habi's mother for instance-when they come here."

A DEVOTEE (to Trailokya): "I have read in your book that you do not

believe in the Incarnation of God. You said so in connection with

Chaitanya."

TRAlLOKYA: "Why, Chaitanya himself protested against the idea of

Divine Incarnation.

Once, in Puri, Advaita and the other devotees sang a song to the effect that

Chaitanya was God. At this Chaitanya shut the door of his room. Infinite

are the glories of God. As he [meaning Sri Ramakrishna] says, the devotee

is the parlour of God. Suppose a parlour is very well furnished; does that

mean that the master of the house has exhausted all his power and

splendour in that one parlour?"

GIRISH: "He [meaning Sri Ramakrishna] says that prema alone is the

essence of God; we need the man through whom this ecstatic love of God

flows. He says that the milk of the cow flows through the udder; we need

the udder; we do not care for the other parts of the cow-the legs, tail, or

horns."

TRAILOKYA: "The milk of God's prema flows through an infinite number

of channels. God has infinite powers."

GIRISH: "But what other power can stand before prema?"

TRAILOKYA: "It is possible if He who has the power wants it. Everything

is in God's power."

GIRISH: "Yes, I admit that. But there is also a thing called the power of

avidyā."

TRAILOKYA: "Is avidyā a thing? Does there exist a substance called

avidyā? It is only a negation, as darkness is the negation of light. There is

no doubt that we prize prema most: what is a drop to God is an ocean to us.

But if you say that prema is the last word about God, then you limit God

Himself."

MASTER (to Trailokya and the other devotees): "Yes, yes, that is true. But

an ounce of wine makes me drunk. What need have I to count the gallons of

wine in the tavern?

What need have we to know about the infinite powers of God?"

GIRISH (to Trailokya): "Do you believe in the Incarnation of God?"

TRAILOKYA: "God incarnates Himself through His devotees alone. There

cannot be a manifestation of infinite powers. It simply isn't possible. It is

impossible for any man to manifest infinite powers."

GIRISH: "You can serve your children as 'Brahma Gopala'. Then why isn't

it possible to worship a great soul as God?"

MASTER (to Trailokya): "Why all this bother about infinity? If I want to

touch you, must I touch your entire body? If you want to bathe in the

Ganges, must you touch the whole river from Hardwar down to the ocean?

" 'All troubles come to an end when the ego dies.' As long as a trace of 'I-

consciousness'

remains, one is conscious of difference. Nobody knows what remains after

the 'I'

disappears. Nobody can express it in words. That which is remains. After

the 'I'

disappears one cannot say that a part manifests through this man and the

rest through another. Satchidananda is the ocean. The pot of 'I' is immersed

in it. As long as the pot exists, the water seems to be divided into two parts:

one part inside the pot and the other part outside it. But when the pot is

broken there is only one stretch of water. One cannot even say that. Who

would say that?"

After the discussion Sri Ramakrishna became engaged in pleasant

conversation with Trailokya.

MASTER: "You are happy. Isn't that so?"

TRAILOKYA: "But I shall become my old self again as soon as I leave this

place. Here I feel very much the awakening of spiritual consciousness."

MASTER: "You don't have to be afraid of walking on thorns if you are

wearing shoes. You needn't be afraid of 'woman and gold' if you know that

God alone is real and all else illusory."

It was about nine o'clock in the evening. Balarām took Trailokya to another

room and gave him refreshments. Sri Ramakrishna began to tell the

devotees about Trailokya and people of his views.

MASTER (to Girish, M., and the other devotees): "Do you know what these

people are like? They are like a frog living in a well, who has never seen the

outside world. He knows only his well; so he will not believe that there is

such a thing as the world.

Likewise, people talk so much about the world because they have not

known the joy or God.

(To Girish) "Why do you argue with them so much? They busy themselves

with both-the world and God. One cannot understand the joy of God unless

one has tasted it. Can anybody explain sex pleasure to a five-year-old boy?

Worldly people talk about God only from hearsay. Children, hearing their

old aunts quarrelling among themselves, learn to say, 'There is my God', 'I

swear by God.'

"But that doesn't matter. I don't blame such people. Can all comprehend the

Indivisible Satchidananda? Only twelve rishis could recognize

Ramachandra. All cannot recognize an Incarnation of God. Some take him

for an ordinary man, some for a holy person, and only a few recognize him

as an Incarnation.

"One offers a price for an article according to one's capital. A rich man said

to his servant: 'Take this diamond to the market and let me know how

different people price it.

Take it, first of all, to the eggplant seller.' The servant took the diamond to

the eggplant seller. He examined it, turning it over in the palm of his hand,

and said, 'Brother, I can give nine seers of eggplants for it.' 'Friend,' said the

servant, 'a little more-say, ten seers.' The eggplant seller replied: 'No, I have

already quoted above the market price.

You may give it to me if that price suits you.' The servant laughed. He went

back to his master and said: 'Sir, he would give me only nine seers of

eggplants and not one more.

He said he had offered more than the market price.' The master smiled and

said: 'Now take it to the cloth-dealer. The other man deals only in eggplants.

What does he know about a diamond? The cloth-dealer has a little more

capital. Let us see how much he offers for it.' The servant went to the cloth-

dealer and said: 'Will you buy this? How much will you pay for it?' The

merchant said: 'Yes, it is a good thing. I can make a nice ornament out of it.

I will give you nine hundred rupees for it.' 'Brother,' said the servant, 'offer a

little more and I will sell it to you. Give me at least a thousand rupees.'

The cloth-dealer said: 'Friend, don't press me for more. I have offered more

than the market price. I cannot give a rupee more. Suit yourself.' Laughing

the servant returned to his master and said: 'He won't give a rupee more

than nine hundred. He too said he had quoted above the market price.' The

master said with a laugh: 'Now take it to a jeweller. Let us see what he has

to say.' The servant went to a jeweller. The jeweller glanced at the diamond

and said at once, 'I will give you one hundred thousand rupees for it.'

"They talk of practising religion in the world. Suppose a man is shut up in a

room. All the doors and windows are closed. Only a little light comes

through a hole in the ceiling. Can he see the sun with that roof over his

head? And what will he do with only one ray of light? 'Woman and gold' is

the roof. Can he see the sun unless he removes the roof?

Worldly people are shut up in a room, as it were.

Discussion about Divine Incarnations

"The Incarnations of God belong to the class of the Isvarakotis. They roam

about in the open spaces. They are never imprisoned in the world, never

entangled by it. Their ego is not the 'thick ego' of worldly people. The ego,

the 'I-consciousness', of worldly people is like four walls and a roof: the

man inside them cannot see anything outside. The ego of the Incarnations

and other Isvarakotis is a 'thin ego': through it they have an uninterrupted

vision of God. Take the case of a man who stands by a wall on both sides of

which there are meadows stretching to infinity. If there is a hole in the wall,

through it he can see everything on the other side. If the hole is a big one,

he can even pass through it. The ego of the Incarnations and other

Isvarakotis is like the wall with a hole.

Though they remain on this side of the wall, still they can see the endless

meadow on the other side. That is to say, though they have a human body,

they are always united with God. Again, if they will, they can pass through

the big hole to the other side and remain in samādhi. And if the hole is big

enough, they can go through it and come back again. That is to say, though

established in samādhi, they can again descend to the worldly plane."

The devotees listened breathlessly to these words about the mystery of

Divine Incarnation.

--------------------

Chapter 40

THE MASTER AT THE HOUSES OF BALARĀM AND GIRISH

Friday, April 24, 1885

Master and M.

ABOUT ONE O'CLOCK in the afternoon M. arrived at Balarām's house in

Calcutta and found the Master asleep in the drawing-room, one or two

devotees resting near him. M

began to fan the Master gently. A few minutes later Sri Ramakrishna woke

up and sat on the bed with his clothes in a rather untidy condition. M

saluted him and took the dust of his feet.

MASTER (tenderly to M.): "Are you well? I'm feeling rather uneasy. I have

a sore in my throat. I suffer very much during the early hours of the

morning. Can you tell me how I may be cured? (In a worried tone) They

served pickled mango with the meal. I ate a little of it.

"How is your wife? I noticed the other day that she was looking rather

sickly. Give her soothing drinks to keep her nerves cool."

M: "Green coconut milk, sir?"

MASTER: "Yes. A drink made of sugar candy is also good."

M: "Since last Sunday I have been living at our house with my parents."

MASTER: "You have done well. It will be convenient for you to live at

home. Since your parents live there, you won't have to worry so much about

the family."

While Sri Ramakrishna was talking, his mouth became dry. He said to M.,

like a child: "I feel a dryness in my mouth. Do you all feel that way?"

M. (to Jogin): "Is your mouth also drying up?"

JOGIN: "No. Perhaps it is due to the heat."

Jogindra of Ariadaha was an intimate disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, and later,

after the passing away of the Master, renounced the world. Sri

Ramakrishna's clothes were still untidy. Some of the devotees smiled.

MASTER: "I look like a mother nursing her babies. (All laugh.) Well, my

tongue is drying up. Shall I eat a pear or a jamrul?"

BABURAM: "Let me get a jamrul for you."

MASTER: "You don't have to go out in this sun."

M was still fanning the Master.

MASTER: "You may stop now. You have been fanning a long time."

M: "I am not tired, sir."

MASTER (tenderly): "No?"

M taught in a school in the neighbourhood. He had a little recess at one

o'clock, during which he visited Sri Ramakrishna. It was time for him to go

back to the school. He saluted the Master.

MASTER (to M.): "Must you go now?"

A DEVOTEE: "School is not over yet. He came here during recess."

MASTER (smiling): "He is like a mother with seven or eight children. Day

and night she is busy with her worldly duties. But now and then she makes

time to serve her husband."

M.'s school closed at four o'clock. He came back to Balarām's house and

found the Master sitting in the drawing room. The devotees were arriving

one by one. The younger Naren and Ram came. Narendra, too, was there.

M saluted the Master and took a seat, The ladies sent a plate of halua for Sri

Ramakrishna. Because of the sore in his throat he could not eat any hard

food.

MASTER (to Narendra): "Ah! This is nice stuff! Eat some! It is good! Eat

some!" (All laugh.)

Dusk was coming on. Sri Ramakrishna was about to go to the house of

Girish, who had arranged a festival to celebrate the Master's coming. The

Master came down from the second floor of Balarām's house with M. and a

few other devotees. Near the gate he saw a beggar chanting the name of

Rāma, and he stood still. He fell into a meditative mood and remained

standing a few minutes. He said to M., "He sings well" A devotee gave the

beggar four pice.

Sri Ramakrishna entered Bosepara Lane. Laughing, he said to M.: "What

are these people saying? 'There comes Paramahamsa's battalion!' What

these fools say!" (All laugh.)

Sri Ramakrishna entered Girish's house. The latter had invited a large

number of devotees to join the festival. Many of them were present. They

all stood up to receive the Master, who, smiling, took his seat. The devotees

sat around him. Among them were Girish, Mahimacharan, Ram, and

Bhavanāth, and also Baburam, Narendra, Jogin, the younger Naren, Chuni,

Balarām, M., and the other devotees who had accompanied the Master from

Balarām's house.

MASTER (to Mahimacharan): "I said to Girish about you, 'There is one-

very deep. You are only knee-deep.' Now you must help me check up on

what I said. I want to see you two argue. But don't compromise." (All

laugh.) Girish and Mahimacharan started their discussion. Soon Ram said:

"Let them stop. Let us have some kirtan."

MASTER (to Ram): "No, no! This has a great deal of meaning. They are

'Englishmen'. I want to hear what they say."

Discussion about Divine Incarnation

Mahimacharan contended that all could become Krishna by means of

sādhanā. Girish said that Sri Krishna was an Incarnation of God. However

much a man practised sādhanā, he could never be an Incarnation.

MAHIMA: "Do you know what I mean? Let me give an illustration. The

bel-tree can become a mango-tree if only the obstructions are removed. It

can be done by the practice of yoga."

GIRISH: "You may say whatever you like, but it cannot be done either by

the practice of yoga or by anything else. Only a Krishna can become

Krishna. If anybody has all the attributes of another person, Radha for

instance, then he is none other than that person-Radha herself. If I see in a

person all the attributes of Krishna, then I shall conclude that I am seeing

Krishna Himself."

Mahimacharan could not argue well. At last he had to accept Girish's views.

MAHIMA (to Girish): "Yes, sir, both views are right. God has willed the

path of knowledge. He has also willed the path of bhakti. (Pointing to Sri

Ramakrishna) As he says, by different paths people ultimately reach one

and the same goal."

MASTER (aside to Mahima): "You see, what I said was right, wasn't it?"

MAHIMA: "Yes, sir. As you say, both paths are right."

MASTER (pointing to Girish): "Haven't you noticed how deep his faith is?

He forgot to eat his refreshments. Like a dog, he would have tom your

throat if you hadn't accepted his view. But we have enjoyed the discussion.

You two have known each other and I myself have learnt many things."

The musician arrived with his party and sat in the middle of the room. He

was waiting for a sign from Sri Ramakrishna to begin the kirtan. The master

gave his permission.

RAM (to the Master): "Please tell them what to sing."

Kirtan about Radha and Krishna MASTER: "What shall I suggest?

(After a little reflection) Well, let them sing the prelude to the union of

Radha and Krishna."

The musician sang:

My Gora, my treasure, the jewel among men,

Weeps as he chants Sri Radha's name

And rolls on the ground; with fervent love

He chants her name again and again.

The tears stream from his love-filled eyes;

Once more he rolls upon the ground,

As chanting her name he faints away.

The hair on his body stands on end;

His tongue can lisp but a single word.

Says Basu: Why is Gora so restless?

The kirtan continued. Radha had met Krishna on the bank of the Jamuna

under the kadamba tree. Her companions describe her physical and mental

condition: A hundred times each hour, in and out of the room she goes;

Restless, breathing hard, she looks toward the kadamba grove.

Is she afraid of the elders? Has she been possessed by a ghost?

Filled with restlessness, she cannot keep her dress arranged; Her jewels

have fallen off; she trembles every now and then.

Alas, she is so young! A princess born, and a wife besides!

What is it that she craves? We do not understand her mind; But we can

guess her hand is reaching out to catch the moon.

Humbly says Chandidas: Radha has fallen in Krishna's trap.

The kirtan went on. Radha's friends say to her.

Tell us, O Radha of comely face! Tell us what it is that ails you.

Why has your mind wandered away? Why do you claw the earth in frenzy?

Tell us why your golden skin has taken the ashy hue of cinders.

From your body the scarlet cloth has dropped unheeded to the ground;

Ah! Your eyes are red with tears; your lovely lotus face has withered.

Tell us what it is that ails you, lest our hearts should break with grief.

Radha says to her friends:

I long for the sight of Krishna's face.

The musician sang again.

Hearing Krishna's flute, Radha has gone mad. She says to her friends:

Who is the Sorcerer that dwells in the kadamba grove?

His flute-notes suddenly enter my ears and strike a chord in my heart;

Piercing my very soul, they slay my dharma and drive me mad.

With restless mind and streaming eyes, alas! I can scarcely breathe:

How He plays His magic flute, whose music thrills my soul!

Because He is out of my sight, my heart expires; I cannot stay home.

My soul yearns for Him; racked with pain, it longs to see Him once more.

Says Uddhava Das: But you will die, O Radha, when you behold Him!

The music continued. Radha's heart yearns for the vision of Krishna. She

says to her friends:

First I heard His magic flute from the kadamba grove, And the next day the

minstrel told me of Him and thrilled my soul;

Another day, O friend of my heart, you chanted His blessed name.

(Ah, the blessed name of Krishna, full of honeyed sweetness!) The wise men,

too, described to me His virtues without number.

I am a weak and simple girl, and stern, alas! are my elders; My love for my

Beloved grows; how can I live any longer?

After reflecting long, I find that I must die at last: Can you not tell me a

way, O friend, by which I may meet my Krishna?

As Sri Ramakrishna heard the line, "Ah, the blessed name of Krishna, full

of honeyed sweetness!", he could not remain seated any longer. He stood up

in a state of unconsciousness and went into deep samādhi. The younger

Naren stood at his right.

Regaining partial consciousness, the Master repeated the name of Krishna

in his melodious voice. Tears flowed down his cheeks. He sat down again.

The musician continued his singing.

Visakha, a friend of Radha, runs out and brings a portrait of Krishna. She

holds it before Radha's eyes. Radha says: "I see the picture of Him whom I

beheld on the Jamuna's bank. Ever since then I have been in this plight.

I see the picture of Him whom I beheld on the Jamuna's bank; The name

Visakha spoke is the name of Him who is painted here.

He who played on the flute is the Beloved of my soul; His virtues the

minstrel sang to me; He has bewitched my heart.

It is none other than He!" So saying, Radha falls in a swoon.

Restored to her senses by her friends, at once she says to them, "Show me

Him, O friends, whom I saw reflected in my soul."

And they promise her that they will.

Now Sri Ramakrishna with Narendra and the other devotees began to sing

the kirtan in a loud voice. They sang:

Behold, the two brothers have come, who weep while chanting Hari's name.

. . .

They continued:

See how all Nadia is shaking

Under the waves of Gaurānga's love. . . .

Again Sri Ramakrishna went into samādhi. After regaining consciousness

of the outer world, he returned to his seat. Turning to M., he said, "I don't

remember which way I was facing before." Then he began to talk to the

devotees.

About Hazra

NARENDRA (to the Master): "Hazra has now become a good man."

MASTER: "You don't know. There are people who repeat Rāma's name

with their tongues but hide stones under their arms to throw at others."

NARENDRA: "I don't agree with you, sir. I asked him about the things

people complain of. He denied them."

MASTER: "He is steadfast in his devotions. He practises japa a little. But

he also behaves in a queer way. He doesn't pay the coachman his fare."

NARENDRA: "That isn't true, sir. He said he had paid it."

MASTER: "Where did he get the money?"

NARENDRA: "From Ramlal or someone else."

MASTER: "Did you ask him all these things in detail? Once I prayed to the

Divine Mother, 'O Mother, if Hazra is a hypocrite then please remove him

from here.' Later on I told him of my prayer. After a few days he came to

me and said, 'You see, I am still here.' (The Master and the others laugh.)

But soon afterwards he left.

"Hazra's mother begged me through Ramlal to ask Hazra to come home.

She was almost blind with weeping. I tried in various ways to persuade him

to visit her. I said: 'Your mother is old. Go and see her once.' I couldn't

make him go. Afterwards the poor mother died weeping for him."

NARENDRA: "This time he will go home."

MASTER: "Yes, yes! He will go home! He is a rogue. He is a rascal. You

don't understand him. You are a fool. Gopal said that Hazra stayed at Sinthi

a few days. People used to supply him with butter, rice, and other food. He

had the impudence to tell them he couldn't swallow such coarse rice and

bad butter. Ishan of Bhatpara accompanied him there. He ordered Ishan to

carry water for him. That made the other brahmins very angry."

NARENDRA: "I asked him about that too. He said that Ishan Babu had

himself come forward with the water. Besides, many brahmins of Bhatpara

showed him respect."

MASTER (smiling): "That was the result of his japa and austerity. You see,

physical traits to a great extent influence character. Short stature and a body

with dents here and there are not good traits. People with such traits take a

long time to acquire spiritual knowledge."

BHAVANĀTH: "Let us stop talking about these things."

MASTER: "Don't misunderstand me. (To Narendra) You say you

understand people; that is why I am telling you all this. Do you know how I

look on people like Hazra? I know that just as God takes the form of holy

men, so He also takes the form of cheats and rogues. (To Mahimacharan)

What do you say? All are God."

MAHIMA: "Yes, sir. All are God."

GIRISH (to the Master): "Sir, what is ekangi prema?"

MASTER: "It means one-sided love. For instance, the water does not seek

the duck, but the duck loves water. There are other kinds of love: sadharani,

samanjasa, and samartha. In the first, which is ordinary love, the lover seeks

his own happiness; he doesn't care whether the other person is happy or not.

That was Chandravali's attitude toward Krishna. In the second, which is a

compromise, both seek each other's happiness. This is a noble kind of love.

But the third is the highest of all. Such a lover says to his beloved, 'Be

happy yourself, whatever may happen to me.' Radha had this highest love.

She was happy in Krishna's happiness. The gopis, too, had attained this

exalted state.

"Do you know who the gopis were? Ramachandra was wandering in the

forest where sixty thousand rishis dwelt. They were very eager to see Him.

He cast a tender glance at them. According to a certain Purana, they were

born later on as the gopis of Vrindāvan."

A DEVOTEE: "Sir, who may be called an antaranga?"

MASTER: "Let me give an illustration. A natmandir has pillars inside and

outside. An antaranga is like the inside pillars. Those who always live near

the guru are the antarangas.

(To Mahimacharan) "The Jnāni wants neither a form of God nor His

Incarnation. While wandering in the forest, Ramachandra saw a number of

rishis. They welcomed Him to their Āśrama with great love and said to

Him: 'O Rāma, today our life is blessed because we have seen You. But we

know You as the son of Daśaratha. Bharadvaja and other sages call You a

Divine Incarnation; but that is not our view. We meditate on the Indivisible

Satchidananda.' Rāma was pleased with them and smiled.

Master's exalted mood

"Ah, what a state of mind I passed through! My mind would lose itself in

the Indivisible Absolute. How many days I spent that way! I renounced

bhakti and bhakta, devotion and devotee. I became inert. I could not feel the

form of my own head. I was about to die. I thought of keeping Ramlal's

aunt near me.

"I ordered the removal of all pictures and portraits from my room. When I

regained outer consciousness, when the mind climbed down to the ordinary

level, I felt as if I were being suffocated like a drowning person. At last I

said to myself, 'If I can't bear people, then how shall I live?' Then my mind

was again directed to bhakti and bhakta.

'What has happened to me?' I kept asking people. Bholanath said to me,

'This state of mind has been described in the Mahabharata.' How can a man

live, on coming down from the plane of samādhi? Surely he requires

devotion to God and the company of devotees. Otherwise, how will he keep

his mind occupied?"

MAHIMACHARAN (to the Master): "Sir, can a man return from the plane

of samādhi to the plane of the ordinary world?"

MASTER (in a low voice, to Mahima): "I shall tell you privately. You are

the only one fit to hear it.

Difference between a jiva and an Incarnation

"Koar Singh also asked me that question. You see, there is a vast difference

between the jiva and Isvara. Through worship and austerity, a jiva can at the

utmost attain samādhi; but he cannot come down from that state. On the

other hand, an Incarnation of God can come down from samādhi. A jiva is

like an officer of the king; he can go as far as the outer court of the seven-

storey palace. But the king's son has access to all the seven floors; he can

also go outside. Everybody says that no one can return from the plane of

samādhi. In that case, how do you account for sages like Sankara and

Ramanuja? They retained the 'ego of Knowledge'."

MAHIMA: "That is true, indeed. Otherwise, how could they write books?"

MASTER: "Again, there are the instances of sages like Prahlada, Nārada,

and Hanuman.

They too retained bhakti after attaining samādhi."

MAHIMA: "That is true, sir."

Divine knowledge destroys egotism

MASTER: "Some people indulge in philosophical speculation and think

much of themselves. Perhaps they have studied a little Vedānta. But a man

cannot be egotistic if he has true knowledge. In other words, in samādhi

man becomes one with God and gets rid of his egotism. True knowledge is

impossible without samādhi. In samādhi man becomes one with God. Then

he can have no egotism.

"Do you know what it is like? Just at noon the sun is directly overhead. If

you look around, then, you do not see your shadow. Likewise, you will not

find the 'shadow' of ego after attaining Knowledge, samādhi.

The ego after God-vision

"But if you see in anyone a trace of 'I-consciousness' after the attainment of

true Knowledge, then know that it is either the 'ego of Knowledge' or the

'ego of Devotion' or the 'servant ego'. It is not the 'ego of ignorance'.

"Again, jnāna and bhakti are twin paths. Whichever you follow, it is God

that you will ultimately reach. The Jnāni looks on God in one way and the

bhakta looks on Him in another way. The God of the Jnāni is full of

brilliance, and the God of the bhakta full of sweetness."

Bhavanāth was seated near the Master, listening to these words.

BHAVANĀTH (to the Master): "Sir, I have a question to ask. I don't quite

understand the Chandi. It is written there that the Divine Mother kill all

beings. What does that mean?"

MASTER: "This is all Her lila, Her sportive pleasure. That question used to

bother me too.

Later I found out that all is māyā. Both creation and destruction are God's

māyā."

Girish conducted Sri Ramakrishna and the devotees to the roof, where the

meal was served. There was a bright moon in the sky. The devotees took

their seats. The Master occupied a seat in front of them. All were in a

joyous mood.

Sri Ramakrishna was beside himself with joy at the sight of Narendra. The

beloved disciple sat in the front row. Every now and then the Master asked

how he was 'getting along. He had hardly finished half his meal when he

came to Narendra with some water-melon sherbet and curd from his own

plate. Tenderly he said to the disciple, "Please eat this." Then he went back

to his own place.

Saturday, May 9, 1885

It was about three o'clock in the afternoon. Sri Ramakrishna sat in

Balarām's drawing-room in a happy mood. Many devotees were present.

Narendra, M., Bhavanāth, Purna, Paltu, the younger Naren, Girish, Ram,

Binode, Dwija, and others sat around him.

Balarām was not there. He had gone to Monghyr for a change of air. His

eldest daughter had invited Sri Ramakrishna and the devotees and

celebrated the occasion with a feast.

The Master was resting after the meal.

Again and again the Master asked M.: "Am I liberal-minded? Tell me."

BHAVANĀTH (smiling): "Why do you ask him? He will only keep quiet."

A beggar entered the room. He wanted to sing. The devotees listened to a

song or two. Narendra liked his singing and asked him to sing more.

MASTER: "Stop! Stop! We don't want any more songs. Where is the

money? (To Narendra) You may order the music, but who will pay?"

A DEVOTEE (smiling): "Sir, the beggar may think you are an amir, a

wealthy aristocrat, the way you are leaning against that big pillow.(All

laugh.) MASTER (smiling): "He may also think I am ill."

The conversation drifted to Hazra and his egotism. For some reason he had

had to go away from Dakshineswar.

NARENDRA: "Hazra now admits he was egotistic."

MASTER: "Don't believe him. He says so in order to come back to

Dakshineswar. (To the devotees) Narendra always insists that Hazra is a

grand person."

NARENDRA: "Even now I say so."

MASTER: "Why? You have heard so much about him, and still you think

so?"

NARENDRA: "He has slight defects but many virtues."

Hazra's selfishness

MASTER: "I admit that he has devotion to his ideal. He said to me, 'You

don't care for me now, but later you will be seeking my company.' A

goswami came from Srerampore.

He was a descendant of Advaita Goswami. He intended to spend a night or

two at the temple garden. I asked him very cordially to stay. Do you know

what Hazra said to me?

He said, 'Send him to the temple officer.' What was in his mind was that the

goswami might ask for milk or food, and that he might have to give him

some from his own share.

I said to Hazra: 'Now, you rogue! Even I prostrate myself before him

because he is a goswami. And you, after leading a worldly life and

indulging a great deal in "woman and gold", have so much pride because of

a little japa! Aren't you ashamed of yourself?'

"One realizes God through sattva. Rajas and tamas take one away from

Him. The scriptures describe sattva as white, rajas as red, and tamas as

black. Once I asked Hazra: Tell me what you think of the people that come

here. How much sattva does each one possess?' He said, 'Narendra has one

hundred per cent and I have one hundred and ten per cent.' 'What about

me?' I asked. And he said: 'You still have a trace of pink. You have only

seventy five per cent, I should say.' (All laugh.) "Hazra used to practise japa

at Dakshineswar. While telling his beads, he would also try to do a little

brokerage business. He has a debt of a few thousand rupees which he must

clear up. About the brahmin cooks of the temple he remarked, 'Do you think

I talk with people of that sort?'

"The truth is that you cannot attain God if you have even a trace of desire.

Subtle is the way of dharma. If you are trying to thread a needle, you will

not succeed if the thread has even a slight fibre sticking out.

"There are people who perform japa for thirty years and still do not attain

any result.

Why? A gangrenous sore requires very drastic treatment. Ordinary

medicine won't cure it.

God's grace

"No matter how much sādhanā you practise, you will not realize the goal as

long as you have desire. But this also is true, that one can fealize the goal in

a moment through the grace of God, through His kindness. Take the case of

a room that has been dark a thousand years. If somebody suddenly brings a

lamp into it, the room is lighted in an instant.

"Suppose a poor man's son has fallen into the good graces of a rich person.

He marries his daughter. Immediately he gets an equipage, clothes,

furniture, a house, and other things."

A DEVOTEE: "Sir, how does one receive God's grace?"

MASTER: "God has the nature of a child. A child is sitting with gems in

the skirt of his cloth. Many a person passes by him along the road. Many of

them pray to him for gems.

But he hides the gems with his hands and says, turning away his face, 'No, I

will not give any away.' But another man comes along. He doesn't ask for

the gems, and yet the child runs after him and offers him the gems, begging

him to accept them.

"One cannot realize God without renunciation. Who will accept my words?

I have been seeking a companion, a sympathetic soul who will understand

my feelings. When I see a great devotee, I say to myself, 'Perhaps he will

accept my ideal.' But later on I find that he behaves in a different way.

"A ghost sought a companion. One becomes a ghost if one dies from an

accident on a Saturday or a Tuesday. So whenever the ghost found someone

who seemed to be dying from an accident on either of these days, he would

run to him. He would say to himself that at last he had found his companion

But no sooner would he run to the man than he would see the man getting

up. The man, perhaps, had fallen from a roof and after a few moments

regained consciousness.

"Once Mathur Babu was in an ecstatic mood. He behaved like a drunkard

and could not look after his work. At this all said: 'Who will look after his

estate if he behaves like that?

Certainly the young priest has cast a spell upon him.'

"During one of Narendra's early visits I touched his chest and he became

unconscious.

Regaining consciousness, he wept and said: 'Oh, why did you do that to

me? I have a father! I have a mother!' This 'I' and 'mine' spring from

ignorance.

Unreality of all worldly relationships

"A guru said to his disciple: 'The world is illusory. Come away with me.'

'But, revered sir,' said the disciple, 'my people at home-my father, my

mother, my wife-love me so much. How can I give them up?' The guru said:

No doubt you now have this feeling of "I" and "mine" and say that they

love you; but this is all an illusion of your mind. I shall teach you a trick,

and you will know whether they love you truly or not.' Saying this, the

teacher gave the disciple a pill and said to him: 'Swallow this at home. You

will appear to be a corpse, but you will not lose consciousness. You will see

everything and hear everything. Then I shall come to your house and

gradually you will regain your normal state.'

"The disciple followed the teacher's instructions and lay on his bed like a

dead person: The house was filled with loud wailing. His mother, his wife,

and the others lay on the ground weeping bitterly. Just then a brahmin

entered the house and said to them, 'What is the matter with you?' 'This boy

is dead', they replied. The brahmin felt his pulse and said: 'How is that? No,

he is not dead. I have a medicine for him that will cure him completely.' The

joy of the relatives was unbounded; it seemed to them that heaven itself had

come down into their house. 'But', said the brahmin, 'I must tell you

something else. Another person must take some of this medicine first and

then the boy must swallow the rest. But the other person will die. I see he

has so many dear relatives here; one of them will certainly agree to take the

medicine. I see his wife and mother crying bitterly. Surely they will not

hesitate to take it.'

"At once the weeping stopped and all sat quiet. The mother said: 'Well, this

is a big family. Suppose I die; then who will look after the family?' She fell

into a reflective mood. The wife, who had been crying a minute before and

bemoaning her ill luck, said: 'Well, he has gone the way of mortals. I have

these two or three young children. Who will look after them if I die?'

"The disciple saw everything and heard everything. He stood up at once and

said to the teacher: 'Let us go, revered sir. I will follow you.' (All laugh.)

"Another disciple said to his teacher: 'Revered sir, my wife takes great care

of me. It is for her sake that I cannot give up the world.' The disciple

practised hathayoga. The teacher taught him, too, a trick to test his wife's

love. One day there was a great wailing in his house. The neighbours came

running and saw the hathayogi seated in a posture, his limbs paralysed and

distorted. They thought he was dead. His wife fell on the ground, weeping

piteously: 'Oh, what has befallen me? How have you provided for our

future?

Oh, friends, I never dreamt I should meet such a fate!'

"In the mean time the relatives and friends had brought a cot to take the

corpse out. But suddenly a difficulty arose as they started to move it. Since

the body was twisted and stiff, it could not be taken out through the door. A

neighbour quickly brought an axe and began to chop away the door-frame.

The wife was crying bitterly, when she heard the sound of the axe. She ran

to the door. 'What are you doing, friends?' she asked, still weeping. The

neighbour said, 'We can't take the body out; so we are chopping away the

door-frame.'

"'Please', said the wife, 'don't do any such thing. I am a widow now; I have

no one to look after me. I have to bring up these young children. If you

destroy this door, I shall not be able to replace it. Friends, death is inevitable

for all, and my husband cannot be called back to life. You had better cut his

limbs.' The hathayogi at once stood up. The effect of the medicine had worn

off. He said to his wife: 'You evil one! You want to cut off my hands and

feet, do you?' So saying, he renounced home and followed his teacher.

(All laugh.)

"Many women make a show of grief. Knowing beforehand that they will

have to weep, they first take off their nose-rings and other ornaments, put

them securely in a box, and lock it. Then they fall on the ground and weep,

O friends, what has befallen us?'"

Narendra's scepticism

NARENDRA: "How can I believe, without proof, that God incarnates Him

self as a man?"

GIRISH: "Faith alone is sufficient. What is the proof that these objects exist

here? Faith alone is the proof."

A DEVOTEE: "Have philosophers been able to prove that the external

world exists outside us? But they say we have an irresistible belief in it."

GIRISH (to Narendra): "You wouldn't believe, even if God appeared before

you. God Himself might say that He was God born as a man, but perhaps

you would say that He was a liar and a cheat."

The conversation turned to the immortality of the gods.

NARENDRA: "What is the proof of their immortality?"

GIRISH: "You wouldn't believe it even if the gods appeared before you."

NARENDRA: "That the immortals existed in the past requires proof."

M whispered something to Paltu.

PALTU (smiling, to Narendra): "What need is there for the immortals to be

without beginning? To be immortal one need only be without end."

MASTER (smiling): "Narendra is the son of a lawyer, but Paltu of a deputy

magistrate."

(All laugh.)

All kept silent awhile.

JOGIN (smiling): "He: [meaning the Master] doesn't accept Narendra's

words any more."

MASTER (smiling); "One day I remarked that the chatak bird doesn't drink

any water except that which falls from the sky. Narendra said, 'The chatak

drinks ordinary water as well.' Then I said to the Divine Mother, 'Mother,

then are my words untrue?' I was greatly worried about it. Another day,

later on, Narendra was here. Several birds were flying about in the room.

He exclaimed, 'There! There!' 'What is there?' I asked. He said, 'There is

your chatak!' I found they were only bats. Since that day I don't accept what

he says. (All laugh.)

"At Jadu Mallick's garden house Narendra said to me, The forms of God

that you see are the fiction of your mind.' I was amazed and said to him,

'But they speak too! 'Narendra answered, 'Yes, one may think so.' I went to

the temple and wept before the Mother. 'O

Mother,' I said, 'what is this? Then is this all false? How could Narendra say

that?'

Instantly I had a revelation. I saw Consciousness-Indivisible

Consciousness-and a divine being formed of that Consciousness. The divine

form said to me, 'If your words are untrue, how is that they tally with the

facts? Thereupon I said to Narendra: 'You rogue!

You created unbelief in my mind. Don't come here any more.'

The discussion continued. Narendra was arguing. He was then slightly Over

twenty-two years of age.

Narendra (to Girish, M., and others): "How am I to believe in the Words of

scripture?

The Mahanirvana Tantra says, in one place, that unless a man attains the

Knowledge of Brahman he goes to hell; and the same book says, in another

place, that there is no salvation without the worship of Parvathi, the Divine

Mother. Manu writes about himself in the Manusamhita; Moses describes

his own death in Pentateuch.

"The Samkhya philosophy says that God does not exit, because there is no

proof of His existence. Again, the same philosophy says that one must

accept the Vedas and that they are eternal.

"But I don't say that these are not true. I simply don't understand them.

Please explain them to me. People have explained the scriptures according

to their fancy. Which explanation shall we accept? White light coming

through a red medium appears red, through a green medium, green."

A DEVOTEE:' "The Gitā contains the words of God."

MASTER: "Yes, the Gitā is the essence of all scriptures. A sannyāsi may or

may not keep with him another book, but he always carries a pocket Gitā."

A DEVOTEE: "The Gitā contains the words of Krishna."

NARENDRA: "Yes, Krishna or any fellow for that matter!"

Sri Ramakrishna was amazed at these words of Narendra.

MASTER: "This is a fine discussion. There are two interpretations of the

scriptures: the literal and the real. 'One should accept the real meaning

alone-what agrees with the words of God. There is a vast difference

between the words written in a letter and the direct words of its writer. The

scriptures are like the words of the letter; the words of God are direct

words. I do not accept anything unless it agrees with the direct words of the

Divine Mother."

The conversation again turned to Divine Incarnation.

NARENDRA: "It is enough to have faith in God. I don't care about what He

is doing or what He hangs from. Infinite is the universe; infinite are the

Incarnations."

As Sri Ramakrishna heard the words, "Infinite is the universe; infinite are

the Incarnations", he said with folded hands, "Ah!"

M whispered something to Bhavanāth.

BHAVANĀTH: "M. says: 'As long as I have not seen the elephant, how can

I know whether it can pass through the eye of a needle? I do not, know

God; how can I understand through reason whether or not He can incarnate

Himself as man?"

MASTER: "Everything is possible for God. It is He who casts the spell.

The magician swallows the knife and takes it out again; he swallows stones

and bricks."

A DEVOTEE: "The Brahmos say that a man should perform his worldly

duties. He must not renounce them."

GIRISH: "Yes, I saw something like that in their paper, the Sulabha

Samachar. But a man cannot even finish all the works that are necessary for

him in order to know God, and still he speaks of worldly duties."

Sri Ramakrishna smiled a little, looked at M., and made a sign with his eye,

as if to say, "What he says is right."

M understood that this question of performing duties was an extremely

difficult one.

Purna arrived.

MASTER: "Who told you about our being here?"

PURNA: "Sarada."

MASTER (to the woman devotees): "Give him some refreshments."

Narendra's music

Narendra was preparing to sing. The Master and the devotees were eager to

hear his music. Narendra sang:

Śiva, Thy ready thunderbolt rules over meadows, hills, and sky!

O God of Gods! O Slayer of Time! Thou the Great Void, the King of

Dharma!

Śiva, Thou Blessed One, redeem me; take away my grievous sin.

He sang again:

Sweet is Thy name, O Refuge of the humble!

It falls like sweetest nectar on our ears

And comforts us, Beloved of our souls! . . .

Again:

Why, O mind, do you never call on Him

Who takes away all fear of danger?

Tricked by delusion you forget yourself,

Enamoured of the world's bleak wilderness.

Alas, what mockery is here!

Comrades and wealth you cannot always keep;

Take care lest you forget Him quite.

Give up the false, O mind! Adore the Real;

And all the grief will vanish from your life.

Keep my good counsel in your heart.

With sounding voice proclaim Lord Hari's name

And cast away your false desires,

If you would cross the ocean of this life;

Surrender to Him body, mind, and soul,

And worship Him with trusting love.

PALTU: "Won't you sing that one?"

NARENDRA: "Which one?"

PALTU: "'When I behold Thy peerless face.' "

Narendra sang:

When I behold Thy peerless face, beaming with love, a Lord, What fear

have I of earthly woe or of the frown of sorrow?

As the first ray of the dawning sun dispels the dark, So too, Lord, when Thy

blessed light bursts forth within the heart,

It scatters all our grief and pain with sweetest balm.

When on Thy love and grace I ponder, in my heart's deepest depths,

Tears of joy stream down my cheeks beyond restraining.

Hail, Gracious Lord! Hail, Gracious One! I shall proclaim Thy love.

May my life-breath depart from me as I perform Thy works!

At M.'s request Narendra sang again, M. and many of the devotees listening

with folded hands:

Be drunk, O mind, be drunk with the Wine of Heavenly Bliss!

Roll on the ground and weep, chanting Hari's sweet name! . . .

Narendra sang again:

Meditate, O my mind, on the Lord Hari,

The Stainless One, Pure Spirit through and through.

How peerless is the light that in Him shines!

How soul-bewitching is His wondrous form!

How dear is He to all His devotees! . . .

He sang another song:

This universe, wondrous and infinite,

O Lord, is Thy handiwork;

And the whole world is a treasure-house

Full of Thy beauty and grace

The stars glisten innumerable,

Like gems on a necklace of gold;

How can the myriad suns and moons

Ever be numbered above?

The earth is glowing with grain and gold,

Thine ever brimming store;

Uncounted stars, O God, sing forth:

Blessed, blessed art Thou!

Then he sang:

Upon the tray of the sky blaze bright

The lamps of sun and moon;

Like diamonds shine the glittering stars

To deck Thy wondrous form. . . .

He continued:

Fasten your mind, O man, on the Primal Purusha, Who is the Cause of all

causes,

The Stainless One, the Beginningless Truth

As Prāna He pervades the infinite universe;

The man of faith beholds Him

Living, resplendent, the Root of all. . . .

At Narayan's request Narendra sang:

Come! Come, Mother! Doll of my soul! My heart's Delight!

In my heart's lotus come and sit, that I may see Thy face.

Alas! Sweet Mother, even from birth I have suffered much; But I have borne

it all, Thou knowest, gazing at Thee.

Open the lotus of my heart, dear Mother! Reveal Thyself there.

Then Narendra sang a song of his own choice:

In dense darkness, O Mother, Thy formless beauty sparkles; Therefore the

yogis meditate in a dark mountain cave. . . .

As Sri Ramakrishna heard this soul-enthralling song, he went into samādhi.

Narendra again sang:

Be drunk, O mind, be drunk with the Wine 'Of Heavenly Bliss!

The Master was in samādhi. He was sitting on a pillow, dangling his feet,

facing the north and leaning against the wall. The devotees were seated

around him.

In an ecstatic mood Sri Ramakrishna talked to the Divine Mother. He said:

"I shall take my meal now. Art Thou come? Hast Thou found Thy lodging

and left Thy baggage there and then come out?" He continued: "I don't

enjoy anybody's company now. Why should I listen to the music, Mother?

That diverts part of my mind to the outside world."

The Master was gradually regaining consciousness of the outer world.

Looking at the devotees he said: "Years ago I used to be amazed to see

people keeping kai fish alive in a pot of water. I would say: 'How cruel

these people are! They will finally kill the fish.'

But later, as changes came over my mind, I realized that bodies are like

pillow-cases. It doesn't matter whether they remain or drop off."

BHAVANĀTH: "Then may one injure a man without incurring sin? Kill

him?"

MASTER: "Yes, it is permissible if one has achieved that state of mind. But

not everyone has it. It is the state of Brahmajnana.

"By coming down a step or two from samādhi I enjoy bhakti and bhakta.

Vidyā-māyā and Avidyā-māyā

"There exist in God both vidyā and avidyā. Vidyā-māyā leads one to God,

and Avidyā-

māyā away from Him. Knowledge, devotion, compassion, and renunciation

belong to the realm of vidyā. With the help of these a man comes near God.

One step more and he attains God, Knowledge of Brahman. In that state he

clearly feels and sees that it is God who has become everything. He has

nothing to give up and nothing to accept. It is impossible for him to be

angry with anyone.

"One day I was riding in a carriage. I saw two prostitutes standing on a

verandah. They appeared to me to be embodiments of the Divine Mother

Herself. I saluted them.

"When I first attained this exalted state I could not worship Mother Kāli or

give Her the food offering. Haladhāri and Hriday told me that on account of

this the temple officer had slandered me. But I only laughed; I wasn't in the

least angry. Attain Brahmajnana and then roam about enjoying God's lila. A

holy man came to a town and went about seeing the sights. He met another

sādhu, an acquaintance. The latter said: 'I see you are gadding about. Where

is your baggage? I hope no thief has stolen it.' The first sādhu said: 'Not at

all. First I found a lodging, put my things in the room in proper order, and

locked the door. Now I am enjoying the fun of the city.' "(All laugh.)

BHAVANĀTH: "These are very lofty words."

M (to himself): "Tasting God's lila after Brahmajnana! Climbing down to

the ordinary plane of consciousness after the attainment of samādhi!"

Knowledge of Brahman

MASTER (to M. and the others): "Is it an easy thing to obtain the

Knowledge of Brahman? It is not possible unless the mind is annihilated.

The guru said to the disciple, 'Give me your mind and I shall give you

Knowledge.' In this state one enjoys only spiritual talk and the company of

devotees.

(To Ram) "You are a physician. You know that medicine works only when

it mixes with the patient's blood and becomes one with it. Likewise, in the

state of Brahmajnana one sees God both within and without. One sees that

it is God Himself who has become the body, mind, life, and soul."

M (to himself): "Assimilation!"

MASTER: "A man attains Brahmajnana as soon as his mind is annihilated.

With the annihilation of the mind dies the ego, which says 'I', 'I'. One also

attains the knowledge of Brahman by following the path of devotion. One

also attains it by following the path of knowledge, that is to say,

discrimination. The jnanis discriminate, saying, 'Neti, neti', that is, 'All this

is illusory, like a dream.' They analyse the world through the process of 'Not

this, not this'; it is māyā. When the world vanishes, only the jivas, that is to

say, so many egos, remain.

"Each ego may be likened to a pot. Suppose there are ten pots filled with

water, and the sun is reflected in them. How many suns do you see?"

A DEVOTEE: "Ten reflections. Besides, there certainly exists the real

Sun."

MASTER: "Suppose you break one pot. How many suns do you see now?"

DEVOTEE: "Nine reflected suns. But there certainly exists the real sun."

MASTER: "All right. Suppose you break nine pots. How many suns do you

see now?"

DEVOTEE: "One reflected sun. But there certainly exists the real sun."

MASTER (to Girish): "What remains when the last pot is broken?"

GIRISH: "That real sun, sir."

MASTER: "No. What remains cannot be described. What is remains. How

will you know there is a real sun unless there is a reflected sun? 'I-

consciousness' is destroyed in samādhi. A man climbing down from

samādhi to the lower plane cannot describe what he has seen there." It was

late in the evening. Lamps were burning in the drawing-room.

Sri Ramakrishna was in a spiritual mood. The devotees sat around him.

MASTER (in the ecstatic mood): "There is no one else here; so I am telling

you this. He who from the depth of his soul seeks to know God will

certainly realize Him. He must. He alone who is restless for God and seeks

nothing but Him will certainly realize Him.

"Those who belong to this place have already come. Those who will come

from now on are outsiders. Such people will come now and then. The

Divine Mother will tell them: 'Do this. Call on God in this way.'

"Why doesn't man's mind dwell on God? You see, more powerful than God

is His Mahamaya, His Power of Illusion. More powerful than the judge is

his orderly. (All laugh.)

The all-powerful māyā

"Rāma said to Nārada: 'I am very much pleased with your prayer. Ask a

boon of Me.'

Nārada replied, 'O Rāma, may I have pure devotion to Your Lotus Feet, and

may I not be deluded by Your world-bewitching māyā!' Rāma said, 'Be it

so: ask for something else.'

Nārada replied, 'No, Rāma, I do not want any other boon.'

"Everyone is under the spell of this world-bewitching māyā. When God

assumes a human body, He too comes under the spell. Rāma wandered

about weeping for Sita. 'Brahman weeps entangled in the snare of the five

elements.' But you must remember this: God, by His mere will, can liberate

Himself from this snare."

BHAVANĀTH: "The guard of a railway train shuts himself of his own will

in a carriage; but he can get out whenever he wants to.'

MASTER: 'The Isvarakotis-Divine Incarnations, for instance-can liberate

themselves whenever they want to; but the jivakotis cannot. Jivas are

imprisoned by 'woman and gold'. When the doors and windows of a room

are fastened with screws, how can a man get out?"

BHAVANĀTH (smiling): "Ordinary men are like the third-class passengers

on a railway train. When the doors of their compartments are locked, they

have no way to get out."

GIRISH: "If a man is so strongly tied hand and foot, then what is his way?"

MASTER: "He has nothing to fear if God Himself, as the guru cuts the

chain of māyā."

--------------------

Chapter 41

AT RAM'S HOUSE

Saturday, May 23, 1885

SRI RAMAKRISHNA was sitting in the drawing-room on the ground floor

of Ram's house.

He was surrounded by devotees and was conversing with them. Mahima sat

in front of him, M. to his left. Paltu, Bhavanāth, Nityagopal, Haramohan,

and a few others sat around him. It was about five o'clock in the afternoon.

The Master inquired after several devotees.

MASTER (to M.): "Hasn't the younger Naren arrived yet?"

Presently the younger Naren entered the room.

MASTER: "What about him?"

M: "Who, sir?"

MASTER: "Kishori. Isn't Girish Ghosh coming? What about Narendra?" A

few minutes later Narendra arrived and saluted Sri Ramakrishna.

MASTER (to the devotees): "It would be fine if Kedār were here. He agrees

with Girish.

(To Mahima, smiling) He says the same thing."

Ram had arranged the kirtan. With folded hands the musician said to Sri

Ramakrishna, "Sir, I can begin if you give the order."

The Master drank some water and chewed spices from a small bag. He

asked M. to close the bag.

The musician started the kirtan. As Sri Ramakrishna heard the sound of the

drum he went into an ecstatic mood. While listening to the prelude of the

kirtan he plunged into deep samādhi. He placed his legs on the lap of

Nityagopal, who was sitting near him.

The devotee, too, was in an ecstatic mood. He was weeping. The other

devotees looked on intently.

Nitya and Lila

Regaining partial consciousness, Sri Ramakrishna said: "From the Nitya to

the Lila and from the Lila to the Nitya. (To Nityagopal) What is your

ideal?"

NITYAGOPAL: "Both are good."

Sri Ramakrishna closed his eyes and said: "Is it only this? Does God exist

only when the eyes are closed, and cease to exist when the eyes are opened?

The Lila belongs to Him to whom the Nitya belongs, and the Nitya belongs

to Him to whom the Lila belongs. (To Mahima) My dear sir, let me tell you-

MAHIMA: "Revered sir, both are according to the will of God."

MASTER: "Some people climb the seven floors of a building and cannot

get down; but some climb up and then, at will, visit the lower floors.

"Uddhava said to the gopis: 'He whom you address as your Krishna dwells

in all beings.

It is He alone who has become the universe and its living beings.'

"Therefore I say, does a man meditate on God only when his eyes are

closed? Doesn't he see anything of God when his eyes are open?"

MAHIMA: "I have a question to ask, sir. A lover of God needs Nirvāna

some time or other, doesn't he?"

The seed of bhakti cannot be destroyed

MASTER: "It can't be said that bhaktas need Nirvāna. According to some

schools there is an eternal Krishna and there are also His eternal devotees.

Krishna is Spirit embodied, and His Abode also is Spirit embodied. Krishna

is eternal and the devotees also are eternal. Krishna and the devotees are

like the moon and the stars-always near each other. You yourself repeat:

'what need is there of penance if God is seen within and without?' Further, I

have told you that the devotee who is born with an element of Vishnu

cannot altogether get rid of bhakti.

Once I fell into the clutches of a Jnāni, who made me listen to Vedānta for

eleven months. But he couldn't altogether destroy the seed of bhakti in me.

No matter where my mind wandered, it would come back to the Divine

Mother. Whenever I sang of Her, Nangta would weep and say, 'Ah! What is

this?' You see, he was such a great Jnāni and still he wept. (To the younger

Naren and the others) Remember the popular saying that if a man drinks the

juice of the Ālekh creeper, a plant grows inside his stomach. Once the seed

of bhakti is sown, the effect is inevitable: it will gradually grow into a tree

with flowers and fruits.

"You may reason and argue a thousand times, but if you have the seed of

bhakti within you, you will surely come back to Hari."

The devotees listened silently to the Master. Sri Ramakrishna asked

Mahima, laughing, "What is the thing you enjoy most?"

MAHIMA (smiling): "Nothing, sir. I like mangoes."

MASTER (smiling): "All by yourself? Or do you want to share them with

others?"

MAHIMA (smiling) : "I am not so anxious to give others a share. I may as

well eat them all by myself."

Reality includes both Absolute and universe MASTER: "But do you

know my attitude? I accept both, the Nitya and the Lila. Doesn't God exist

if one looks around with eyes open? After realizing Him, one knows that

He is both the Absolute and the universe. It is He who is the Indivisible

Satchidananda. Again, it is He who has become the universe and its living

beings.

Futility of mere scholarship

"One needs sādhanā. Mere study of the scriptures will not do. I noticed that

though Vidyāsāgar had no doubt read a great deal, he had not realized what

was inside him; he was satisfied with helping boys get their education, but

had not tasted the Bliss of God.

What will mere study accomplish? How little one assimilates! The almanac

may forecast twenty measures of rain; but you don't get a drop by squeezing

its pages."

MAHIMA: "We have so many duties in the world. Where is the time for

sādhanā?"

MASTER: "Why should you say such a thing? It is you who describe the

world as illusory, like a dream.

"Rāma and Lakshmana wanted to go to Ceylon. But the ocean was before

them.

Lakshmana was angry. Taking his bow and arrow, he said: 'I shall kill

Varuna. This ocean prevents our going to Ceylon.' Rāma explained the

matter to him, saying: 'Lakshmana, all that you are seeing is unreal, like a

dream. The ocean is unreal. Your anger is also unreal. It is equally unreal to

think of destroying one unreal thing by means of another.'"

Mahimacharan kept quiet. He had many duties in the world. He had lately

started a school to help others.

MASTER (to Mahima): "Sambhu once said to me: 'I have some money. It is

my desire to spend it for good works-for schools and dispensaries, roads,

and so forth.' I said to him: ' It will be good if you can do these works in a

selfless spirit. But it is extremely difficult to perform unselfish action.

Desire for fruit comes from nobody knows where. Let me ask you

something. Suppose God appears before you; will you pray to Him; then,

for such things as schools and dispensaries and hospitals?' "

A DEVOTEE: "Sir, what is the way for worldly people?"

Advice to the worldly

MASTER: "The Company of holy men. Worldly people should listen to

spiritual talk. They are in a state of madness, intoxicated with 'woman and

gold'. A drunkard should be given rice-water as an antidote. Drinking it

slowly, he gradually recovers his normal consciousness.

The real teacher

"A worldly person should also receive instructions from a sadguru, a real

teacher. Such a teacher has certain signs. You should hear about Banāras

only from a man who has been to Banāras and seen it. Mere book-learning

will not do. One should not receive instruction from a pundit who has not

realized the world to be unreal. Only if a pundit has discrimination and

renunciation is he entitled to instruct.

"Samadhyayi remarked that God was dry. Think of his speaking like that of

Him who is the embodiment of sweetness! It sounds like the remark, 'My

uncle's cowshed is full of horses.' (All laugh.)

"Yes, a worldly person is in a state of intoxication. He always says to

himself: 'It is I who am doing everything. All these-the house and family

are mine.' Baring his teeth, he says: 'What will happen to my wife and

children without me? How will they get along?

Who will look after my wife and children?' Rākhāl said one day, 'What will

happen to my wife?'"

HARAMOHAN: "Did Rākhāl say that?"

Go beyond knowledge and ignorance

MASTER: "What else could he do? He who has knowledge has ignorance

also. 'How amazing!' Lakshmana said to Rāma. 'Even a sage like Vasishtha

is stricken with grief because of the death of his sons!' 'Brother,' replied

Rāma, 'he who has knowledge has ignorance also. Therefore go beyond

both knowledge and ignorance.'

"Suppose a thorn has pierced a man's foot. He picks another thorn to pull

out the first one. After extracting the first thorn with the help of the second,

he throws both away.

One should use the thorn of knowledge to pull out the thorn of ignorance.

Then one throws away both the thorns, knowledge and ignorance, and

attains vijnāna. What is vijnāna? It is to know God distinctly by realizing

His existence through an intuitive experience and to speak to Him

intimately. That is why Sri Krishna said to Arjuna, 'Go beyond the three

Gunās.'

"In order to attain vijnāna one has to accept the help of Vidyā Māyā. Vidyā

Māyā

includes discriminationthat is to say, God is real and the world illusory-and

dispassion, and also chanting God's name and glories, meditation, the

company of holy persons, prayer, and so forth. Vidyā Māyā may be likened

to the last few steps before the roof.

Next is the roof, the realization of God.

Nature of the worldly

"Worldly people are in a state of chronic intoxication-mad with 'woman and

gold'; they are insensible to spiritual ideas. That is why I love the

youngsters not yet stained by 'woman and gold'. They are 'good receptacles'

and may become useful in God's work.

But as for worldly people, you lose almost everything while trying to

eliminate the worthless stuff in them. They are like bony fish-almost all

bones and very little meat.

"Worldly people are like mangoes struck by hail. If you want to offer them

to God, you have to purify them by sprinkling them with Ganges water.

Even then they are seldom used in the temple worship. If you are to use

them at all, you have to apply Brahmajnana, that is to say, you have to

persuade yourself that it is God alone who has become everything."

A Theosophist gentleman arrived with Aswini Kumar Dutta and the son of

Behari Bhaduri. The Mukherji brothers entered the room and saluted Sri

Ramakrishna.

Arrangements were being made for devotional music in the courtyard. At

the first beat of the drum the Master left the room and went there. The

devotees followed him.

Bhavanāth introduced Aswini to the Master. The Master introduced him to

M. Aswini and M. were talking together when Narendra arrived. Sri

Ramakrishna said to Aswini, "this is Narendra."

Saturday, June 13, 1885

About three o'clock in the afternoon Sri Ramakrishna was resting in his

room after the midday meal. A pundit was sitting on a mat on the floor.

Near the north door of the room stood a brahmin woman who had recently

lost her only daughter and was stricken with grief. Kishori, too, was in the

room. M. arrived and saluted the Master. He was accompanied by Dwija

and a few other devotees.

Sri Ramakrishna was not well. He had been suffering from an inflamed

throat. These were the hot days of summer. M. was not keeping well either,

and of late he had not been able to visit Sri Ramakrishna frequently.

MASTER (to M.): "How are you? It is nice to see you. The bel-fruit you

sent me was very good."

M: "I am slightly better now, sir."

MASTER: "It is very hot. Take a little ice now and then. I have been feeling

the heat very much myself; so I ate a great deal of ice-cream. That is why I

have this sore throat. The saliva smells very bad.

Master's adherence to truth

"I have said to the Divine Mother: 'Mother, make me well. I shall not eat

ice-cream any more.' Next I said to Her that I wouldn't eat ice either. Since I

have given my word to the Mother, I shall certainly not eat these things. But

sometimes I become forgetful.

Once I said that I wouldn't eat fish on Sundays; but one Sunday I forgot and

ate fish.

But I cannot consciously go back on my word. The other day I asked a

devotee to bring my water-jug to the pine-grove. As he had to go elsewhere,

another man brought the jug. But I couldn't use that water. I was helpless. I

waited there until the first man brought water for me.

"When I renounced everything with an offering of flowers at the Lotus Feet

of the Mother, I said: 'Here, Mother, take Thy holiness, take Thy

unholiness. Here, Mother, take Thy dharma, take Thy adharma. Here,

Mother, take Thy sin, take Thy virtue. Here, Mother, take Thy good, take

Thy evil. And give me only pure bhakti.' But I could not say, 'Here, Mother,

take Thy truth, take Thy falsehood.' "

A devotee had brought some ice. Again and again the Master asked M.,

"Shall I eat it?"

M: said humbly, "Please don't eat it without consulting the Mother:" Sri

Ramakrishna could not take the ice.

MASTER: "It is the bhakta, and not the Jnāni, who discriminates between

holiness and unholiness. Vijay's mother-in-law said to me: 'How little I have

achieved of my spiritual ideal! I cannot take food from everybody.' I said to

her: 'Is eating everybody's food a sign of jnāna? A dog eats anything and

everything. Does that make it a Jnāni?'

(To M.) "Why do I eat a variety of dishes? In order not to become

monotonous.

Otherwise I should have to renounce the devotees.

"I said to Keshab: 'If I instruct you from a still higher standpoint, then you

won't be able to preserve your organization. In the state of jnāna

organizations and things like that become unreal, like a dream.'

"One time I gave up fish. At first I suffered from it; afterwards it didn't

bother me much.

If someone burns up a bird's nest, the bird flies about; it takes shelter in the

sky. If a man truly realizes that the body and the world are unreal, then his

soul attains samādhi.

"Formerly I had the state of mind of a Jnāni: I couldn't enjoy the company

of men. I would hear that a Jnāni or a bhakta lived at a certain place; then, a

few days later, I would learn that he was dead. Everything seemed to me

impermanent; so I couldn't enjoy people's company. Later the Mother

brought my mind down to a lower plane; She so changed my mind that I

could enjoy love of God and His devotees."

Divine Incarnation

Next the Master began to talk about Divine Incarnation.

MASTER (to M.): "Do you know why God incarnates Himself as a man? It

is because through a human body one can hear His words. He sports

through it. He tastes divine bliss through a human body. But through His

other devotees God manifests only a small part of Himself. A devotee is

like something you get a little juice from after much sucking - like a flower

you get a drop of honey from after much sucking. (To M.) Do you

understand this?"

M: "Yes, sir. Very well"

Sri Ramakrishna began to talk to Dwija, who was about sixteen years old.

His father had married a second time. Dwija often accompanied M. to

Dakshineswar, and Sri Ramakrishna was fond of him. The boy said that his

father opposed his coming to Dakshineswar.

MASTER: "And your brothers too? Do they speak slightingly of me?"

Dwija did not answer.

M. (to the Master): "Those who speak slightingly of you will be cured of it

after getting a few more blows from the world."

MASTER (referring to Dwija's brothers): "They live with their stepmother.

So they are getting blows."

All were silent a moment.

MASTER (to M.): "Introduce Dwija to Purna some time."

M: "Yes, I shall. (To Dwija) Go to Panihati."

MASTER: "I am asking everyone to send people to Panihati. (To M.) Won't

you go?"

Sri Ramakrishna intended to visit the religious festival at Panihati; so he

was asking the devotees to go too.

M: "Yes, sir, I want to go."

MASTER: "We shall engage a big boat; then it won't toss about. Will Girish

Ghosh be there?"

Sri Ramakrishna looked steadily at Dwija.

Master: "Well, there are so many youngsters in the city; why does this boy

come here?

(To M,) Tell me what you think. Certainly he has inherited some good

tendencies from his previous birth."

M: "Undoubtedly, sir."

MASTER: "There is such a thing as inborn tendencies. When a man has

performed many good actions in his previous births, in the final birth he

becomes guileless. In the final birth he acts somewhat like a madcap.

"To tell you the truth, everything happens by God's will. When He says

'Yea', everything comes to pass, and when He says 'Nay', everything comes

to a standstill.

"Why is it that one man should not bless another? Because nothing can

happen by man's will: things come to pass or disappear by God's will.

'The other day I went to Captain's house. I saw some young boys going

along the road.

They belong to a different class. I saw one of them, about nineteen or

twenty years old, with his hair parted on the side. He was whistling as he

walked along.

"I see some immersed in the thickest tamas. They play the flute and are

proud of it.

(To Dwija) "Why should a man of Knowledge be afraid of criticism? His

understanding is as immovable as the anvil in a blacksmith's shop. Blows

from the hammer fall continually on the anvil but cannot affect it in the

least.

"I saw X-'s father going along the street."

M: "He is a very artless man."

MASTER: "But he has red eyes."

Sri Ramakrishna told the devotees about his visit to Captain's house.

Captain had criticized the young men who visited the Master. Perhaps

Hazra had poisoned his mind.

MASTER: "I was talking to Captain. I said: 'Nothing exists except Purusha

and Prakriti.

Nārada said to Rāma, "O Rāma, all the men You see are parts of Yourself,

and all the women are parts of Sita." '

"Captain was highly pleased. He said: 'You alone have the right perception.

All men are really Rāma, being parts of Rāma; all women are really Sita,

being parts of Sita.'

Master reprimands Captain

"Immediately after saying this he began to criticize the young devotees. He

said: 'They study English books and don't discriminate about their food. It is

not good that they should visit you frequently. It may do you harm. Hazra is

a real man, a grand fellow.

Don't allow those young people to visit you so much.' At first I said, 'What

can I do if they come?' Then I gave him some mortal blows. His daughter

laughed. I said to him: 'God is far, far away from the worldly-minded. But

God is very near the man-nay, within a distance of three cubits-whose mind

is free from worldliness.' Speaking of Rākhāl , Captain said, 'He eats with

all sorts of people.' Perhaps he had heard it from Hazra.

Thereupon I said to him: 'A man may practise intense austerity and japa, but

he won't achieve anything if his mind dwells on the world. But blessed is

the man who keeps his mind on God even though he eats pork. He will

certainly realize God in due time. Hazra, with all his austerity and japa,

doesn't allow an opportunity to slip by for earning money as a broker.'

"'Yes, yes!' said Captain. 'You are right.' I said to him further, 'A few

minutes ago you said that all men were parts of Rāma and all women parts

of Sita, and now you are talking like this!'

"Captain said: 'Yes, that's true. But you don't love everybody.'

"I said: 'According to the scriptures, water is God. We see water

everywhere. But some water we drink, some we bathe in, and some we use

for washing dirty things. Here sit your wife and daughter. I see them as

embodiments of the Blessed Mother.'

"Thereupon Captain said, 'Yes, yes! That's true.' He wanted to apologize by

touching my feet."

After speaking thus, Sri Ramakrishna laughed. Then he began to tell of

Captain's many virtues.

MASTER: "Captain has many virtues. Every day he attends to his

devotions. He himself performs the worship of the Family Deity. How

many mantras he recites while bathing the image! He is a great ritualist. He

performs his daily devotions, such as worship, japa, Ārati, recital of the

scriptures, and chanting of hymns.

"I scolded Captain and said: 'Too much reading has spoiled you. Don't read

any more.'

"About my own spiritual state Captain said, 'Your soul, like a bird, is ready

to fly.' There are two entities: jivatma, the embodied soul, and Paramatma,

the Supreme Soul. The embodied soul is the bird. The Supreme Soul is like

the Ākāśa; it is the Chidakasa, the Ākāśa of Consciousness. Captain said:

'Your embodied soul flies into the Ākāśa of Consciousness. Thus you go

into samādhi.'

(Smiling) "He critisized the Bengalis. He said: 'The Bengalis are fools.

They have a gem near them, but they cannot recognize it.'

"Captain's father was a great devotee. He was a Subedar in the English

army. Even on the battlefield he would perform his worship at the proper

time. With one hand he would worship Śiva and with the other he would

wield his gun and sword.

(To M.) "But Captain is engaged in worldly duties day and night. Whenever

I go to his house I see him surrounded by his wife and children. Besides, his

men bring him their account books now and then. But at times his mind

dwells on God also. It is like the case of a typhoid patient who is always in

a delirium. Now and then he gets a flash of consciousness and cries out: 'I

want a drink of water! I want a drink of water!' But while you are giving

him the water, he becomes unconscious again and is not aware of anything.

I said to Captain, 'You are a ritualist.' He said: 'Yes, I feel very happy while

performing worship and things like that. Worldly people have no other way.'

"I said to him: ' but must one perform formal worship for ever? How long

does a bee buzz about? As long as it hasn't lighted on a flower. While

sipping honey it doesn't buzz.'

'But', he said, 'can we, like you, give up worship and other rituals?' Yet he

doesn't always say the same thing. Sometimes he says that all this is inert,

sometimes that all this is conscious. I say: 'What do you mean by inert?

Everything is Chaitanya, Consciousness.'"

Sri Ramakrishna asked M. about Purna.

MASTER: "If I see Purna once more, then my longing for him will

diminish. How intelligent he is! His mind is much drawn to me. He says, 'I

too feel a strange sensation in my heart for you.' (To M.) They have taken

him away from your school. Will that harm you?"

M: "If Vidyāsāgar tells me that Purna's relatives have taken him away from

the school on my account, I have an explanation to give him."

MASTER: "What will you say?"

M: "I shall say that one thinks of God in holy company. That is by no means

bad.

Further, I shall tell him that the textbooks prescribed by the school

authorities say that one should love God with all one's soul" (The Master

laughs.) MASTER : "At Captain's house I sent for the younger Naren. I said

to him:' where is your house? I want to see it.' 'Please do come', he said. But

he became nervous as we were going there, lest his father should know

about it. (All laugh.) (To a visitor) "You haven't been here for a long time-

about seven or eight months."

VISITOR: "About a year, sir."

MASTER: "Another gentleman used to come with you."

VISITOR: "Yes, sir. Nilmani Babu."

MASTER: "Why doesn't he come any more? Ask him to come some time. I

want to see him. Who is this boy with you?"

VISITOR: "He comes from Assam."

MASTER: "Where is Assam? In which direction?"

Dwija spoke to the Master about Ashu. Ashu's father was arranging for his

marriage, but Ashu had no wish to marry.

MASTER: "See, he doesn't want to marry. They are forcing him."

Sri Ramakrishna said to a devotee that he should show respect to his elder

brother. He said: "The elder brother is like one's father. Respect him."

A pundit was sitting with the devotees. He came from upper India.

MASTER (smiling, to M.): "The pundit is a great student of the

Bhagavata."

M. and the devotees looked at the pundit.

MASTER (to the pundit): "Well, sir, what is Yogamaya?"

The pundit gave some sort of explanation.

MASTER: "Why isn't Radhika called Yogamaya?"

The pundit also answered this question after a fashion.

Significance of Radhika

MASTER: "Radhika is full of unmixed sattva, the embodiment of prema.

Yogamaya contains all the three Gunās-sattva, rajas, and tamas; but

Radhika has nothing but pure sattva.(To M.) "Narendra now respects

Radhika very much. He says that if anyone wants to know how to love

Satchidananda, he can learn it from her.

"Satchidananda wanted to taste divine bliss for Itself. That is why It created

Radhika.

She was created from the person of Satchidananda Krishna. Satchidananda

Krishna is the 'container', and He Himself, in the form of Radhika, is the

'contained'. He manifested Himself in that way in order to taste His own

bliss, that is to say, in order to experience divine bliss by loving

Satchidananda.

"Therefore it is written in the Vaishnava books that after her birth Radhika

did not open her eyes. The idea is that she did not wish to see any human

being. Yaśoda came with Krishna in her arms to see Radhika. Only then did

she open her eyes, to behold Krishna.

In a playful mood Krishna touched her eyes. (To the Assamese boy) Haven't

you seen this? Small children touch others' eyes with their hands."

The pundit was about to take leave of Sri Ramakrishna.

PUNDIT: "I must go home."

MASTER (tenderly): "Have you earned anything?"

PUNDIT: "The market is very dull. I've earned nothing."

A few minutes later he saluted the Master and departed.

MASTER (to M.): "You see how great the difference is between worldly

people and the youngsters? This pundit has been worrying about money day

and night. He has come to Calcutta to earn money; otherwise his people at

home will have nothing to eat. So he has to knock at different doors. When

will he concentrate his mind on God? But the youngsters are untouched by

'woman and gold'; hence they can direct their mind to God whenever they

desire.

"The youngsters do not enjoy worldly people's company. Rākhāl used to

say, 'I feel nervous at the sight of the worldly-minded.' When I was first

beginning to have spiritual experiences, I used to shut the doors of my room

when I saw worldly people coming.

Master's boyhood reminiscences

"As a boy, at Kamarpukur, I loved Ram Mallick dearly. But afterwards,

when he came here, I couldn't even touch him. Ram Mallick and I were

great friends during our boyhood. We were together day and night; we slept

together. At that time I was sixteen or seventeen years old. People used to

say, 'If one of them were a woman they would marry each other.' Both of us

used to play at his house. I remember those days very well. His relatives

used to come riding in palanquins. Now he has a shop at Chanak. I sent for

him many a time; he came here the other day and spent two days. Ram said

he had no children; he brought up his nephew, but the boy died. He told me

this with a sigh; his eyes were filled with tears; he was grief-stricken for his

nephew. He said further that since they had no children of their own, allhis

wife's affection had been turned to the nephew. She was completely

overwhelmed with grief. Ram said to her: 'You are crazy. What will you

gain by grieving? Do you want to go to Banāras?' You see, he called his

wife crazy. Grief for the boy totally 'diluted' him. I found he had no stuff in

him. I couldn't touch him."

The brahmin lady still stood near the north door. She was a widow. Her

only daughter had been married to a very aristocratic man, a landlord in

Calcutta with the title of Raja.

Whenever the daughter visited her she was escorted by liveried footmen.

Then the mother's heart swelled with pride. Just a few days ago the

daughter had died, and now she was beside herself with sorrow.

The brahmin lady listened to the account of Ram Mallick s grief for his

nephew. For the last few days she had been running to the Master from her

home at Baghbazar like an insane person. She was eager to know whether

Sri Ramakrishna could suggest any remedy for her unquenchable grief. Sri

Ramakrishna resumed the conversation.

MASTER: "A man came here the other day. He sat a few minutes and then

said, 'Let me go and see the "moon-face" of my child.' I couldn't control

myself and said: 'So you prefer your son's "moon-face" to God's "moon-

face"! Get out, you fool!'

Magician and his magic

(To M.) "The truth is that God alone is real and all else unreal. Men,

universe, house, and children-all these are like the magic of the magician.

The magician strikes his wand and says: 'come delusion! Come confusion!'

Then he says to the audience, 'Open the lid of the pot; see the birds fly into

the sky.' But the magician alone is real and his magic unreal. The unreal

exists for a second and then vanishes.

"Śiva was seated in Kailas. His companion Nandi was near Him. Suddenly

a terrific noise arose. 'Revered Sir,' asked Nandi, 'what does that mean?'

Śiva said: 'Ravana is born.

That is its meaning.' A few moments later another terrific noise was heard.

'Now what is this noise?' Nandi asked. Śiva said with a smile, 'Now Ravana

is dead. Birth and death are like magic: you see the magic for a second and

then it disappears. God alone is real and all else unreal. Water alone is real;

its bubbles appear and disappear. They disappear into the very water from

which they rise.

"God is like an ocean, and living beings are its bubbles. They are born there

and they die there. Children are like the few small bubbles around a big

one.

"God alone is real. Make an effort to cultivate love for Him and find out the

means to realize Him. What will you gain by grieving?"

All sat in silence. The brahmin lady said, "May I go home now? The Master

said to her tenderly: "Do you want to go now? It is very hot. Why now?

You can go later in a carriage with the devotees."

Because the day was so hot, a devotee gave the Master a new fan made of

sandalwood.

He was very much pleased and said: "Good! Good! Om Tat Sat! Kāli!" First

he fanned the pictures of the gods and goddesses, and then he fanned

himself. He said to M.: "See!

Feel the breeze!" M. Was highly pleased.

Captain arrived with his children.

Sri Ramakrishna said to Kishori, "Please show the temples to the children."

He began to talk to Captain. M., Dwija, and the other devotees were sitting

on the floor. Sri Ramakrishna was sitting on the small couch, facing the

north. He asked Captain to sit in front of him on the same couch.

MASTER: "I was telling the devotees about you-your devotion, worship,

and Ārati."

CAPTAIN (bashfully): "What do I know of worship and Ārati? How

insignificant I am!"

Harmless ego

MASTER: "Only the ego that is attached to 'woman and. gold' is harmful.

But the ego that feels it is the servant of God does no harm to anybody.

Neither does the ego of a child, which is not under the control of any guna.

One moment children quarrel, and the next moment they are on friendly

terms. One moment they build their toy houses with great care, and

immediately afterwards they knock them down. There is no harm in the 'I-

consciousness' that makes one feel oneself to be a child of God or His

servant. This ego is really no ego at all. It is like sugar candy, which is not

like other sweets. Other sweets make one ill; but sugar candy relieves

acidity. Or take the case of Om. It is unlike other sounds.

"With this kind of ego one is able to love Satchidananda. It is impossible to

get rid of the ego. Therefore it should be made to feel that it is the devotee

of God, His servant.

Otherwise, how can one live? How intense was the love of the gopis for Sri

Krishna! (To Captain) Please tell us something about the gopis. You read

the Bhagavata so much."

CAPTAIN: "When Sri Krishna lived at Vrindāvan, without any of His royal

splendour, even then the gopis loved Him more than their own souls.

Therefore Sri Krishna said, 'How shall I be able to pay off my debt to the

gopis, who surrendered to me their all-their bodies, minds, and souls?' "

Captain's words awakened intense love for Krishna in the Master's mind.

He exclaimed, "Govinda! Govinda! Govinda!" and was about to go into an

ecstatic mood.

Captain was amazed and said: "How blessed he is! How blessed he is!"

Captain and the devotees watched this love-ecstasy of Sri Ramakrishna.

They sat quietly gazing at him, awaiting his return to the consciousness of

the world.

MASTER: "Tell us more."

CAPTAIN: "Sri Krishna is unattainable by the yogis, by yogis like you; but

He can be attained by lovers like the gopis. How many years did the yogis

practise yoga for His vision! Yet they did not succeed. But the gopis

realized Him with such ease!"

MASTER (smiling): "Yes, He ate from the hands of the gopis, wept for

them, played with them, and made many demands on them."

A DEVOTEE: "Bankim has written a life of Krishna."

MASTER: "He accepts Krishna but not Radhika."

CAPTAIN: "I see he doesn't accept Krishna's lila with the gopis."

MASTER: "I also hear that Bankim says that one needs passions such as

lust."

A DEVOTEE: "He has written in his magazine that the purpose of religion

is to give expression to our various faculties: physical, mental, and

spiritual."

CAPTAIN: "I see. He believes that lust and so forth are necessary. But he

doesn't believe that Sri Krishna could enjoy His sportive pleasure in the

world, that God could incarnate Himself in a human form and sport in

Vrindāvan with Radha and the gopis."

MASTER (smiling): "But these things are, not written in the newspaper.

How could he believe them?

"A man said to his friend, 'Yesterday, as I was passing through a certain part

of the city, I saw a house fall with a crash.' 'Wait', said the friend. 'Let me

look it up in the newspaper.' But this incident wasn't mentioned in the paper.

Thereupon the man said, 'But the paper doesn't mention it.' His friend

replied, 'I saw it with my own eyes.' 'Be that as it may, said the man, 'I can't

believe it as long as it isn't in the paper.'

"How can Bankim believe that God sports about as a man? He doesn't get it

from his English education. It is very hard to explain how God fully

incarnates Himself as man.

Isn't that so? The manifestation of Infinity in this human body only three

and a half cubits tall!"

CAPTAIN: "Krishna is God Himself. In describing Him we have to use

such terms as 'whole' and 'part'."

MASTER: "Whole and part are like fire and its sparks. An Incarnation of

God is for the sake of the bhaktas and not of the jnanis. It is said in the

Adhyātma Rāmāyana that Rāma alone is both the Pervading Spirit and

everything pervaded. 'You are the Supreme Lord distinguished as the

Vachaka, the signifying symbol, and the Vachya, the object signified.'"

CAPTAIN: "The 'signifying symbol' means the pervader, and the 'object

signified' means the thing pervaded."

MASTER: "The pervader in this case is a finite form, It is God incarnating

Himself as a human being."

Sri Ramakrishna was talking thus to Captain and the devotees when

Jaygopal Sen and Trailokya of the Brahmo Samaj arrived. They saluted the

Master and sat down. Sri Ramakrishna looked at Trailokya with a smile and

continued the conversation.

"Wicked ego" must be killed

MASTER: "It is on account of the ego that one is not able to see God. In

front of the door of God's mansion lies the stump of ego. One cannot enter

the mansion without jumping over the stump.

"There was once a man who had acquired the power to tame ghosts. One

day, at his summons, a ghost appeared. The ghost said: 'now tell me what

you want me to do. The moment you cannot give me any work I shall break

your neck.' The man had many things to accomplish, and he had the ghost

do them all, one by one. At last he could find nothing more for the ghost to

do. 'Now', said the ghost, 'I am going to break your neck.'

'Wait a minute', said the man. 'I shall return presently.' He ran to his teacher

and said: 'Revered sir, I am in great danger. This is my trouble.' And he told

his teacher his trouble and asked, 'What shall I do now?' The teacher said: '

do this. Tell the ghost to straighten this kinky hair.' The ghost devoted itself

day and night to straightening the hair. But how could it make a kinky hair

straight? The hair remained kinky.

"Likewise, the ego seems to vanish this moment, but it reappears the next.

Unless one renounces the ego, one does not receive the grace of God.

"Suppose there is a feast in a house and the master of the house puts a man

in charge of the stores. As long as the man remains in the store-room, the

master doesn't go there; but when of his own wills he renounces the store-

room and goes away, then the master locks it and takes charge of it himself.

"A guardian is appointed only for a minor. A boy cannot safeguard his

property; therefore the king assumes responsibility for him. God does not

take over our responsibilities unless we renounce our ego.

"Once Lakshmi and Narayana were seated in Vaikuntha, when Narayana

suddenly stood up. Lakshmi had been stroking His feet. She said, 'Lord,

where are You going?' Narayana answered: 'One of My devotees is in great

danger. I must save him.' With these words He went out. But He came back

immediately. Lakshmi said, 'Lord, why have You returned so soon?'

Narayana smiled and said: The devotee was going along the road

overwhelmed with love for Me. Some washermen were drying clothes on

the grass, and the devotee walked over the clothes. At this the washermen

chased him and were going to beat him with their sticks. So I ran out to

protect him.' 'But why have You come back?' asked Lakshmi. Narayana

laughed and said: 'I saw the devotee himself picking up a brick to throw at

them. (All laugh.) So I came back.'

"I said to Keshab, 'You must renounce your ego.' Keshab replied, 'If I do,

how can I keep my organization together?'

"I said to him: 'how slow you are to understand! I am not asking you to

renounce the "ripe ego", the ego that makes a man feel he is a servant of

God or His devotee. Give up the "unripe ego", the ego that creates

attachment to "woman and gold". The ego that makes a man feels he is

God's servant. His child is the "ripe ego". It doesn't harm one.'"

TRAILOKYA: "It is very difficult to get rid of the ego. People only think

they are free from it."

MASTER: "Gauri would not refer to himself as 'I' lest he should feel

egotistic. He would say 'this' instead. I followed his example and would

refer to myself as 'this' instead of 'I'.

Instead of saying, 'I have eaten,' I would say, 'This has eaten.' Mathur

noticed it and said one day: 'What is this, revered father? Why should you

talk that way? Let them talk that way. They have their egotism. You are free

from it; you don't have to talk like them.'

"I said to Keshab, 'Since the ego cannot be given up, let it remain as the

servant, the servant of God.' Prahlada had two moods. Sometimes he would

feel that he was God. In that mood he would say, 'Thou art verily I, and I

am verily Thou.' But when he was conscious of his ego, he felt that God

was the Master and he was His servant. After a man is firmly established in

the ideal of 'I am He', he can live as God's servant. He may then think of

himself as the servant of God.

Signs of God-realization

(To Captain) "When a man attains the Knowledge of Brahman he shows

certain characteristics. The Bhagavata describes four of them: the state of a

child, of an inert thing, of a madman, and of a ghoul. Sometimes the

knower of Brahman acts like a five-year-old child. Sometimes he acts like a

madman. Sometimes he remains like an inert thing. In this state he cannot

work; he renounces all action. You may say that jnanis like Janaka were

active. The truth is that people in olden times gave responsibility to their

subordinate officers and thus freed themselves from worry. Further, at that

time men possessed intense faith."

Sri Ramakrishna began to speak about the renunciation of action. But he

also said that those who felt they must do their duties should do them in a

detached spirit.

MASTER: "After attaining Knowledge one cannot do much work."

TRAILOKYA: "Why so, sir? Pavahari Baba was a great yogi and yet he

reconciled people's quarrels, even lawsuits."

MASTER: "Yes, yes. That's true. Dr. Durgacharan was a great drunkard. He

used to drink twenty-four hours a day. But he was precise in his actions; he

did not make any mistake in treating his patients. There is no harm in doing

work after the attainment of bhakti.

But it is very hard. One needs intense tapasya.

"It is God who does everything. We are His instruments. Some Sikhs said to

me in front of the Kāli temple, 'God is compassionate.' I said, 'to whom is

He compassionate?' 'Why, revered sir, to all of us', said the Sikhs. I said:

'We are His children. Does compassion to one's own children mean much?

A father must look after his children; or do you expect the people of the

neighbourhood to bring them up?' Well, won't those who say that God is

compassionate ever understand that we are God's children and not someone

else's?"

CAPTAIN: "You are right. They don't regard God as their own."

MASTER: "Should we not, then, address God as compassionate? Of course

we should, as long as we practise sādhanā. After realizing God, one rightly

feels that God is our Father or Mother. As long as we have not realized

God, we feel that we are far away from Him, children of someone else.

"During the stage of sādhanā one should describe God by all His attributes.

One day Hazra said to Narendra: 'God is Infinity. Infinite is His, splendour.

Do you think He will accept your offerings of sweets and bananas or listen

to your music? This is a mistaken notion of yours.' Narendra at once sank

ten fathoms. So I said to Hazra, 'you villain!

Where will these youngsters be if you talk to them like that?' How can a

man live if he gives up devotion? No doubt God has infinite splendour; yet

He is under the control of His devotees. A rich man's gate-keeper comes to

the parlour where his master is seated with his friends. He stands on one

side of the room. In his hand he has something covered with a cloth. He is

very hesitant. The master asks him, 'Well, gate-keeper, what have you in

your hand?' Very hesitantly the servant takes out a custard-apple from under

the cover, places it in front of his master, and says, 'Sir, it is my desire that

you should eat this.' The Master is impressed by his servant's devotion with

great love he takes the fruit in his hand and says: 'Ah! This is a very nice

custard-apple. Where did you pick it? You must have taken a great deal of

trouble to get it.'

"God is under the control of His devotees. King Duryodhana was very

attentive to Krishna and said to Him, 'Please have your meal here.' But the

Lord went to Vidura's hut. He is very fond of His devotees. He ate Vidura's

simple rice and greens as if they were celestial food.

"Sometimes a perfect Jnāni behaves like a ghoul. He does not discriminate

about food and drink, holiness and unholiness. A perfect knower of God

and a perfect idiot have the same outer signs. A perfect Jnāni perhaps does

not utter the mantras while bathing in the Ganges. While worshipping, God,

perhaps he offers all the flowers together at His feet. He doesn't utter the

mantras, nor does he observe the rituals.

"A man cannot renounce action as long as he desires worldly enjoyment. As

long as one cherishes a desire for enjoyment, one performs action.

"A bird sat absent-mindedly on the mast of a ship anchored in the Ganges.

Slowly the ship sailed out into the ocean. When the bird came to its senses,

it could find no shore in any direction. It flew toward the north hoping to

reach land; it went very far and grew very tired but could find no shore.

What could it do? It returned to the ship and sat on the mast. After a long

while the bird flew away again, this time toward the east. It couldn't find

land in that direction either; everywhere it saw nothing but limitless ocean.

Very tired, it again returned to the ship and sat on the mast. After resting a

long while, the bird went toward the south and toward the west. When it

found no sign of land in any direction, it came back and settled down on the

mast. It did not leave the mast again, but sat there without making any

further effort. It no longer felt restless or worried. Because it was free from

worry, it made no further effort."

CAPTAIN: "Ah, what an illustration!"

Man's peace in God

MASTER: "Worldly people wander about to the four quarters of the earth

for the sake of happiness. They don't find it anywhere; they only become

tired and weary. When through their attachment to 'woman and gold' they

only suffer misery, they feel an urge toward dispassion and renunciation.

Most people cannot renounce 'woman and gold'

without first enjoying it.

There are two sorts of people: those who stay in one place and those who go

about to many places. There are some sadhakas who visit many sacred

places. They cannot settle down in one spot; they must drink the water of

many holy places. Thus roaming about, they satisfy their unfulfilled desires.

And at last they build a hut in one place and settle down there. Then, free

from worry and effort, they meditate on God.

"But what is there to enjoy in the world? 'Woman and gold'? That is only a

momentary pleasure. One moment it exists and the next moment it

disappears. '

Sincere yearning enables one to realize God

"The world is like an overcast sky that steadily pours down rain: the face of

the sun is seldom seen. There is mostly suffering in the world. On account

of the cloud of 'woman and gold' one cannot see the sun. Some people ask

me: 'Sir, why has God created such a world? Is there no way out for us?' I

say to them: 'why shouldn't there be a way out?

Take shelter with God and pray to Him with a yearning heart for a

favourable wind, that you may have things in your favour. If you call on

Him with yearning, He will surely listen to you.'

"A man had a son who was on the point of death. In frenzy he asked

remedies of different people. One of them said:' 'Here is a remedy: First it

must rain when the star Svati is in the ascendant; then some of the rain must

fall into a skull; then a frog must come there to drink the water, and a snake

must chase it; and when the snake is about to bite the frog, the frog must

hop away and the poison must fall into the skull. You should give the

patient a little of the poison and rain-water from the skull.' The father set

out eagerly to find the medicine when the star Svati was in the sky. It

started raining. Fervently he said to God, 'O Lord, please get a skull for me.'

Searching here and there, he at last found a skull with rain-water in it.

Again he prayed to God, saying, 'O

Lord, I beseech Thee, please help me find the frog and the snake.' Since he

had great longing, he got the frog and the snake also. In the twinkling of an

eye he saw a snake chasing a frog, and as it was about to bite the frog, its

poison fell into the skull.

"If one takes shelter with God and prays to Him with great longing, God

will surely listen; He will certainly make everything favourable."

CAPTAIN: "What an apt illustration!"

MASTER: "Yes, God makes everything favourable. Perhaps the aspirant

Doesn't marry.

Thus he is able to devote his whole attention to God. Or perhaps his

brothers earn the family's livelihood. Or perhaps a son takes on the

responsibilities of the family. Then the aspirant will not have to bother

about the world; he can give one hundred per cent of his mind to God.

"But one cannot succeed unless one renounces 'woman and gold'. Only by

renunciation is ignorance destroyed. The sun's rays, falling on a lens, burn

many objects. But if a room is dark inside, you cannot get that result: 'you

must come out of the room to use the lens.

"But some people live in the world even after attaining jnāna. They see both

what is inside and what is outside the room. The light of God illumines the

world. Therefore with that light they can discriminate between good and

bad, permanent and impermanent.

The ignorant, who lead a worldly life without knowing God, are like people

living in a house with mud walls.

With the help of a dim light they can see the inside of the house but nothing

more. But those who live in the world after having attained Knowledge and

realized God, are like people living in a glass house. They see the inside of

the room and also all that is outside. The light from the sun of Knowledge

enters strongly into the room. They perceive everything inside the room

very clearly. They know what is good and what is bad, what is permanent

and what is impermanent.

"God alone is the Doer, and we are all His instruments. Therefore it is

impossible even for a Jnāni to be egotistic. The writer of a hymn to Śiva felt

proud of his achievement; but his pride was dashed to pieces when Śiva's

bull bared his teeth. He saw that each tooth was a word of the hymn. Do

you understand the meaning of this? These words had existed from the

beginning less past. The writer had only discovered them.

"It is not good to be a guru by profession. One cannot be a teacher without a

command from God. He who says he is a guru is a man of mean

intelligence. Haven't you seen a balance? The lighter side goes higher. He

who is spiritually higher than others does not consider himself a guru.

Everyone wants to be a teacher, but a disciple is hard to find."

Trailokya was seated on the floor, to the north of the small couch. He was

going to sing.

Sri Ramakrishna said to him, "Ah, how sweetly you sing!"

Trailokya sang to the accompaniment of a Tānpura: I have joined my heart

to Thee: all that exists art Thou; Thee only have I found, for Thou art all

that exists.

O Lord, Beloved of my heart! Thou art the Home of all; Where indeed is the

heart in which Thou dost not dwell?

Thou hast entered every heart: all that exists art Thou.

Whether sage or fool, whether Hindu or Mussalman, Thou makest them as

Thou wilt: all that exists art Thou.

Thy presence is everywhere, whether in heaven or in Kaaba; Before Thee

all must bow, for Thou art all that exists.

From earth below to the highest heaven, from heaven to deepest earth,

I see Thee wherever I look: all that exists art Thou.

Pondering, I have understood; I have seen it beyond a doubt; I find not a

single thing that may be compared to Thee.

To Jafar it has been revealed that Thou art all that exists.

He sang again:

Thou art my All in All, O lord! the Life of my life, the Essence of essence;

In the three worlds I have none else but Thee to call my own.

Thou art my peace, my joy, my hope;

Thou my support, my wealth, my glory;

Thou art my wisdom and my strength.

Thou art my home, my place of rest; my dearest friend, my next of kin;

My present and my future,

Thou; my heaven and my salvation.

Thou art my scriptures, my commandments;

Thou art my ever gracious Guru;

Thou the Spring of my boundless bliss.

Thou art the Way, and Thou the Goal;

Thou the Adorable One, O Lord!

Thou art the Mother tender-hearted;

Thou the chastising Father;

Thou the Creator and Protector;

Thou the Helmsman who dost steer

My craft across the sea of life.

While Sri Ramakrishna listened to the songs he was overwhelmed with

emotion. Again and again he said: "Ah, Thou art all! Ah me! Ah me!"

"The music was over. It was six o'clock in the evening. Sri Ramakrishna

went to the pine-grove, M. accompanying him. Sri Ramakrishna was

laughing and talking.

Suddenly he said to M.: "Why haven't you eaten any refreshments? Why

haven't the others eaten either?" He was eager for the devotees to take some

refreshments.

Sri Ramakrishna was to go to Calcutta in the evening. While returning from

the pine-grove he said to M., "I don't know who will take me to Calcutta in

his carriage."

It was evening. A lamp was lighted in Sri Ramakrishna's room and incense

was burnt.

Lamps also were lighted in the different temples and buildings. The

orchestra was playing in the Nahabat. Soon the evening service would

begin in the temples.

Sri Ramakrishna sat on the small couch. After chanting the names of the

different deities, he meditated on the Divine Mother. The evening service

was over. Sri Ramakrishna paced the room, now and then talking to the

devotees. He also consulted M. about his going to Calcutta.

Presently Narendra arrived. He was accompanied by Sarat and one or two

other young devotees. They all saluted the Master.

At the sight of Narendra Sri Ramakrishna's love overflowed. He tenderly

touched Narendra's chin as one touches a baby's to show one's love. He said

in a loving voice, "Ah, you have come!"

The Master was standing in his room, facing the Ganges. Narendra and his

young friends were talking to him, facing the east. The Master turned

toward M. and said: "Narendra has come. How can I go to Calcutta now? I

sent for Narendra. How can I go now? What do you think?"

M: "As you wish, sir. Let us put it off today."

MASTER: "All right. We shall go tomorrow, either by boat or by carriage.

(To the other devotees) It is late. Go home now."

One by one the devotees saluted him and departed.

--------------------

Chapter 42

CAR FESTIVAL AT BALARĀM'S HOUSE

Monday, July 13, 1885

SRI RAMAKRISHNA was sitting in Balarām's drawing-room with the

devotees. It was nine o'clock in the morning. Balarām was going to

celebrate the Car Festival the following day. The Deity Jagannath was

worshipped daily at his house. He had a small car which would be drawn

along the verandah to celebrate the festival. The Master had been specially

invited for the occasion.

Sri Ramakrishna and M. were talking together. Narayan, Tejchandra,

Balarām, and other devotees were in the room. The Master was talking

about Purna, a lad of fifteen. He was very eager to see the boy.

MASTER (to M.): Well, by which road will he come to see me? Please

have Purna and Dwija meet each other.

"When two people are of the same age and have the same inner nature, I

bring them together. There is a meaning in this. In this way both make

progress. Have you noticed Purna's longing for God?"

M: "Yes, sir. One day I was riding on a tram. He saw me from the room of

his house and ran down to the street. With great fervour he saluted me from

the street."

MASTER (with tears in his eyes): "Ah! Ah! It is because you have helped

him make the contact through which he will find out the supreme ideal of

his life. One doesn't act like that unless one longs for God.

"Narendra, the younger Naren, and Purna-these three have a manly nature.

It is not so with Bhavanāth. He has a womanly nature.

Master on Purna

"Purna is in such an exalted state that either he will very soon give up his

body-the body is useless after the realization of God-or his inner nature will

within a few days burst forth.

Purna's divine traits

"He has a divine nature-the traits of a god. It makes a person less fearful of

men. If you put a garland of flowers round his neck or smear his body with

sandal-paste or burn incense before him, he will go into samādhi; for then

he will know beyond the shadow of a doubt that Narayana Himself dwells

in his body, that it is Narayana who has assumed the body. I have come to

know about it.

A few days after my first experience of the God-intoxicated state at

Dakshineswar, a lady of a brahmin family arrived there. She had many good

traits. No sooner was a garland put round her neck and incense burnt before

her than she went into samādhi. A few moments later she experienced great

bliss; tears streamed from her eyes. I saluted her and said, 'Mother, shall I

succeed?' 'Yes', she replied.

"I want to see Purna once more. But how will it be possible for me? It

seems he is a part. How amazing! Not a mere particle, but a part very

intelligent, too. I understand that he is very clever in his studies. Therefore I

have hit it right.

"By dint of austerity, a man, may obtain God as his son. By the roadside on

the way to Kamarpukur is Ranjit Raya's lake. Bhagavati, the Divine Mother,

was born as his daughter. Even now people hold an annual festival there in

the month of Chaitra, in honour of this divine daughter. I feel very much

like going there.

Story of Ranjit Raya

"Ranjit Raya was the landlord of that part of the country. Through the

power of his tapasya he obtained the Divine Mother as his daughter. He

was very fond of her, and she too was much attached to him; she hardly left

his presence. One day Ranjit Raya was engaged in the duties of his estate.

He was very busy. The girl, with her childlike nature, was constantly

interrupting him, saying: 'Father, what is this? What is that?' Ranjit Raya

tried, with sweet words, to persuade her not to disturb him, and said: 'my

child, please leave me alone. I have much work to do.' But the girl would

not go away. At last, absent-mindedly, the father said, 'Get out of here!' On

this pretext she left home. A pedlar of conchshell articles was going along

the road. From him she took a pair of bracelets for her wrists. When he

asked for the price, she said that he could get the money from a certain box

in her home. Then she disappeared. Nobody saw her again. In the mean

time the pedlar came to the house and asked for the price of his bracelets.

When she was not to be found at home, her relatives began to run about

looking for her.

Ranjit Raya sent people in all directions to search for her. The money owed

to the pedlar was found in the box, as she had indicated. Ranjit Raya was

weeping bitterly, when people came running to him and said that they had

noticed something in the lake. They all ran there and saw an arm, with

conchshell bracelets on the wrist, being waved above the water. A moment

afterwards it disappeared. Even now people worship her as the Divine

Mother at the time of the annual festival. (To M.) All this is true.

M: "Yes, sir."

MASTER: "Narendra now believes these things.

"Purna was born with an element of Vishnu. I worshipped him mentally

with bel-leaves; but the offering was not accepted. Then I worshipped him

with tulsi-leaves and sandal-paste. That proved to be all right. God reveals

Himself in many ways: sometimes as man, sometimes in other divine forms

made of Spirit. One must believe in divine forms.

What do you say?"

M: "It is true, sir!"

Gopal Ma

MASTER: "The brahmani of Kamarhati sees many visions. She lives all by

herself in a lonely room in a garden on the bank of the Ganges. She spends

her time in japa. Gopala sleeps with her. (The Master gives a start.) It is not

imagination, but fact. She saw that Gopala's palms were red. He walks with

her. She suckles Him at her breast. They talk to each other. When Narendra

heard the story he wept. Formerly I too used to see many visions, but now

in my ecstatic state I don't see so many. I am gradually getting over my

feminine nature; I feel nowadays more like a man. Therefore I control my

emotion; I don't manifest it outwardly so much.

"The younger Naren has the nature of a man. Therefore in meditation his

mind completely merges in the Ideal. He does not show emotion.

Nityagopal has a feminine nature. Therefore while he is in a spiritual mood

his body becomes distorted and twisted; it becomes flushed.

(To M.) "Well, people renounce grain by grain, but what a mood these

youngsters are in!

"Binode said: 'I have to sleep with my wife. That makes me feel very bad.'

It is bad for an aspirant to sleep with his wife, whether he has intercourse

with her or not. There is the friction of the body and also the physical

warmth.

"What a state Dwija is passing through! In my presence he only sways his

body and fixes his glance on me. Is that a trifling thing? If a man gathers his

whole, mind and fixes it on me, then, indeed, he achieves everything.

God dwelling in the Master

"But what am I? It is all He. I am the machine and He is its Operator. It is

God alone who exists in this [meaning his body]. That is why so many

people are feeling more and more attracted to it. A mere touch is enough to

awaken their spirituality. This attraction, these pull, is the attraction of God

and of none else.

"Tārak of Belgharia was going home from Dakshineswar. I dearly noticed

that a flame-like thing came out of this [meaning his body] and followed

him. A few days later Tārak came back to Dakshineswar. In a state of

samādhi He Who dwells in this body placed his foot on Tārak's chest.

"Well, are there more youngsters like these?"

M: "Mohit is very nice. He came to you once or twice. He is studying

enough books to pass two university examinations. He has great longing for

God."

MASTER: "That maybe. But he doesn't belong to a high plane. His physical

traits are not so good; he has a puggish face. But these other youngsters

belong to a high plane.

Worries associated with human birth "Many troubles and worries follow

in the wake of a birth in a physical body. Further, if a person is cursed, he

may have to be born seven times. One must be very careful. One has to

assume a human body if one cherishes the slightest desire."

A DEVOTEE: "What are the desires of those who are Incarnations of

God?"

MASTER (smiling): "I find that I have not got rid of all my desires. Once I

saw a holy man with a shawl, and I too wanted to put on one like it. Even

now I have that desire. I don't know whether I shall have to be born again

for it."

BALARĀM (smiling): "Then will you be born again just for a shawl?" (All

laugh.) MASTER (smiling): "One has to keep a good desire so that one may

give up the body meditating on it. There are four holy places for the sādhus

to visit. They visit three and leave out one. Many of them leave out Puri, the

place of Jagannath, so that they can give up their bodies meditating on

Jagannath."

A man dressed in an ochre robe entered the room and greeted the Master.

Privately he was in the habit of criticizing Sri Ramakrishna; so at the sight

of him Balarām laughed.

Sri Ramakrishna could read a man's mind. He said to Balarām: "Never

mind. Let him say I am a cheat."

Sri Ramakrishna was talking to Tejchandra.

MASTER: "I send for you so often. Why don't you come? If you practise

meditation and prayer it will make me happy. I look on you as my own; that

is why I send for you."

TEJCHANDRA: "Sir, I have to go to the office. I am very busy with my

duties."

M. (smiling): "There was a marriage ceremony at his home and he got leave

from his office for ten days."

MASTER: "Well, well! You say you have no leisure. You told me just now

that you were going to renounce the world."

NARAYAN: "M. said to us one day that this world, is a wilderness."

MASTER (to M.): "Please tell them that story of the disciple who became

unconscious after taking the medicine. His teacher arrived at the house and

said he would revive if someone else swallowed a pill that he would

prescribe. The disciple would get back his life, but the man who, swallowed

the pill would die.

"Please tell the other one, too, of the hathayogi who thought that his wife

and children were his very own, and who feigned death with his limbs

stretched out. It will do them good to hear those stories."

It was noon. Sri Ramakrishna partook of the food that had been offered to

the Family Deity, Jagannath. The Master often used to say that the food at

Balarām's house was very pure. Afterwards he rested awhile.

Late in the afternoon Sri Ramakrishna sat with the devotees in the drawing-

room of Balarām's house. Chandra Babu, of the Kartabhaja sect, and a witty

brahmin were there.

The brahmin was something of a buffoon; his words made everybody laugh.

About six o'clock Girish's brother Atul and Tejchandra's brother arrived. Sri

Ramakrishna was in samādhi. A few minutes later he said, still in the

ecstatic mood: "Can one become unconscious by meditating on

Consciousness? Can one lose one's mind by thinking of God? God is of the

very nature of Knowledge; He is of the very nature of Eternity, Purity, and

Consciousness.

Sri Ramakrishna said to the witty brahmin: "Why do you waste your time

with these frivolous jokes about insignificant worldly things? Direct your

mind to God. If a man can calculate about salt, he can also calculate about

sugar candy."

BRAHMIN (smiling): "Please attract me."

MASTER: "What can I do? Everything depends on your effort. Your mind

is your own.

Give up this trifling buffoonery and go forward toward God. You can go

farther and farther along that way. The brahmachari asked the wood-cutter

to go forward. At first the wood-cutter found a sandalwood forest; next, a

silver-mine; next, a gold-mine; and then gems and diamonds."

BRAHMIN: "There is no end to this path."

MASTER: "Where you find peace, there is the end."

About a new visitor Sri Ramakrishna said: "I didn't find any substance in

him. He seemed worthless."

It was dusk. Lamps were lighted in the room. Sri Ramakrishna was

meditating on the Divine Mother and chanting Her name in his melodious

voice. The devotees sat around him. Since Balarām was going to celebrate

the Car Festival at his house the following day, Sri Ramakrishna intended to

spend the night there.

After taking some refreshments in the inner apartments, Sri Ramakrishna

returned to the parlour. It was about ten o'dock. The Master said to M.,

"Please bring my towel from the other room." A bed was made for Sri

Ramakrishna in the adjoining small room.

About half past ten Sri Ramakrishna lay down to sleep. It was summertime.

He said to M., "You had better bring a fan." He asked the disciple to fan

him. At midnight Sri Ramakrishna woke up. He said to M., "Don't fan me

any more; I feel chilly."

Tuesday, July 14, 1885

It was the day of the Car Festival. Sri Ramakrishna left his bed very early in

the morning. He was alone in the room, dancing and chanting the name of

God. M. entered and saluted the Master. Other devotees arrived one by one.

They saluted the Master and took seats near him. Sri Ramakrishna was

longing intensely for Purna. He was talking to M. about him.

MASTER: "Did you give Purna any instruction?"

M: "I asked him to read the life of Chaitanya. He is familiar with the

incidents of his life.

I told him further that you ask people to stick to the truth."

MASTER: "How did he take it when you said about me, 'He is an

Incarnation of God'?"

M: "I said to him, 'Come with me If you want to see a person like

Chaitanya.'"

MASTER: "Anything else?"

M: "Also that remark of yours that when an elephant enters a small pool

there is a great splashing of water all around; likewise, in the case of a

'small receptacle', emotion overflows. "About his giving up of fish, I said to

him: 'Why have you done that? Your family will make a great fuss about it.'

MASTER: "That's good. One should keep one's feelings and emotions to

oneself."

It was about half past six in the morning. M. was going to bathe in the

Ganges, when suddenly tremors of an earthquake were felt. At once he

returned to Sri Ramakrishna's room. The Master stood in the drawing room.

The devotees stood around him. They were talking about the earthquake.

The shaking had been rather violent, and many of the devotees were

frightened.

M: "You should all have gone downstairs."

MASTER: "Such is the fate of the house under whose roof one lives; and

still people are so egotistic. (To M.) Do you remember the great storm of

the month of Āświn?"

M: "Yes, sir. I was very young at that time-nine or ten years old. I was alone

in a room while the storm was raging, and I prayed to God."

M. was surprised and said to himself: "Why did the Master suddenly ask me

about the great storm of Āświn? Does he know that I was alone at that time

earnestly praying to God with tears in my eyes? Does he know all this? Has

he been protecting me as my guru since my very birth?"

MASTER: "It was quite late in the day at Dakshineswar when the storm

broke, but somehow they managed to cook the meals. The trees were

uprooted. You see, this is the fate of the house one lives in.

Nitya and Lila

"But when one attains Perfect Knowledge, then one finds that dying and

killing are one and the same thing; that is to say, both are unreal. When one

is dead, one has not really died; and when one has killed another, the man is

not really dead. Both the Lila and the Nitya belong to the same Reality. In

one form It is the Absolute, and in another, the Lila.

Even though the Lila is destroyed, the Nitya always exists. Water is water,

whether it is still or in waves; it is the same water when the waves quiet

down."

Sri Ramakrishna sat in the drawing-room with the devotees. Mahendra

Mukherji, Hari, the younger Naren, and many other devotees were there.

Hari lived alone and studied Vedānta. He was about twenty-three years old,

and unmarried. Sri Ramakrishna was very fond of him. He wanted Hari to

visit him frequently. But since Hari loved solitude he did not often come to

the Master.

MASTER (to Hari): "Well, I haven't seen you for a long time."

Essence of Vedānta & Absolute and Relative are correlatives "You see,

in one form He is the Absolute and in another He is the Relative. What does

Vedānta teach? Brahman alone is real and the world illusory. Isn't that so?

But as long as God keeps the 'ego of a devotee' in a man, the Relative is

also real. When He completely effaces the ego, then what is remains. That

cannot be described by the tongue. But as long as God keeps the ego, one

must accept all. By removing the outer sheaths of the plantain-tree, you

reach the inner pith. As long as the tree contains sheaths, it also contains

pith. So too, as long as it contains pith, it also contains sheaths.

The pith goes with the sheaths and the sheaths go with the pith. In the same

way, when you speak of the Nitya, it is understood that the Lila also exists;

and when you speak of the Lila, it is understood that the Nitya also exists.

Brahman and Śakti

"It is He alone who has become the universe, living beings, and thetwenty-

four cosmic principles. When He is action less, I call Him Brahman; when

He creates, preserves, and destroys, I call Him Śakti. Brahman and Śakti are

not different from each other. Water is water, whether it is still or moving.

"It is not possible to rid oneself of 'I-consciousness' and as long as one is

aware of this 'I-consciousness', one cannot speak of the universe and its

living beings as unreal. You cannot get the correct weight of the bel-fruit if

you leave out its shell and pits.

"The brick, lime, and brick-dust of which the stairs are made are the same

brick, lime, and brick-dust of which the roof is made. The universe and its

living beings exist on account of the Reality of Him who is known as

Brahman.

Synthesis of the formless Reality and God with form "The devotees-I

mean the vijnanis-accept both God with form and the Formless, both the

Personal God and the Impersonal. In a shoreless ocean-an infinite expanse

of water-visible blocks of ice are formed here and there by intense cold.

Similarly, under the cooling influence, so to say, of the deep love of Its

worshipper, the Infinite reduces Itself to the finite and appears before the

worshipper as God with form. Again, as, on the rising of the sun, the ice

melts away, so, on the awakening of Knowledge, God with form melts

away into the same Infinite and Formless.

"As long as a man analyses with the mind, he cannot reach the Absolute. As

long as you reason with your mind, you have no way of getting rid of the

universe and the objects of the senses-form, taste, smell, touch, and sound.

When reasoning stops, you attain the Knowledge of Brahman. Ātman

cannot be realized through this mind; Ātman is realized through Ātman

alone. Pure Mind, Pure Buddhi, Pure Ātman-all these are one and the same.

"Just think how many things you need to perceive an object. You need eyes;

you need light; you need mind. You cannot perceive the object if you leave

out anyone of these three. As long as the mind functions how can you say

that the universe and the 'I' do not exist?

"When the mind is annihilated, when it stops deliberating pro and con, then

one goes into samādhi, one attains the Knowledge of Brahman. You know

the seven notes of the scale: sa, re, ga, ma, pa, dha, ni. One cannot keep

one's voice on 'ni' very long."

Intimate Knowledge of God

Looking at the younger Naren, Sri Ramakrishna said: "What will you gain

by merely being intuitively aware of God's existence? A mere vision of God

is by no means everything. You have to bring Him into your room. You

have to talk to Him.

"Some have heard of milk, some have seen milk, and some have drunk

milk. Some have seen the king, but only one or two can bring the King

home and entertain him."

M. went to the Ganges to take his bath. It was ten o'clock. Sri Ramakrishna

was still talking with the devotees. After finishing his bath, M. returned to

Balarām's house. He saluted the Master and sat down near him.

Sri Ramakrishna was filled with intense spiritual fervour. Words of wisdom

flowed from him. Now and then he narrated his profound mystical

experiences to the devotees.

Master's spiritual experiences

MASTER: "I went to Benares with Mathur Babu. Our boat was passing the

Manikarnika Ghat on the Ganges, when suddenly I had a vision of Śiva. I

stood near the edge of the boat and went into samādhi. The boatman,

fearing that I might fall into the water, cried to Hriday: 'Catch hold of him!

Catch hold of him!' I saw Śiva standing on that Ghat, embodying in Himself

all the seriousness of the world. At first I saw Him standing at a distance;

then I saw Him approaching me. At last he merged in me.

"Another time, in an ecstatic mood, I saw that a sannyāsi was leading me by

the hand.

We entered a temple and I had a vision of Annapurna made of gold.

"God alone has become all this; but He manifests Himself more in certain

things than in others.

(To M.) "Perhaps you do not believe in the salagram. 'Englishmen' do not

believe in it. It doesn't matter whether you believe in it or not. A salagram

should contain the mark of a disc and other signs; only then can it be

worshipped as an emblem of God."

M: "Yes, sir. It is like the fuller manifestation of God in a man with good

physical traits.'"

MASTER: "At first Narendra used to say that these were figments of my

imagination; but now he accepts everything."

Sri Ramakrishna was describing the vision of God, when he went into

samādhi. The devotees looked at him with fixed gaze. After a long time he

regained consciousness of the world and talked to the devotees.

MASTER (to M.): "What do you think I saw? I saw the whole universe as a

salagram, and in it I saw your two eyes."

In silent wonder M. and the devotees listened to these words about his inner

experience.

At this moment Sarada, another' young disciple of the Master, entered the

room and saluted him.

MASTER (to Sarada): "Why don't you come to Dakshineswar? Why don't

you see me when I come to Calcutta?"

SARADA: "Nobody tells me about it."

MASTER: "Next time I shall let you know. (To M., smiling) Make a list of

these youngsters." (M. and the devotees laugh.)

SARADA: "My relatives at home want me to marry. (pointing to M.) How

many times he has scolded me about marriage!"

MASTER: "Why should you marry just now? (To M.) Sarada is now in a

very good state of mind. Formerly he had a hesitant look; now his face

beams with joy."

Sri Ramakrishna said to a devotee, "Will you kindly fetch Purna?"

Narendra arrived. Sri Ramakrishna asked a devotee to give him some

refreshments. He was greatly pleased at the sight of Narendra. When he fed

Narendra, he felt that he was feeding Narayana Himself. He stroked

Narendra's body affectionately.

Spiritual fervour of Gopal Ma

Gopal Ma entered the room. She was a great devotee of Gopala and was

blessed with many lofty spiritual visions. Sri Ramakrishna had asked

Balarām to send a man to bring her from Kamarhati. As soon as she entered

the room she said, "I am shedding tears of joy." With these words she

bowed before the Master, touching the ground with her forehead.

MASTER: "What is this? You address me as 'Gopala' and still you salute

me! Now go into the inner apartments and cook some curry for me. Put

some spicy seasoning in it so that I may get the smell from here." (All

laugh.

GOPAL MA: "What will they [meaning the members of the household]

think of me?"

Before she left the room she said to Narendra in a very fervent voice, "My

child, have I reached the goal, or have I farther to go?"

It was the day of the Car Festival; so there was some delay in the worship

of the Family Deity. When the worship was finished Sri Ramakrishna was

asked to have his meal. He went to the inner apartments. The woman

devotees were anxious to see him.

Man and woman devotees

Sri Ramakrishna had many woman devotees, but he did not talk much about

them to his man devotees. He would warn the men against visiting woman

devotees. He would say: "Don't overdo it. Otherwise you will slip." To

some of his man devotees he would say, "Don't go near a woman even if

she rolls on the ground with devotion." The Master wanted the men to live

apart from woman devotees; only thus would the two groups make

progress. He did not like the woman devotees to caress the men as

"Gopala"; for too much of this motherly affection was not good; it

degenerated in time into a harmful relationship.

After his midday meal Sri Ramakrishna sat in the drawing-room with the

devotees. It was one o'clock. A devotee brought Purna from his home. With

great joy the Master exclaimed to M.: "Here he is! Purna has come."

Narendra, the younger Naren, Narayan, Haripada, and other devotees were

talking with the Master.

Free will

THE YOUNGER NAREN: "Sir, have we any free will?"

MASTER: "Just try to find out who this 'I' is. While you are searching for

'I', 'He' comes out. 'I am the machine and He is the Operator.' You have

heard of a mechanical toy that goes into a store with a letter in its hand. You

are like that toy. God alone is the Doer.

Do your duties in the world as if you were the doer, but knowing all the

time that God alone is the Doer and you are the instrument.

"As long as the Upādhi exists there is ignorance. 'I am a scholar', 'I am a

Jnāni', 'I am wealthy', 'I am honourable', 'I am the master, father, and

teacher' -all these ideas are begotten of ignorance. 'I am the machine and

You are the Operator' - that is Knowledge.

In the state of Knowledge all Upādhis are destroyed. When the log is burnt

up entirely, there is no more sound; no heat either. Everything cools down.

Peace! Peace! Peace! (To Narendra) Sing a little."

NARENDRA "I must go home. I have many things to do."

MASTER: "Yes, yes, my child! Why should you listen to us? 'The words of

those who have gold in their ears are valuable; no one listens to him who

hasn't even a rag round his waist.' (All laugh.) You frequent the garden

house of the Guhas. I always hear about it. Whenever I ask, 'Where is

Narendra today?' I am told, 'Oh, he has gone to the Guhas.' I should not

have said all these things, but you have wrung them out of me."

Narendra kept quiet a few moments. Then he said: "There are no

instruments to accompany me. Shall I just sing?"

MASTER: "My child, this is all we have. Please sing if it suits you. You

must know how Balarām arranges things. "Balarām says to me, 'Please

come to Calcutta by boat; take a carriage only if you must.' (All laugh.) You

see, he has given us a feast today; so this afternoon he will make us all

dance! (All laugh.) One day he hired a carriage for me from here to

Dakshineswar. He said that the carriage hire was twelve ānnās. I said to

him, 'Will the coachman take me to Dakshineswar for twelve ānnās?' 'Oh,

that will be plenty', he replied. One side of the carriage broke down before

we reached Dakshineswar. (All laugh.) Besides, the horse stopped every

now and then; it simply would not go. Once in a while the coachman

whipped the horse, and then it ran a short distance. (All laugh.) The

program for the evening is that Ram will play on the drum and we shall all

dance.

Ram has no sense of rhythm. (All laugh.) Anyhow, that is Balarām's

attitudesing yourselves, dance yourselves, and make yourselves happy!"

(All laugh.) Other devotees were arriving. Mahendra Mukherji saluted the

Master from a distance.

The Master returned the salute. Then he salaamed to Mahendra like a

Mussulman.

The Master said to a young devotee who sat next to him: "Why don't you

tell him I have salaamed to him? He will appreciate it (All laugh.) Many of

the householder devotees were accompanied by their wives and other

woman relatives. They wanted to salute the Master and watch his dancing

before the car. Ram, Girish, and other devotees gradually assembled. Many

young devotees were present.

Narendra sang:

Oh, when will dawn the blessed day

When Love will waken in my heart?

When will my tears flow uncontrolled

As I repeat Lord Hari's name,

And all my longing be fulfilled?

When will my mind and soul be pure?

Oh, when shall I at last repair

Unto Vrindāvan's sacred groves?

When will my worldly bonds fall off

And my imperfect sight be healed

By Wisdom's cool collyrium?

When shall I learn true alchemy

And, touching the Philosopher's Stone,

Transmute my body's worthless iron

Into the Spirit's purest gold?

When shall I see this very world

As God, and roll on Love's highway?

When shall I give up piety

And duty and the thought of caste?

When shall I leave behind all fear,

All shame, convention, worry, pride?

Oh, I shall smear my body then

With dust from the feet of devotees;

Across my shoulders I shall sling

Renunciation's pack, and drink

From my two hands a cooling draught

Of Jamunas life-renewing stream.

Oh, then I shall be mad with love;

I shall both laugh and weep for joy!

Then I shall swim, upon the Sea,

Of blessed Satchidananda;

Drunk with His love, I shall make all

As drunk as I! Oh, I shall sport

At Hari's feet for evermore!

He sang again:

In dense darkness, O Mother, Thy formless beauty sparkles; Therefore the,

yogis meditate in a dark mountain cave Balarām had arranged for kirtan

with Vaishnavcharan, the musician Vaishnavcharan sang:

O tongue, always repeat, the name of Mother Durga; Who but your Mother

Durga will save you in distress? . . .

When Sri Ramakrishna had heard a line or two of the song he went into

samādhi. He stood up in that ecstatic mood, The younger Naren supported

him. The Master's face was lighted with a smile. Gradually his body

became motionless; his mind appeared to have gone to another realm. All

the devotees in the room looked at him in amazement. The woman devotees

watched the scene from behind the screen. After a long time he came down

from samādhi, chanting the holy name of God.

As the Master sat down, Vaishnavcharan sang again:

O vina, sing Lord Hari's name!

Without the blessing of His feet

You cannot know the final Truth,

The name of Hari slays all grief:

Sing Hari's name! Sing Krishna's name! . . .

Then he sang:

O vina, forgetting to worship Hari, I pass the days of my life in vain. . . .

The Car Festival

It was afternoon. In the mean time the small car of Jagannath, decorated

with flowers, flags, and bunting, had been brought to the inner verandah.

The images of Jagannath, Subhadra, and Balarama, were adorned with

sandal-paste, flower garlands, robes and jewelry. Sri Ramakrishna left the

room where the professional musicians were singing and came to the

verandah, accompanied by the devotees. He stood in front of the car and

pulled it by the rope. He began to sing and dance with the devotees in front

of the car.

The Master sang:

Behold, the two brothers have come, who weep

while chanting Hari's name. . . .

He sang again:

See how all Nadia is shaking

Under the waves of Gaurānga's love! . . .

The music and dancing went on in the verandah as the car was pulled to and

fro. A large crowd entered the house on hearing the loud music and the

beating of the drums. Sri Ramakrishna was completely intoxicated with

divine love. The devotees felt its contagion and danced with the Master in

an ecstasy of love.

Afterwards Sri Ramakrishna returned to the drawing-room. M. and other

devotees stroked his feet.

Filled with divine fervour, Narendra sang to the accompaniment of the

Tānpura: Come! Come, Mother! Doll of my soul! My heart's' Delight!

In my heart's lotus come and sit, that I may see Thy face Then he sang:

Mother, Thou art our sole Redeemer,

Thou the Support of the three Gunās,

Higher than the most high.

Thou art compassionate, I know;

Who takest away our bitter grief.

Sandhya art Thou, and Gayatri;

Thou dost sustain this universe.

Mother, the Help art Thou

Of those that have no help but thee,

O Eternal Beloved of Śiva!

Thou art in earth, in water Thou;

Thou liest at the root of all.

In me, in every creature,

Thou hast Thy home; though clothed with form, Yet art Thou formless

Reality

He sang another song:

I have made Thee, O Lord, the Pole-star of my life; No more shall I lose my

way on the world's trackless sea.

Wherever I wander here, Thy brilliance shines undimmed; With Thy serene

and gracious light

Thou drivest all the tears out of my troubled soul.

In my heart's inmost shrine Thy face for ever beams; If, for a moment even,

I cannot find it there, My soul is overwhelmed with woe;

And when my witless mind strays from the thought of Thee, The vision of

Thy face strikes me with deepest shame.

A devotee said to Narendra, "Will you sing that one - 'O Mother, Thou my

Inner Guide, ever awake within my heart'?"

MASTER: "Oh, no! Why that song now? The proper thing now is to sing of

divine bliss-a song like 'O Mother Syama, full of the waves of drunkenness

divine'."

Narendra sang:

O Mother Syama, full of the waves of drunkenness divine!

Who knows how Thou dost sport in the world?

Thy fun and frolic and Thy glances put to shame the god of love.

O Wielder of the sword! O Thou of terrifying face!

The earth itself is shaken under Thy leaps and strides!

O Thou Abode of the three Gunās! O Redeemer! Fearsome One!

Thou who art the Consort of Śiva!

Many the forms Thou dost assume, fulfilling Thy bhaktas'

prayers.

Thou dancest in the Lotus of the Heart,

O Mother, Eternal Consort of Brahman!

Full of divine ecstasy, Narendra sang again and again the lines: Thou

dancest in the Lotus of the Heart,

O Mother, Eternal Consort of Brahman!

Sri Ramakrishna was dancing, drunk with divine love, and he sang again

and again, "O

Mother, Eternal Consort of Brahman!"

After dancing a long time Sri Ramakrishna resumed his seat. He was very

much pleased to see Narendra in a spiritual mood, singing with tears in his

eyes.

It was about nine o'clock in the evening. The devotees still sat around the

Master.

Vaishnavcharan sang about Gaurānga:

The beautiful Gaurānga, the youthful dancer, fair as molten gold. . . .

Next he sang about Sri Krishna. Krishna had left His pastoral life in

Vrindāvan and become the king of Mathura. A gopi met Him there and

said: O Hari, how shall we know You now?

In Mathura's royal splendour you have forgotten us.

Now, in your kingly robes, you ride an elephant; Have you utterly forgotten

how in Vrindāvan You tended cows?

O Hari, have you forgotten how you would steal the butter From Braja's

innocent gopi maids?

About eleven o'clock the devotees saluted the Master and were departing

one by one.

MASTER: "You may all go. (Pointing to Narendra and the younger Naren)

It will be enough if these two stay. (To Girish) Will you eat your supper at

home? You may stay a few minutes if you want to. You want a smoke! But

Balarām's servant is just like his master. Ask him for a smoke; he won't give

it! (All laugh.) But don't go away without having your smoke."

Girish had brought with him a respectable friend. The latter observed all

these things and left the place. Sri Ramakrishna said to Girish: "I say this to

you and to everyone: Please do not force anybody to come here. Nothing

happens except at the right time."

Before leaving, a devotee saluted the Master. He had a young boy with him.

Sri Ramakrishna said to him affectionately, "It is getting late, and you have

this boy with you." Narendra, the younger Naren, and a few other devotees

stayed awhile and then took their leave.

Wednesday, July 15, 1885

It was four, o'clock in the morning. Sri Ramakrishna was in bed in the small

room next to the drawing-room. M. was sitting on a bench on the outer

verandah to the south of the room. A few minutes later Sri Ramakrishna

came out to the verandah. M. saluted him.

MASTER: "I have already been up once. Well, shall we go to

Dakshineswar this morning?"

M: "The Ganges is less choppy in the morning."

Day was gradually breaking. The devotees had not yet arrived. Sri

Ramakrishna had washed his mouth and was chanting the names of God in

his sweet voice. He stood near the north door of the room. M. was by his

side. A few minutes later Gopal Ma arrived and stood near him. One or two

woman devotees were looking at the Master from behind the doors of the

inner apartments. They were like the gopis of Vrindāvan looking at Sri

Krishna, or the woman devotees of Nadia looking at Gaurānga from behind

the screen.

After chanting the name of Rāma, Sri Ramakrishna chanted the name of

Krishna: "Krishna! Krishna! Krishna of the gopis! Gopi! Gopi! Krishna, the

Life of the cowherd boys of Vrindāvan! Krishna, the son of Nanda!

Govinda! Govinda!"

Next he chanted the name of Gaurānga. Then he repeated, "Ālekh

Niranjana", which is a name of God. Saying, "Niranjana", he wept. The

devotees wept too. With tears in his eyes the Master said: "O Niranjan! O

my child! Come! Eat this! Take this! When shall I make my life blessed by

feeding you? You have assumed this human form for my sake."

He prayed to Jagannath in a very touching voice:

"O Jagannath, Lord of the Universe! O Friend of the world! O Friend of the

poor! I am not, O Lord, outside Thy universe. Be gracious to me!"

While he sang in praise of Jagannath he was beside himself with divine

love.

Now he chanted the name of Narayana . He danced and sang: "O Narayana

! O Narayana ! Narayana ! Narayana !"

He danced and sang again:

Ah, friend! I have not found Him yet, whose love has driven me mad. . . .

Afterwards the Master sat in the small room with the devotees. He was

completely stripped of his clothes, like a five-year-old child. M., Balarām,

and a few other devotees were in the room.

MASTER: "One can see God's form. One sees God when all Upādhis

disappear and reasoning stops. Then a man becomes speechless and goes

into samādhi. Coming to the theatre, people indulge in all kinds of gossip.

But the moment the curtain goes up, all conversation stops; the spectators

become fully absorbed in what they see on the stage.

Master's love for young disciples

"I want to tell you something very secret. Why do I love boys like Purna

and Narendra so much? Once, in a spiritual mood, I felt intense love for

Jagannath, love such as a woman feels for her sweetheart. In that mood I

was about to embrace Him; when I broke my arm. It was then revealed to

me: 'You have assumed this human body. Therefore establish with human

beings the relationship of friend, father, mother, or son.'

"I now feel for Purna and the other young boys as I once felt for Rāmlāla. I

used to bathe Rāmlāla, feed Him, put Him to bed, and take Him wherever I

went. I used to weep for Rāmlāla. Now I have the same feeling for these

young boys. Look at Niranjan. He is not attached to anything. He spends

money from his own pocket to take poor patients to the hospital. At the

proposal of marriage he says, 'Goodness! That is the whirlpool of the

Visalaks! I see him seated on a light. "Purna belongs to the realm of the

Personal God.

He was born with an element of Vishnu. Ah, what yearning he has!

(To M.) "Didn't you notice that he looked at you as if you were his spiritual

brother, his very own? He said he would visit me again, at Captain's house.

Master's praise of Narendra

"Narendra belongs to a very high plane-the realm of the Absolute. He has a

manly nature. So many devotees come here, but there is not one like him.

"Every now and then I take stock of the devotees. I find that some are like

lotuses with ten petals, some like lotuses with sixteen petals, some like

lotuses with a hundred petals. But among lotuses Narendra is a thousand-

petalled one.

"Other devotees may be like pots or pitchers; but Narendra is a huge water-

barrel.

"Others may be like pools or tanks; but Narendra is a huge reservoir like the

Haldārpukur.

"Among fish, Narendra is a huge red-eyed carp; others are like minnows or

smelts or sardines. Tārak of Belgharia may be called a bass.

"Narendra is a 'very big receptacle', one that can hold many things. He is

like a bamboo with a big hollow space inside.

"Narendra is not under the control of anything. He is not under the control

of attachment or sense pleasures. He is like a male pigeon. If you hold a

male pigeon by its beak, it breaks away from you; but the female pigeon

keeps still. Narendra has the nature of a man; so he sits on the right side in a

carriage. Bhavanāth has a woman's nature; so I make him sit on the other

side. I feel great strength when Narendra is with me in a gathering."

About eight o'clock in the morning Mahendra Mukherji arrived and saluted

the Master.

Haripada, Tulsiram and other devotees arrived one by one and saluted him.

Baburam was laid up with fever and could not come.

MASTER (to M. and the others): "Hasn't the younger Naren come? Perhaps

he thought I had left. (To Mukherji) How amazing! Even during his

boyhood, on returning from school, he cried for God. Is it a small thing to

cry for God? He is very intelligent, too. He is like a bamboo with a big

hollow space inside. All of his mind is fixed on me.

Girish Ghosh said to me: The younger Naren went to Navagopal's house

when a kirtan was going on. On entering the house he inquired about you

and exclaimed, "Where is he?" He was totally unconscious of his

surroundings and practically walked over the people.' He has no fear of his

relatives' threats. Sometimes he spends three nights at a stretch at

Dakshineswar."

MUKHERJI: "Hari became simply speechless at what you said yesterday.

He said to me: 'Such wisdom can be found only in the philosophical

systems of Samkhya, Yoga, and Vedānta. He is no ordinary person.'"

MASTER: "But I have never studied Samkhya or Vedānta.

Knowledge of God is the same as love of Him & Divine love leads to

union with God.

Perfect Jnāna and perfect bhakti are one and the same thing. A man reasons,

saying, 'Not this, not this'; he rejects the unreal. When his reasoning comes

to an end, he attains the Knowledge of Brahman. Then he accepts what he

rejected before. A man carefully climbs to the roof, rejecting the steps one

by one. After reaching the roof he realizes that the steps are made of the

same materials as the roof, namely, brick, lime, and brick-dust.

"He who is aware of the high is also aware of the low. After the attainment

of knowledge one looks alike on high and low.

"While Prahlada dwelt on the plane of the Supreme Reality, he maintained

the attitude of 'I am He'; but when he climbed down to the physical plane,

he would look on himself as the servant of God.

"Hanuman also sometimes said, 'I am He', sometimes, 'I am the servant of

God', sometimes, 'I am a part of God.'

"Why should a man cherish love of God in his heart? How else will he live?

How else will he spend his days?

"To be sure, the ego does not disappear altogether. As long as the pot of 'I'

persists, one cannot realize 'I am He.' In samādhi the ego totally disappears;

then what is remains.

Ramprasad says: 'O Mother, when I shall attain Knowledge, then You alone

will know whether I am good or You are good.'

"As long as 'I-consciousness' exists, one should have the attitude of a

bhakta; one should not say, 'I am God.' A man aware of his body should feel

that he is not Krishna Himself, but His devotee. But if God draws the

devotee to Himself, then it is different. It is like the master saying to his

beloved servant: 'Come, take your seat near me. You are the same as I.'

"The waves are part of the Ganges, but the Ganges is not part of the waves.

"Śiva experiences two states of mind. When He is completely absorbed in

His own Self, He feels, 'I am He.' In that union neither body nor mind

functions. But when He is conscious of His separate ego, He dances,

exclaiming, 'Rāma! Rāma!'

"That which is unmoving also moves. Just now you are still, but a few

moments later the same you will be engaged in action.

"Jnāna and bhakti are one and the same thing. The difference is like this:

one man says 'water', and another, 'a block of ice'.

Two kinds of samādhi

"Generally speaking there are two kinds of samādhi. First, sthita or jada

samādhi: one attains it by following the path of knowledge-as a result of the

destruction of the ego through reasoning. Second, bhava samādhi: one

attains this by following the path of bhakti. In this second samādhi a trace

of ego remains, like a line, in order to enable the devotee to enjoy God, to

taste His Lila. But one cannot understand all this if one is attached to

'woman and gold'.

"I said to Kedār, 'You will never succeed if your mind dwells on "woman

and gold".' I wanted to pass my hand over his chest, but I could not. He has

knots and twists inside.

It was like a room smelling of filth, which I could not enter. His attachment

to the world is very deep; it is like a natural emblem of Śiva, whose root

spreads as far as Benares.

One will never succeed if one is attached to the world-to 'woman and gold'.

Master praises his young disciples

"The youngsters are yet untouched by 'woman and gold'. That is why I love

them so dearly. Hazra says to me, 'You love a boy if he comes from a

wealthy family or if he is handsome.' If that is so, then why do I love

Harish, Lātu, and Narendra? Narendra hasn't a penny to buy salt to season

his rice.

"The youngsters' minds are not yet coloured by worldliness. That is why

they are so pure in heart. Besides, many of them are eternally perfect; they

have been drawn to God from their very birth. It is like a garden in which,

while cleaning it, you suddenly discover water-pipes. The water gushes

forth without any effort on your part."

BALARĀM: "Sir, how was it possible for Purna to know all of a sudden

that the world is illusory?"

MASTER: "He has inherited that knowledge from his previous births. In his

past lives he practised many disciplines. It is the body alone that is small or

grows big, and not the Ātman.

"Do you know what these youngsters are like? They are like certain plants

that grow fruit first and then flowers. These devotees first of all have the

vision of God; next they hear about His glories and attributes; and at last

they are united with Him. Look at Niranjan.

He always keeps his accounts clear. He will be able to go whenever he

hears the call.

Respect for one's own mother

But one should look after one's mother as long as she is alive. I used to

worship my mother with flowers and sandal-paste. It is the Mother of the

Universe who is embodied as our earthly mother.

"As long as you look after your own body, you must look after your mother

too.

Therefore I said to Hazra: 'when you have a cold, you procure black pepper,

sugar candy, and salt. As long as you feel you must look after your body,

you must look after your mother too.'

"But it is quite different when you completely forget your body. Then God

Himself assumes your responsibilities. A minor cannot look after himself;

therefore a guardian is appointed for him. Chaitanyadeva, like a minor,

could not look after himself."

M. went to the Ganges to bathe.

Master's spiritual experiences

Sri Ramakrishna was talking with the devotees in the small room in

Balarām's house.

Mahendra, Balarām, Tulasi, Haripada, Girish, and other devotees were

sitting on the floor. M. returned from the Ganges. After saluting the Master

he took a seat near him.

Sri Ramakrishna was recounting to the devotees some of his spiritual

experiences.

MASTER: "One day in the Kāli temple Haladhāri and Nangta were reading

the Adhyātma Rāmāyana. Suddenly I had a vision of a river with woods on

both sides. The trees and plants were green. Rāma and Lakshmana were

walking along wearing their shorts. One day, in front of the kuthi, I saw

Arjuna's chariot. Sri Krishna was seated in it as the charioteer. I still

remember it. Another day, while listening to kirtan at Kamarpukur, I saw

Gaurānga in front of me.

"At that time a naked person, emerging from my body, used to go about

with me. I used to joke with him. He looked like a boy and was a

paramahamsa. I can't describe to you all the divine forms I saw at that time.

I was suffering then from indigestion, which would become worse when I

saw visions; so I would try to shun these divine forms and would spit on the

ground when I saw them. But they would follow me and obsess me like

ghosts. I was always overwhelmed with divine ecstasy and couldn't tell the

passing of day and night. On the day after such a vision I would have a

severe attack of diarrhoea, and all these ecstasies would pass out through

my bowels."

GIRISH (smiling): "I am examining your horoscope."

MASTER (smiling): "I was born on the second day of the bright fortnight

of the moon. My horoscope shows the positions of the sun, the moon, and

Mercury at the time of my birth. There are not many more details."

GIRISH: "You were born under Kumbha. Rāma and Krishna were born

under Karkat and Brisha, and Chaitanya under Simha."

MASTER: "I had two desires: first, that I should be the king of the

devotees, and second, that I should not be a dry sādhu."

GIRISH (smiling): "Why did you have to practise spiritual discipline?"

MASTER (smiling): "Even the Divine Mother had to practise austere

sādhanā to obtain Śiva as Her husband. She practised the panchatapa. She

would also immerse Her body in water in wintertime, and look fixedly at

the sun. Krishna Himself had to practise much sādhanā. I had many mystic

experiences, but I cannot reveal their contents. Under the bel-tree I had

many flaming visions. There I practised the various sadhanas prescribed in

the Tantra. I needed many articles-human skulls, and so forth and so on.

The Brahmani used to collect these things for me. I practised a number of

mystic postures.

"I had another strange experience: if I felt egotistic on a particular day, I

would be sick the following day."

M. sat motionless as a picture on canvas, hearing about these unique visions

of the Master. The other devotees also were spellbound. There was a dead

silence in the room.

TULASI (pointing to M.): "He never laughs."

MASTER: "But he laughs inside. The surface of the river Phalgu is covered

with sand; but if you dig into the sand, water comes up.

(To M.) "Don't you scrape your tongue? Scrape it every day."

BALARĀM: "Well, Purna has heard much about you from M."

MASTER: "Perhaps the account of my early spiritual experiences."

BALARĀM: "If Purna is perfect by nature, then what is M.'s function?"

MASTER: "A mere instrument."

It was nine o'clock. Sri Ramakrishna was about to leave for Dakshineswar.

Arrangements were being made for his departure. A boat had been hired at

Baghbazar. The devotees saluted the Master. Sri Ramakrishna went to the

boat with one or two devotees. Gopal Ma accompanied them. She intended

to spend the morning at Dakshineswar and go to Kamarhati in the

afternoon. The camp cot generally used by Rākhāl at Dakshineswar had

been sent to Calcutta for repair. It was put in the boat, and the boat left for

Dakshineswar. According to the Hindu almanac the day was not auspicious.

So Sri Ramakrishna decided to return to Balarām's house the next Saturday

and start again for Dakshineswar on an auspicious day.

--------------------

Chapter 43

VISIT TO NANDA BOSE′S HOUSE

Tuesday, July 28, 1885

IT WAS ABOUT THREE O'CLOCK in the afternoon. Sri Ramakrishna

was sitting in Balarām's drawing-room with the devotees. Among others,

Binode, Rākhāl, the younger Naren, and M. were present. The Master had

come to Balarām's house in the morning and had taken his midday meal

there. At Balarām's house the Deity was worshipped as Jagannāth, and the

members of the family partook of the food offered to the Deity; Sri

Ramakrishna used to say that the food at Balarām's house was very pure.

Pictures at Nanda's house

Narayan and certain other devotees had remarked to the Master that Nanda

Bose, an aristocrat of Baghbazar, had many pictures of gods and goddesses

in his house. Hence Sri Ramakrishna intended to pay a visit to Nanda's

house in the afternoon. A Brahmin woman devoted to the Master lived near

by. She often came to see him at Dakshineswar. She was extremely

sorrowful over the death of her only daughter, and the Master had agreed to

go to her house. She had invited him with great earnestness.

From her house the Master was to go to the house of Ganu's mother,

another devotee.

The younger Naren had said to Sri Ramakrishna that he would not be able

to visit him often on account of his having to prepare for his examinations.

MASTER (to the younger Naren): "I didn't send for you today."

THE YOUNGER NAREN (smiling): "What can be done about it now?"

MASTER: "Well, my child, I don't want to interfere with your studies. You

may visit me when you have leisure."

The Master said these words as if he were piqued.

He was ready to go to Nanda Bose' house. A palanquin was brought for

him, and he got into it repeating the name of God. He had put on a pair of

black varnished slippers and a red-bordered cloth. As Sri Ramakrishna sat

down in the palanquin, M. put the slippers by his side. He accompanied the

palanquin on foot. Paresh joined them.

They entered the gate of Nanda's house, crossed the spacious square and

stopped in front of the building. The members of the family greeted the

Master. He asked M. to hand him the slippers and then got out of the

palanquin and entered the large hall. It was a very spacious room. Pictures

of gods and goddesses were hanging on all sides.

Nanda Bose and his brother Pasupati saluted Sri Ramakrishna. The

devotees of the Master also arrived. Girish's brother Atul came, and

Prasanna's father, who was a frequent visitor at Nanda's house, was there.

Prasanna was a devotee of the Master.

The Master looked at the pictures. M. and a few other devotees stood

around him.

Pasupati was explaining the pictures to them.

The first picture was of Vishnu with four arms. At the very sight of it Sri

Ramakrishna was overwhelmed with ecstasy; he sat down on the floor and

remained a few minutes in that spiritual mood.

In the second picture Rāma was blessing Hanuman, with His hand on the

devotee's head. Hanuman's gaze was fixed on Rāma's Lotus Feet. The

Master looked at the picture a long time and exclaimed with great fervour,

"Ah me! Ah me!"

The third picture was of Krishna standing with flute to His lips under the

Kadamba tree.

The fourth was of Vāmana, the Dwarf, who was an Incarnation of Vishnu.

The Master looked intently at this picture.

Next the Master looked at a picture of Nrisimha, and then at one of Krishna

with a herd of cows. Krishna was tending the cows with His cowherd

friends on the bank of the Jamuna at Vrindāvan. M. said, "A lovely

picture!"

Sri Ramakrishna then saw pictures of Dhumavati, Shorasi, Bhuvanesvari,

Tara, and Kāli.

He said: "All these portray the terrible aspects of the Divine Mother. If one

keeps these pictures, one should worship them. But you must be lucky, to

be able to hang them like that on the wall."

At the sight of Annapurna's picture, Sri Ramakrishna exclaimed with great

fervour, "Grand! Grand!"

The next picture was one of Rādhika as monarch. She was seated on a

throne in the Nikunja grove, surrounded by her woman attendants. Sri

Krishna guarded the entrance of the grove as her officer.

Next was Sri Krishna's picture. Then came a picture of Sarasvati, the

goddess of learning and music. It was in a glass case. She was in an ecstatic

mood, playing melodies on the Vina.

Master praises his host

After seeing the pictures, Sri Ramakrishna went to the master of the house

and said: "I am very happy today. It is grand! You are a real Hindu. You

have these pictures instead of English ones. I am surprised!"

Nanda Bose was seated. He said to the Master: "Please take a seat. Why are

you standing?"

Sri Ramakrishna sat down. He said: "These are very large pictures. You are

a real Hindu."

NANDA: "I have European pictures also."

MASTER (smiling): "They are not like these. I am sure you don't pay much

attention to them."

A picture of Kasha's Nava-Vishnu hung on the wall. Suresh Mitra, a

beloved householder disciple of the Master, had had it painted. In this

picture Sri Ramakrishna was pointing out to Keshab that people of different

religions proceed to the same goal by different paths.

MASTER: "That was painted for Surendra."

PRASANNA'S FATHER (smiling): "You too are in that picture."

MASTER (smiling): "Yes, it contains everything. This is the ideal of

modern times."

As he spoke Sri Ramakrishna manifested great spiritual fervour. He was in

an ecstatic mood, talking to the Divine Mother. A few minutes later he said,

like a drunkard, "I am not unconscious." Looking at the house, he said: "It

is a huge mansion. But what does it consist of? Bricks, timber, and clay."

A little later he said, "I am very happy to see these pictures of gods and

goddesses." He added: "It is not good to keep pictures of the terrible aspects

of the Divine Mother. If one does, one should worship them."

PASUPATI (smiling): "Well, things will go on as long as She keeps them

going."

MASTER: "That is true. But one should think of God. It is not good to

forget Him."

NANDA: "But how little we think of God!"

MASTER: "One thinks of God through His grace."

NANDA: "But how can we obtain God's grace? Has He really the power to

bestow grace?"

Master's prayer

MASTER (smiling): "I see. You think as the intellectuals do: one reaps the

results of one's actions. Give up these ideas. The effect of karma wears

away if one takes refuge in God. I prayed to the Divine Mother with flowers

in my hand: 'Here, Mother, take Thy sin; here, take Thy virtue. I don't want

either of these; give me only real bhakti. Here, Mother, take Thy good; here,

take Thy bad. I don't want any of Thy good or bad; give me only real

bhakti. Here, Mother, take Thy dharma; here, take Thy adharma. I don't

want any of Thy dharma or adharma; give me only real bhakti. Here,

Mother, take Thy knowledge; here, take Thy ignorance. I don't want any of

Thy knowledge or ignorance; give me only real bhakti. Here, Mother, take

Thy purity; here, take Thy impurity. Give me only real bhakti.' "

NANDA "Can God violate law?"

MASTER: "What do you mean? He is the Lord of all. He can do

everything. He who has made the law can also change it.

Nature of worldly enjoyment

"But you may very well talk that way. Perhaps you want to enjoy the world,

and that is why you talk that way. There is a view that a man's inner spirit is

not awakened unless he is through with enjoyment. But what is there to

enjoy? The pleasures of 'woman and gold'? This moment they exist and the

next moment they disappear. It is all momentary.

And what is there in 'woman and gold'? It is like the hog plum-all stone and

skin. If one eats it, one suffers from colic. Or like a sweetmeat. Once you

swallow it, it is gone."

Is God partial?

Nanda remained silent a few minutes. Then he said: "Oh, yes. People no

doubt talk that way. But is God partial? If things happen through God's

grace, then I must say God is partial."

MASTER: "But God Himself has become everything-the universe and its

living beings.

You will realize it when you have Perfect Knowledge. God Himself has

become the twenty-four cosmic principles: the mind, intellect, body, and so

forth. Is there anyone but Himself to whom He can show partiality?"

NANDA: "Why has He assumed all these different forms? Why are some

wise and some ignorant?"

MASTER: "It is His sweet will."

ATUL: "Kedār Bābu puts it nicely. Once a man asked him, 'Why has God

created the world?' He replied, 'I was not present at the conference where

God made the plans of His creation.'"

MASTER: "Oh! It is His sweet will"

So saying, the Master sang:

O Mother, all is done after Thine own sweet will: Thou art in truth self-

willed, Redeemer of mankind!

Thou workest Thine own work; men only call it theirs.

Thou it is that holdest the elephant in the mire; Thou, that helpest the lame

man scale the loftiest hill.

On some Thou dost bestow the bliss of Brahmanhood; Yet others Thou dost

hurl into this world below.

Thou art the Moving Force, and I the mere machine; The house am I, and

Thou the Spirit dwelling there; I am the chariot, and Thou the Charioteer:

I move alone as Thou, O Mother, movest me.

Liberation for all

He continued: "The Divine Mother is full of bliss. Creation, preservation,

and destruction are the waves of Her sportive pleasure. Innumerable are the

living beings. Only one or two among them obtain liberation. And that

makes Her happy.

Out of a hundred thousand kites, at best but one or two break free;

And Thou dost laugh and clap Thy hands, O Mother, watching them!

Some are being entangled in the world and some are being liberated from

it.

How many are the boats, O mind,

That float on the ocean of this world!

How many are those that sink!"

NANDA: "It may be Her sweet will; but it is death to us."

MASTER: "But who are you? It is the Divine Mother who has become all

this. It is only as long as you do not know Her that you say, 'I', 'I'.

"All will surely realize God. All will be liberated. It may be that some get

their meal in the morning, some at noon, and some in the evening: but none

will go without food. All, without any exception, will certainly know their

real Self."

PASUPATI: "True, sir. It seems that it is God alone who has become

everything."

Nature of "I"

MASTER: "Try to find out what this 'I' is. Is this 'I' the bones or flesh or

blood or intestines? Seeking the 'I', you discover 'Thou'. In other words,

nothing exists inside you but the power of God. There is no 'I', but only

'He'. (To Pasupati) You have so much wealth, but you have no egotism. It is

not possible to rid oneself altogether of the ego; so, as long as it is there, let

the rascal remain as the servant of God. (All laugh.) The ego that makes a

man feel he is a devotee of God or a son of God or a servant of God is

good. But the ego that makes a man attached to 'woman and gold' is the

'unripe ego'.

That ego is to be renounced."

The head of the household and the others were very much pleased to hear

this interpretation of the ego.

MASTER (to Pasupati): "There are two signs of knowledge: first, absence

of pride, and second, a peaceful nature. You have both. Therefore you must

have received the grace of God.

"Too much wealth makes one forget God. That is the very nature of wealth.

Jadu Mallick has become very rich. Nowadays he doesn't talk of God.

Formerly he used to enjoy spiritual talk a great deal.

"'Woman and gold' is a kind of wine. If a man drinks too much wine, he

does not show his father and uncle the respect that is due to them. Very

often he abuses them. A drunkard cannot distinguish between his superior

and his inferior."

NANDA: "That is true, sir."

PASUPATI: "Sir, what do you think of Theosophy and Spiritualism? Are

these true? What do you think of the solar plane, the lunar plane, the stellar

plane?"

MASTER: "My dear sir, I don't know about these things. Why bother about

them so much? You have come to the orchard to eat mangoes. Enjoy them.

What is the use of your calculating how many mango-trees there are, how

many millions of branches, how many billions of leaves? I have come to the

orchard to eat mangoes. Let me enjoy them.

"Once a man's inner spirit is awakened, once he succeeds in knowing God,

he doesn't feel the desire even to know about all this rubbish. How

incoherently a delirious patient talks: 'I shall eat five seers of rice! I shall

drink a whole tank of water!' 'Will you?' says the physician. 'All right! You

will have them.' Saying this, the physician goes on with his smoke. But he

pays attention to what the patient says when the patient is no longer

delirious."

PASUPATI: "Will our delirium last for ever?"

MASTER: "Why should you think so? Fix your mind on God, and spiritual

consciousness will be awakened in you."

PASUPATI (smiling): "Our union with God is only momentary. It doesn't

last any longer than a pipeful of tobacco." (All Laugh.)

MASTER: "What if that is so? Union with God even for one moment surely

gives a man liberation.

"Ahalyā said to Rāma, 'O Rāma, it doesn't matter if I am born as a pig or

any other being; only bless me that my mind may dwell on Thy Lotus Feet

and be filled with real devotion to Thee.'

"Nārada said to Rāma: 'O Rāma, I want from Thee no other favour. Please

give me real love for Thee; and please bless me, that I may not come under

the spell of Thy world-bewitching māyā.'

"When a man sincerely prays to God, he is able to fix his mind on God and

develop real love for His Lotus Feet.

"Give up all such notions as: 'Shall we be cured of our delirium?', 'What

will happen to us?', 'We are sinners!' (To Nanda) One must have this kind of

faith: 'What? Once I have uttered the name of Rāma, can I be a sinner any

more?'"

NANDA: "Is there no after-life? What about punishment for our sins?"

MASTER: "Why not enjoy your mangoes? What need have you to

calculate about the after-life and what happens then, and things like that?

Eat your mangoes. You need mangoes. You need devotion to God. "

God, the Wish-fulfilling Tree

NANDA: "But where is the mango-tree? Where do I get mangoes?"

MASTER: "Tree? God is the eternal and infinite Brahman. He does exist;

there is no doubt about it. He is eternal. But you must remember this, that

He is the Kalpataru.

Come, let us go for a walk, O mind, to Kāli, the Wish-fulfilling Tree,

And there beneath It gather the four fruits of life.

"You must go to the Kalpataru and pray. Only then will you obtain the

fruits. Only then will the fruits fall from the tree. Only then will you be able

to gather them. There are four fruits: dharma, artha, kama, and moksha. The

jnanis seek the fruit of liberation; and the bhaktas, love of God, love

without any motive behind it. They seek neither dharma nor artha nor kama.

About the after-life

"You ask about the after-life. According to the Gitā you will become in the

next life what you think of in the hour of death. King Bharata was very

much grieved over his pet deer; he died repeating the word 'deer'; therefore

he was reborn as a deer. That is why day and night a man should practise

worship, japa, meditation, and other spiritual exercises.

Only then, by virtue of practice, will he be able to think of God in the hour

of death. If one dies thus, thinking of God, one will acquire God's nature.

"Keshab Sen, too, asked me about the after-life. I said to him also, 'What

need have you of all these calculations?' Then I said: 'As long as a man does

not realize God, he will return to the world. The potter puts his clay jars and

lids out in the sun to bake. If cattle trample them underfoot, he throws,

away the baked ones. But he collects the soft ones, mixes them, with more

clay, puts them on the wheel, and makes new vessels from them.' "

The master of the house had not yet shown any sign of serving Sri

Ramakrishna with refreshments. Sri Ramakrishna himself said to Nanda:

"You see, you should offer me something to eat. That is why the other day I

said to Jadu's mother: 'Look here. Give me something to eat.' Otherwise it

brings harm to the householder."

Nanda Bose ordered some sweets. Sri Ramakrishna began to eat them.

Nanda and the others were watching the Master and his actions. After

eating the sweets, Sri Ramakrishna wanted to wash his hands. The plate on

which the sweets were served had been placed on the sheet covering the

carpet; so the Master could not wash his hands in the plate. A servant

brought a brass bowl for him to use. But Sri Ramakrishna would not use it,

since only rajasic people used such things. He asked the servant to take it

away.

The master of the house said to him, "Please wash your hands." Absent-

mindedly Sri Ramakrishna said: "What? Shall I wash my hands?"

The Master walked to the south verandah. He asked M. to pour water into

his hands. M.

poured water from a jug. The Master dried his hands with his cloth and

returned to the room; Then he was offered betel-leaf on a tray. But the other

guests had already taken some from the same tray; the Master did not

accept any.

NANDA (to the Master): "May I say something?"

MASTER (smiling): "What?"

NANDA: "Why didn't you eat any betel-leaf? Everything else you did was

proper; this alone seems to be otherwise."

MASTER: "Before I eat anything I offer it to God. It is a notion of mine."

NANDA :"But the betel-leaf would have gone to God all the same."

MASTER: "There is the path of Jnāna, and there is also the path of bhakti.

According to the Jnāni everything can be eaten by applying the Knowledge

of Brahman; but the follower of bhakti keeps a little distinction."

NANDA: "But I still maintain that you did not act rightly."

MASTER (smiling): "It is just a notion of mine. What you say is also right.

That too is supported by the scriptures."

Sri Ramakrishna was warning Nanda of flatterers.

MASTER: "Beware of flatterers. They are after their own selfish purpose.

(To Prasanna's father) Do you live in this house?"

PRASANNA'S FATHER: "No, sir, I am a neighbour. Won't you have a

smoke?"

MASTER (very humbly): "No, please enjoy yourself. I don't feel like

smoking now."

Nanda's house was like a palace. Sri Ramakrishna said to him: "Jadu hasn't

such a big house. I told him so the other day."

NANDA :"He has built a new house at Jorashanko."

Sri Ramakrishna was encouraging Nanda.

MASTER (to Nanda): "Though you are a householder, still you have kept

your mind on God. Is that a small thing? The man who has renounced the

world will pray to Him as a matter of course. Is there any credit in that? But

blessed indeed is he who, while leading a householder's life, prays to God.

He is like a man who finds an object after removing a stone weighing

twenty maunds.

Nārada and Hanuman

"One should pray to God, establishing with Him an appropriate

relationship. Hanuman's love for God was mixed with knowledge; but

Nārada's love for God was pure and unadulterated.

"Rāma asked Hanuman, 'Hanuman, what attitude do you cherish toward Me

when you worship Me?' Hanuman answered: 'Sometimes I see that You are

the whole and I am a part; sometimes I see that You are the Master and I am

Your servant. But Rāma, when I have the Knowledge of Reality, then I find

that You are I and I am You.'

"Rāma said to Nārada, 'Ask a favour of Me.' Nārada said, 'O Rāma, grant

me the boon that I may have genuine love for Thy Lotus Feet and that I

may not come under the spell of Thy world-bewitching māyā!'"

Sri Ramakrishna was about to take his leave.

MASTER (to Nanda): "According to the Gitā a man who is honoured and

respected by many people possesses a special power of God. You have

divine power."

NANDA: "All men have the same power."

Different degrees of divine manifestation

MASTER (sharply): "You all say the same thing. Can all men ever possess

power to the same degree? God no doubt dwells in all beings as the all-

pervading Spirit, but the manifestations of His Power are different in

different beings.

"Vidyāsāgar, too, said the same thing. He said, 'Has God given some more

power and some less?' Thereupon I said to him: 'If there are not different

manifestations of His Power, then why have we come to see you? Have you

grown two horns on your head?'"

Sri Ramakrishna rose. The devotees followed him. Pasupati accompanied

them to the door.

Visit to the Brahmani's house

The Master arrived at the house of the brahmin lady who was grief-stricken

on account of her daughter's death. It was an old brick house. Entering the

house, the Master passed the cowshed on his left. He and the devotees went

to the roof, where they took seats. People were standing there in rows.

Others were seated. They were all eager to get a glimpse of Sri

Ramakrishna.

The brahmani had a sister; both of them were widows. Their brothers also

lived in the house with their families. The brahmani had been busy all day

making arrangements to receive Sri Ramakrishna. While the Master was at

Nanda Bose's house she had been extremely restless, going out of the house

every few minutes to see if he was coming.

He had promised to come to her place from Nanda's. Because of his delay

she had thought perhaps he would not come at all.

Sri Ramakrishna was seated on a carpet. M., Narayan, Jogin, Devendra, and

others were seated on a mat. A few minutes later the Younger Naren and

some other devotees arrived. The brahmani's sister came to the Master and

saluted him. She said, "Sister has just gone to Nanda Bose's house to

inquire the reason for your delay in coming here.

She will return presently."

A sound was heard downstairs and she exclaimed, "There she comes!" She

went down.

But it was not the brahmani.

Sri Ramakrishna sat there smiling, surrounded by devotees.

M. (to Devendra): "What a grand sight! All these people-young and old,

men and women-standing in lines, eager to have a glimpse of him and hear

his words."

DEVENDRA (to the Master): "M. says that this place is better than

Nanda's. The devotion of these people is amazing."

Sri Ramakrishna laughed.

The brahmani's sister exclaimed, "Here comes sister!"

Brahmani's indescribable joy

The brahmani came and saluted the Master. She was beside herself with joy.

She did not know what to say. In a half-choked voice she said: "This joy is

too much for me. Perhaps I shall die of it. Tell me, friends, how shall I be

able to live? I did not feel such a thrill even when Chandi, my daughter,

used to visit the house accompanied by liveried footmen, with armed guards

lining both sides of the street. Oh! Now I have no trace of my grief at her

death. I was afraid he would not come. Then I thought that, if that

happened, I should throw into the Ganges all the things I had arranged for

his reception and entertainment. I should not speak to him any more. If he

visited a place, I should go there, look at him from a distance, and then

come away.

"Let me go and tell everybody how happy I am. Let me go and tell Yogin of

my good luck."

Still overwhelmed with joy she said: "A labourer won a hundred thousand

rupees in a lottery. The moment he heard the news he died of joy. Yes, he

really and truly died. I am afraid the same thing is going to happen to me.

Please bless me, friends, or else I shall certainly die."

M. was amazed to see the brahmani's sincere joy and her ecstatic mood. He

was about to take the dust of her feet.

"What are you doing?" she exclaimed and saluted M.

The brahmani was extremely happy at the sight of the devotees. She said: "I

am so happy to see you all here. I have brought the younger Naren; without

him, who would there be to make us laugh?"

She was talking like this when her sister came up and said: "Come down,

sister! How can I manage things if you stay here? Can I do it all by

myself?"

But the brahmani was overwhelmed with joy. She could not take her eyes

from the Master and the devotees.

After a while she very respectfully took Sri Ramakrishna to another room

and offered him sweets and other refreshments. The devotees were

entertained on the roof.

It was about eight o'clock in the evening. Sri Ramakrishna was ready to

leave. When he came to the door, the brahmani asked her sister-in-law to

salute the Master. Next, one of her brothers took the dust of the Master's

feet. Referring to him, she said: "He is one of my brothers. He is a fool"

"No, no!" said the Master. "They are all good." A man showed the way with

a light. At places it was dark. Sri Ramakrishna stood in front of the

cowshed. The devotees gathered around him. M. saluted the Master, who

was about to go to the house of Ganu's mother.

Master's visit to Ganu's mother

Sri Ramakrishna was seated in the drawing-room of Ganu's mother's house.

It was on the Street floor. The room was used by a concert party. Several

young men played on their instruments now and then for the pleasure of the

Master.

It was eight-thirty in the evening. Moonlight flooded the streets, the houses,

and the sky. It was the first day after the full moon.

The brahmani, who had also come, was visiting the drawing-room and the

inner apartments alternately. Every few minutes she would come to the door

of the drawing-room and look at the Master. Some youngsters from the

neighbourhood also looked at him through the windows. The people of the

locality, young and old, came thronging to see the saint.

The younger Naren saw the boys in the street climbing the windows. He

said to them: "Why are you here? Get away! Go home!" The Master said

tenderly, "Let them stay."

Every now and then he chanted: "Hari Om! Hari Om!"

The floor of the drawing-room was covered with a carpet. The young

musicians sat on it and sang:

O Kesava, bestow Thy grace

Upon Thy luckless servants here!

O Kesava, who dost delight

To roam Vrindāvan's glades and groves! . . .

Master praises the music.

MASTER: "Ah, how sweet the music is! How melodious the violin is! How

good the accompaniments are! (Pointing to a boy) He and the flutist seem to

be a nice pair."

The orchestra went on playing. After it was over, Sri Ramakrishna said

joyfully, "It is very fine indeed." Pointing to a young man, he said, "He

seems to know how to play every instrument." He said to M., "They are all

good people."

After the concert the young musician said to the devotees, "We should like

to hear some of you sing." The brahmani stood near the door. She said:

"None of them knows how to sing. Perhaps Mohin Babu can sing. But he

will not sing before the Master."

A YOUNG MAN: "Why? I can sing even before my father."

THE YOUNGER NAREN (laughing): "But he has not yet advanced that

far."

All laughed. A few minutes later the brahmani said to Sri Ramakrishna,

"Please come inside."

MASTER: "Why?"

BRAHMANI: "The refreshments are served there. Please come."

MASTER: "Why not bring them here?"

BRAHMANI: "Ganu's mother requests you to bless the room with the dust

of your feet.

Then the room will be turned into Benares, and anyone dying in it will have

no trouble hereafter."

Sri Ramakrishna went inside accompanied by the brahmani and the young

men of the family. The devotees were strolling outside in the moonlight. M.

and Binode were pacing the street south of the house and recalling the

various incidents in the life of their beloved Master.

Sri Ramakrishna had returned to Balarām's house. He was resting in the

small room to the west of the drawing-room. It was quite late, almost a

quarter to eleven.

Sri Ramakrishna said to Jogin, "Please rub my feet gently." M. was sitting

near by. While Jogin was rubbing his feet the Master said suddenly: "I feel

hungry. I shall eat some farina pudding."

The brahmani had accompanied the Master and the devotees to Balarām's

house. Her brother knew how to play the drums. Sri Ramakrishna said, "It

will serve our purpose to send for her brother when Narendra or some other

singer wants to sing."

Sri Ramakrishna ate a little pudding. Jogin and the other devotees left the

room. M. was stroking the Master's feet. They talked together.

MASTER (referring to the brahmani and her relatives): "Ah! How happy

they were!"

Martha and Mary

M: "How amazing! A similar thing happened with two women at the time

of Jesus. They too were sisters, and devoted to Christ. Martha and Mary."

MASTER (eagerly); "Tell me the story."

M: "Jesus Christ, like you, went to their house with His devotees. At the

sight of Him one of the sisters was filled with ecstatic happiness. It reminds

me of a song about Gaurānga:

My two eyes sank in the sea of Gora's heavenly beauty And did not come

back to me again;

Down went my mind, as well, forgetting how to swim.

"The other sister, all by herself, was arranging the food to entertain Jesus.

She complained to the Master, saying: 'Lord, please judge for Yourself-how

wrong my sister is! She is sitting in Your room and I am doing all these

things by myself.' Jesus said: 'Your sister indeed' is blessed. She has

developed the only thing needful in human life: love of God."

MASTER: "Well, after seeing all this, What do you feel?"

Master about himself

M: "I feel that Christ, Chaitanyadeva, and yourself-all three are one and the

same. It is the same Person that has become all these three."

MASTER: "Yes, yes! One! One! It is indeed one. Don't you see that it is He

alone who dwells here in this way."

As he said this, Sri Ramakrishna pointed with his finger to his own body.

M: "You explained clearly, the other day, how God incarnates Himself on

earth."

MASTER: "Tell me what I said."

M: "You told us to imagine a field extending to the horizon and beyond. It

extends without any obstruction; but we cannot see it on account of a wall

in front of us. In that wall there is a round hole. Through the hole we see a

part of that infinite field."

MASTER: "Tell me what that hole is."

M: "You are that hole. Through you can be seen everything-that Infinite

Meadow without any end."

Sri Ramakrishna was very much pleased. Patting M.'s back, he said: "I see

you have understood that. That's fine!"

M: "It is indeed difficult to understand that. One cannot quite grasp how

God, Perfect Brahman that He is, can dwell in that small body."

The Master quoted from a song:

Oh, no one at all has found out who He is;

Like a madman from door to door He roams,

Like a poor beggar He roams from door to door.

Master and Jesus

M: "You also told us about Jesus."

MASTER: "What did I say?"

M: "You went into samādhi at the sight of Jesus Christ's picture in Jadu

Mallick's garden house. You saw Jesus come down from the picture and

merge in your body."

Sri Ramakrishna was silent a few moments. Then he said to M.: "Perhaps

there is a meaning in what has happened to my throat [referring to the sore

in his throat]. This has happened lest I should make myself light before all;

lest I should go to all sorts of places and sing and dance."

About Dwija

Sri Ramakrishna began to talk about Dwija.

MASTER: "He didn't come today. Why?"

M: "I asked him to come. He said he would. I don't know why he didn't."

MASTER: "He has great yearning. Well, he must be someone belonging to

this. Isn't that so?"

M: "Yes, sir, it must be so. Otherwise, how could he have such yearning?"

Sri Ramakrishna lay down inside the mosquito curtain. M. fanned him. The

Master turned on his side. He told M. how God incarnates Himself in a

human body. He told him, further, about his, M.'s, spiritual ideal.

MASTER: "At the beginning I too passed through such states that I did not

see divine forms. Even now I don't see them often."

M: "Among all the forms God chooses for His Lila, I like best His play as a

human being."

MASTER: "That is enough. And you are seeing me."

--------------------

Chapter 44

THE MASTER ON HIMSELF AND HIS EXPERIENCES

August 9, 1885

SRI RAMAKRISHNA was sitting in his room at Dakshineswar. Rākhāl,

M., Dwija and his father, and other devotees were present. It was about four

o'clock in the afternoon.

After returning from Vrindāvan Rākhāl had spent a few days at home. Now

he was staying with the Master. Lātu, Harish, and Ramlal were also staying

at the temple garden.

Beginning of Master's illness

Sri Ramakrishna was not well. It was the beginning of the illness

subsequently diagnosed as the fatal cancer. But this did not disturb the

serenity of his mind. Day and night he had only one thought, and that was

the spiritual welfare of his disciples. He was guiding them toward the

attainment of God. He encouraged them constantly to cultivate knowledge

and devotion and warned them of the snares of "woman and gold". He was

completely indifferent to his own illness and devoted himself whole-

heartedly to the fulfilment of his earthly mission.

Dwija was about sixteen years old. After the death of his mother, his father

had married a second time. Dwija often accompanied M. to Dakshineswar;

but his father did not approve of it.

Dwija's father had for a long time been speaking of visiting Sri

Ramakrishna. Today he had come to Dakshineswar. He was the manager of

a business firm in Calcutta and had passed his examination in law.

MASTER (to Dwija's father): "Please don't mind your children's coming

here.

Advice to the worldly-minded

"I ask people to live in the world after the awakening of their spiritual

consciousness.

After extracting gold through hard labour, a man may keep it under earth or

in a box or under water. The gold is not affected.

"I ask people to live in the world in a spirit of detachment. If you break the

jackfruit after rubbing oil on your hands, its sticky juice will not smear

them.

"If the 'unripe' mind dwells in the world, the mind gets soiled. One should

first attain knowledge and then live in the world.

"If you put milk in water the milk is spoiled. But this will not happen if

butter, churned from the milk, is put in water."

DWIJA'S FATHER: "That is true, sir."

Instructing Dwija's father

MASTER (smiling): "I know why you scold your children. You only

threaten them. The brahmachari said to the snake; 'you are a fool indeed! I

forbade you to bite but not to hiss. Your enemies would not have beaten

you, if only you had hissed at them.' Your scolding of the children is really

a hissing. (Dwija's father smiles.) "A good son is a indication of his father's

spiritual nature. If good water comes out when a reservoir is dug, it only

indicates the virtue of the owner.

"A son is called Atmaja, 'the self reborn'. There is no difference between

you and your son. In one way you yourself are reborn as your son. In one

sense you are a worldly person, working in a business office and enjoying

worldly life; in another sense you are a devotee of God, in the form of your

son. I heard that you were a very worldly person; but now I find it isn't so.

(Smiling) You know all this. I understand that you are very circumspect.

Perhaps that is why you are nodding your assent to what I am saying.

(Dwija's father smiles.)

"If your children visit this place, they will be able to know what you really

are. How precious one's father is! If a person deceives his father and mother

in order to seek religion, he gets only worthless trash.

Man's several debts

"A man is born with several debts: debts to his father, the devas, and the

rishis.

Besides, there is his debt to his mother. He also has a debt to his wife; She

must be supported. If the wife is chaste, the husband must provide for her

after his death.

"I could not live at Vrindāvan on account of my mother. When I

remembered that my mother was living in the temple garden here at

Dakshineswar, I could not feel peaceful at Vrindāvan.

"I ask people to live in the world and at the same time fix their minds on

God. I don't ask them to give up the world. I say, 'Fulfil your worldly duties

and also think of God.' "

DWIJA'S FATHER; "I tell my children that they should attend to their

studies. I don't forbid them to come to you, but I don't want them to waste

time in frivolities with the youngsters."

MASTER (referring to Dwija): "This boy must have been born with some

good tendencies. Why are the two other brothers different from him? Why

is he alone spiritually minded? Will you be able to compel him not to visit

this place? Sooner or later everyone unfolds his inborn tendencies."

DWIJA'S FATHER: "Yes, that is true."

Sri Ramakrishna came down from the couch and sat on the floor beside

Dwija's father.

While talking with him he touched him now and then.

It was nearly evening. Sri Ramakrishna asked M. and the others to show

Dwija's father the temples. He said to them, "I should have accompanied

him myself if I were well." He asked someone to give sweets to the young

men and said to Dwija's father: "Let the children have a little refreshment. It

is customary." Dwija's father visited the temples and the images and took a

stroll in the garden.

Sri Ramakrishna engaged happily in conversation with Bhupen, Dwija, M.,

and others on the southeast porch of his room. He playfully slapped Bhupen

and M. on the back. He said to Dwija with a laugh, "How I talked to your

father!"

Dwija's father returned to Sri Ramakrishna's room after dusk. He intended

to leave shortly. He was feeling hot. Sri Ramakrishna fanned him himself.

In a few minutes the father took leave of the Master. Sri Ramakrishna stood

up to bid him farewell.

It was eight o'clock. Sri Ramakrishna was talking to Mahimacharan.

Rākhāl, M., and one or two companions of Mahimacharan were in the

room. Mahimacharan was going to spend the night at the temple garden.

Mahima's estimate of the devotees

MASTER (to Mahima): "Well, how do you find Kedār? Has he only seen

milk, or has he drunk it too?"

MAHIMA "Yes, he is enjoying bliss."

MASTER: "Nityagopal?"

MAHIMA "Very good. He is in a lofty state of mind."

MASTER: "Yes. Well, what about Girish Ghosh?"

MAHIMA "He too has developed nicely, but he belongs to another class."

MASTER: "And Narendra?"

MAHIMA "He is now in the state I was in fifteen years ago."

MASTER: "The younger Naren? How guileless he is!"

MAHIMA "Yes, quite guileless."

MASTER: "You are right. (Reflecting a little) Let me see who else. It will

be sufficient for the youngsters who come here if they know only two

things. If they know these, they will not have to practise much discipline

and austerity. First, who I am, and second, who they are. Many of the

youngsters belong to the inner circle.

"Those belonging to the inner circle will not attain liberation. I shall have to

assume a human body again, in a northwesterly direction.

"I feel peace of mind when I see the youngsters. How can I feel joy at the

sightof those who have begotten children and are engaged in lawsuits and

are involved in 'woman and gold'? How could I live without seeing pure

souled persons?"

Mahimacharan recited some texts from the scriptures. He also described

various mystic rites of the Tantra.

MASTER: "Well, some say that my soul, going into samādhi, lies about like

a bird in the Mahakasa, the Infinite Space.

Different kinds of samādhi

"Once a sādhu of Hrishikesh came here. He said to me: 'There are five

kinds of samādhi.

I find you have experienced them all. In these samādhis one feels the

sensation of the Spiritual Current to be like the movement of an ant, a fish,

a monkey, a bird, or a serpent.'

"Sometimes the Spiritual Current rises through the spine, crawling like an

ant.

"Sometimes in samādhi the soul swims joyful in the ocean of divine ecstasy,

like a fish.

"Sometimes, when I lie down on my side, I feel the Spiritual Current

pushing me like a monkey and playing with me joyfully. I remain still.

That Current, like a monkey, suddenly with one jump reaches the Sahasrara.

That is why you see me jump up with a start.

"Sometimes, again, the Spiritual Current rises like a bird hopping from one

branch to another. The place where it rests feels like fire. It may hop from

Muladhara to Svadhisthana, from Svadhisthana to the heart, and thus

gradually to the head.

"Sometimes, again, the Spiritual Current moves up like a snake. Going in a

zigzag way, at last it reaches the head and I go into samādhi.

Awakening of Kundalini

"A man's spiritual consciousness is not awakened unless his kundalini is

aroused."The kundalini dwells in the Muladhara. Then it is aroused, it

passes along the Sushumna nerve, goes through the centres of

Svadhisthana, Manipura, and so on, and at last reaches the head. This is

called the movement of Mahāvāyu, the Spiritual Current. It culminates in

samādhi.

"One's spiritual consciousness is not awakened by the mere reading of

books. One should also pray to God. The kundalini is aroused if the aspirant

feels restless for God.

To talk of knowledge from mere study and heresay! What will that

accomplish?

"Just before my attaning this state of mind, it had been revealed to me how

the kundalini is aroused, how the lotuses of the different centres blossom

forth, and how all this culminates in samādhi. This is a very secret

experience. I saw a boy twenty-two or twenty-three years old, exactly

resembling me, enter the Sushumna nerve and commune with the lotuses

touching them with his tongue. He bagan with the centre at the anus and

passed through the centres at the sexual organ, naval, and so on. The

different lotuses of those centres-four-petalled, six-petalled, ten-petalled,

and so forth-had been drooping at his touch they stood erect.

"When he reached the heart-I distinctly remember it-and communed with

the lotuses there, touching it with his tongue, the twelve-petalled lotus,

which was hanging head down, stood erect and open its petals. Then he

came to the sixteen-petalled lotus in the throat and two petalled lotus in the

forehead. And last of all, the thousand-petalled lotus in the head blossomed.

Since then I have been in this state."

Sri Ramakrishna came down to the floor and sat near Mahimacharan. M.

and a few other devotees were near him. Rākhāl also was in the room.

MASTER (to Mahima): "For a long time I have wanted to tell you my

spiritual experiences, but I could not. I feel like telling you today.

Master's intimate vision of God

"You say that by mere sādhanā one can attain a state of mind like mine. But

it is not so.

There is something special here [referring to himself]."

Rākhāl, M., and the others became eager to hear what the Master was going

to say.

MASTER: "God talked to me. It was not merely His vision. Yes, He talked

to me. Under the banyan-tree I saw Him coming from the ganges. Then we

laughed so much! By way of playing with me He cracked my fingers. Then

He talked. Yes, He talked to me.

"For three days I wept continuously. And He revealed to me what is in the

Vedas, the Puranas, the Tantras, and the other scriptures.

Master's vision of māyā

"One day He showed me the māyā of Mahamaya. A small light inside a

room began to grow, and at last it enveloped the whole universe.'

"Further, He revealed to me a huge reservoir of water covered with green

scum. The wind moved a little of the scum and immediately the water

became visible; but in the twinkling of an eye, scum from all sides came

dancing in and again covered the water.

He revealed to me that the water was like Satchidananda, and the scum like

māyā. On account of māyā, Satchidananda is not seen. Though now and

then one may get a glimpse of It, again māyā covers It.

Master saw devotees before their arrival

"God reveals the nature of the devotees to me before they arrive. I saw

Chaitanya's party singing and dancing near the Panchavati, between the

banyan-tree and the bakul-tree. I noticed Balarām there. If it weren't: for

him, who would there be to supply me with sugar candy and such things?

(Pointing to M.) And I saw him too.

"I had seen Keshab before I actually met him-I had seen him and his party

in my samādhi. In front of me sat a roomful of men. Keshab looked like a

peacock sitting with its tail spread out. The tail meant his followers. I saw a

red gem on Keshab's head. That indicated his rajas. He said to his disciples,

'Please listen to what he [meaning the Master] is saying.' I said to the

Divine Mother: 'Mother, these people hold the views of "Englishmen". Why

should I talk to them?' Then the Mother explained to me that it would be

like this in the Kaliyuga.

"Keshab and his followers got from here [meaning himself] the names of

Hari and the Divine Mother: That is why the Divine Mother took Vijay

away from Keshab's party. But Vijay did not join the Adi Samaj.

(Pointing to himself) "There must be something special here. Long ago a

young man named Gopal Sen used to visit me. He who dwells in me placed

His foot On Gopal's chest. Gopal said in an ecstatic mood: 'you will have to

wait here a long time. I cannot live any more with worldly people.' He took

leave of me. Afterwards I heard that he was dead. Perhaps he was born as

Nityagopal.

About Narendra

"I have had many amazing visions. I had a vision of the Indivisible

Satchidananda.

Inside It I Saw two groups with a fence between them. On one side were

Kedār, Chuni, and other devotees who believe in the Personal God. On the

other side was a luminous space like a heap of red brick-dust. Inside it was

seated Narendra immersed in samādhi.

Seeing him absorbed in meditation, I called aloud, 'Oh, Narendra!' He

opened his eyes a little. I came to realize that he had been born, in another

form, in Simla in a kayastha family. At once I said to the Divine Mother,

'Mother, entangle him in māyā; otherwise he will give up his body in

samādhi.' Kedār, a believer in the Personal God, peeped in and ran away

with a shudder.

Master about himself

"Therefore I feel that it is the Divine Mother Herself who dwells in this

body and plays with the devotees. When I first had my exalted state of

mind, my body would radiate light. My chest was always flushed. Then I

said to the Divine Mother: 'Mother, do not reveal Thyself outwardly. Please

go inside.' That is why my complexion is so dull now. If my body were still

luminous, people would have tormented me; a crowd would always have

thronged here. Now there is no outer manifestation. That keeps weeds

away. Only genuine devotees will remain with me now. Do you know why I

have this illness? It has the same significance. Those whose devotion to me

has a selfish motive behind it will run away at the sight of my illness.

"I cherished a desire. I said to the Mother, 'O Mother, I shall be the king of

the devotees.'

"Again, this thought arose in my mind: 'He who sincerely prays to God will

certainly come here. He must.' You see, that is what is happening now. Only

people of that kind come.

"My parents knew who dwells inside this body. Father had a dream at Gaya.

In that dream Raghuvir said to him, 'I shall be born as your son.'

"God alone dwells inside this body. Such renunciation of 'woman and gold!'

Could I have accomplished that myself? I have never enjoyed a woman,

even in a dream.

Totapuri

"Nangta instructed me in Vedānta. In three days I went into samādhi. At the

sight of my samādhi under the madhavi vine, he was quite taken aback and

exclaimed, 'Ah! What is this?' Then he came to know who resides in this

body. He said to me, 'Please let me go.'

At these words of Totapuri, I went into an ecstatic mood and said, 'You

cannot go till I realize the Truth of Vedānta.'

"Day and night I lived with him. We talked only Vedānta. The Brahmani

used to say to me: 'Don't listen to Vedānta. It will injure your devotion to

God.'

Mathur Babu

"I said to the Divine Mother: 'Mother, please get me a rich man. If You

don't, how shall I be able to protect this body? How shall I be able to keep

the sādhus and devotees near me?' That is why Mathur Babu provided for

my needs for fourteen years.

"He who dwells in me tells me beforehand what particular class of devotees

will come to me. When I have a vision of Gaurānga, I know that devotees

of Gaurānga are coming.

When I have a vision of Ran, the Saktas come.

"At the time of the evening service I used to cry out from the roof of the

kuthi, weeping: 'Oh, where are you all? Come to me!' You see, they are all

gathering here, one by one.

"God Himself dwells in this body. It is He who, of His own accord, is

working with these devotees.

"What a wonderful state of mind some of the devotees have! The younger

Naren gets kumbhaka without any effort, and samādhi too. Sometimes he

stays in an ecstatic mood for two and a half hours; sometimes even more.

How wonderful!

"I have practised all kinds of sādhanā: Jnāna yoga, karma yoga, and bhakti

yoga. I have even gone through the exercises of hathayoga to increase

longevity. There is another Person dwelling in this body. Otherwise, after

attaining samādhi, how could I live with the devotees and enjoy the love of

God? Koar Singh used to say to me: 'I have never before seen a person who

has returned from the plane of samādhi. You are none other than Nanak.'

"I live in the midst of worldly people; on all sides I see 'woman and gold'.

Nevertheless, this is the state of my mind: unceasing samādhi and bhava.

That is the reason Pratap said, at the sight of my ecstatic mood: 'Good

heavens! It is as if he were possessed by a ghost!' "

Rākhāl, M., and the others were speechless as they drank in this account of

Sri Ramakrishna's unique experiences.

But did Mahimacharan understand the import of these words? Even after

hearing them, he said to the Master, "These things have happened to you on

account of your meritorious actions in your past births." Mahima still

thought that Sri Ramakrishna was a sādhu or a devotee of God. The Master

nodded assent to Mahima's words and said: "Yes, the result of past actions.

God is like an aristocrat who has many mansions. Here [referring to

himself] is one of His drawing-rooms. The bhakta is God's drawing-room."

It was nine o'clock in the evening. Sri Ramakrishna was sitting on the small

couch. It was Mahimacharan's desire to form a brahmachakra in the

presence of the Master.

Mahima formed a circle, on the floor, with Rākhāl, M., Kishori, and one or

two other devotees. He asked them all to meditate. Rākhāl went into an

ecstatic state. The Master came down from the couch and placed his hand

on Rākhāl's chest, repeating the name of the divine Mother. Rākhāl regained

consciousness of the outer world.

It was one o'clock in the morning, the fourteenth day of the dark fortnight of

the moon.

There was intense darkness everywhere. One or two devotees were pacing

the concrete embankment of the Ganges. Sri Ramakrishna was up. He came

out and said to the devotees, "Nangta told me that at this time, about

midnight, one hears the Anāhata sound."

In the early hours of the morning Mahimacharan and M. lay down on the

floor of the Master's room. Rākhāl slept on a camp cot. Now and then Sri

Ramakrishna paced up and down the room with his clothes off, like a five-

year-old child.

Monday, August 10

It was dawn. The Master was chanting the name of the Divine Mother. He

went to the porch west of his room and looked at the Ganges; then he

stopped in front of the pictures of different gods and goddesses in the room

and bowed to them. The devotees left their beds, saluted Sri Ramakrishna,

and went out.

The Master was talking to a devotee in the Panchavati. The latter had

dreamt of Chaitanyadeva.

MASTER (in an ecstatic mood): "Ah me! Ah me!"

DEVOTEE: "But, sir, it was only a dream."

MASTER: "Is a dream a small thing?"

The Master's voice was choked. His eyes were filled with tears.

Sri Ramakrishna was told of a devotee who had divine visions even while

he was awake.

The Master said: "I am not surprised. Narendra, too, sees forms of God

nowadays."

Mahimacharan went to one of the Śiva temples to the west of the courtyard

and chanted hymns from the Vedas. He was alone.

It was eight o'clock in the morning. M. bathed in the Ganges and came to

Sri Ramakrishna. The brahmani who was grief-stricken on account of her

daughter's death also entered the room.

The Master asked the brahmani to give M. some prasad to eat.

BRAHMANI: "Please eat something yourself first; then he will eat.

MASTER (to M.): "Take some prasad of Jagannath first and then eat."

After eating the prasad, M. went to the Śiva temples and saluted the Deity.

Then he returned to the Master's room and saluted him. He was ready to go

to Calcutta.

MASTER (tenderly): "Go home safely. You have to attend to your duties."

Tuesday, August 11

Sri Ramakrishna was in his room at the temple garden. He had been

observing silence since eight o'clock in the morning. Did he know the fatal

nature of his illness? At his silence the Holy Mother wept. Rākhāl and Lātu

also wept. The brahmani widow from Baghbazar arrived. She too was

weeping at this strange mood of the Master. Now and then the devotees

asked him whether he would remain silent for good. The Master answered

them in the negative, by a sign.

At three o'clock in the afternoon Narayan arrived. Sri Ramakrishna said to

him, "The Divine Mother will bless you," Narayan told the other devotees

that the Master had spoken to him. A heavy weight was lifted from their

breasts. They all came into the Master's room and sat on the floor.

MASTER (to the devotees): "The Mother showed me that all this is verily

māyā. She alone is real, and all else is the splendour of Her māyā.

"Another thing was revealed to me. I found out how far the different

devotees have progressed."

DEVOTEES: "Please tell us about it."

MASTER: "I came to know about all these devotees: Nityagopal, Rākhāl,

Narayan?

Purna, Mahima Chakravarty, and the others."

Sunday, August 16, 1885

The news of Sri Ramakrishna's illness had been reported to the devotees in

Calcutta.

They thought it was just a sore in his throat. Many devotees arrived at

Dakshineswar to visit him. Among them were Girish, Ram, Nityagopal,

Mahima, Kishori, and Pundit Shashadhar.

Sri Ramakrishna was in his usual happy mood. He was talking to the

devotees.

MASTER: "I cannot tell the Mother about my illness. I feel ashamed to talk

of it."

GIRISH: "God will cure you."

RAM: "Yes, you will be all right."

MASTER (smiling): "Yes, give me your blessing." (All laugh.)

Girish was a recent visitor to Dakshineswar. The Master said to him: "You

have so many duties to perform. You have to face so many troubles. Come

here only three times more.

(To Shashadhar) "Please tell us something about the Ādyāśakti."

SHASHADHAR: "What do I know, sir?"

MASTER (smiling): "A certain man had great respect for another man. The

second man asked him to bring him a little fire for his tobacco. He

answered humbly, 'Sir, am I fit to carry your fire?' He didn't bring the fire."

(All laugh.) SHASHADHAR: "The Primal Power alone is both the

instrumental and the material cause of the universe. It is She who has

created the universe and its living beings; further, She Herself has become

all these. To give an example: the spider, as the instrumental cause, makes

the web and, as the material cause, brings the web out of its own body."

Brahman and Śakti

MASTER: "It is also stated that He who is Purusha is also Prakriti; He who

is Brahman is also Śakti. He is called Purusha or Brahman when He is

inactive, that is to say, when He ceases to create, preserve, or destroy; and

He is called Śakti or Prakriti when He engages in those activities. But He

who is Brahman is none other than Śakti; He who is Purusha has verily

become Prakriti. Water is water whether it moves or is still. A snake is a

snake whether it wriggles along or stays still and coiled up.

"What Brahman is cannot be described. Speech stops there. In the kirtan the

singers at first sing: 'My Nitai dances like a mata hati.' As they become

more and more ecstatic, they can hardly utter the whole sentence. They sing

only: 'Hati! Hati!' As their mood deepens they sing only: 'Ha! Ha!' At last

they cannot sing even that; they become completely unconscious."

As the Master spoke these words, he himself became transfixed in samādhi.

He was standing.

Regaining consciousness of the world, he said, "That which is beyond both

kshara and akshara cannot be described."

The devotees sat in silence.

MASTER: "You cannot go into samādhi as long as your worldly

experiences are not finished, or as long as you have duties to perform.

(To Shashadhar) "God is now making you perform such duties as delivering

lectures. You must do these things now. You will have peace when your

duties are finished. After completing her household duties, the mistress of

the family goes for her bath. She will not come back then even if you shout

after her."

Thursday, August 27, 1885

Sri Ramakrishna was sitting in his room at Dakshineswar. It was five

o'clock in the afternoon. There were two or three devotees with him. While

with the devotees he never gave a thought to his physical illness, often

spending the whole day with them talking and singing.

Doctor Madhu was treating Sri Ramakrishna. He frequently visited the

Master at Dakshineswar, coming by country boat from Calcutta. The

devotees were very much worried about the Master; it was their secret

desire that the physician should see him daily. M. said to the Master,

"Doctor Madhu is an experienced physician. It will be nice if he sees you

every day."

Pundit Shyamapada of Antpur arrived. It was dusk. The pundit went to the

bank of the Ganges to perform his evening worship; he had some amazing

visions during the worship. He returned to the Master's room and sat on the

floor. Sri Ramakrishna had just finished meditation and the chanting of the

holy names. He was sitting on the small couch and M. on the foot-rug.

Rākhāl, Lātu, and the others were in and out of the room.

Brahman is the innermost Reality

MASTER (to M, pointing to the pundit): "He is very nice. (To the pundit)

Where the mind attains peace by practising the discipline of 'Neti, neti',

there Brahman is.

"The king dwells in the inmost room of the palace, which has seven gates.

The visitor comes to the first gate. There he sees a lordly person with a

large retinue, surrounded on all sides by pomp and grandeur. The visitor

asks his companion, 'Is he the king?' 'No', says his friend with a smile.

"At the second and the other gates he repeats the same question to his

friend. He finds that the nearer he comes to the inmost part of the palace,

the greater is the glory, pomp, and grandeur. When he passes the seventh

gate he does not ask his companion whether it is the king; he stands

speechless at the king's immeasurable glory. He realizes that he is face to

face with the king. He hasn't the slightest doubt about it."

PUNDIT: "One sees God beyond the realm of māyā."

Futility of mere scholarship

MASTER: "But after realizing God one finds that He alone has become

māyā, the universe, and all living beings. This world is no doubt a

'framework of illusion', unreal as a dream. One feels that way when one

discriminates following the process of 'Not this, not this'. But after the

vision of God this very world becomes 'a mansion of mirth'.

"What will you gain by the mere study of scriptures? The pundits merely

indulge in reasoning."

PUNDIT: "I hate the idea of being called a pundit."

MASTER: "That is due to the grace of God. The pundits merely indulge in

reasoning.

Some have heard of milk and some have drunk milk. After you have the

vision of God you will find that everything is Narayana. It is Narayana

Himself who has become everything."

The pundit recited a hymn to Narayana . Sri Ramakrishna was

overwhelmed with joy.

PUNDIT (quoting from the Gitā.): "'with the heart concentrated by yoga,

with the eye of evenness for all things, he beholds the Self in all beings and

all beings in the Self.' "

MASTER: "Have you read the Adhyātma Rāmāyana?"

PUNDIT: "Yes, sir, a little."

MASTER: "The book is filled with ideas of knowledge and devotion. The

life of Savari and the hymn by Ahalyā are filled with bhakti.

'But you must remember one thing: God is very far away from the mind

tainted with worldliness."

PUNDIT: "Yes, sir. God is far, far away from worldly intelligence. And

God is very near, where that does not exist. I visited a certain Zamindār, one

Mukherji of Uttarpara. He is now an elderly man; but he listens only to

stories and novels."

MASTER: "It is further said in the Adhyātma Rāmāyana that God alone has

become the universe and its living beings."

The pundit was delighted. He recited a hymn to that effect from the tenth

chapter of the Bhagavata:

O Krishna! Krishna! Mighty Yogi! Thou art the Primal Supreme Purusha:

This universe, manifest and unmanifest, is Thy form, as the sages declare.

Thou alone art the soul, the sense-organs, the Lord dwelling in the bodies of

all:

Thou art the subtle Great Prakriti, made of sattva, rajas, and tamas; Thou

alone art the Purusha, the Lord dwelling in the bodies of all.

As Sri Ramakrishna listened to the hymn he went into samādhi. He

remained standing.

The pundit was seated. The Master placed his foot on the pundit's lap and

chest, and smiled.

The pundit clung to his feet and said, "O Guru! Please give me God

Consciousness."

After the pundit had left the room Sri Ramakrishna said to M.: "Don't you

see that what I have said is coming to pass? Those who have sincerely

practised meditation and japa must come here."

It was ten o'clock. Sri Ramakrishna ate a little farina pudding and lay down.

He asked M.

to stroke his feet. A few minutes later he asked the disciple to massage his

body and chest gently. He enjoyed a short nap. Then he said to M.: "Now

go to sleep. Let me see if I can sleep better when I am alone." He said to

Ramlal, "He [meaning M.] and Rākhāl may sleep in the room."

Friday, August 28

It was dawn. Sri Ramakrishna was awake and meditating on the Divine

Mother. On account of his illness the devotees were deprived of his sweet

chanting of the Mother's name.

Divine Incarnations act like men

Sri Ramakrishna was seated on the small couch. He asked M., "Well, why

have I this illness?"

M: "People will not have the courage to approach you unless you resemble

them in all respects. But they are amazed to find that in spite of such illness

you don't know anything but God."

MASTER (smiling): "Balarām also said, 'If even you can be ill, then why

should we wonder about our illnesses?' Lakshmana was amazed to see that

Rāma could not lift His bow on account of His grief for Sita. 'Even

Brahman weeps, entangled in the snare of the five elements.'"

M: "Jesus Christ, too, wept like an ordinary man at the suffering of His

devotees."

MASTER: "How was that?"

Jesus and Lazarus

M: 'There were two sisters, Mary and Martha. Lazarus was their brother. All

three were devoted to Jesus. Lazarus died. Jesus was on His way to their

house. One of the sisters, Mary, ran out to meet Him. She fell at His feet

and said weeping, 'Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have

died!' Jesus wept to see her cry.

"Then Jesus went to the tomb of Lazarus and called him by name.

Immediately Lazarus came back to life and walked out of the tomb."

MASTER: "But I cannot do those things."

M: "That is because you don't want to. These are miracles; therefore you

aren't interested in them. These things draw people's attention to their

bodies. Then they do not think of genuine devotion. That is why you don't

perform miracles.

Similarities between Christ and Sri Ramakrishna But there are many

similarities between you and Jesus Christ."

MASTER (smiling): "What else?"

M: "You don't ask your devotees to fast or practise other austerities. You

don't prescribe hard and fast rules about food. Christ's disciples did not

observe the sabbath; so the Pharisees took them to task. Thereupon Jesus

said: 'They have done well to eat. As long as they are with the bridegroom

they must make merry.

MASTER: "What does that mean?"

M: "Christ meant that as long as the disciples live with the Incarnation of

God, they should only make merry. Why should they be sorrowful? But

when He returns to His own abode in heaven, then will come the days of

their sorrow and suffering."

MASTER (smiling): "Do you find anything else in me that is similar to

Christ?"

M: "Yes, sir. You say: 'The youngsters are not yet touched by: "woman and

gold"; they will be able to assimilate instruction. It is like keeping milk in a

new pot: the milk may turn sour if it is kept in a pot in which curd has been

made.' Christ also spoke like that."

MASTER: "What did He say?"

M: "'If new wine is kept in an old bottle, the bottle may crack. If an old

cloth is patched with new cloth, the old cloth tears away.'

"Further, you tell us that you and the Mother are one. Likewise, Christ said,

'I and My Father are one.' "

MASTER (smiling): "Anything else?"

M: "You say to us, 'God will surely listen to you if you call on Him

earnestly.' So also Christ said, 'Knock and it shall be opened unto you.'

MASTER: "Well, if God has incarnated Himself again, is it a fractional or a

partial or a complete manifestation of God? Some say it is a complete

manifestation."

M: "Sir, I don't quite understand the meaning of complete or partial or

fractional Incarnation. But I have understood, as 'you explained it, the idea

of a round hole in a wall."

MASTER: "Tell me about it."

M: "There is a round hole in the wall. Through it one is able to see part of

the meadow on the other side of the wall. Likewise, through you one sees

part of the Infinite God."

MASTER: "True. You can see five or six miles of the meadow at a stretch."

M. finished his bath in the Ganges and went to the Master's room. It was

eight o'clock in the morning. He asked Lātu to give him the rice prasad of

Jagannath. The Master stood near him and said: "Take this prasad regularly.

Those who are devotees of God do not eat anything before taking the

prasad."

M: "Yesterday I got some prasad of Jagannath from Balarām Babu's house.

I take one or two grains daily."

M. saluted the Master and took his leave. Sri Ramakrishna said to him

tenderly: "Come early in the morning tomorrow. The hot sun of the rainy

season is bad for the health."

Monday, August 31, 1885

Sri Ramakrishna was resting in his room. It was about eight o'clock in the

evening.

Though ill and suffering, he constantly devoted himself to the welfare of the

devotees.

Sometimes he felt restless, like a child; but the next moment he forgot all

about his illness and became filled with ecstatic love of God. His love for

the devotees was like that of a mother for her children.

Purna's letter

Two days earlier, on Saturday night, he had received a letter from Purna.

Purna had written: "I am feeling extremely happy. Now and then I cannot

sleep at night for joy."

After hearing the letter the Master had remarked: "I feel thrilled to hear this.

Even later on, he will be able to keep this bliss. Let me see the letter." He

had pressed the letter in the palm of his hand and said: "Generally I cannot

touch letters. But this is a good letter." That same night, while the Master

was in bed, he had suddenly become covered with perspiration. He had sat

up in bed, saying, "It seems to me that I shall not recover from this illness."

It had worried the devotees very much to hear this. The Holy Mother had

come to the Temple Garden to wait on Sri Ramakrishna and was living in a

room in the Nahabat. The devotees, with the exception of one or two, were

not aware of her presence. A woman devotee staying with the Holy Mother

had begun to pay frequent visits to Sri Ramakrishna in his room. After a

few days Sri Ramakrishna had said to her: "You have been here some time.

What will people think about it? You had better go home for a week or so."

Sri Ramakrishna lay in bed, on his side, with his back to the room. After

dusk Gangadhar and M. arrived from Calcutta. Gangadhar sat at the feet of

the Master, who was talking to M.

MASTER: "Two boys came here the other day. One of them was Subodh.

He is Sankar Ghosh's great grandson. The other, Kshirode, is his neighbour.

They are nice boys. I told them I was ill and asked them to go to you for

instruction. Please look after them a little."

M: "Yes, sir. They are our neighbours."

MASTER: "The other day, again, I woke up covered with perspiration. I

don't understand this illness."

M: "We have decided to ask Bhagavan Rudra to see you once. He is an

M.D. and an expert physician."

MASTER: "How much will he charge?"

M: "His regular fee is twenty or twenty-five rupees."

MASTER: "Then don't bother about him."

M: "But we shall pay him four or five rupees at the most."

MASTER: "Listen. Suppose you say this to him, 'Sir, please be kind enough

to come and see him.' Hasn't he heard anything about this place?"

M: "Perhaps he has. He has almost agreed not to charge any fee. But we

shall pay him a little. If we do that, he will come again."

MASTER: "Ask Dr. Nitai to come. He is a good physician. But what will

the doctors do, I wonder? They press my throat and make my illness

worse."

It was nine o'clock in the evening. Sri Ramakrishna ate a little farina

pudding and had no difficulty in swallowing it. He said to M. cheerfully: "I

was able to eat a little. I feel very happy."

Tuesday, September 1

Sri Ramakrishna was about to take his bath. A devotee was rubbing his

Body with oil on the verandah south of his room. M. came there after

finishing his bath in the Ganges and saluted the Master.

After bathing, Sri Ramakrishna wrapped himself in a towel and with folded

hands saluted the deities in the temples from afar. He could not go to the

temples because of his illness.

It was the sacred Janmasthami day, the birthday of Krishna. Ram and other

devotees had brought new clothes for Sri Ramakrishna. He put them on and

looked charming.

Again he saluted the deities.

Gopal Ma brought her Gopala some food that she had prepared at her home

at Kamarhati. She said to the Master sorrowfully, "But you won't eat any of

it."

MASTER: "You see, I am ill."

GOPAL MA "That is my bad luck. Please take a little in your hand."

MASTER: "Please give me your blessing."

A devotee brought some sugar candy. Gopal Ma said, "Let me take it to the

Holy Mother in the nahabat." The Master said: "No, keep it here. I give

sweets to the devotees. Who wants to send a messenger a hundred times to

the nahabat for sugar candy? Let it be kept here."

It was eleven o'clock in the morning. The devotees were gradually arriving

from Calcutta. Balarām, Narendra, the younger Naren, NavaGopal, and a

Vaishnava from katoa arrived. Rākhāl and Lātu were staying with Sri

Ramakrishna. A Punjabi sādhu had been staying in the Panchavati for some

days.

The younger Naren had a tumour on his forehead. Sri Ramakrishna was

strolling in the Panchavati with the devotees. He said to the younger Naren:

"Why don't you have your tumour operated on? It is not in the throat but

only on the forehead. That is a simple thing. People have their orchitis

operated on."

The Punjabi sādhu was going along the footpath in the garden. The Master

said: "I don't attract him. He has the attitude of a Jnāni. I find him to be dry

as wood."

Sri Ramakrishna and the devotees returned to the Master's room. The

conversation turned to Shyamapada Bhattacharya.

BALARĀM: "Shyamapada said, 'When he, the Master, placed his foot on

Narendra's chest, Narendra went into bhava; but I didn't have that

experience' ".

MASTER: "Shall I tell you the truth about it? It is very difficult to gather

the dispersed mind when it is attached to 'woman and gold'. The pundit told

me he was called upon to act as arbiter to settle people's quarrels. Besides,

he has to worry about his children. But the minds of Narendra and other

youngsters are not scattered like that; they are not yet touched by 'woman

and gold'.

"But Shyamapada is a grand person."

The Vaishnava from Katoa began to ask Sri Ramakrishna questions. He was

squint-eyed.

About rebirth

VAISHNAVA: "Sir, is a man born again?"

MASTER: "It is said in the Gitā that a man is reborn with those tendencies

that are in his mind at the time of his death. King Bharata thought of his

deer at the time of death and was reborn as a deer."

VAISHNAVA: "I could believe in rebirth only if an eye-witness told me

about it."

MASTER: "I don't know about that, my dear sir. I cannot cure my own

illness, and you ask me to tell you what happens after death!

"What you are talking about only shows your petty mind. Try to cultivate

love of God.

You are born as a human being only to attain divine love. You have come to

the orchard to eat mangoes; what need is there of knowing how many

thousands of branches and millions of leaves there are in the orchard? To

bother about what happens after death!

How silly!"

Girish and Master

Girish Ghosh arrived in a carriage with one or two friends. He was drunk.

He was weeping as he entered the room. He wept, as he placed his head on

Sri Ramakrishna's feet.

Sri Ramakrishna affectionately patted him on the back. He said to a

devotee, "Prepare a smoke for him."

Girish raised his head and said with folded hands: "You alone are the

Perfect Brahman! If that is not so then everything is false.

"It is such a pity that I could not be of any service to you," He uttered these

words with a tenderness that made several devotees weep.

Girish continued: "O Lord! Please grant me the boon that I may serve you

for a year.

Who cares for salvation? One finds it everywhere. I spit on it. Please tell me

that you will accept my service for one year."

MASTER: "People around here are not good. Some may criticize you."

GIRISH: "I don't care. Please tell-"

MASTER: "All right. You may serve me when I go to your house."

GIRISH: "No, it is not that. I want to serve you here."

Girish was insistent. The Master said, "Well, that depends on God's will."

Referring to the Master's throat trouble, Girish said: "Please say, 'Let it be

cured.' All right, I shall thrash it out. Kāli! Kāli!"

MASTER: "You will hurt me."

GIRISH: "O throat, be cured! (He blows at the throat like an exorciser.) Are

you not all right? If you aren't cured by this time, you certainly will be if I

have any devotion to your feet. Say that you are cured."

MASTER (sharply): "Leave me alone. I can't say those things. I can't ask

the Divine Mother to cure my illness. "All right. I shall be cured if it is the

will of God."

GIRISH: "You are trying to fool me. All depends on your will."

MASTER: "Shame! Never say that again. I look on myself as a devotee of

Krishna, not as Krishna Himself. You may think as you like. You may look

on your guru as God.

Nevertheless, it is wrong to talk as you are talking. You must not talk that

way again."

GIRISH: "Please say you will be cured."

MASTER: "Very well, if that pleases you."

Girish was still under the influence of drink. Now and then he said to Sri

Ramakrishna, "Well, sir, how is it that you were not born this time with

your celestial beauty?"

A few moments later he said, "I see, this time it will be the salvation of

Bengal."

A devotee said to himself: "Why Bengal alone? It will be the salvation of

the whole world."

Girish said addressing the devotees: "Does any of you understand why he is

here? It is for the liberation of men. Their suffering has moved him to

assume a human body."

The coachman was calling Girish. He got up and was going toward the

man. The Master said to M.: "Watch him. Where is he going? I hope he

won't beat the coachman!" M.

accompanied Girish.

Presently Girish returned. He prayed to Sri Ramakrishna and said, "O God,

give me purity that I may not have even a trace of sinful thought."

MASTER: "You are already pure. You have such faith and devotion! You

are in a state of joy, aren't you?"

GIRISH: "No, sir. I feel bad. I have worries. That is why I have drunk so

much liquor."

A few minutes afterwards Girish said: "Lord, I am amazed to find that I,

even I, have been given the privilege of serving the Perfect Brahman. What

austerities have I practised to deserve this privilege?"

Sri Ramakrishna took his midday meal. On account of his illness he ate

very little.

The Master's natural tendency of mind was to soar into the plane of God-

Consciousness.

He would force his mind to be conscious of the body. But, like a child, he

was incapable of looking after his body. Like a child he said to the

devotees: "I have eaten a little. I shall rest now. You may go out for a little

while." Sri Ramakrishna rested a few minutes.

The devotees returned to the room.

GIRISH: "The guru and the Ishta. I like very much the form of the guru. I

am not afraid of him. Why should it be so? I am afraid of ecstasy. At the

sight of ecstasy I run away."

The guru and the Chosen Ideal

MASTER: "He who is the Ishta appears in the form of the guru. The

aspirant practises meditation on a corpse. When he obtains the vision of his

Chosen Ideal, it is really the guru who appears to him and says, 'This is

that', that is to say, he points out to the disciple his Ishta. Uttering these

words, the guru disappears into the form of the Ishta.

The disciple no longer sees the guru. In the state of perfect Jnāna, who is

the guru and who is the sishya? That creates a very difficult situation; there

the teacher and the disciple do not see each other.' "

A DEVOTEE: "Guru's head and disciple's feet."

GIRISH (joyously): "Yes! Yes! It is true."

NAVAGOPAL: "But listen to its meaning. The disciple's head belongs to

the guru; and the guru's feet belong to the disciple. Do you understand?"

GIRISH: "No, that is not the meaning. Haven't you seen the child climbing

on the head of the father? That is why the disciple's feet are mentioned."

NAVAGOPAL: "But then the disciple must feel like a young baby."

Two classes of devotees kitten and young monkey MASTER: "There are

two classes of devotees. One class has the nature of the kitten. The kitten

depends completely on its mother. It accepts whatever its mother does for it.

The kitten only cries, 'Mew, mew!' It doesn't know what to do or where to

go. Sometimes the mother puts the kitten near the heart, sometimes on the

bed. Devotees of this class give God the power of attorney and thus become

free of all worry. The Sikhs said to me that God was kind. I said to them:

'How is that? He is our Father and our Mother. Shouldn't parents bring up

their children after begetting them? Do you mean to say that the neighbours

will look after them?' Devotees of this class have an unwavering conviction

that God is our Mother and our Father.

"There is another class of devotees. They have the nature of the young

monkey. The young monkey clings to its mother with might and main. The

devotees who behave like the young monkey have a slight idea of being the

doer. They feel: 'we must go to the sacred places; we must practise japa and

austerity; we must perform worship with sixteen articles as prescribed by

the sastras. Only then shall we be able to realize God.'

Such is their attitude.

"The aspirants of both classes are devotees of God. The farther you

advance, the more you will realize that God alone has become everything.

He alone does everything. He alone is the Guru and He alone is the Ishta.

He alone gives us knowledge and devotion.

"The farther you advance, the more you will see that there are other things

even beyond the sandalwood forest-mines of silver and gold and precious

gems. Therefore go forward.

Worldly man's obstacles

"But how can I ask people to go forward? If worldly people go too far, then

the bottom will drop out of their world. One day Keshab was conducting a

religious service. He said, 'O God, may we all sink and disappear in the

river of bhakti!' When the warship was over I said to him: 'Look here. How

can you disappear altogether in the river of bhakti? If you do, what will

happen to those seated behind the screen? But do one thing: sink now and

then, and come back again to dry land."(All laugh.)

Futility of argument

The Vaishnava from Katoa was arguing.

MASTER (to the Vaishnava): "Stop that sizzling noise! When butter

containing water is heated over a fire, it makes that sound.

"If a man but once tastes the joy of God, his desire to argue takes wing. The

bee, realizing the joy of sipping honey, doesn't buzz about any more. What

will you achieve by quoting from books? The pundits recite verses and do

nothing else.

"What will you gain by merely repeating 'siddhi'? You will not be

intoxicated even by gargling with a solution of siddhi. It must go into your

stomach; not until then will you be intoxicated. One cannot comprehend

what I am saying unless one prays to God in solitude, all by oneself, with a

longing heart."

Dr. Rākhāl arrived to examine Sri Ramakrishna. The Master said to him

eagerly, "Come in and sit down."

The conversation with the Vaishnava continued.

MASTER: "Man should possess dignity and alertness. Only he whose

spiritual consciousness is awakened possesses this dignity and alertness and

can be called a man.

Futile is the human birth without the awakening of spiritual consciousness.

"There are many men at Kamarpukur with big bellies and imposing

moustaches. Yet the villagers go with palanquins and bring righteous and

truthful persons from twenty miles away to arbitrate their quarrels. They do

not bring mere pundits.

"Truthfulness is the tapasya of the Kaliyuga.'Truthfulness, submission to

God, and looking on the wives of other men as one's own mother'-these are

the means to realize God."

Like a child Sri Ramakrishna said to the physician, "Sir, please cure my

throat."

DOCTOR: "Do you ask me to cure you?"

MASTER: "The physician is Narayana Himself. I honour everybody. You

may say that if I look on all as Narayana then I should keep quiet. But I also

accept the words of the 'Mahut Narayana'.

"The Pure Mind and the Pure Ātman are one and the same thing. Whatever

comes up in the Pure Mind is the voice of God. God alone is the 'mahut

Narayana.'

"Why should I not listen to God? He alone is the Master. As long as He

keeps 'I-consciousness' in me, I shall obey His orders."

The doctor was going to examine Sri Ramakrishna's throat. The Master

said, "Dr.

Mahendra Sarkar pressed my tongue the way they press a cow's."

Like a child Sri Ramakrishna said to the physician, pulling at his shirt-

sleeves again and again, "Sir! My dear sir! Please cure my throat." Looking

at the laryngoscope, he said with a smile: "I know it. You will see the

reflection in it."

Narendra sang. But on account of the Master's illness there was not much

music.

September 2

After finishing his midday meal Sri Ramakrishna sat on the small couch

and talked to Dr.

Bhagavan Rudra and M. Rākhāl, Lātu, and other devotees were in the room.

The physician heard all about the Master's illness. Sri Ramakrishna came

down to the floor and sat near the doctor.

MASTER: "You see, medicine does not agree with me. My system is

different.

Master's renunciation

"Well, what do you think of this? When I touch a coin my hand gets

twisted; my breathing stops. Further, if tie a knot in the comer of my cloth, I

cannot breathe. My breathing stops until the knot is untied."

The Master asked a devotee to bring a rupee. When Sri Ramakrishna held it

in his hand, the hand began to writhe with pain. The Master's breathing also

stopped. After the coin had been taken away, he breathed deeply three times

and his hand relaxed. The doctor became speechless with wonder to see this

strange phenomenon.

The doctor said to M., "Action on the nerves."

MASTER (to the doctor): "I get into another state of mind. It is impossible

for me to lay up anything. One day I visited Sambhu Mallick's garden

house. At that time I had been suffering badly from stomach trouble.

Sambhu said to me: Take a grain of opium now and then. It will help you.'

He tied a little opium in a corner of my cloth. As I was returning to the Kāli

temple, I began to Vander about near the gate as if unable to find the way.

Then I threw the opium away and at once regained my normal state. I

returned to the temple garden.

"One day at Kamarpukur I picked some mangoes. I was carrying them

home. But I could not walk; I had to stay standing in one place. Then I left

the mangoes in a hollow. Only after that could I return home. Well, how do

you explain that?"

DOCTOR: "There is a force behind it. Will-force."

M: "He [meaning the Master] says that it is God-force. You say that it is

will-force."

MASTER (to the doctor): "Again, I get into such a state of mind that if

someone says I am better, I at once feel much better. The other day the

brahmani said: 'You are fifty per cent better.' At once I began to dance."

Sri Ramakrishna was much pleased with the physician. He said to him:

"You have a very fine nature. There are two characteristics of knowledge: a

peaceful nature and absence of pride."

M:. "The doctor has lost his wife."

MASTER (to the doctor): "I say that God can be realized if one feels drawn

to Him by the intensity of these three attractions: the child's attraction for

the mother, the husband's attraction for the chaste wife, and the attraction of

worldly possessions for the worldly man. "Please cure me of my illness."

The doctor was going to examine the Master's throat Sri Ramakrishna was

seated in a chair on the semicircular porch.

eferring to Dr. Sarkar, the Master said: "He is a villain. He pressed my

tongue as if I were a cow."

DOCTOR: "He didn't hurt you purposely."

MASTER: "No, he pressed the tongue to make a thorough examination."

Sunday, September 20, 1885

Sri Ramakrishna was sitting in his room, surrounded by devotees.

NavaGopal, Haralal, Rākhāl, Lātu, and others were present. A goswami

who was a musician was also there.

M. arrived with Dr. Rākhāl of Bowbazar. The physician began to examine

the Master. He was a stout person and had rather thick fingers.

MASTER (smiling, to the physician): "Your fingers are like a wrestler's.

Mahendra Sarkar also examined me. He pressed my tongue so hard that it

hurt me. He pressed my tongue the way they press a cow's."

DOCTOR: "I shall not hurt you, sir."

The physician made out his prescription. Sri Ramakrishna was talking.

MASTER (to the devotees): "Well, people ask why, if I am such a holy

person, I should be ill."

TĀRAK: "Bbagavan Das Babaji, too, was ill and bed-ridden a long time."

MASTER: "But look at Dr. Madhu. At the age of sixty he carries food to

the house of his mistress; and he has no illness."

GOSWAMI: "Sir, your illness is for the sake of others. You take upon

yourself the sins of those who come to you. You fall ill because you accept

their sins."

A DEVOTEE: "You will soon be cured if only you say to the Divine

Mother, 'Mother, please make me well.' "

Master could not ask God to cure him

MASTER: "I cannot ask God to cure my disease. The attitude of the

servant-master relationship is nowadays less strong in me.

Once in a while, I say, 'O Mother, please mend the sheath of the sword a

little.' But such prayers are also becoming less frequent. Nowadays I do not

find my 'I'; I see that it is God alone who resides in this sheath."

The goswami had been invited to sing kirtan. A devotee asked, "Will there

be any kirtan?" Sri Ramakrishna was ill, and all were afraid that the kirtan

might throw his mind into ecstasy and thus aggravate the illness.

Sri Ramakrishna said: "Let there be a little singing. All are afraid of my

going into ecstasy. Spiritual emotion hurts the throat."

The goswami began the kirtan. Sri Ramakrishna could not control himself.

He stood up and began to dance with the devotees. The physician watched

the whole scene.

A hired carriage was waiting for Dr. Rākhāl. He and M. were ready to leave

for Calcutta.

They saluted the Master. Sri Ramakrishna said to M. affectionately, "Have

you had your meal?"

Thursday, September 24, 1885

It was the night of the full moon. Sri Ramakrishna was sitting on the small

couch. He was very ill. M. and some other devotees were sitting on the

floor.

MASTER (to M.): "Every now and then I think that the body is a mere

pillow-case. The only real substance is the Indivisible Satchidananda.

"When I go into divine ecstasy this illness of the throat remains away from

me. I am now somewhat in that mood and so I feel like laughing."

Some ladies of Dwija's family arrived. They saluted the Master and sat on

one side.

Pointing to one of the ladies, Sri Ramakrishna asked: "Who is this lady? Is

it she who brought up Dwija? Why has Dwija bought an ektara?"

M: "It has two strings, sir."

MASTER: "Dwija's father is opposed to his views. Won't other people

criticize him? It is wise for him to pray to God secretly."

A picture of Gaurānga and Nitai hung on the wall of the Master's room. It

was a picture of the two brothers singing devotional songs with their

companions at Navadvip.

RAMLAL (to the Master): "Then may I give him [meaning M.] the

picture?"

MASTER: "Yes."

Sri Ramakrishna was then under Dr. Pratap's treatment. He awoke at

midnight and felt extremely restless. Harish, his attendant was in the room.

Rākhāl also was there. Ramlal was asleep on the verandah. The Master

remarked later on: "I was feeling extremely restless. I felt like embracing

Harish. They rubbed a little medicinal oil on my head. Then I began to

dance."

--------------------

Chapter 45

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AT SYAMPUKUR

October 18, 1885

THE DOCTORS HAD DEFINITELY diagnosed Sri Ramakrishna's illness

as cancer. No proper arrangement for his treatment and nursing could be

made at Dakshineswar. He needed the constant attention of a physician,

which could not be given at the temple garden. Furthermore, the devotees

who lived in Calcutta found it very inconvenient to attend on him daily at

Dakshineswar. Therefore the older devotees had rented a small two-storey

house in Baghbazar, Calcutta, and had brought the Master there. Sri

Ramakrishna, however, had not liked the place and had gone to Balarām's

house. In a few days a new house had been engaged in Syampukur, in the

northern section of Calcutta, and the Master had been taken there. He had

been placed under the treatment of Dr. Mahendra Lal Sarcar. The new

building had two large rooms and two smaller ones on the second floor. One

of the larger rooms was used as the parlour, and in the other the Master

lived. Of the two smaller rooms, one was used as a sleeping-room by the

devotees, and the other by the Holy Mother when she came there. Near the

exit to the roof was a small, covered, square space, where the Holy Mother

stayed during the day and prepared the Master's food.

It was Vijaya day, the fourth day of the worship of Durga, when the image

is immersed in water. On that day the Divine Mother returns to Her

heavenly abode at Mount Kailas, leaving gloom in the hearts of Her

devotees. It was eight o'clock in the morning. The air was chilly. Though ill,

Sri Ramakrishna was sitting on his bed. He was like a five year-old child

who knows nothing but its mother. NavaGopal, M., and a few other

devotees were present.

Master consoles Surendra

Surendra arrived and sat down. The Divine Mother had been worshipped at

his house for the past three days. Sri Ramakrishna had not been able to go

there on account of his illness, but he had sent some of his disciples.

Surendra was in a very unhappy mood because on this day the image of the

Mother was to be immersed in the water.

SURENDRA "I had to run away from home."

MASTER (to M.): "What if the image is thrown into the water? May

Mother dwell in the heart!"

Surendra was disconsolate. He was crying to the Divine Mother and talking

to Her. At this yearning of his beloved disciple Sri Ramakrishna could not

control his tears. He looked at M. and said in a choked voice: "What bhakti!

Ah, what great love he feels for God!"

MASTER (to Surendra): "Yesterday evening at seven or seven-thirty I saw

your worship hall in a vision. I saw the divine image full of effulgence. This

place and your hall were joined by a stream of light flowing between them."

SURENDRA "At that time I was crying to the Mother in the worship hall.

My elder brothers had gone upstairs. I thought the Mother said, 'I will come

again.' "It was about eleven o'clock in the morning. Sri Ramakrishna

finished his meal. M. poured water into his hand for him to rinse his mouth.

MASTER (to M.): "Rākhāl has indigestion.

Praising the Gitā

It is best to take only sattvic food. Haven't you read about it in the Gitā?

Don't you read the Gitā?"

M: "Yes, sir. The Gitā speak of temperance in eating Sattvic food, rajasic

food, tamasic food; sattvic kindness, sattvic ego, and so on-all these are

described in the Gitā."

MASTER: "Have you a copy of the book?"

M: "Yes, sir."

MASTER: "It contains the essence of all the scriptures."

M: 'The Gitā describes various ways of realizing God. You too say that God

can be reached by various paths: knowledge, devotion, work, and

meditation."

Secret of karmayoga

MASTER: "Do you know the meaning of karma yoga? It is to surrender to

God the fruit of all action."

M: "Yes, sir, I have read that in the Gitā. It also says that there are three

ways of performing action."

MASTER: "What are they?"

M: "First, one may perform karma to attain Jnāna; second, to teach others;

third, under the impulse of one's nature."

After rinsing his mouth the Master chewed betel-leaf.

M. and Dr. Sarkar

Sri Ramakrishna was talking with M. about Dr. Sarkar. M. had been at the

doctor's house the previous day to report the Master's condition.

MASTER: "What did you talk about?"

M: "There are many books in the doctor's room. I took out one to read, and

now and then read a passage aloud to Dr. Sarkar. It was a book by Sir

Humphry Davy. He wrote about the necessity of Divine Incarnation."

MASTER: "Indeed! What did you say to the doctor?"

M: "There was one passage that stated that Divine Truth must be made

human truth to be appreciated by us; therefore Divine Incarnation is

necessary."

MASTER: "Splendid! That's very good."

M: "The author gave the illustration of the sun: one cannot look at the sun,

but one can look at its reflected rays."

MASTER: "Very fine. Anything else?"

M: "Another passage stated that real knowledge is faith."

MASTER: "That too is very good. If one has faith one has everything."

M: "The author dreamt of the Roman gods and goddesses."

MASTER: "Do such books really exist? Surely the author was inspired by

God. Did you talk of anything else?"

M: "People like Dr. Sarkar speak of doing good to the world. So I told him

what you had said about it."

MASTER (smiling): "What did I say?"

M: "About Sambhu Mallick. He had said to you: 'It is my desire to devote

my money to the building of schools, hospitals, dispensaries, and the like.

That will do good to many.'

Thereupon you had said to him, 'Suppose God appears before you; will you

then ask Him to build schools, hospitals, and dispensaries?' I told the doctor

another thing."

MASTER: 'Those who are born to do work belong to a different class.

What else did you say?"

M: "I said to the doctor: 'If your aim is to visit the image of Mother Kāli,

what will you gain by spending all your time in giving alms to the poor by

the roadside? First you had better somehow visit the image. Afterwards you

may give alms to your heart's content."

MASTER: "Did you talk about anything else?"

M: "Yes. I told him that many of those who come to you have conquered

lust. Thereupon the doctor replied, 'I too have conquered lust.' I said: 'You

are a great man. It is no wonder that you have conquered lust. But the

amazing thing is that under his influence even insignificant creatures have

conquered it.' Afterwards I told him what you had said to Girish."

MASTER (smiling): "What did I say?"

M: "You said to Girish, 'The doctor has not been able to surpass you.' You

said that with reference to his calling you a Divine Incarnation."

MASTER: "Discuss the doctrine of Divine Incarnation with Dr. Sarkar. He

who liberates others is an Incarnation of God. The scriptures speak of ten,

of twenty-four, and also of innumerable Incarnations."

M: "Dr.Sarkar is keenly interested in Girish Ghosh. He always asks me

whether Girish has given up drinking. He keeps a sharp eye on him."

MASTER: "Did you tell Girish about that?"

M: "Yes, sir, I did. And I also told him about giving up drinking."

MASTER: "What did he say?"

M: "He said: 'Since you all say so, I take your words as the words of the

Master himself.

But I won't promise anything.' "

MASTER (joyously): "Kalipada told me that he had altogether given up

drinking."

It was afternoon. Dr. Sarkar arrived accompanied by his son Amrita and

Hem. Narendra and other devotees were present.

Sri Ramakrishna was talking aside to Amrita. He asked him, "Do you

meditate?" He further said to him: "Do you know!" what one feels in

meditation? The mind becomes like a continuous flow of oil-it thinks of one

object only, and that is God. It does not think of anything else."

Sri Ramakrishna was talking to the devotees.

MASTER (to the doctor): "Your son does not believe in the Incarnation of

God. That's all right, It doesn't matter if he does not believe in it.

Master praises doctor's son

"Your son is a nice boy. Why shouldn't he be? Does a mango-tree of the fine

'Bombay'

variety ever bear Sour mangoes? How firm his faith in God is! That man is

a true man whose mind dwells on God. He alone is a man whose spiritual

consciousness has been awakened and who is firmly convinced that God

alone is real and all else illusory. He does not believe in Divine Incarnation;

but what does that matter? It is enough if he believes that God exists, and

that all this universe and its living beings are the manifestations of His

Power-like a rich man and his garden.

On Divine Incarnation

"Some say that there are ten Divine Incarnations, some twenty-four, while

others say that there are innumerable Incarnations. If you see anywhere a

special manifestation of God's Power, you may know that God has

incarnated Himself there. That is my opinion.

Absolute and Relative

"There is another view, according to which God has become all that you

see. It is like a bel-fruit, which consists of three parts: seeds, shell, and

flesh. That which is the Absolute has also its relative aspect, and that which

is the Relative has also its absolute aspect. You cannot set aside the

Absolute and understand just the Relative. And it is only because there is

the Relative that you can transcend it step by step and reach the Absolute.

"So long as 'I-consciousness' exists, a man cannot go beyond the Relative.

Through meditation he can negate the phenomena, following the process of

'Neti, neti', and reach the Absolute; but nothing can really be denied, as in

the instance of the bel-fruit."

DOCTOR: "Quite true."

MASTER: "Kacha had been immersed in nirvikalpa samādhi. When his

mind was coming down to the relative plane, someone asked him, 'What do

you see now?' Kacha replied: 'I see that the universe is soaked, as it were, in

God. Everything is filled with God. It is God alone who has become all that

I see. I do not know what to accept and what to reject.'

"In my opinion one should realize both the Nitya and the Lila and then live

in the world as the servant of God. Hanuman saw both the Personal God

and the formless Reality. He then lived as a devotee of God, as His servant."

M. (to himself): "So we must accept both-the Absolute and the Relative.

Since the introduction of the Vedānta philosophy in Germany, some of the

European philosophers, too, have been thinking along that line. But the

Master says that one cannot realize both the Nitya and the Lila without

complete renunciation, that is to say, without totally giving up 'woman and

gold'. Such a person must be a true renouncer; he must be totally detached

from the world. Here lies the real difference between him and such

European philosophers as Hegel"

Dr. Sarkar on Incarnation

In Dr. Sarkar's opinion, God created men and ordained that every soul

should make infinite progress. He would not believe that one man was

greater than another. That was why he did not believe in the doctrine of

Divine Incarnation.

DOCTOR: "I believe in infinite progress. If that is not so, then what is the

use of leading a mere five or six years' existence in the world? I would

rather hang myself with a rope round my neck.

"Incarnation! What is that? To cower before a man who excretes filth! It is

absurd. But if you speak of a man as the reflection of God's Light-yes, that I

admit."

GIRISH (smiling): "But you have not seen God's Light."

Dr. Sarkar was hesitating before giving a reply. A friend who sat near him

whispered something into his ear.

DOCTOR (to Girish): "You too have not seen anything but a reflection."

GIRISH: "I see It! I see the Light! I shall prove that Sri Krishna is an

Incarnation of God or I shall cut out my tongue!"

Futility of discussion

MASTER: "All this is useless talk. It is like the ravings of a delirious

patient. A delirious patient says, 'I shall drink a whole tank of water; I shall

eat a whole pot of rice.' The physician says: 'Yes, yes. You will have all

these. We shall give you whatever you want when you are convalescent.'

"When butter is heated it sizzles and crackles. But all sound comes to a stop

when it is thoroughly boiled. As a man's mind is, so is his conception of

God. I have seen in rich men's houses portraits of the Queen and other

aristocrats. But the devotees keep in their houses pictures of gods and

goddesses.

Go beyond knowledge and ignorance

"Lakshmana said, 'O Rāma, even a sage like Vasishthadeva was overcome

with grief on account of the death of his sons!' 'Brother,' replied Rāma,

'whoever has knowledge has ignorance also. Whoever is conscious of light

is also conscious of darkness. Therefore go beyond knowledge and

ignorance.' One attains that state through an intimate knowledge of God.

This knowledge is called vijnāna .

"When a thorn enters the sole of your foot you have to get another thorn.

You then remove the first thorn with the help of the second Afterwards you

throwaway both.

Likewise, after removing the thorn of ignorance with the help of the thorn

of knowledge, you should throwaway the thorns of both knowledge and

ignorance.

"There are signs of Perfect Knowledge. One is that reasoning comes to an

end. As I have just said, the butter sizzles and crackles as long as it is not

thoroughly boiled."

Doctor: "But can one retain Perfect Knowledge permanently? You say that

all is God.

Then why have you taken up this profession of a paramahamsa? And why

do these people attend on you? Why don't you keep silent?"

MASTER (smiling): "Water is water whether it is still or moves or breaks

into waves.

The story of the "Māhut Narayana"

"I must tell you something else. Why should I not listen to the 'mahut

Narayana'? The guru had taught his disciple that everything was Narayana.

A mad elephant was coming toward the disciple, but he did not move away

since he believed the guru's words. He thought that the elephant was

Narayana. The mahut shouted to him: 'Get away! Get away!' But the

disciple did not move. The elephant picked him up and threw him to the

ground. The disciple was not quite dead; when his face was sprinkled with

water he regained consciousness. Being asked why he had not moved away,

he said: 'why should I? The guru said, "Everything is Narayana."' 'But, my

child,' said the Guru, 'Why didn't you listen to the words of the mahut

Narayana?'

"It is God who dwells within as the Pure Mind and Pure Intelligence. I am

the machine and He is its Operator. I am the house and He is the Indweller.

It is God who is the mahut Narayana."

DOCTOR: "Let me ask you something. Why do you ask me to cure your

illness?"

MASTER: "I talk that way as long as I am conscious of the 'jar' of the 'ego'.

Think of a vast ocean filled with water on all sides. A jar is immersed in it.

There is water both inside and outside the jar; but the water does not

become one unless the jar is broken.

It is God who has kept this 'jar' of the 'ego' in me."

DOCTOR: "What is the meaning of 'ego' and all that you are talking about?

You must explain it to me. Do you mean to say that God is playing tricks on

us?"

GIRISH: "Sir, how do you know that He is not playing tricks?"

MASTER (smiling): "It is God who has kept this 'ego' in us. All this is His

play, His Lila. A king has four sons. They are all princes; but when they

play, one becomes a minister, another a police officer, and so on. Though a

prince, he plays as a police officer.

(To the doctor) "Listen. If you realize Ātman you will see the truth of all I

have said. All doubts disappear after the vision of God."

DOCTOR: "But is it ever possible to get rid of all doubts?"

MASTER: "Learn from me as much as I have told you. But if you want to

know more, you must pray to God in solitude. Ask Him why He has so

ordained.

"The son of the house can give a beggar only a small measure of rice. But if

the beggar asks for his train fare, then the master of the house must be

called."

The doctor remained silent.

Master reasons with Dr. Sarkar

MASTER: "Well, you love reasoning. All right. Let us reason a little.

Listen. According to the Jnāni there is no Incarnation of God. Krishna said

to Arjuna: 'You speak of Me as an Incarnation of God. Let me show you

something. Come with Me.' Arjuna had followed Sri Krishna a short

distance, when Sri Krishna asked him, 'What do you see there?' Arjuna

replied, 'A big tree with black berries hanging in bunches.' Krishna said,

'Those are not black berries. Go nearer and look at them.' Arjuna went

nearer and saw that they were Krishnas hanging in bunches. 'Do you see

now', said Krishna, 'how many Krishnas like Me have grown there?'

"Kavirdas said of Krishna, 'He danced like a monkey to the clapping of the

gopis!'

"As you go nearer to God you see less and less of His Upādhis, His

attributes. A devotee at first may see the Deity as the ten-armed Divine

Mother; when he goes nearer he sees Her possessed of six arms; still nearer,

he sees the Deity as the two-armed Gopala. The nearer he comes to the

Deity, the fewer attributes he sees. At last, when he comes into the presence

of the Deity, he sees only Light without any attributes.

"Listen a little to the Vedantic reasoning. A magician came to a king to

show his magic.

When the magician moved away a little, the king saw a rider on horseback

approaching him. He was brilliantly arrayed and had various weapons in his

hands. The king and the audience began to reason out what was real in the

phenomenon before them. Evidently the horse was not real, nor the robes,

nor the armour. At last they found out beyond the shadow of a doubt that

the rider alone was there. The significance of this is that Brahman alone is

real and the world unreal Nothing whatsoever remains if you analyse."

DOCTOR: "I don't object to this."

Illusion persists

MASTER: "But it is not easy to get rid of illusion. It lingers even after the

attainment of Knowledge. A man dreamt of a tiger. Then he woke up and

his dream vanished. But his heart continued to palpitate.

"Some thieves came to a field. A straw figure resembling a man had been

put there to frighten intruders. The thieves were scared by the figure and

could not persuade themselves to enter the field. One of them, however,

approached and found that it was only a figure made of straw. He came

back to his companions and said, 'There is nothing to be afraid of.' But still

they refused to go; they said that their hearts were beating fast.

Then the daring thief laid the figure on the ground and said, 'It is nothing, it

is nothing.'

This is the process of 'Neti, neti'."

DOCTOR: "These are fine words."

MASTER (smiling): "What kind of words?"

DOCTOR: "Fine."

MASTER: "Then give me a 'Thank you'." [The Master said the words

"thank you" in English.]

DOCTOR: "Don't you know what is in my mind? I go to so much trouble to

come and visit you!"

MASTER (smiling): "No, it is not that. Say something for the good of the

ignorant. After the death of Ravana , his brother Bibhishana refused to be

king of Ceylon! He said: 'O

Rāma, I have obtained You. What shall I do with kingship?' Rāma said:

'Bibhishana, be king for the sake of the ignorant, for those who might ask

what riches you have gained by serving Me so much. Be king to give them

a lesson."

DOCTOR: "Are there such ignorant people here?"

MASTER (smiling): "Oh, yes! Here you will find oysters and snails as well

as conchs." (All laugh.)

Doctor Sarkar, who was a homeopath, gave Sri Ramakrishna two globules

of medicine.

He said, "I am giving you these two globules: one is Purusha and the other

is Prakriti."

(All laugh,)

MASTER (smiling): "Oh yes, Purusha and Prakriti are always together.

Haven't you observed pigeons? The male and female cannot live separately.

Wherever Purusha is, there is Prakriti, and wherever Prakriti is, there is

Purusha."

It was Vijaya day. Sri Ramakrishna asked Dr. Sarkar to have some

refreshments. The devotees served him with sweets.

DOCTOR (while eating): "Now I say 'Thank you' for the sweets; but it is

not for your teachings. Why should I give that 'Thank you' in words?"

MASTER (smiling): "The essential thing is to fix the mind on God and to

practise meditation a little. What more shall I say? (Pointing to the younger

Naren) Look at him.

His mind totally merges in God. Those things I was telling you-"

DOCTOR: "Tell the others also."

MASTER: "No, a man should be given food according to his power of

digestion. Can all understand what I told you? I cannot talk to everyone as I

talked to you. Suppose a mother has bought a fish for the family. All her

children have not the same power of digestion. For some she makes pilau

and for others she makes stew. These latter have weak stomachs." (All

laugh.)

Dr. Sarkar took his leave. It was Vijaya day, when people show their love

and respect to their friends and elders with appropriate greetings. The

devotees all prostrated themselves before Sri Ramakrishna and took the

dust of his feet. Then they embraced one another. Their joy knew no

bounds. The Master was seriously ill, but he made them all forget about his

illness. The embracing and exchange of greetings continued a long time.

The devotees also took light refreshments. The younger Naren, M., and a

few other devotees sat near Sri Ramakrishna. The Master talked to them

joyfully. He spoke of Dr.Sarkar.

MASTER: "I shall not have to tell him very much. When the trunk of a tree

is cut almost to the other side, the cutter steps aside. A little later the tree

falls down of itself."

THE YOUNGER NAREN (smiling): "Here everything is principle!"

MASTER (to M.): "The doctor has already changed a great deal, hasn't he?"

M: "Yes, sir. When he comes here he loses his wits. He never talks about

medicine.

When we remind him of it, he says: 'Oh, yes, yes! I shall have to give the

medicine.' "

Some of the devotees were singing in the parlour. They returned to the

Master's room.

Sri Ramakrishna said: "I heard your music; but why did you make mistakes

in the rhythm? I once heard of a man who was an adept in discord. You

sang like him." (All laugh.)

A young man, a relative of the younger Naren, arrived. He was

bespectacled and foppishly dressed. Sri Ramakrishna spoke to the younger

Naren.

MASTER: "You see, a young man was going along the road. He had put on

a pleated shirt. And how he strutted! Now and again he would display the

shirt by removing his scarf, and then look around to see if anyone was

admiring him. But when he walked you could see that he was knock-kneed.

(All laugh.) The peacock displays its feathers; but its feet are very dirty.

(All laugh.) The camel is very ugly. Everything about it is ugly."

YOUNG MAN: "But it acts well."

MASTER: "Yes. But it browses on briars. It will continue to eat thorns

though its mouth bleeds. The worldly man loses his children and still

clamours for more."

October 22, 1885

It was Thursday evening, a few days after the Durga Puja. Sri Ramakrishna

sat on his bed in his room on the second floor, with Dr.Sarkar, Ishan, and

other devotees. Although Dr.Sarkar was a very busy physician, he would

spend a long time-sometimes six or seven hours-in Sri Ramakrishna's

company. He had great love for the Master and looked on the devotees as

his own kith and kin. A lamp was burning in the room. Moonlight illumined

the outside world.

Master praises the true householder

Addressing Ishan, a householder devotee, the Master said: Blessed indeed is

the householder who performs his duties in the world, at the same time

cherishing love for the Lotus Feet of God. He is indeed a hero. He is like a

man who carries a heavy load of two maunds on his head and at the same

time watches a bridal procession. One cannot lead such a life without great

spiritual power. Again, such a man is like the mudfish, which lives in the

mud but is not stained by it. Further, such a householder may be compared

to a waterfowl. It is constantly diving under water; yet, by fluttering its

wings only once, it shakes off all trace of wet.

Advice to householders & Necessity of solitude "But a man must practise

some spiritual discipline in order to be able to lead a detached life in the

world. It is necessary for him to spend some time in solitude-be it a year,

six months, three months, or even one month. In that solitude he should fix

his mind on God and pray with a longing heart for love of God. He should

also say to himself: 'There is nobody in this world who is my own. Those

whom I call my own are here only for two days. God alone is my own. He

alone is my all in all. Alas, how shall I realize Him?'

"One can live in the world after acquiring love of God. It is like breaking

the jackfruit after rubbing your hands with oil; the sticky juice of the fruit

will not smear them. The world is like water and the mind like milk. If you

put milk in water it will mix with the water. But first keep the milk in a

quiet place and let it turn into curd. Then from the curd extract butter. That

butter you may keep in water; it will not mix with the water, but will float

on it.

Example of Janaka

"Some members of the Brahmo Samaj said to me: 'Sir, our attitude toward

the world is that of King Janaka. Like him, we want to enjoy the world in a

detached spirit.' I said to them: 'To live in the world in a detached spirit is

very difficult. By merely saying so you cannot be a King Janaka. How

much austerity Janaka practised! How long he remained in one posture,

with head down and feet up! You don't have to practise these extreme

disciplines. But you need sādhanā, you should live in solitude. You may

lead the life of a householder after having attained divine knowledge and

love in solitude. Milk turns into curd only when it is not disturbed. The curd

does not set if the milk is often moved from place to place or is too much

disturbed.'

"On account of his detachment from the world Janaka was also known as

the 'Videha', that is, one free from consciousness of the body. Though living

in the world, he moved about as a jivanmukta, a free soul living in a body.

But for most people freedom from body-consciousness is something very

far off. Intense spiritual discipline is necessary.

"Janaka was a great hero. He fenced with two swords, the one of knowledge

and the other of work.

The householder Jnāni and the monk Jnāni

"You may ask, 'Is there any difference between the realizations of two

jnanis, one a householder and the other a monk?' The reply is that the two

belong to one class. Both of them are jnanis; they have the same experience.

But a householder Jnāni has reason to fear. He cannot altogether get rid of

his fear as long as he is to live in the midst of 'woman and gold'. If you

constantly live in a room full of soot, you are sure to soil your body, be it

ever so little, no matter how clever you may be.

"After extracting the butter, if you keep it in a new pot, then there is no

chance of its getting spoiled. But if you keep the butter in a pot where curd

has been kept, well, then it is doubtful whether it will keep its flavour.

(Laughter.) "When they parch rice, a few grains jump out of the frying-pan

to the ground. These are white, like mallika flowers, without the slightest

stain on them. But the grains that remain in the pan are also good, though

not as immaculate as the fresh mallika flower.

They are a little stained. In the same way, if a monk who has renounced the

world attains divine wisdom, he appears as spotless as the white flower; but

one who stays in the frying-pan of the world after attaining Knowledge may

get a little blemish. (All laugh.)

"Once a bhairavi came to King Janaka's court. At the sight of the woman,

the king bent his head and cast his eyes to the ground. At this the bhairavi

said, 'O Janaka, even now you are afraid of a woman!' Through Perfect

Knowledge a man becomes like a child five years old; he does not know the

distinction between a man and a woman.

"Although a Jnāni living in the world may have a little blemish, yet this

does not injure him. The moon undoubtedly has dark spots, but these do not

obstruct its light.

Teaching others after realizing God

"After realizing God, some souls perform work in order to teach men.

Janaka, Nārada, and others like them, belong to this group. But one must

possess power in order to be able to teach others. The sages of old were

busy attaining knowledge for themselves.

But teachers like Nārada went about doing good to others. They were real

heroes.

"A worthless stick floating on the water sinks under the weight of a bird;

but a heavy and substantial log floating on the water can support a cow, a

man, or even an elephant.

A steamboat not only crosses the water itself but carries many human

beings with it.

Teachers like Nārada may be compared to the heavy log of wood or the

steamboat.

"One man, after eating a tasty morsel, removes every trace of it by wiping

his face carefully with a towel, lest anyone should know. (All laugh.)

Another, again, having got a mango, not only enjoys it himself but shares it

with others.

Knowledge and love of God

"Even after having attained Perfect Knowledge, teachers like Nārada

retained love of God in their minds for the welfare of others."

DOCTOR: "Jnāna makes a man speechless. He closes his eyes and sheds

tears. Then he needs bhakti."

MASTER: "Bhakti may be likened to a woman who has access to the inner

court of a house. Jnāna can go only as far as the outer rooms."

DOCTOR: "All women are not allowed to enter the inner court, for

instance, prostitutes.

Hence the need of Jnāna."

MASTER: "A man may not know the right path, but if he has bhakti and

the desire to know God, then he attains Him through the force of sheer

bhakti. Once a sincere devotee set out on a pilgrimage to the temple of

Jagannath in Puri. He did not know the way; he went west instead of south.

He no doubt strayed from the right path, but he always eagerly asked people

the way, and they gave him the right directions, saying, 'This is not the path;

follow that one.' At last the devotee was able to get to Puri and worship the

Deity. So you see, even if you are ignorant, someone will tell you the way if

you are earnest."

DOCTOR: "But the devotee in his ignorance did lose his way."

MASTER: "Yes, such a thing happens, no doubt. But a man reaches the

goal in the end."

A DEVOTEE: "Has God a form or is He formless?"

MASTER: "God has form and, again, He is formless. Once upon a time a

sannyāsi entered the temple of Jagannath. As he looked at the holy image

he debated within himself whether God had a form or was formless. He

passed his staff from left to right to feel whether it touched the image. The

staff touched nothing. He understood that there was no image before him;

he concluded that God was formless. Next he passed the staff from right to

left. It touched the image. The sannyāsi understood that God had form.

Thus he realized that God has form and, again, is formless.

"But it is extremely difficult to understand this. Naturally the doubt arises in

the mind: if God is formless, how then can He have form? Further, if He has

a form, why does He have so many forms?"

DOCTOR: "God has created all these forms in the world; therefore He

Himself has a form. Again, He has created the mind; therefore He is

formless. It is possible for God to be everything."

Personal God and Impersonal Truth

MASTER: "These things do not become clear until one has realized God.

He assumes different forms and reveals Himself in different ways for the

sake of His devotees. A man kept a solution of dye in a tub. Many people

came to him to have their clothes dyed. He would ask a customer, 'What

colour should you like to have your cloth dyed?' If the customer wanted red,

then the man would dip the cloth in the tub and say, 'Here is your cloth dyed

red.' If another customer wanted his cloth dyed yellow, the man would dip

his cloth in the same tub and say, 'Here is your cloth dyed yellow.' If a

customer wanted his cloth dyed blue, the man would dip it in the same tub

and say, 'Here is your cloth dyed blue.' Thus he would dye the clothes of his

customers different colours, dipping them all in the same solution. One of

the customers watched all this with amazement. The man asked him, 'Well?

What colour do you want for your cloth?' The customer said, 'Brother, dye

my cloth the colour of the dye in your tub.' (Laughter.)

Illustration of the chameleon "Once a man went into a wood and saw a

beautiful creature on a tree. Later he told a friend about it and said, 'Brother,

on a certain tree in the wood I saw a red-coloured creature.' The friend

answered: 'I have seen it too. Why do you call it red? It is green.' A third

man said: 'Oh, no, no! Why do you call it green? It is yellow.' Then other

persons began to describe the animal variously as violet, blue, or black.

Soon they were quarrelling about the colour. At last they went to the tree

and found a man sitting under it. In answer to their questions he said: 'I live

under this tree and know the creature very well. What each of you has said

about it is true. Sometimes it is red, sometimes green, sometimes yellow,

sometimes blue, and so forth and so on. Again, sometimes I see that it has

no colour whatsoever.'

"Only he who constantly thinks of God can know His real nature. He alone

knows that God reveals Himself in different forms and different ways that

He has attributes and, again, has none. Only the man who lives under the

tree knows that the chameleon can assume various colours and that

sometimes it remains colourless. Others, not knowing the whole truth,

quarrel among themselves and suffer.

Illustration of ice and water

"Yes, God has form and, again, He has none. Do you know how it is?

Brahman, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute, is like a shoreless ocean.

In the ocean visible blocks of ice are formed here and there by intense cold.

Similarly, under the cooling influence, so to speak, of the bhakti of Its

worshippers, the Infinite transforms Itself into the finite and appears before

the worshipper as God with form. That is to say, God reveals Himself to His

bhaktas as an embodied Person. Again, as, on the rising of the sun, the ice

in the ocean melts away, so, on the awakening of Jnāna, the embodied God

melts back into the infinite and formless Brahman."

DOCTOR: "Yes. When the sun is up, the ice melts; and what is more, the

heat of the sun turns the water into invisible vapour."

MASTER: "Yes, that is true. As a result of the discrimination that Brahman

alone is real and the world illusory, the aspirant goes into samādhi. Then,

for him, the forms or attributes of God disappear altogether. Then he does

not feel God to be a Person. Then he cannot describe in words what God is.

And who will describe it? He who is to describe does not exist at all; he no

longer finds his 'I'. To such a person Brahman is attributeless. In that state

God is experienced only as Consciousness, by man's inmost consciousness.

He cannot be comprehended by the mind and intelligence.

"Therefore people compare bhakti, love of God, to the cooling light of the

moon, and janana, knowledge, to the burning rays of the sun. I have heard

that there are oceans in the extreme north and extreme south where the air is

so cold that it freezes the water into huge blocks of ice here and there. Ships

cannot move there; They are stopped by the ice."

DOCTOR: "Then in the path of bhakti the aspirant meets with obstacles."

MASTER: "Yes, that is true. But it does not cause the devotee any harm.

After all, it is the water of the Ocean of Brahman, Existence-Knowledge-

Bliss Absolute, that is frozen into ice. It will not injure you if you continue

to reason, saying, for instance, that Brahman alone is real and the world

illusory. This reasoning will awaken in you Jnāna, which, like the sun, will

melt the ice of divine forms back into the infinite Ocean of Brahman,

Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute.

"I-consciousness"

"In the samādhi that comes at the end of reasoning and discrimination, no

such thing as 'I' exists. But it is extremely difficult to attain it; 'I-

consciousness' lingers so persistently.

That is why a man is born again and again in this world.

Parable of the cow

"The cow suffers so much because she says, 'Hamba! Hamba!', that is, 'I! I!'

She is yoked to the plough all day long, rain or shine. Or she is slaughtered

by the butcher. But even that doesn't put an end to her misery. The cobbler

tans her hide to make shoes from it. At last the carder makes a string for his

bow from her entrails and uses the string in carding; then it says, 'Tuhu!

Tuhu!', that is, 'Thou! Thou!' Only then does the cow's suffering come to an

end.

"Likewise, only when a man says: 'Not I! Not I! I am nobody. O Lord, Thou

art the Doer and I am Thy servant; Thou art the Master', is he freed from all

sufferings; only then is he liberated."

DOCTOR: "But one must fall into the hands of the carder." (All laugh.)

MASTER: "If this ego cannot be got rid of, then let the rascal remain as the

servant of God. (All laugh.)

Harmless and injurious ego & "Ripe ego" and "unripe ego"

"A man may keep this ego even after attaining samādhi. Such a man feels

either that he is a servant of God or that he is a lover of God. Sankaracharya

retained the 'ego of Knowledge' to teach men spiritual life. The 'servant-

ego', the 'Knowledge ego', or the 'devotee ego' may be called the 'ripe ego'.

It is different from the 'unripe ego', which makes one feel: 'I am the doer. I

am the son of a wealthy man. I am learned. I am rich.

How dare anyone slight me?' A man with and 'unripe ego' cherishes such

ideas. Suppose a thief has entered such a man's house and stolen some of

his belongings. If the thief is caught, all the articles will be snatched away

from him. Then he will be beaten. At last he will be handed over to the

police. The owner of the stolen goods will say: 'what! This rogue doesn't

know whose house he has entered!'

Childlike nature of perfect souls

"After realizing God, a man becomes like a child five years old. The ego of

such a man may be called the 'ego of a child', the 'ripe ego'. The child is not

under the control of any of the Gunās. He is beyond the three Gunās. He is

not under the control of any of the Gunās-sattva, rajas, or tamas. Just watch

a child and you will find that he is not under the influence of tamas. One

moment he quarrels with his chum or even fights with him, and the next

moment he hugs him, shows him much affection, and plays with him again.

He is not even under the control of rajas. Now he builds his play house and

makes all kinds of plans to make it beautiful, and the next moment he

leaves everything behind and runs to his mother. Again, you see him

wearing a beautiful piece of cloth worth five rupees. After a few moments

the cloth lies on the ground; he forgets all about it. Or he may carry it under

his arm. If you say to the child: 'That's a beautiful piece of cloth.

Whose is it?', he answers: 'Why, it is mine. My daddy gave it to me.' You

may say, 'My darling, won't you give it to me?' and he will reply: 'Oh no, it

is mine. My daddy gave it to me. I won't give it to you.' Some minutes later

you may coax him with a toy or a music-box worth a penny, and he will

give you the cloth. Again, a child five years old is not attached even to

sattva. You may find him today very fond of his playmates in the

neighbourhood; he doesn't feel happy for a moment without seeing them;

but tomorrow, when he goes to another place with his parents, he finds new

playmates; all his love is now directed to his new friends, and he almost

forgets about his old ones. Further, a child has no pride of caste or family. If

his mother says to him about a certain person, 'This man is your elder

brother', he believes this to be one hundred per cent true. One of the two

may have been born in a brahmin family and the other may belong to a low

caste, say that of the blacksmiths, but they will take their meal from the

same plate. A child is beyond all ideas of purity and impurity. He is not

bound by social conventions. He doesn't hesitate to come out naked before

others.

"Ego of old age"

"Then there is an 'ego of old age'. (Dr. Sarkar laughs.) An old man has

many shackles: caste, pride, shame, hatred, and fear. Furthermore, he is

bound by the ideas of worldly cleverness, calculating intelligence, and

deceit. If he is angry with anybody, he cannot shake it off easily; perhaps he

keeps the feeling as long as he lives. Again, there is the 'ego of scholarship'

and the 'ego of wealth'. The 'ego of old age' is an 'unripe ego'.

Characteristics of tamas

(To the doctor) "There are a few men who cannot attain knowledge of God:

men proud of their scholarship, proud of their education, or proud of their

wealth. If you speak to such people about a holy man and ask them to visit

him, they make all kinds of excuses and will not go. But in their heart of

hearts they think: 'Why, we are big people ourselves. Must we go and visit

someone else?'

"A characteristic of tamas is pride. Pride and delusion come from tamas.

"It is said in the Purana that Ravana had an excess of rajas, Kumbhakarna

of tamas, and Bibhishana of sattva. That is why Bibhishana was able to

receive the grace of Rāma.

Another characteristic of tamas is anger. Through anger one loses one's wits

and cannot distinguish between right and wrong. In a fit of anger Hanuman

set fire to Lanka, without thinking for a moment that the fire might also

burn down the hut where Sita lived.

"Still another feature of tamas is lust.

Turn your passions to God

Girindra Ghosh of PathuriaGhata once remarked, 'Since you cannot get rid

of your passions-your lust, your anger, and so on-give them a new direction.

Instead of desiring worldly pleasures, desire God. Have intercourse with

Brahman. If you cannot get rid of anger, then change its direction. Assume

the tamasic attitude of bhakti, and say: 'What?

I have repeated the hallowed name of Durga, and shall I not be liberated?

How can I be a sinner any more? How can I be bound any more?' If you

cannot get rid of temptation, direct it toward God. Be infatuated with God's

beauty. If you cannot get rid of pride, then be proud to say that you are the

servant of God, you are the child of God. Thus turn the six passions toward

God."

DOCTOR: "It is very hard to control the sense-organs. They are like restive

horses, whose eyes must be covered with blinkers. In the case of some

horses it is necessary to prevent them from seeing at all."

MASTER: "A man need not fear anything if but once he receives the grace

of God, if but once he obtains the vision of God, if but once he attains Self-

Knowledge. Then the six passions cannot do him any harm.

"Eternally perfect souls like Nārada and Prahlada did not have to take the

trouble to put blinkers on their eyes. The child who holds his father's hand,

while walking along the narrow balk in the paddy-field, may loosen his

hold in a moment of carelessness and slip into the ditch. But it is quite

different if the father holds the child's hand. Then the child never falls into

the ditch."

DOCTOR: "But it is not proper for a father to hold his child by the hand."

MASTER: "It is not quite like that. Great sages have childlike natures.

Before God they are always like children. They have no pride. Their

strength is the strength of God, the strength of their Father. They have

nothing to call their own. They are firmly convinced of that."

DOCTOR: "Can you make a horse move forward without first covering his

eyes with blinkers? Can one realize God without first controlling the

passions?"

Paths of knowledge and devotion

MASTER: "What you say is according to the path of discrimination. It is

known as Jnāna yoga. Through that path, too, one attains God. The jnanis

say that an aspirant must first of all purify his heart. First he needs spiritual

exercises; then he will attain Knowledge.

"But God can also be realized through the path of devotion. Once the

devotee develops love for the Lotus Feet of God and enjoys the singing of

His name and attributes, he does not have to make a special effort to

restrain his senses. For such a devotee the sense-organs come under control

of themselves.

"Suppose a man has just lost his son and is mourning his death. Can he be

in a mood to quarrel with others that very day, or enjoy a feast in the house

of a friend? Can he, that very day, show his pride before others or enjoy

sense pleasures?

"If the moth discovers light, can it remain in darkness any longer?"

DOCTOR (with a smile): "Of course it cannot. It would rather fly into the

flame and perish."

MASTER: "Oh no, that's not so. A lover of God does not burn himself to

death, like a moth. The light to which he rushes is like the light of a gem.

That light is brilliant, no doubt, but it is also cooling and soothing. That

light does not scorch his body; it gives him joy and peace.

Difficulty of path of knowledge

"One realizes God by following the path of discrimination and knowledge.

But this is an extremely difficult path. It is easy enough to say such things

as, 'I am not the body, mind, or intellect; I am beyond grief, disease, and

sorrow; I am the embodiment of Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute; I am

beyond pain and pleasure; I am not under the control of the sense-organs',

but it is very hard to assimilate these ideas and practise them. Suppose I see,

my hand cut by a thorn and blood gushing out; then it is not right for me to

say: 'Why, my hand is not cut by the thorn! I am all right.' In order to be

able to say that, I must first of all burn the thorn itself in the fire of

Knowledge.

"Many people think they cannot have knowledge or understanding of God

without reading books. But hearing is better than reading, and seeing is

better than hearing.

Hearing about Benares is different from reading about it; but seeing

Benares is different from either hearing or reading.

"Those actually engaged in a game of chess do not always judge the moves

on the board correctly. The onlookers often judge the moves better than the

players. Worldly people often think themselves very intelligent, but they are

attached to the things of the world.

They are the actual players and cannot understand their own moves

correctly. But holy men, who have renounced everything, are unattached to

the world; they are really more intelligent than worldly people. Since they

do not take any part in worldly life, their position is that of onlookers, and

so they see things more clearly."

DOCTOR (to the devotees): "If he [meaning Sri Ramakrishna] had studied

books he could not have acquired so much knowledge. Faraday communed

with nature; that is why he was able to discover many scientific truths. He

could not have known so much from the mere study of books. Mathematical

formulas only throw the brain into confusion and bar the path of original

inquiry."

MASTER: "There was a time when I lay on the ground in the Panchavati

and prayed to the Divine Mother, 'O Mother, reveal to me what the karmis

have realized through their ritualistic worship, what the yogis have realized

through yoga, and what the jnanis have realized through discrimination.'

How much I communed with the Divine Mother! How can I describe it all?

"Ah, what a state I passed through! Sleep left me completely."

The Master sang:

My sleep is broken; how can I slumber any more?

For now I am wide awake in the sleeplessness of yoga.

O Divine Mother, made one with Thee in yoga-sleep at last, My slumber I

have lulled asleep for evermore.

A man has come to me from a country where there is no night; Rituals and

devotions have all grown profitless for me.

He continued: "I have not read books. But people show me respect because

I chant the name of the Divine Mother. Sambhu Mallick said about me,

'Here is a great hero without a sword or shield!'" (Laughter.)

The conversation turned to the performance of a drama by Girish Ghosh

called The Life of Buddha. The doctor had seen the play and been much

pleased with it.

DOCTOR (to Girish): "You are a very bad man. Must I go to the theatre

every day?"

MASTER (to M.): "What does he say? I don't quite understand."

M: "The doctor liked the play very much."

Discussion about Divine Incarnation

MASTER (to Ishan): "Why don't you say something? (Pointing to the

doctor) He does not believe that god can incarnate Himself in a human

form."

ISHAN: "What shall I say, sir? I don't like to argue any more."

MASTER (sharply): "Why? Won't you say the right thing?"

ISHAN (to the doctor): "Our faith is shallow on account of our pride. It is

said in the Ramayana that a crow named Bhushandi did not at first accept

Rāma as an Incarnation of God. Once it incurred Rāma's displeasure. It

travelled through the different worlds-the lunar, solar, and so forth-and

through Mount Kailas, to escape Rāma's wrath. But it found that it could

not escape. Then it surrendered itself to Him and took refuge at His feet.

Rāma took the crow in His hand and swallowed it. Thereupon the crow

found that it was seated in it's own nest in a tree. After its pride had thus

been crushed, the bird came to realize that though Rāma looked like any

other man, yet He contained in His stomach the entire universe-sky, moon,

sun, stars, oceans, rivers, men, animals, and trees."

MASTER (to the doctor): "It is very difficult to understand that God can be

a finite human being and at the same time the all-pervading Soul of the

universe. The Absolute and the Relative are His two aspects. How can we

say emphatically with our small intelligence that God cannot assume a

human form? Can we ever understand all these ideas with our little

intellect? Can a oneseer pot hold four seers of milk?

"Therefore one should trust in the words of holy men and great souls, those

who have realized God. They constantly think of God, as a lawyer of his

lawsuits. Do you believe the story of the crow Bhushandi?"

DOCTOR: "I accept as much as I want to. All difficulties come to an end if

only God reveals His true nature to the seeker. Then there can be no

confusion. How can I accept Rāma as an Incarnation of God? Take the

example of His killing Vali, the monkey chieftain. He hid Himself behind a

tree, like a thief, and murdered Vali. This is how a man acts, and not God."

GIRISH: "But, sir, such an action is possible only for God."

DOCTOR: "Then take the example of His sending Sita into exile."

GIRISH: "This too, sir, is possible only for God, not for man."

ISHAN (to the doctor): "Why don't you believe in the Incarnation of God?

Just now you said that God has form since He has created all these forms,

and that God is formless since He has created the mind, which is without

form. A moment ago you said that everything is possible for God."

MASTER (laughing): "It is not mentioned in his 'science' that God can take

human form; so how can he believe it? (All laugh.)

"Listen to a story. A man said to his friend, 'I have just seen a house fall

down with a terrific crash.' Now, the friend to whom he told this had

received an English education.

He said: 'Just a minute. Let me look it up in the newspaper.' He read the

paper but could not find the news of a house falling down with a crash.

Thereupon he said to his friend: 'Well, I don't believe you. It isn't in the

paper; so it is all false.' "(All laugh.) GIRISH (to the doctor): "You must

admit that Krishna is God. I will not let you look on Him as a mere man.

You must admit that He is either God or a demon."

MASTER: "Unless a man is guileless, he cannot so easily have faith in

God. God is far, far away from the mind steeped in worldliness. Worldly

intelligence creates many doubts and many forms of pride-pride of learning,

wealth, and the rest. (Pointing to the doctor) But he is guileless.

"How guileless Keshab Sen was! One day he visited the Kāli temple at

Dakshineswar. At about four in the afternoon he went around to the

guesthouse, where the poor are fed, and asked when the beggars would be

fed. He didn't know that it was too late in the day for the feeding of the

poor. As a man's faith increases, so does his knowledge of God.

The cow that discriminates too much about food gives milk in dribblets. But

the cow that gulps down everything-herbs, leaves, grass, husks, straw-gives

milk in torrents. (All laugh.)

Childlike faith

"God cannot be realized without childlike faith. The mother says to her

child, pointing to a boy, 'He is your elder brother.' And the child at once

believes that the boy is one hundred per cent his brother. Again, the mother

says that a bogy man lives in a certain room, and the child believes one

hundred per cent that the bogy man lives in the room.

God bestows His grace on the devotee who has this faith of a child. God

cannot be realized by the mind steeped in worldliness."

DOCTOR (to the devotees): "It is not right, however, to make the cow yield

milk by feeding her all sorts of things. One of my cows was fed that way. I

drank its milk and the result was that I became seriously ill. At first I was at

a loss to know the cause. After much inquiry I found out that the cow had

been given the wrong things to eat, I was in a great fix. I had to go to

Lucknow for a change to get rid of the illness. I spent twelve thousand

rupees. (Roars of laughter.)

"It is very difficult always to find out the precise relationship between cause

and effect. A child of seven months, in a wealthy family, had an attack of

whooping-cough. I was called in for consultation. Even after much effort I

could not find out the cause of the illness. At last I learnt that the child had

been given the milk of an ass that had been drenched in the rain." (All

laugh.)

MASTER (to the devotees): "How strange! It is like saying that a man has

an acid stomach because he passed, in his coach, under a tamarind tree."

(All laugh.) DOCTOR (with a smile): "Let me tell you another. The captain

of a ship had a bad headache. After consultation, the doctors on board had a

blister applied to the side of the boat." (All laugh.)

MASTER (to the doctor): "For the seekers of God the constant company of

holy men is necessary. The disease of worldly people has become chronic,

as it were. They should carry out the instruction of holy men. What will

they gain by merely listening to their advice? They must not only take the

prescribed medicine, but also follow a strict diet.

Diet is important."

DOCTOR: "Yes, it is the diet, more than anything else, that causes the cure.

MASTER: "There are three classes of physicians: superior, mediocre, and

inferior. The inferior physician feels the patient's pulse, merely asks him to

take medicine, and then goes away. He doesn't bother to find out whether

the patient has followed his directions.

The mediocre physician gently tries to persuade the patient to take the

medicine. He says: 'Look here. How can you get well without medicine?

Take the medicine, my dear. I am preparing It with my own hands.' But the

superior physician follows a different method. If he finds the patient

stubbornly refusing to swallow the medicine, he presses the patient's chest

with his knee and forces the medicine down his throat."

DOCTOR: "There is a form of treatment that does not require the physician

to press the patient's chest with his knee. For instance, homeopathy."

MASTER: "There is no fear if a good physician presses the patient's chest

with his knee.

Three classes of teachers

"Like the physicians, there are three classes of religious teachers. The

inferior teacher is content with merely giving spiritual instruction; he

doesn't bother about the student after that. The mediocre teacher explains

the teaching again and again for the good of the student, that he may

assimilate it; he persuades the student through love and kindness to follow

it. But the superior teacher uses force, if necessary, on the stubborn student.

(To the doctor) "The renunciation of 'woman and gold' is meant for the

sannyāsi. He must not look even at the picture of a woman. Do you know

what a woman is to a man?

She is like spiced pickle. The very thought of pickle brings water to the

tongue; it doesn't have to be brought near the tongue.

Advice to householders

"But this renunciation is not meant for householders like you. It is meant

only for sannyāsis. You may live among women, as far as possible in a

spirit of detachment. Now and then you must retire into solitude and think

of God. Women must not be allowed there. You can lead an unattached life

to a great extent if you have faith in God and love for Him. After the birth

of one or two children a married couple should live as brother and sister.

They should then constantly pray to God that their minds may not run after

sense pleasures any more and that they may not have any more children."

GIRISH (to the doctor, with a smile): "You have already spent three or four

hours here.

What about your patients?"

DOCTOR: "Well, my practice and patients! I shall lose everything on

account of your paramahamsa!" (All laugh.)

MASTER: "There is a river called the 'Karmanasa'. It is very dangerous to

dive into that river. If a man plunges into its waters he cannot perform any

more action. It puts an end to his duties." (All laugh.) .

DOCTOR (to Girish, M., and the other devotees): "My friends, consider me

as one of you.

I am not saying this as a physician. But if you think of me as your own, then

I am yours."

MASTER (to the doctor): "There is such a thing as love for love's sake. It is

very good if one can grow such love. Prahlada loved God for the sake of

love. A devotee like Prahlada says: 'O God, I do not want wealth, fame,

creature comforts, or any such thing. Please grant me the boon that I may

have genuine love for Thy Lotus Feet."

DOCTOR: "You are right, sir. I have seen people bowing down before the

image of Kāli They seek worldly objects from the Goddess, such as a job,

the healing of disease, and so forth.

(To the Master) "The illness you are suffering from does not permit the

patient to talk with people. But my case is an exception. You may talk with

me when I am here." (All laugh.)

MASTER; "Please cure my illness. I cannot chant the name and glories of

God."

DOCTOR; "Meditation is enough."

MASTER: "What do you mean? Why should I lead a monotonous life? I

enjoy my fish in a variety of dishes: curried fish, fried fish, pickled fish, and

so forth! Sometimes I worship God with rituals, sometimes I repeat His

name, sometimes I meditate on Him, sometimes I sing His name and

glories, sometime I dance in His name."

DOCTOR: "Neither am I monotonous."

MASTER: "Your son Amrita does not believe in the Incarnation of God.

What is the harm in that? One realizes God even if one believes Him to be

formless. One also realizes God if one believes that God has form.

Faith and self-surrender

Two things are necessary for the realization of God; faith and self-surrender.

Man is ignorant by nature. Errors are natural to him. Can a oneseer pot hold

four seers of milk? Whatever path you may follow, you must pray to God

with a restless heart. He is the Ruler of the soul within. He will surely listen

to your prayer if it is sincere. Whether you follow the ideal of the Personal

God or that of the Impersonal Truth, you will realize God alone, provided

you are restless for Him. A cake with icing tastes sweet whether you eat it

straight or sidewise.

"Your son Amrita is a nice boy."

DOCTOR: "He is your disciple."

MASTER (with a smile): "There is not a fellow under the sun who is my

disciple. On the contrary, I am everybody's disciple. All are the children of

God. All are His servants. I too am a child of God. I too am His servant.

'Uncle Moon' is every child's uncle!"

--------------------

Chapter 46

THE MASTER AND DR. SARKAR

Friday, October 23, 1885

IT WAS THE DAY of the full moon following the Durga Puja, the worship

of the Divine Mother. At ten o'clock in the morning Sri Ramakrishna was

talking to M., who was helping him with his socks.

MASTER (smiling): "Why can't I cut my woolen scarf into two pieces and

wrap them around my legs like socks? They will be nice and warm."

M. Smiled. The previous evening Sri Ramakrishna had had a long

conversation with Dr.

Sarkar. Referring to it, the Master said laughingly, "I told him the story of

the calf, and about egotism being the cause of all suffering."

The younger Naren reminded Sri Ramakrishna that he, the Master, had told

the doctor about people's suffering from the threefold misery of the world

and still bragging of their well-being. The disciple said, "That was very nice

thing you said yesterday about the thorn, and also about burning it in the

fire of Knowledge."

Master's visions

MASTER: "I had direct visions of those things. One day, I was passing

back of the Kuthi when my whole body burst into flames, as it were, like

the fire in a homa. Padmalochan once said to me, 'I shall convene an

assembly of pundits and proclaim your spiritual experiences before all.' But

he died shortly after."

The doctor and M.

At eleven o'clock M. went to Dr. Sarkar's house to report Sri Ramakrishna's

condition.

The doctor showed great eagerness to hear about him.

DOCTOR (laughing): "How well I told him yesterday that in order to be

able to say 'Tuhu! Tuhu!', 'Thou! Thou!', one must fall into the hands of an

expert carder!"

M: "It is true, sir. One cannot get rid of egotism without the help of a

capable teacher.

How well he spoke last night of bhakti! Bhakti, like a woman, can go into

the inner court."

DOCTOR: "Yes, that is very nice. But still one cannot give up Jnāna."

M: "But he does not say that. He accepts both knowledge and love, the

Impersonal Truth and the Personal God. He says that through the cooling

influence of bhakti a part of the Reality takes the solid form of the Personal

God; and with the rise of the sun of Jnāna, the ice of form melts again into

the formless water of the Absolute. In other words, you realize God with

form through bhaktiyoga, and the formless Absolute through Jnāna yoga.

"You must have noticed that he sees God so near him that he always

converses with Him. When suffering from illness, he says to God, like a

small child, 'Oh, Mother, it is hurting me!'

Influence of holy company

"How wonderful his power of observation is! He saw a fossil in the

museum. At once he gave it as an example of the effect of companionship

with holy persons. Just as an object is turned into stone by remaining near

stone, so does a man become holy by living with a holy man."

DOCTOR: "Yesterday Ishan Babu talked of the Incarnation of God. What is

that? To call man God!"

M: "Everyone has his own faith. What is the use of interfering with it?"

DOCTOR: "Yes, what is the use?"

M: "How the Master made us laugh when he told us about a certain man

who refused to believe that a house had collapsed, because it was not

published in the news paper!"

Doctor Sarkar remained silent. Sri Ramakrishna had said to him, "Your

'science' does not speak of God's Incarnation; therefore you say that God

cannot incarnate Himself as man."

It was midday. Doctor Sarkar took M. with him in his carriage. He was

going to visit Sri Ramakrishna after seeing his other patients.

A few days before, at Girish's invitation, Doctor Sarkar had seen his play

about Buddha's life. He said to M.: "It would have been better to speak of

Buddha as the Incarnation of Compassion. Why did he speak of him as an

Incarnation of Vishnu?"

The doctor set M. down at the corner of Cornwallis Square.

It was three o'clock in the afternoon. One or two devotees were seated near

Sri Ramakrishna. He became impatient, like a child. Repeatedly he asked

the devotees, "When is the doctor coming?" "What time is it now?" Doctor

Sarkar was expected in the evening.

Suddenly Sri Ramakrishna was overwhelmed with a strange mood. He

placed his pillow on his lap. Filled with maternal love, he began to caress it

and hold it to his breast as if it were his child. He was in an ecstatic mood.

His face was lighted with a childlike smile. He put on his cloth in a strange

manner. The devotees looked at him in amazement.

A little later Sri Ramakrishna was in his normal mood. It was time for his

meal. He ate a little boiled farina.

He was talking to M. about his mystic experiences.

Master's mystic experiences

MASTER (to M., aside): "Do you know what I saw just now in my ecstatic

state? There was a meadow covering an area of seven or eight miles,

through which lay the road to Sihore. I was alone in that meadow. I saw a

sixteen year-old paramahamsa boy exactly like the one I had seen in the

Panchavati.

"A mist of bliss lay all around. Out of it emerged a boy thirteen or fourteen

years old. I saw his face. He looked like Purna. Both of us were naked.

Then we began to run around joyfully in the meadow. Purna felt thirsty. He

drank some water from a tumbler and offered me what was left. I said to

him, 'Brother, I cannot take your leavings.'

Thereupon he laughed, washed the glass, and brought me fresh water."

Sri Ramakrishna was again in samādhi. He regained consciousness and

began to talk to M.

MASTER: "My mind is undergoing a change. I cannot take prasad any

more. The Real and the Appearance are becoming one to me. Do you know

what I saw just now? A divine form-a vision of the Divine Mother. She had

a child in Her womb. She gave birth to it and the next instant began to

swallow it; and as much of it as went into Her mouth became void. It was

revealed to me that everything is void. The Divine Mother said to me, as it

were: 'Come confusion! Come delusion! Come!'

This reminded M. of Sri Ramakrishna's saying that the magician alone is

real and all else unreal.

MASTER: "Well, how is it that the other time I tried to attract Purna but

failed? This weakens my faith a little."

M: "But to attract a person is to work a miracle."

MASTER: "Yes, a downright miracle."

About miracles

M: "You remember, one day we were returning to Dakshineswar in a

carriage from Adhar's house, when a bottle broke. One of us said to you:

'Does this mean that any harm will befall us? What do you think?' You said:

'what do I care? Why should I bother about it? That would be miracle

working.'"

MASTER: "Yes, people lay ailing children down on the ground where men

chant the name of God, in order that they may be cured; or people cure

disease through occult powers.

All this is miracle-working. Only those whose spiritual experience is

extremely shallow call on God for the healing of disease."

It was evening. Sri Ramakrishna was seated on his bed, thinking of the

Divine Mother and repeating Her hallowed name. The devotees sat near

him in silence. Lātu, Śaśi, Sarat, the younger Naren, Paltu, Bhupati, Girish,

and others were present. Ramtaran of the Star Theatre had come with Girish

to entertain Sri Ramakrishna with his singing. A few minutes later Dr.

Sarkar arrived.

DOCTOR (to the Master): "I was much worried about you last night at

three o'clock. It was raining. I said to myself, 'Who knows whether or not

the doors and windows of his room are shut?' "

"Really?" said Sri Ramakrishna. He was much pleased at the doctor's love

and thoughtfulness for him.

Soul is different from body

MASTER: "As long as there is the body, one should take care of it. But I

find that the body is quite separate from the Self. When a man rids himself

entirely of his love for 'woman and gold', then he clearly perceives that the

body is one thing and the Self another. When the milk inside the coconut is

all dried up, then the kernel becomes separated from the shell; you feel the

kernel rattling inside when you shake the coconut.

Or it is just like a sword and its sheath. The sword is one thing and the

sheath is another.

"Therefore I cannot speak much to the Divine Mother about the illness of

the body."

GIRISH (to the devotees): "Pundit Shashadhar said to him [meaning the

Master]: 'Please bring your mind to bear on the body during samādhi. That

will cure your illness.' And he, the Master, saw in a vision that the body was

nothing but a loose mass of flesh and bones."

MASTER: "Once, a long time ago, I was very ill. I was sitting in the Kāli

temple. I felt like praying to the Divine Mother to cure my illness, but

couldn't do so directly in my own name. I said to Her, 'Mother, Hriday asks

me to tell You about my illness.' I could not proceed any farther. At once

there flashed into my mind the Museum of the Asiatic Society, and a human

skeleton strung together with wire. I said to Her, 'Please tighten the wire of

my body like that, so that I may go about singing Your name and glories.' It

is impossible for me to ask for occult powers.

"At first Hriday asked me-I was then under his control-to pray to the

Mother for powers.

I went to the temple. In a vision I saw a widow thirty or thirty-five years

old, covered with filth. It was revealed to me that occult powers are like that

filth. I became angry with Hriday because he had asked me to pray for

powers."

Ramtaran began to sing:

Behold my vina, my dearly beloved,

My lute of sweetest tone;

If tenderly you play on it,

The strings will waken, at your touch,

To rarest melodies.

Tune it neither low nor high,

And from it in a hundred streams The sweetest sound will flow;

But over-slack the strings are mute,

And over-stretched they snap in twain.

DOCTOR (to Girish): "Is it an original song?"

GIRISH: "No, it is an adaptation from Edwin Arnold."

Ramtaran sang from the play, The Life of Buddha:

We moan for rest, alas! but rest can never find; We know not whence we

come, nor where we float away.

Time and again we tread this round of smiles and tears; In vain we pine to

know whither our pathway leads, And why we play this empty play.

We sleep, although awake, as if by a spell bewitched; Will darkness never

break into the light of dawn?

As restless as the wind, life moves unceasingly: We know not who we are,

nor whence it is we come; We know not why we come, nor where it is we

drift; Sharp woes dart forth on every side.

How many drift about, now gay, now drowned in tears!

One moment they exist; the next they are no more.

We know not why we come, nor what our deeds have been, Nor, in our

bygone lives, how well we played our parts; Like water in a stream, we

cannot stay at rest; Onward we flow for evermore.

Burst Thou our slumber's bars, O Thou that art awake!

How long must we remain enmeshed in fruitless dreams?

Are you indeed awake? Then do not longer sleep!

Thick on you lies the gloom fraught with a million woes.

Raise, dreamer, from your dream, and slumber not again!

Shine forth, O Shining One, and with Thy shafts of light Slay Thou the

blinding dark! Our only Saviour Thou!

We seek deliverance at Thy feet.

As Sri Ramakrishna listened to the song, he went into samādhi.

Ramtaran sang again:

Blow, storm! Rage and roar! . . .

When the song was over, Sri Ramakrishna said to the singer: "What is this?

Why this decoction of bitter neem-leaves after the rice pudding? The

moment you sang, Shine forth, O Shining One, and with Thy shafts of light;

Slay Thou the blinding dark!, I had a vision of the Sun. As He arose, the

darkness vanished, and all men took refuge at His feet."

Ramtaran sang again:

O Mother, Saviour of the helpless, Thou the Slayer of sin!

In Thee do the three Gunās dwell-sattva, rajas, and tamas.

Thou dost create the world: Thou dost sustain it and destroy it; Binding

Thyself with attributes, Thou yet transcendest them; For Thou, O Mother,

art the All.

Kāli Thou art, and Tara, and Thou the Ultimate Prakriti; Thou art the Fish,

the Turtle, the Boar, and all other Avatars Earth, water, air, and fire art

Thou, and Thou the sky, O Mother of the Absolute!

The Samkhya, Patanjala, Mimamsaka, and Nyaya

For ever seek to fathom Thee and know Thine inmost nature; Vedānta and

Vaiseshika are searching after Thee; But none of them has found Thee out.

Though free of limitations, beginningless and without end, Yet for Thy

loving bhaktas' sake Thou wearest varying forms.

The terrors of this world Thou dost remove, and Thou dost dwell

Alike in present, past, and future.

Thou dost appear with form, to him who loves Thee as a Person;

Thou art the Absolute, to him who worships formless Truth.

Some there are who speak alone of the resplendent Brahman; Even this, O

Blissful Mother, is nothing else but Thee!

Each man, according to his measure, makes his image of the Truth,

Calling it the Highest Brahman.

Beyond this does Turiya shine, the Indescribable: O Mother of all things,

who dost pervade the universe, Everyone of these art Thou!

Then he sang:

Dear friend, my religion and piety have come to an end: No more can I

worship Mother Syama; my mind defies control.

Oh, shame upon me! Bitter shame!

I try to meditate on the Mother with sword in hand, Wearing Her garland of

human heads;

But it is always the Dark One, wearing His garland of wild wood - flowers

And holding the flute to His tempting lips,

That shines before my eyes.

I think of the Mother with Her three eyes, but alas! I see Him alone with the

arching eyes, and I forget all else!

Oh, shame upon me! Bitter shame!

I try to offer fragrant flowers at the Mother's feet, But the ravishing thought

of His graceful form unsettles my helpless mind,

And all my meditations meant for the Naked One are drawn away

By the sight of His yellow scarf.

Sri Ramakrishna was in an ecstatic mood, as he listened to the song. The

musician sang again:

O Mother, who has offered these red hibiscus flowers at Thy feet?

I beg of Thee, O Mother, place one or two upon my head.

Then I shall cry aloud to Thee, "Oh, Mother! Mother!"

And I shall dance around Thee and clap my hands for joy, And Thou wilt

look at me and laugh, and tie the flowers in my hair.

The singing was over. Many of the devotees were in a rapturous mood.

There was a deep silence in the room.

Guilelessness of the young devotees

The younger Naren was absorbed in meditation. He sat like a stump.

Pointing him out to the doctor, Sri Ramakrishna said, "A very pure soul,

unstained by the slightest touch of worldliness.

MANOMOHAN (to the doctor): "He (pointing to the Master) says of your

son, 'I don't care for the father if I have the son.' "

DOCTOR: "Ah, you see! That is why I say that you forget everything else

when you have the 'Son'."

MASTER (smiling): "I don't say that I do not want the Father."

DOCTOR: "Yes, I understand you. How can you save your face unless you

say a few things like that?"

MASTER: "Your boy is quite guileless. One day Sambhu's face became red

as he said, 'God will surely listen to a man's prayer if he prays to Him with

sincerity.'

"Why am so fond of the boys? They are like unadulterated milk: only a

little boiling is needed. Moreover It can be offered to the Deity. But milk

adulterated with water needs much boiling. It consumes a large quantity of

fuel.

"The boys are like fresh earthen pots, good vessels in which one can keep

milk without any worry. Spiritual instruction arouses their inner

consciousness without delay. But it is not so with the worldly-minded. One

is afraid to keep milk in a pot that has been used for curd. The milk may

turn sour.

"Your boy is still free from worldliness, untouched by 'woman and gold'."

DOCTOR: "That is because he is living on his father's earnings. I should

love to see how free he would keep himself from worldliness if he had to

earn his own livelihood."

MASTER: "Yes, yes. That is true. But God is far, far away from the

worldly-minded. For those who have renounced the world He is in the palm

of the hand.

(To Dr. Sarkar and Dr. Dukari) "But renunciation of 'woman and gold' is not

meant for you. You may renounce these mentally. That is why I said to the

goswamis: 'Why do you speak of renunciation?' That will not do for you.

You have to attend the daily worship of Syamasundar.'

Hard rules for sannyāsis

"Total renunciation is for sannyāsis. They must not look even at the picture

of a woman.

To them a woman is poison. They must keep themselves at least ten cubits

away from her; and if that is not possible, at least one cubit. And they must

not talk much with a woman, no matter how devout she may be. Further,

they should choose their dwelling at a place where they will never, or

scarcely ever, see the face of a woman.

"Money, too, is like poison to a sannyāsi. If he keeps money with him, he

has worries, pride, anger, and the desire for physical comforts. Money

inflames his rajas, which brings tamas in its train. Therefore a sannyāsi

must not touch 'gold'. 'Woman and gold'

makes him forget God.

"For householders money is a means of getting food, clothes, and a

dwelling place, worshipping the Deity, and serving holy men and devotees.

"It is useless to try to hoard money. With great labour the bees build a hive;

but a man breaks it and takes the honey away."

DOCTOR: "Whom shall we hoard for?- For a wicked son, perhaps."

MASTER: "It is not a wicked son alone. Perhaps the wife is unchaste. She

may have a secret lover. Perhaps she will give him your watch and chain!

"You should not renounce woman, completly. It is not harmful for a

householder to live with his wife. But after the birth of one or two children,

husband and wife should live as brother and sister.

"Woman and gold"

"It is attachment to 'woman and gold' that begets pride of learning, pride of

money, and pride of social position.

"One cannot attain divine knowledge till one gets rid of pride. Water does

not stay on the top of a mound; but into low land it flows in torrents from

all sides."

DOCTOR: "But the water that flows into the low land from all sides

contains good water and bad water, muddy water and ditch-water. Again,

there are hollows on mountain-tops as well, as at Nainital and Manasoravar.

These contain only Pure water from the sky."

MASTER; "Only pure water from the sky-that is good!"

DOCTOR: "Further, from an elevated place the water can be distributed on

all sides."

MASTER (smiling): "A certain man came to possess a siddha mantra. He

then went to the top of a hill and cried aloud. 'Repeat this mantra and you

will realize God.'"

DOCTOR: "Yes."

MASTER: "But you must remember one thing. When his soul feels restless

for God, a man forgets the difference between good water and ditch-water.

In order to know God, he sometimes goes to good men, sometimes to

imperfect men. Dirty water cannot injure an aspirant if God's grace

descends on him. When God grants him Knowledge, He reveals to the

aspirant what is good and what is bad.

"There may be hollows on the top of a hill, but they cannot exist on the hill

of the 'wicked ego'. Only if it is an 'ego of Knowledge' or an 'ego of bhakti',

does the pure water from the sky collect there.

"It is true that the water from a hill-top may flow in all directions, but that is

possible only from the hill of the 'ego of Knowledge'.

Preaching without God's command

"One cannot teach men without the command of God. After attaining

Knowledge, Sankaracharya retained the 'ego of Knowledge' in order to

teach mankind. But to lecture without realizing God! What good will that

do?

"I went to the Nandanbagan Brahmo Samaj. After the worship the preacher

gave a lecture from the raised platform. He had written it at home. As he

read from the manuscript he looked around. While meditating he opened his

eyes from time to time to look at people.

Confusion of mere scholars

"The instruction of a man who has not seen God does not produce the right

effect. He may say one thing rightly, but he becomes confused about the

next.

"Samadhyayi delivered a lecture. He said: 'God is beyond words and mind;

He is dry.

Worship Him through the bliss of your love and devotion.' Just see, he thus

described God, whose very nature is Joy and Bliss! What will such a lecture

accomplish? Can it teach people anything? Such a lecturer is like the man

who said, 'my uncle's cowshed is full of horses.' Horses in the cowshed!

(All laugh.) From that you can understand that there were no horses at all."

DOCTOR (smiling): "Nor cows either!" (All laugh.) In the mean time the

devotees who had been in a rapturous state had regained their normal mood.

The doctor was highly pleased with them and asked M. about them. M.

introduced to him Paltu, the younger Naren, Bhupati, Sarat, Śaśi, and the

other youngsters. About Śaśi, M. said, "He is going to appear for the B.A.

examination."

The doctor was a little inattentive.

MASTER (to the doctor): "Look here! Listen to what he is saying."

The doctor heard from M. about Śaśi.

MASTER (to the doctor, pointing to M.): "He instructs the school-boys."

DOCTOR: "So I have heard."

MASTER: "I am unlettered and yet educated people come here. How

amazing! You must admit that it is the play of God."

It was nine o'clock in the evening. The doctor had been sitting there since

six o'clock, watching all these things.

GIRISH (to the doctor): "Well, sir, does it ever happen to you that, though

you do not intend to come here, you are drawn as if by a subtle force? I feel

that way; that is why I am asking you."

DOCTOR: "I don't know whether I feel that. But the heart alone knows the

promptings of the heart. (To Sri Ramakrishna) Besides, there isn't much use

in speaking about it."

October 24, 1885

It was about one o'clock in the afternoon. Sri Ramakrishna was seated on

the second floor of the house at Syampukur. Dr. Sarkar, Narendra,

Mahimacharan, M., and other devotees were in the room. Referring to the

homeopathic system of medicine, the Master said to Dr. Sarkar, "This

treatment of yours is very good."

DOCTOR: "According to homeopathy the physician has to check up the

symptoms of the disease with the medical book. It is like Western music.

The singer follows the score.

"Where is Girish Ghosh? Never mind. Don't trouble him. He didn't sleep

last night."

Dr. Sarkar explains samādhi

MASTER: "Well, when I am in samādhi I feel intoxicated as if I were drunk

with siddhi.

What have you to say about that?"

DOCTOR (to M.): "In that state the nerve centres cease to function. Hence

the limbs become numb. Again, the legs totter because all the energy rushes

toward the brain.

Life consists of the nervous system. There is a nerve centre in the nape of

the neck called the medulla oblongata. If that is injured, one may die."

Mahima Chakravarty began to describe the Kundalini. He said: "The

Sushumna nerve runs through the spinal cord in a subtle form. None can see

it. That is what Śiva says."

DOCTOR: "Śiva examined man only in his maturity. But the Europeans

have examined man in all stages of his life from the embryo to maturity. It

is good to know comparative history. From the history of the Sonthals one

learns that Kāli was a Santhāl woman. She was a valiant fighter. (All

laugh.)

"Don't laugh, please. Let me tell you how greatly the study of comparative

anatomy has benefited men. The difference between the actions of the

pancreatic juice and bile was at first unknown. But later Claude Bernard

examined the stomach, liver, and other paits of the rabbit and demonstrated

that the action of bile is different from the action of the pancreatic juice.

Therefore It stands to reason that we should watch the lower animals as

well. The study of man alone is not enough.

"Similarly, the study of comparative religion is highly beneficial.

"Why do his [meaning the Master's] words go straight to our hearts? He has

experienced the truths of different religions. He himself has practised the

disciplines of the Hindu, Christian, Musslman, Sakta, and Vaishnava

religions. The bees can make good honey only if they gather nectar from

different flowers."

M. (to Dr. Sarkar): "He (pointing to Mahimacharan) has studied science a

great deal"

DOCTOR (smiling): "What science? Do you mean Max Muller's Science of

Religion?"

MAHIMA (to the Master): "You are ill. But what can the doctor do about

it? When I heard of your illness, I thought that you were only going to

pamper the doctor's pride."

MASTER (pointing to Dr. Sarkar): "But he is a very good physician. He is

very learned too."

MAHIMA: "Yes, sir. He is a ship and we are only small boats."

Dr. Sarkar folded his hands in humility.

MAHIMIA: "But here in the Master's presence all are equal"

Narendra's music

Sri Ramakrishna asked Narendra to sing. Narendra sang:

I have made Thee, O Lord, the Pole-star of my life; No more shall I lose my

way on the world's trackless sea. . . .

Then he sang:

Ever insane with pride am I, and many the cravings of my heart! . . .

He sang again:

This universe, wondrous and infinite,

O Lord, is Thy handiwork;

And the whole world is a treasure house

Full of Thy beauty and grace.

Narendra continued:

O Father of the Universe, upon Thy lofty throne, Thou dost enjoy the music

of the worlds,

As Thy creation's praise they sweetly sing.

Behold, I too, though born of earth, have come with feeble voice

Before the portal of Thy House.

I seek alone Thy vision, Lord! I crave no other boon.

Here I have come to sing my song for Thee;

From a far comer of the mighty throng

Where sun and moon are hymning Thee, I too would sing Thy praise:

This is Thy lowly servant's prayer.

He sang another song:

O King of Kings, reveal Thyself to me!

I crave Thy mercy. Cast on me Thy glance!

At Thy dear feet I dedicate my life,

Seared in the fiery furnace of this world.

My heart, alas, is deeply stained with sin;

Ensnared in māyā, I am all but dead.

Compassionate Lord! Revive my fainting soul

With the life-giving nectar of Thy grace.

Again:

Be drunk, O mind, be drunk with the Wine of Heavenly Bliss!

Roll on the ground and weep, chanting Hari's sweet name! . . .

MASTER: "And sing that one- 'All that exists art Thou.'

DOCTOR: "Ah!"

Narendra sang:

I have joined my heart to Thee: all that exists art Thou; Thee only have I

found, for Thou art all that exists. .. . .

The singing was over. Dr. Sarkar sat there almost spellbound. After a time,

with folded hands, he said very humbly to Sri Ramakrishna: "Allow me to

take my leave now. I shall come again tomorrow."

MASTER: "Oh, stay a little. Girish Ghosh has been sent for. (Pointing to

Mahima) He is a scholar, yet he dances in the name of Hari. He has no

pride. He went to Konnagar just because we were there. He is wealthy; he is

free; he serves nobody. (Pointing to Narendra) What do you think of him?"

DOCTOR: "Excellent!"

MASTER (pointing to a devotee): "And him?"

DOCTOR: "Splendid!"

MAHlMA: "It can by no means be said that one knows philosophy unless

one has read Hindu philosophy. The European philosophers do not know

the twenty-four cosmic principles of the Samkhya philosophy. They cannot

even grasp them."

Mahima's three paths

MASTER (smiling): "What are the three paths you speak of?"

MAHIMA: "The path of Sat, which is the path of knowledge. Next, the path

of Chit, of yoga, of karma yoga, which includes the duties and functions of

the four stages of life.

Last, the path of Ānanda, the path of devotion and ecstatic love. You are an

adept in all three paths; you can speak of them all with authority."

Sri Ramakrishna laughed.

Dr. Sarkar took his leave. It was evening, the first night after the full moon.

Sri Ramakrishna stood up, lost in samādhi. Nityagopal stood beside him in

a reverent attitude.

Sri Ramakrishna took his seat. Nityagopal was stroking his feet. Devendra,

Kalipada, and many other devotees were seated by his side.

MASTER (to the devotees): "My mind tells me that Nityagopal's present

state will undergo a change. His entire mind will be concentrated on me-on

Him who dwells in me.

Don't you see how Narendra's whole mind is being drawn toward me?"

Many of the devotees were taking their leave. Sri Ramakrishna stood up.

On japa

Referring to japa, he said to a devotee: "Japa means silently repeating God's

name in solitude. When you chant His name with single-minded devotion

you can see God's form and realize Him. Suppose there is a piece of timber

sunk in the water of the Ganges and fastened with a chain to the bank. You

proceed link by link, holding to the chain, and you dive into the water and

follow the chain. Finally you are able to reach the timber. In the same way,

by repeating God's name you become absorbed in Him and finally realize

Him."

KALIPADA (smiling, to the devotees): "Ours is a grand teacher! We are not

asked to practise meditation, austerity, and other disciplines."

Suddenly Sri Ramakrishna said, "This is troubling me." The Master's throat

was hurting him. Devendra said, "Your words cannot fool us any more." He

thought that the Master feigned illness to hoodwink the devotees.

Most of the devotees departed. It was arranged that a few of the younger

men should stay to nurse the Master by turns. M. also was going to spend

the night there.

Sunday, October 25,1885

It was about half past six in the morning when M. arrived at Syampukur and

asked Sri Ramakrishna about his health. He was on his way to Dr. Sarkar to

report the Master's condition. The Master said to M: 'Tell the doctor that

during the early hours of the morning my mouth becomes filled with water

and I cough. Also ask him if I may take a bath."

After seven o'clock M. came to Dr. Sarkar's house and told him about the

Master's condition. The physician's old teacher and one or two friends were

in the room. Dr.

Sarkar said to his teacher, "Sir, I have been thinking of the Paramahamsa

since three in the morning. I couldn't sleep at all. Even now he is in my

mind."

One of the doctor's friends said to him: "Sir, I hear that some speak of the

Paramahamsa as an Incarnation of God. You see him every day. How do

you feel about it?"

DOCTOR: "I have the greatest regard for him as a man."

M. (to the doctor's friend): "It is very kind of Dr. Sarkar to treat him."

DOCTOR. "Kindness? What do you mean?"

M: "Not toward him, but toward us."

DOCTOR: "You see, you don't know my actual loss on account of the

Paramahamsa, Every day I fail to see two or three patients. When the next

day I go to their houses, of my own accord, I cannot accept any fee since I

am seeing them without being called.

How can I charge them for my visit?"

Dr. Sarkar on Mahima

The conversation turned to Mahima Chakravarty. He had been with the

Master when Dr.

Sarkar had visited him the previous Saturday. Pointing to the doctor,

Mahima had said to Sri Ramakrishna, "Sir, you yourself have created this

disease in order to pamper the doctor's pride."

M. (to the doctor): "Mahima Chakravarty used to come to your place to

attend your lectures on medical science."

DOCTOR: "Is that so? How full of tamas he is! Didn't you notice it? I

saluted him as 'God's Lower Third'. There exist in God sattva, rajas, and

tamas. Tamas is the third and an inferior quality. Didn't you hear him say to

the Paramahamsa, 'You yourself have created this disease in order to

pamper the doctor's pride'?"

M: "Mahima Chakravarty believes that the Paramahamsa can cure his

disease himself, if he wants to."

DOCTOR: "What? Cure that disease himself? Is that possible? We are

physicians; we know what cancer is. We ourselves cannot cure it. And he to

cure himself! Why, he doesn't know anything about cancer. (To his

friends)The illness is no doubt incurable, but these gentlemen have been

nursing him with sincere devotion."

M. requested the doctor to visit Sri Ramakrishna and returned home.

In the afternoon, about three o'clock, M. came to the Master and repeated

the conversation he had had with Dr. Sarkar. He said to Sri Ramakrishna,

"Today the doctor embarrassed me."

MASTER: "What happened?"

M: "Yesterday he heard here that you yourself had created this illness in

order to pamper the doctor's pride."

MASTER: "Who made that remark?"

M: "Mahima Chakravarty."

MASTER: "What did the doctor say to you?'

M: "He described Mahima Chakravarty as 'God's Lower Third'. Now he

admits that all the qualities-sattva, rajas, and tamas-exist in God. (The

Master laughs.) Then he told me that he had waked at three in the morning

and had been thinking of you ever since.

When I saw him it was eight o'clock. He said to me, 'Even now the

Paramahamsa is in my mind.' "

MASTER (laughing): "You see, he has studied English. I cannot ask him to

meditate on me; but he is doing it all the same, of his own accord."

M: "He also said about you, 'I have the greatest regard for him as a man.'

MASTER: "Did you talk of anything else?"

M: "I asked him, 'What is your suggestion today about the patient?' He said:

'Suggestion? Hang it! I shall have to go to him again myself. What else

shall I suggest?'

(Sri Ramakrishna laughs.) Further he said: 'You don't know how much

money I am losing every day. Every day I miss two or three calls.' "

Vijay Goswami

There were many devotees, including Narendranath, in the room;

Vijaykrishna Goswami arrived and respectfully took the dust of the Master's

feet. Several Brahmo devotees came with him. Vijay had cut off his

connection with the Brahmo Samaj and was practising spiritual discipline

independently. Sri Ramakrishna was very fond of him on account of his

piety and devotion. Though not a disciple of the Master, Vijay held him in

very high respect. He had lived in Dāccā a long time. Recently he had

visited many sacred places in upper India.

MAHIMA CHAKRAVARTY (to Vijay): "Sir, you have visited many holy

places and new countries. Please tell us some of your experiences."

VIJAY: "What shall I say? I realize that everything is here where we are

sitting now. This roaming about is useless. At other places I have seen two,

five, ten, or twenty-five per cent of him [meaning the Master], at the most.

Here alone I find the full one hundred per cent manifestation of God."

MAHIMA: "You are right, sir. Again, It is he [the Master] who makes us,

roam about or remain in one place."

MASTER (to Narendra): "See what a change has come over Vijay's mind.

He is an altogether different person. He is like thick milk from which all the

water has been boiled off. You see, I can recognize a paramahamsa by his

neck and forehead. Yes, I can recognize a paramahamsa."

MAHIMA (to Vijay): "Sir, you seem to eat less now. Isn't that so?"

VIJAY: "Perhaps you are right. (To the Master) I heard about your illness

and have come to see you. Again, in Dāccā-"

MASTER: "What about Dāccā?"

Vijay did not reply and was silent a few moments.

VIJAY; "It is difficult to understand him [meaning the Master] unless he

reveals himself.

Here alone is the one hundred per cent manifestation of God."

MASTER: "Kedār said the other day, at other places we don't get anything

to eat, but here we get a stomachful!'"

MAHIMA: "Why a stomachful? It overflows the stomach."

Master in ecstasy

VIJAY (to the Master, with folded hands): "I have now realized who you

are. You don't have to tell me."

MASTER (in a state of ecstasy): "If so, then so be it!"

Saying, "Yes, I have understood", Vijay fell prostrate before the Master. He

held the Master's feet on his chest and clung to them. The Master was in

deep samādhi, motionless as a picture. The devotees were overwhelmed by

this sight. Some burst into tears and some chanted sacred hymns. All eyes

were riveted on Sri Ramakrishna. They viewed him in different ways,

according to their spiritual unfoldment: some as a great devotee, some as a

holy man, and some as God Incarnate.

Mahimacharan sang, with tears in his eyes:

"Behold, behold the embodiment of Love Divine!"

Now and then he chanted, as if enjoying a glimpse of Brahman: The

Transcendental, beyond the One and the many, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss

Absolute.

NavaGopal was weeping. Bhupati sang:

Hallowed be Brahman, the Absolute, the Infinite, the Fathomless!

Higher than the highest, deeper than the deepest depths!

Thou art the Light of Truth, the Fount of Love, the Home of Bliss!

This universe with all its manifold and blessed modes Is but the enchanting

poem of Thine inexhaustible thought; Its beauty overflows on every side.

O Thou Poet, great and primal, in the rhythm of Thy thought The sun and

moon arise and move toward their setting; The stars, shining like bits of

gems, are the fair characters In which Thy song is written across the blue

expanse of sky; The year, with its six seasons, in tune with the happy earth,

Proclaims Thy glory to the end of time.

The colours of the flowers reveal Thy sovereign Beauty, The waters in their

stillness, Thy deep Serenity; The thunder-clap unveils to us the terror of Thy

Law.

Deep is Thine Essence, truly; how can a foolish mind perceive it?

Wondering, It meditates on Thee from yuga to yuga's end Millions upon

millions of suns and moons and stars Bow down to Thee, O Lord, in

rapturous awe!

Beholding Thy creation, men and women weep for joy; The gods and angels

worship Thee, O All-pervading Presence!

O Thou, the Fount of Goodness, bestow on us Thy Knowledge; Bestow on

us devotion, bestow pure love and perfect peace; And grant us shelter at

Thy hallowed feet!

Bhupati sang again:

Upon the Sea of Blissful Awareness waves of ecstatic love arise:

Rapture divine! Play of God's Bliss!

Oh, how enthralling! . . .

He sang a third song:

Here vanish my fear and my delusion, my piety, rituals, and good works;

Here vanish my pride of race and caste! Where am I? Where art Thou, O

Hari?

Thou hast stolen my life and soul, and now, O Friend, Thou dost desert me:

Ah, what a fool I was to come here to the shore of this Sea of Love!

Full to the brim with heavenly bliss is filled this little soul of mine;

Premdas says: Hearken, one and all! This in truth is the way of God!

After a long time Sri Ramakrishna regained consciousness of the world.

MASTER (to M.): "Something happens to me in that state of intoxication.

Now I feel ashamed of myself. In that state I feel as if I were possessed by a

ghost. I cease to be my own self. While coming down from that state I

cannot count correctly. Trying to count, I say, 'One, seven, eight', or some

such thing."

NARENDRA: "It is because everything is one."

MASTER: "No, It is beyond one and two."

MAHIMA: "Yes, you are right. 'It is neither one nor two.'"

MASTER: "There reason withers away. God cannot be realized through

scholarship. He is beyond the scriptures-the Vedas, Puranas, and Tantras. If

I see a man with even one book in his hand, I call him a rajarshi though he

is a Jnāni. But the brahmarshi has no outer sign whatsoever.

Use of scriptures

"Do you know the use of the scriptures? A man once wrote a letter to a

relative, asking him to send five seers of sweetmeats and a piece of cloth.

The relative received the letter, read it, and remembered about the

sweetmeats and the cloth. Then, he threw the letter away. Of what further

use was it?"

VIJAY: "I see that the sweetmeat has been sent."

God's Incarnation as man

MASTER: "God incarnates Himself on earth in a human body. He is, no

doubt, present everywhere and in all beings, but man's longing is not

satisfied unless he sees God in a human form. Man's need is not satisfied

without the Divine Incarnation. Do you know what it is like? By touching

any part of a cow you undoubtedly touch the cow herself.

Even by touching her horns you touch the cow. But the milk comes through

the cow's udder."

MAHIMA: "If a man wants milk he must put his mouth to the udder. What

will he get by sucking the horns?" (All laugh.)

VIJAY: "But a calf at first licks other parts of the cow."

MASTER (smiling): "True. But seeing the calf doing so, someone perhaps

puts its mouth to the udder." (All laugh.)

The conversation was thus going on, when Dr. Sarkar came into the room

and took a seat. He said to the Master: "I woke up at three this morning,

greatly worried that you might catch cold. Oh, I thought many other things

about you."

MASTER: "I have been coughing and my throat is sore. In the small hours

of the morning my mouth was filled with water. My whole body is aching."

DOCTOR: "Yes, I heard all about it this morning."

Mahimacharan told of his trip to various parts of the country and said that

in Ceylon no man laughed. Dr. Sarkar said, "It may be so; but I shall have

to inquire about it." (All laugh.)

The conversation turned to the duties of life.

The duty of a physician

MASTER (to the doctor): "Many think that the duty of a physician is a very

noble one.

The physician is undoubtedly a noble man if he treats his patients free, out

of compassion and moved by their suffering. Then his work may be called

very uplifting.

But a physician becomes cruel and callous if he carries on his profession for

money. It is very mean to do such things as examine urine and stool in order

to earn money, like a business man carrying on his trade."

DOCTOR: "You are right. It is undoubtedly wrong for a physician to

perform his duties in that spirit. But I don't like to brag before you."

MASTER: "But the medical profession is certainly very noble if the

physician devotes himself to the welfare of others in an unselfish spirit.

Cultivating holy company

"Whatever may be a householder's profession, It is necessary for him to live

in the company of holy men now and then. If a man loves God, he will

himself seek the company of holy men. I give the illustration of the hemp-

smoker. One hemp-smoker loves the company of another hemp-smoker. At

the sight of a person who does not smoke, he goes away with downcast eyes

or hides himself in a comer; but his joy is unbounded if he meets a hemp

addict. Perhaps they embrace each other. (All laugh.) Again, a vulture loves

the company of another vulture."

DOCTOR: "It has also been noticed that a vulture runs away for fear of a

crow. In my opinion one should serve all creatures, not men alone. Often I

feed the sparrows with flour. I throw small pellets of flour to them and they

come in swarms. They love to eat them."

MASTER: Bravo! That's grand. Holy men should feed other creatures.

They feed ants with sugar."

DOCTOR: "Will there be no singing today?"

MASTER (to Narendra): "Why don't you sing a little?"

Narendra sings

Narendra sang to the accompaniment of the Tānpura and other instruments:

Sweet is Thy name, O Refuge of the humble!

It falls like sweetest nectar on our ears

And comforts us, Beloved of our souls!

The priceless treasure of Thy name alone

Is the abode of Immortality,

And he who chants Thy name becomes immortal.

Falling upon our ears, Thy holy name

Instantly slays the anguish of our hearts, Thou Soul of our souls, and fills

our hearts with bliss!

Narendra sang again:

O Mother, make me mad with Thy love!

What need have I of knowledge or reason?

Make me drunk with Thy love's Wine;

O Thou who stealest Thy bhaktas' hearts,

Drown me deep in the Sea of Thy love!

Here in this world, this madhouse of Thine,

Some laugh, some weep, some dance for joy:

Jesus, Buddha, Moses, Gaurānga,

All are drunk with the Wine of Thy love

O Mother, when shall I be blessed

By joining their blissful company?

A strange transformation came over the devotees. They all became mad, as

it were, with divine ecstasy. The pundit stood up, forgetting the pride of his

scholarship, and cried:

O Mother, make me mad with Thy love!

What need have I of knowledge or reason?

Vijay was the first on his feet, carried away by divine intoxication. Then Sri

Ramakrishna stood up, forgetting all about his painful and fatal illness. The

doctor, who had been sitting in front of him, also stood up. Both patient and

physician forgot themselves in the spell created by Narendra's music. The

younger Naren and Lātu went into deep samādhi.

The atmosphere of the room became electric. Everyone felt the presence of

God. Dr.

Sarkar, eminent scientist that he was stood breathless, watching this strange

scene. He noticed that the devotees who had gone into samādhi were utterly

unconscious of the outer world. All were motionless and transfixed. After a

while, as they came down a little to the plane of the relative world, some

laughed and some wept. An outsider, entering the room, would have

thought that a number of drunkards were assembled there.

A little later Sri Ramakrishna resumed his conversation, the devotees taking

their seats.

It was about eight o'clock in the evening.

MASTER: "You have just noticed the effect of divine ecstasy. What does

your 'science'

say about that? Do you think it is a mere hoax?"

Doctor suppresses his emotion

DOCTOR (to the Master): "I must say that this is all natural, when so many

people have experienced it. It cannot be a hoax. (To Narendra) When you

sang the lines:

O Mother, make me mad with Thy love!

What need have I of knowledge or reason?

I could hardly control myself. I was about to jump to my feet. With great

difficulty I suppressed my emotion. I said to myself, 'No, I must not display

my feelings.' "

MASTER (with a smile, to the doctor): "You are unshakable and

motionless, like Mount Sumeru. You are a very deep soul. Nobody could

perceive the deep emotion of Rupa and Sanatana. If an elephant enters a

small pool, there is a splashing of water on all sides.

But this does not happen when it plunges into a big lake; hardly anyone

notices it.

Radha once said to her companion: 'Friend, you are weeping so much at our

separation from Sri Krishna. But look at me. How stony my heart is! There

is not a tear in my eyes.'

Brinde, her friend, replied: 'yes, your eyes are dry. But there is a deep

meaning in it. A fire of grief is constantly raging in your heart because of

your separation from Krishna.

No sooner do the tears gather in your eyes than they are dried up in the heat

of that fire.'

DOCTOR: "Nobody can beat you in talk!" (Laughter.) The conversation

turned to other things. Sri Ramakrishna described to the doctor his ecstasies

at Dakshineswar. He also told him how to control anger, lust, and the other

passions.

DOCTOR: "I have heard the story that you were once lying on the ground

unconscious in samādhi when a wicked man kicked you with his boots"

MASTER: "You must have heard it from M. The man was Chandra Haldar,

a priest of the Kāli temple at KaliGhat; he often came to Mathur Babu's

house. One day I was lying on the ground in an ecstatic mood. The room

was dark. Chandra Haldar thought I was feigning that state in order to win

Mathur's favour. He entered the room and kicked me several times with his

boots. It left black marks on my body. Everybody wanted to tell Mathur

Babu about it, but I forbade them."

DOCTOR: "This is also due to the will of God. Thus you have taught

people how to control anger and practise forgiveness."

In the mean time Vijay had become engaged in conversation with the other

devotees.

VIJAY: "I feel as if someone were always moving with me. He shows me

what is happening even at a distance."

NARENDRA: "Like a guardian angel"

VIJAY: "I have seen him [meaning the Master] in Dāccā. I even touched his

body."

MASTER (with a smile): "It must have been someone else."

NARENDRA: "I too have seen him many a time. (To Vijay) How can I say

I do not believe your words?"

--------------------

Chapter 47

THE MASTER'S TRAINING OF HIS DISCIPLES

Monday, October 26, 1885

IT WAS ABOUT TEN O'CLOCK in the morning when M. arrived at the

Syampukur house on his way to Dr. Sarkar to report the Master's condition.

Dr. Sarkar had declared the illness incurable. His words cast gloom over the

minds of the Master's devotees and disciples. With unflagging devotion and

zeal they nursed the patient-their teacher, guide, philosopher, and friend. A

band of young disciples, led by Narendra, was preparing to renounce the

world and dedicate their lives to the realization of God and the service of

humanity. People flocked to the Master day and night. In spite of the

excruciating pain in his throat, he welcomed them all with a cheerful face.

There seemed to be no limit to his solicitude for their welfare. His face

beamed as he talked to them about God. Dr. Sarkar, seeing that conversation

aggravated the illness, forbade him to talk to people. "You must not talk to

others," the physician had said to the Master, "but you may make an

exception in my case." The doctor used to spend six or seven hours in Sri

Ramakrishna's company, drinking in every word that fell from his lips.

MASTER: "I am feeling much relieved. I am very well today. Is It because

of the medicine? Then why shouldn't I continue it?"

M: "I am going to the doctor. I shall tell him everything. He will advise

what is best."

MASTER: "I haven't seen Purna for two or three days. I am worried about

him."

M. (to Kāli): "Why don't you see Purna and ask him to come?"

KĀLI: "I shall go immediately."

MASTER (to M.): "The doctor's son is a nice boy. Please ask him to come."

M. arrived at Dr. Sarkar's house and found him with two or three friends.

DOCTOR (to M.): "I was talking about you just a minute ago. You said you

would come at ten; I have been waiting for you an hour and a half. Your

delay has made me worry about him [meaning Sri Ramakrishna].

(To a friend) "Please sing that song."

The friend sang:

Proclaim the glory of God's name as long as life remains in you;

The dazzling splendour of His radiance floods the universe!

Like nectar streams His boundless love, filling the hearts of men with joy:

The very thought of His compassion sends a thrill through every limb!

How can one fittingly describe Him? Through His abounding grace

The bitter sorrows of this life are all forgotten instantly.

On every side-on land below, in sky above, beneath the seas: In every

region of this earth-men seek Him tirelessly, And as they seek Him, ever

ask: Where is His limit, where His end?

True Wisdom's Dwelling-place is He, the Elixir of Eternal Life, The

Sleepless, Ever-wakeful Eye, the Pure and Stainless One: The vision of His

face removes all trace of sorrow from our hearts.

DOCTOR (to M.): "Isn't it a beautiful song? How do you like that line,

'Where is His limit, where His end?' "

M: "Yes, that's a very fine line. It fills the mind with the idea of the

Infinite."

DOCTOR (tenderly, to M.): "It is already late in the morning. Have you

taken your lunch?

I finish mine before ten and then begin my professional calls; otherwise I

don't feel well.

Look here, I have been thinking of giving a feast to you all [meaning Sri

Ramakrishna's devotees] one day."

M: "That will be fine, sir."

DOCTOR: "Where shall I arrange it? Here or at the Syampukur house?

Whatever you suggest."

M: "It doesn't matter, sir. Wherever you arrange it we shall be very happy to

dine with you."

The conversation turned to Kāli, the Divine Mother.

DOCTOR: "Kāli is an old hag of the Sonthals."

M. burst into loud laughter and said, "Where did you get that?"

DOCTOR: "Oh, I have heard something like that." (M. laughs.) Dr. Sarkar

on ecstasy

They began to talk about the ecstasy that Vijay and the others had

experienced the previous day in the Master's room. The doctor also had

been present on the occasion.

DOCTOR: "Yes, I witnessed that ecstasy. But is excessive ecstasy good for

one?"

M: "The Master says that an excess of ecstasy harms no one, if it is the

result of the contemplation of God. He further says that the lustre of a gem

gives light and soothes the body; It does not burn."

DOCTOR: "Oh, the lustre of a gem! That's only a reflected light."

M: "He also says that a man does not die by sinking in the Lake of

Immortality. God is that Lake. A plunge in that Lake does not injure a man;

on the contrary it makes him immortal. Of course, he will become immortal

only if he has faith in God."

DOCTOR: "Yes, that is true."

The doctor took M. in his carriage. He had to see a few patients on the way

to Syampukur. They continued their conversation in the carriage. Dr. Sarkar

referred to Mahima Chakravarty's pride.

Master's humility & M. and Dr. Sarkar

M: "He visits the Master. Even if he has a little pride, it will not last long. If

one only sits in the Master's presence awhile, one's pride crumbles to

pieces. It is because the Master himself is totally free from egotism. Pride

cannot exist in the presence of humility. A celebrated man like Pundit Iswar

Chandra Vidyāsāgar showed great modesty and humility in the Master's

presence. The Paramahamsa visited his house; it was nine o'clock in the

evening when the Master took his leave. Vidyāsāgar came all the way from

the library to the gate of his compound to see him off. He himself carried

the light to show the way. As the Master's carriage started off, Vidysagar

stood there with folded hands."

DOCTOR: "Well, what does Vidyāsāgar think of him?"

M: "That day he showed the Master great respect. But when I talked with

him later, I found out that he didn't much care for what the Vaishnavas call

emotion or ecstasy. He shares your views on such things."

DOCTOR: "Neither do I care very much for any such display of emotion as

folding one's hands or touching others' feet with one's head. To me the head

is the same as the feet.

But if a man thinks differently of the feet, let him do whatever he likes."

M: "We know that you do not care for a display of feelings. Perhaps you

remember that the Master now and then refers to you as a 'deep soul'. He

said to you yesterday that when an elephant plunges into a small pool it

makes a big splash, but when it goes into a big lake you see hardly a ripple.

The elephant of emotion cannot produce any effect at all in a deep soul. The

Master says that you are a 'deep soul'."

DOCTOR: "I don't deserve the compliment. After all, what is bhava? It is

only a feeling.

There are other aspects of feeling, such as bhakti. When it runs to excess,

some can suppress It and some cannot."

M: "Divine ecstasy may or may not be explainable; but, sir, it cannot be

denied that ecstasy, or love of God, is a unique thing. I have seen in your

library Stebbing's book on Darwinism. According to Stebbing the human

mind is wonderful, whether it be the result of evolution or of special

creation. He gives a beautiful illustration from the theory of light. Light is

wonderful, whether you know the wave theory of light or not."

DOCTOR: "Yes. Have you noticed further that Stebbing accepts both

Darwin and God?"

The conversation again turned to Sri Ramakrishna.

DOCTOR: "I find that he is a worshipper of the Goddess Kāli."

Master's conception of Kāli

M: "But with him the meaning of Kāli is different. What the Vedas call the

Supreme Brahman, he calls Kāli. What the Mussulmans call Allah and the

Christians call God, he calls Kāli. He does not see many gods; he sees only

one God. What the Brahma jnanis of olden times called Brahman, what the

yogis call Ātman and the bhaktas call the Bhagavan, he calls Kāli.

Depth of Sri Ramakrishna's experiences

"In Sri Ramakrishna one finds all the attitudes and ideals of religion. That is

why people of all sects and creeds enjoy peace and blessedness in his

presence. Who can fathom his feeling and tell us the depth of his inner

experience?"

DOCTOR: " 'All things to all men.' I don't approve of it although St. Paul

says it."

M: "Who can understand the state of his mind? We have heard from him

that unless one is engaged in the yarn trade, one cannot tell the difference

between number forty and number forty-one yarn. Only a painter can

appreciate another painter. The mind of a saint is very deep. One cannot

understand all the aspects of Christ unless one is Christlike. Perhaps the

deep realization of the Master is what Christ meant when He said: 'Be ye

perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect.'"

DOCTOR: "What arrangements have you made about having him nursed?"

M: "At present one of the older devotees is assigned every day to look after

him. It may be Girish Babu or Ram Babu or Balarām or Suresh Babu or

Navagopal or Kāli Babu. It is that way."

It was about one o'clock in the afternoon when the doctor and M. entered

the Master's room on the second floor. Sri Ramakrishna sat there, smiling as

usual, completely forgetful of the fatal illness, which was eating his life

away. Among the many devotees in the room were Girish, the younger

Naren, and Sarat. Sometimes they were motionless, like the snake before its

charmer, and sometimes they displayed great joy, like the bridal party with

the bridegroom. The doctor and M. bowed low before the Master and sat on

the floor. At the sight of the doctor, the Master said, laughing, "Today I

have been feeling very well."

Then the Master went on with his soul-enthralling conversation.

Futility of mere scholarship

MASTER: "What will mere scholarship accomplish without discrimination

and renunciation? I go into a strange mood while thinking of the Lotus Feet

of God. The cloth on my body drops to the ground and I feel something

creeping up from my feet to the top of my head. In that state I regard all as

mere straw. If I see a pundit without discrimination and love of God, I

regard him as a bit of straw.

"One day Dr.Rāmnārāyan had been arguing with me, when suddenly I went

into that mood. I said to him: 'What are you saying? What can you

understand of God by reasoning? How little you can understand of His

creation! Shame! You have the pettifogging mind of a weaver!' Seeing the

state of my mind he began to weep and gently stroked my feet."

DOCTOR: "Ramnarayan did that because he is a Hindu. Besides, he is a

believer in flowers and sandal-paste. He is an orthodox Hindu."

M. (to himself): "Dr. Sarkar says that he has nothing to do with gong and

conchshells!"

Master on Bankim

MASTER: "Bankim is one of your pundits. I met him once. I asked him,

'What is the duty of man?' And he had the impudence to say, 'Eating,

sleeping, and sex gratification.'

These words created in me a feeling of great aversion. I said: 'What are you

saying? You are very mean. What you think day and night and what you do

all the time come out through your lips. If a man eats radish, he belches

radish.' Then we talked about God a great deal. There was also much

devotional music in the room, and I danced. Then Bankim said to me, 'Sir,

please come to our house once.' 'That depends on the will of God', I replied.

'There also', he said, 'you will find devotees of God.' I laughed and said:

'What kind of devotees are they? Are they like those who said, "Gopal!

Gopal!"? ' "

DOCTOR: "What is the story of 'Gopal! Gopal!'? "

MASTER (with a smile): "There was a goldsmith who kept a jewellery

shop. He looked like a great devotee, a true Vaishnava, with beads around

his neck, rosary in his hand, and the holy marks on his forehead. Naturally

people trusted him and came to his shop on business. They thought that,

being such a pious man, he would never cheat them.

Whenever a party of customers entered the shop, they would hear one of his

craftsmen say, 'Kesava! Kesava!' Another would say, after a while, 'Gopal!

Gopal!' Then a third would mutter, 'Hari! Hari!' Finally someone would say,

'Hara! Hara!' Now these are, as you know, different names of God. Hearing

so much chanting of God's names, the customers naturally thought that this

goldsmith must be a very superior person. But can you guess the

goldsmith's true intention? The man who said 'Kesava! Kesava!' meant to

ask, who are these?-'who are these customers?' The man who said 'Gopal!

Gopal!'

conveyed the idea that the customers were merely a herd of cows. That was

the estimate he formed of them after the exchange of a few words. The man

who said 'Hari!

Hari!' asked, 'Since they are no better than a herd of cows, then may we rob

them?' He who said 'Hara! Hara!' gave his assent, meaning by these words,

'Do rob by all means, since they are mere cows!' (All laugh.)

"Once I went to a certain place with Mathur Babu. Many pundits came

forward to argue with me. And you all know that I am a fool. (All laugh.)

The pundits saw that strange mood of mine. When the conversation was

over, they said to me: 'Sir, after hearing your words, all that we have studied

before, our knowledge and scholarship, has proved to be mere spittle. Now

we realize that a man does not lack wisdom if he has the grace of God. The

fool becomes wise and the mute eloquent.' Therefore I say that a man does

not become a scholar by the mere study of books.

Divine Knowledge is inexhaustible

"Yes, how true it is! How can a man who has the grace of God lack

knowledge? Look at me. I am a fool. I do not know anything. Then who is

it that utters these words? The reservoir of the Knowledge of God is

inexhaustible. There are grain-dealers at Kamarpukur. When selling paddy,

one man weighs the grain on the scales and another man pushes it to him

from a heap. It is the duty of the second man to keep a constant supply of

grain on the scales by pushing it from the big heap. It is the same with my

words. No sooner are they about to run short than the Divine Mother sends

a new supply from Her Inexhaustible storehouse of Knowledge.

Master's unique experience

"During my boyhood God manifested Himself in me. I was then eleven

years old. One day, while I was walking across a paddy field, I saw

something. Later on I came to know from people that I had been

unconscious, and my body totally motionless. Since that day I have been an

altogether different man. I began to see another person within me. When I

used to conduct the worship in the temple, my hand, instead of going

toward the Deity, would very often come toward my head, and I would put

flowers there. A young man who was then staying with me did not dare

approach me. He would say: 'I see a light on your face. I am afraid to come

very near you.'

"You know I am a fool. I know nothing. Then who is it that says all these

things? I say to the Divine Mother: 'O Mother, I am the machine and Thou

art the Operator. I am the house and Thou art the Indweller. I am the chariot

and Thou art the Charioteer. I do as Thou makest me do; I speak as Thou

makest me speak; I move as Thou makest me move. It is not I! It is not I! It

is all Thou! It is all Thou!' Hers is the glory; we are only Her instruments.

Once Radha, to prove her chastity, carried on her head a pitcher filled with

water. The pitcher had a thousand holes, but not a drop of water spilled.

People began to praise her, saying, 'Such a chaste woman the world will

never see again!' Then Radha said to them: Why do you praise me? Say:

Glory unto Krishna! Hail Krishna! I am only His handmaid.'

"Once in that strange mood of mine I placed my foot on Vijay's chest. You

know how greatly I respect him-and I placed my foot on his body! What do

you say to that?"

DOCTOR: "But now you should be careful."

The will of God

MASTER (with folded hands): "What can I do? I become completely

unconscious in that mood, then I do not know at all what I am doing."

DOCTOR: "You should be careful. No use folding your hands now and

expressing regret!"

MASTER: "Can I do anything myself in that mood? What do you think of

this state? If you think it is a hoax, then I should say that your study of

'science' and all that is bosh!"

DOCTOR: "Now listen, sir! Would I come to see you so often if I thought it

all a hoax?

You know that I neglect many other duties in order to come here. I cannot

visit many patients, for I spend six or seven hours at a stretch here."

MASTER: "Once I said to Mathur Babu: 'Don't think that I have achieved

my desired end because you, a rich man, show me respect. It matters very

little to me whether you obey me or not.' Of course you must remember that

a mere man can do nothing, it is God alone who makes one person obey

another. Man is straw and dust before the power of God."

DOCTOR: "Do you think I shall obey you because a certain fisherman

obeyed you?

Undoubtedly I show you respect; I show you respect as a man."

MASTER: "Do I ask you to show me respect?"

Dr. Sarkar and Girish

GIRISH: "Does he ask you to show him respect?"

DOCTOR (to the Master): "What are you saying? Do you explain it as the

will of God?"

MASTER: "What else can it be? What can a man do before the will of

God? Arjuna said to Sri Krishna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra 'I will not

fight. It is impossible for me to kill my own kinsmen.' Sri Krishna replied:

'Arjuna, you will have to fight. Your very nature will make you fight.' Then

Sri Krishna revealed to Arjuna that all the men on the battlefield were

already dead.

"Once some Sikhs came to the Kāli temple at Dakshineswar. They said:

'You see, the leaves of the Aśwattha tree are moving. That too is due to the

will of God.' Without His will not even a leaf can move."

DOCTOR: "If everything is done by the will of God, then why do you

chatter? Why do you talk so much to bring knowledge to others?"

MASTER: "He makes me talk; therefore I talk. 'I am the machine and He is

the Operator.' "

DOCTOR: "You say that you are the machine. That's all right. Or keep

quiet, knowing that everything is God."

GIRISH (to the doctor): "Whatever you may think, sir, the truth is that we

act because He makes us act. Can anyone take a single step against the

Almighty Will?"

Free will and God's will

DOCTOR: "But God has also given us free will. I can think of God, or not,

as I like."

GIRISH: "You think of God or do some good work because you like to.

Really it is not you who do these things, but your liking of them that makes

you do so."

DOCTOR: "Why should that be so? I do these things as my duty."

GIRISH: "Even then it is because you like to do your duty."

DOCTOR: "Suppose a child is being burnt. From a sense of duty I rush to

save it."

GIRISH: "You feel happy to save the child; therefore you rush into the fire.

It is your happiness that drives you to the action. A man eats opium being

tempted by such relishes as puffed rice or fried potatoes." (Laughter.)

MASTER: "A man must have some kind of faith before he undertakes a

work. Further, he feels joy when he thinks of it. Only then does he set about

performing the work.

Suppose a jar of gold coins is hidden underground. First of all a man must

have faith that the jar of gold coins is there. He feels joy at the thought of

the jar. Then he begins to dig. As he removes the earth he hears a metallic

sound. That increases his joy. Next he sees a corner of the jar. That gives

him more joy. Thus his joy is ever on the increase. Standing on the porch of

the Kāli temple, I have watched the ascetics preparing their smoke of hemp.

I have seen their faces beaming with joy in anticipation of the smoke."

DOCTOR: "But take the case of fire. It gives both heat and light. The light

no doubt illumines objects, but the heat burns the body. Likewise, it is not

an unadulterated joy that one reaps from the performance duty. Duty has its

painful side too."

M. (to Girish): "As the proverb goes: 'If the stomach gets food, then the

back can bear a few blows from the host.' There is joy in sorrow also."

GIRISH (to the doctor): "Duty is dry."

DOCTOR: "Why so?"

GIRISH: "Then it is pleasant." (All laugh.) M: "Again we come to the point

that one likes opium for the sake of the relishes that are served with it."

GIRISH (to the doctor): "Duty must be pleasant; or why do you perform

it?"

DOCTOR: "The mind is inclined that way."

M. (to Girish): "That wretched inclination draws the mind. If you speak of

the compelling power of inclination, then where is free will?"

DOCTOR: "I do not say that the will is absolutely free. Suppose a cow is

tied with a rope.

She is free within the length of that rope, but when she feels the pull of the

rope-"

MASTER: "Jadu Mallick also gave that illustration. (To the younger Naren)

Is it mentioned in some English book?

God alone is the agent

(To the doctor) "Look here. If a man truly believes that God alone does

everything, that He is the Operator and man the machine, then such a man

is verily liberated in life.

'Thou workest Thine own work; men only call it theirs.' Do you know what

it is like?

Vedānta philosophy gives an illustration. Suppose you are cooking rice in a

pot, with potato, eggplant, and other vegetables. After a while the potatoes,

eggplant, rice, and the rest begin to jump about in the pot. They seem to say

with pride: 'We are moving!

We are jumping!' The children see it and think the potatoes, eggplant, and

rice are alive and so they jump that way. But the elders, who know, explain

to the children that the vegetables and the rice are not alive; they jump not

of themselves, but because of the fire under the pot; if you remove the

burning wood from the hearth, then they will move no more. Likewise the

pride of man, that he is the doer, springs from ignorance. Men are powerful

because of the power of God. All becomes quiet when that burning wood is

taken away. The puppets dance well on the stage when pulled by a wire, but

they cannot move when the wire snaps.

"A man will cherish the illusion that he is the doer as long as he has not

seen God, as long as he has not touched the Philosopher's Stone. So long

will he know the distinction between his good and bad actions. This

awareness of distinction is due to God's māyā; and it is necessary for the

purpose of running His illusory world. But a man can realize God if he

takes shelter under His Vidyā-māyā and follows the path of righteousness.

He who knows God and realizes Him is able to go beyond māyā. He who

firmly believes that God alone is the Doer and he himself a mere instrument

is a jivanmukta, a free soul though living in a body. I said this to Keshab

Chandra Sen."

GIRISH (to the doctor): "How do you know that free will exists?"

DOCTOR: "Not by reasoning; I feel it."

GIRISH: "In that case I may say that others and I feel the reverse. We feel

that we are controlled by another." (All laugh.)

Dr. Sarkar on duty

DOCTOR: "There are two elements in duty: first, the 'oughtness' of a duty;

second, the happiness, which comes as an after-effect. But at the initial

stage this happiness is not the impelling motive. I noticed in my childhood

the great worry of the priest at the sight of ants in the sweets offered before

the Deity. He did not, at the outset, feel joy at the thought of the sweets.

First of all he worried about them."

M. (to himself): "It is difficult to say whether one feels happiness while

performing the duty or afterwards. Where is the free will of a man if he

performs an action, being impelled by a feeling of happiness?"

Pure love

MASTER: "What the doctor is speaking of is called love without any

selfish motive. I do not want anything from Dr. Mahendra Sarkar; I do not

need anything from him, but still I love to see him. This is love for love's

sake. But suppose I get a little joy from it; how can I help it?

"Ahalyā once said to Rāma 'O Rāma, I have no objection to being born

even as a pig.

But please grant that I may have pure love for Thy Lotus Feet. I do not want

anything else.'

"Nārada went to Ayodhya to remind Rāma that He was to kill Ravana . At

the sight of Rāma and Sita, he began to sing their glories. Gratified at

Nārada's devotion, Rāma said: 'Nārada, I am pleased with your prayer. Ask

a boon.' Nārada replied, 'O Rāma, if Thou must give me a boon, then grant

that I may have pure love for Thy Lotus Feet and that I may not be deluded

by Thy world-bewitching māyā. Rāma said, 'Ask something more.'

'No, Rāma,' answered Nārada, 'I do not want anything else. I want only pure

love for Thy Lotus Feet, a love that seeks no return.'

"That is Dr. Sarkar's attitude. It is like seeking God alone, and not asking

Him for wealth, fame, bodily comforts, or anything else. This is called pure

love.

"There is an element of joy in it, no doubt; but it is not a worldly joy; it is

the joy of bhakti and prema, devotion to God and ecstatic love of Him. I

used to go to Sambhu Mallick's house. Once he said to me: 'You come here

frequently. Yes, you come because you feel happy talking with me.' Yes,

there is that element of happiness.

"But there is a state higher than this. When a man attains It, he moves about

aimlessly, like a child. As the child goes along, perhaps he sees a

grasshopper and catches it. The man of that exalted mood, too, has no

definite aim.

(To the devotees) "Don't you understand the doctor's inner feeling? It is the

prayer of a devotee to God for right purpose, that he may have no

inclination for evil things.

"I too passed through that state. It is called Dāsya, the attitude of the servant

toward his master. I used to weep so bitterly with the name of the Divine

Mother on my lips that people would stand in a row watching me. When I

was passing through that state, someone, in order to test me and also to cure

my madness, brought a prostitute into my room. She was beautiful to look

at, with pretty eyes. I cried, 'O Mother! O Mother!' and rushed out of the

room. I ran to Haladhāri and said to him, 'Brother, come and see who has

entered my room!' I told Haladhāri and everyone else about this woman.

While in that state I used to weep with the name of the Mother on my lips.

Weeping, I said to Her: O Mother, protect me! Please make me stainless.

Please see that my mind is not diverted from the Real to the unreal.' (To the

doctor) This attitude of yours is also very good. It is the attitude of a

devotee, one who looks on God as his Master.

"When a man develops pure sattva, he thinks only of God. He does not

enjoy anything else. Some are born with pure sattva as a result of their

Prārabdha karma. Through unselfish action one finally acquires pure

sattva. Sattva mixed with rajas diverts the mind to various objects. From it

springs the conceit of doing good to the world. To do good to the world is

extremely difficult for such an insignificant creature as man. But there is no

harm in doing good to others in an unselfish spirit. This is called unselfish

action. It is highly beneficial for a person to try to perform such action. But

by no means all succeed, for it is very difficult. Everyone must work. Only

one or two can renounce action. Rarely do you find a man who has

developed pure sattva. Through disinterested action sattva mixed with rajas

gradually turns into pure sattva.

"No sooner does a man develop pure sattva than he realizes God, through

His grace.

"Ordinary people cannot understand pure sattva. Hem once said to me:

'Well, priest! The goal of a man's life is to acquire name and fame in the

world. Isn't that true?' "

Tuesday, October 27, 1885

Sri Ramakrishna was seated in his room. Narendra and other devotees were

with him.

The Master was conversing with them. It was about ten o'clock in the

morning.

NARENDRA "How strangely the doctor behaved yesterday!"

A DEVOTEE: "Yes, the fish swallowed the hook but the line broke."

MASTER (smiling): "But the hook is in its mouth. It will die and float on

the water."

Narendra went out for a few minutes. Sri Ramakrishna was talking to M

about Purna.

MASTER; "The devotee looking on himself as Prakriti likes to embrace

and kiss God, whom he regards as the Purusha. I am telling this just to you.

Ordinary people should not hear these things."

M: "God sports in various ways. Even this illness of ours is one of His

sports. Because you are ill new devotees are coming to you."

MASTER (smiling): "Bhupati says, 'What would people have thought of

you if you had just rented a house to live in, without being ill?' Well, what

has happened to the doctor?"

M: "As regards God! he accepts for himself the attitude of a servant. He

says, 'Thou art the Master and I am Thy servant.' But then he asks me, 'Why

do you apply the idea of God to a man?' "

MASTER: "Just see! Are you going to him today?"

M: "I shall see him if it is necessary to report your condition."

MASTER: "How do you find this boy Bankim? If he cannot come here you

may give him instruction. That will awaken his spiritual consciousness."

Narendra's poverty

Narendra entered the room and sat near Sri Ramakrishna. Since the death of

his father he had been very much worried about the family's financial

condition. He now had to support his mother and brothers. Besides, he was

preparing himself for his law examination. Lately he had served as a teacher

in the Vidyāsāgar School at Bowbazar.

He wanted to make some arrangement for his family and thus get rid of all

his worries.

Sri Ramakrishna knew all this. He looked affectionately at Narendra.

MASTER (to M.): "Well, I said to Keshab, 'One should be satisfied with

what comes unsought.' The son of an aristocrat does not worry about his

food and drink. He gets his monthly allowance. Narendra, too, belongs to a

high plane. Then why is he in such straitened circumstances? God certainly

provides everything for the man who totally surrenders himself to Him."

M: "Narendra, too, will be provided for. It is not yet too late for him."

MASTER: "But a man who feels intense renunciation within doesn't

calculate that way.

He doesn't say to himself, 'I shall first make an arrangement for the family

and then practise sādhanā.' No, he doesn't feel that way if he has developed

intense dispassion. A goswami said in the course of his preaching, 'If a man

has ten thousand rupees he can maintain himself on the income; then, free

from worries, he can pray to God.'

"Keshab Sen also said something like that. He said to me: 'Sir, suppose a

man wants, first of all, to make a suitable arrangement of his property and

estate and then think of God; will It be all right for him to do so? Is there

anything wrong about it?' I said to him: 'When a man feels utter dispassion,

he looks on the world as a deep well and his relatives as venomous cobras.

Then he cannot think of saving money or making arrangements about his

property.' God alone is real and all else illusory. To think of the world

instead of God!

"A woman was stricken with intense grief. She first tied her nose-ring in the

corner of her cloth and then dropped to the ground, saying, 'Oh, friends,

what a calamity has befallen me!' But she was very careful not to break the

nose-ring."

All laughed. At these words Narendra felt as if struck by an arrow, and lay

down on the floor. M. understood what was going through Narendra's mind

and said with a smile: "What's the matter? Why are you lying down?"

The Master said to M., with a smile: "You remind me of a woman who felt

ashamed of herself for sleeping with her brother-in-law and couldn't

understand the conduct of those women who lived as mistresses of

strangers. By way of excusing herself she said: 'After all, a brother-in-law is

one's own. But even that kills me with shame. And how do these women

dare to live with strangers?' "

M. himself had been leading a worldly life. Instead of being ashamed of his

own conduct, he smiled at Narendra. That was why Sri Ramakrishna

referred to the woman who criticized the conduct of immoral women,

though she herself had illicit love for her brother-in-law.

A Vaishnava minstrel was singing downstairs. Sri Ramakrishna was pleased

with his song and said that someone should give him a little money. A

devotee went downstairs. The Master asked, "How much did he give the

singer?" When he was told that the devotee had given only two pice, he

said: "Just that much? This money is the fruit of his servitude. How much

he had to flatter his master and suffer to earn it! I thought he would give at

least four ānnās."

The younger Naren had promised to show Sri Ramakrishna the nature of

electricity with an instrument. The instrument was exhibited.

It was about two o'clock. Sri Ramakrishna and the devotees were sitting in

the room.

Atul brought with him a friend who was a munsiff. Bagchi, the famous

painter from Shikadarpara, arrived. He presented the Master with several

paintings. Sri Ramakrishna examined the pictures with great delight.

Bagchi had long hair like a woman's. Sri Ramakrishna said: "Many days

ago a sannyāsi came to Dakshineswar who had hair nine cubits long. He

used to chant the name of Radha. He was genuine."

Master in samādhi & Narendra's singing

A few minutes later Narendra began to sing. The songs were full of the

spirit of renunciation. He sang:

O Lord, must all my days pass by so utterly in vain?

Down the path of hope I gaze with longing, day and night...

He sang again:

O Mother, Thou my inner Guide, ever awake within my heart; Day and

night Thou holdest me in Thy lap.

Why dost Thou show such tenderness to this unworthy child of Thine? . . .

Then he sang:

O gracious Lord, if like a bee

My soul cannot imbed itself

Deep in the Lotus of Thy Feet,

What comfort can I find in life?

What can I gain with wealth untold,

Neglecting Thee, supremest Wealth?

I take no pleasure in the sight

Of the most lovely infant's face,

If all its loveliness reveals

No trace of Thy dear features there.

Moonlight is meaningless to me

As darkest night, if Thy love's moon

Rise not in my sours firmament.

The purest wife's unspotted love

Is stained, if in it is not set

The priceless gem of love divine.

O Lord, whenever doubt of Thee,

Born of base error and neglect,

Assails my mind, I writhe in pain

As from a serpent's poisonous fangs!

What more, O Master, shall I say?

Thou art my heart's most precious Jewel,

The Home of Everlasting Joy.

It was half past five in the afternoon when Dr. Sarkar came to the Master's

room at Syampukur, felt his pulse, and prescribed the necessary medicine.

Many devotees were present, including Narendra, Girish, Dr. Dukari, the

younger Naren, Rākhāl, M., Sarat, and Shyam Basu.

Dr. Sarkar talked a little about the Master's illness and watched him take the

first dose of medicine. Then Sri Ramakrishna began to talk to Shyam Basu.

Dr. Sarkar started to leave, saying, "Now that you are talking to Shyam

Basu, I shall say good-bye to you."

The Master and a devotee asked the doctor if he would like to hear some

songs.

DR. SARKAR (to the Master): "I should like it very much. But music

makes you frisk about like a kid and cut all sorts of capers. You must

suppress your emotion."

Dr. Sarkar took his seat once more, and Narendra began to sing in his sweet

voice, to the accompaniment of the Tānpura and Mridanga:

This universe, wondrous and infinite,

O Lord, is Thy handiwork;

And the whole world is a treasure-house

Full of Thy beauty and grace. . .

He sang again:

In dense darkness, O Mother, Thy formless beauty sparkles; Therefore the

yogis meditate in a dark mountain cave.

In the lap of boundless dark, on Mahanirvanas waves upborne, Peace flows

serene and inexhaustible.

Taking the form of the Void, in the robe of darkness wrapped, Who art Thou,

Mother, seated alone in the shrine of samādhi?

From the Lotus of Thy fear-scattering Feet flash Thy love's lightnings;

Thy Spirit-Face shines forth with laughter terrible and loud!

Dr. Sarkar said to M., "This song is dangerous for him." Sri Ramakrishna

asked M. what the doctor had said. M. replied, "The doctor is afraid that

this song may throw your mind into samādhi."

In the mean time the Master had partially lost consciousness of the outer

world. Looking at the physician, he said with folded hands: "No, no. Why

should I go into samādhi?"

Hardly had he spoken these words when he went into a deep ecstasy. His

body became motionless, his eyes fixed, his tongue speechless. He sat there

like a statue cut in stone, completely unconscious of the outer world.

Turned inward were his mind, ego, and all the other organs of perception.

He seemed an altogether different person.

Narendra continued his songs, pouring his entire heart and soul into them:

What matchless beauty! What a bewitching Face I behold!

The Sovereign of my soul has entered my lowly hut; The springs of my love

are welling forth on every side.

Tell me, my Beloved! O Thou, the Lord of my heart!

What treasure shall I lay before Thy Lotus Feet?

Take Thou my life, my soul; what more can I offer Thee?

Take everything that is mine. Deign to accept my all.

Narendra continued:

O gracious Lord, if like a bee

My soul cannot imbed itself

Deep in the Lotus of Thy Feet,

What comfort can I find in life? . . .

As the doctor heard the words, "The purest wife's unspotted love", his eyes

were filled with tears. He cried out, "Ah me! Ah me!"

Narendra sang again:

Oh, when will dawn the blessed day

When Love will waken in my heart?

When will my tears flow uncontrolled

As I repeat Lord Hari's name, And all my longing be fulfilled? . . .

In the midst of the singing Sri Ramakrishna had regained consciousness of

the outer world. When Narendra finished the song, the Master continued his

conversation, keeping them all spellbound. The devotees looked at his face

in wonder. It did not show the slightest trace of the agonizing pain of his

illness. The face shone with heavenly joy.

Addressing the doctor, the Master said: "Give up this false modesty. Why

should you feel shy about singing the name of God? The proverb says very

truly: 'One cannot realize God if one is a victim of shame, hatred, or fear.'

Give up such foolish notions as: 'I am such a great man! Shall I dance

crying the name of God? What will other great men think of me on hearing

of this? They may say that the doctor, poor fellow, has been dancing

uttering the name of Hari, and thus pity me.' Give up all these foolish

notions."

DOCTOR: "I never bother about what people say. I don't care a straw about

their opinions."

MASTER: "Yes, I know of your strong feeling about that. (All laugh.) On

knowledge and ignorance

"Go beyond knowledge and ignorance; only then can you realize God. To

know many things is ignorance. Pride of scholarship is also ignorance. The

unwavering conviction that God alone dwells in all beings is Jnāna,

knowledge. To know Him intimately is vijnāna, a richer Knowledge if a

thorn gets into your foot, a second thorn is needed to take it out. When it is

out both thorns are thrown away. You have to procure the thorn of

knowledge to remove the thorn of ignorance; then you must set aside both

knowledge and ignorance. God is beyond both knowledge and ignorance.

Once Lakshmana said to Rāma, 'Brother, how amazing it is that such a wise

man as Vasishtha wept bitterly at the death of his sons!' Rāma said:

'Brother, he who has knowledge must also have ignorance. He who has

knowledge of one thing must also have knowledge of many things. He who

is aware of light is also aware of darkness.' Brahman is beyond knowledge

and ignorance, virtue and vice, merit and demerit, cleanliness and

uncleanliness."

Sri Ramakrishna then recited the following song of Ramprasad: Come, let

us go for a walk, O mind, to Kāli, the Wish-fulfilling Tree, And there

beneath it gather the four fruits of life.

When will you learn to lie, O mind, in the abode of Blessedness, With

Cleanliness and Defilement on either side of you?

Only when you have found the way

To keep your wives contentedly under a single roof, Will you behold the

matchless form of Mother Syama. . . .

SHYAM BASU: "Sir, what remains after one throws away both thorns?"

Brahman cannot be described

MASTER: " Nitya–Śuddha–Buddha rupam, the Eternal and Ever-pure

Consciousness. How can I make it clear to you? Suppose a man who has

never tasted ghee asks you, 'What does ghee taste like?' Now, how can you

explain that to him? At the most you can say: 'What is ghee like? It is just

like ghee!' A young girl asked her friend: 'Well, friend, your husband is

here. What sort of pleasure do you enjoy with him?' The friend answered:

'My dear, you will know it for yourself when you get a husband. How can I

explain it to you?'

"It is said in the Purana that Bhagavati, the Divine Mother, was once born

as the daughter of King Himalaya. After Her birth She showed Her father

Her many forms. The Lord of the mountains, after enjoying all these

visions, said to the Divine Mother, 'May I have the vision of Brahman as It

is described in the Vedas!' Then the Divine Mother answered, 'Father, if you

want to have the vision of Brahman you must live in the company of holy

men.'

"What Brahman is cannot be described in words. Somebody once said that

everything in the world has been made impure, like food that has touched

the tongue, and that Brahman alone remains undefiled. The meaning is this:

All scriptures and holy books-the Vedas, the Puranas, the Tantras, and so

forth-may be said to have been defiled because their contents have been

uttered by the tongues of men; but what Brahman is no tongue has yet been

able to describe. Therefore Brahman is still undefiled. One cannot describe

in words the joy of play and communion with Satchidananda. He alone

knows, who has realized it."

Egotism condemned

Addressing Dr. Sarkar, Sri Ramakrishna continued: "Look here. One cannot

attain Knowledge unless one is free from egotism. There is a saying:

When shall I be free?

When 'I' shall cease to be.

'I' and 'mine'-that is ignorance. 'Thou' and Thine' that is Knowledge. A true

devotee says: 'O God, Thou alone art the Doer; Thou alone doest all. I am a

mere instrument; I do as Thou makest me do. All these-wealth, possessions,

nay, the universe Itself-belong to Thee. This house and these relatives are

Thine alone, not mine. I am Thy servant; mine is only the right to serve

Thee according to Thy bidding.'

"Those who have read a few books cannot get rid of conceit. Once I had a

talk with Kalikrishna Tagore about God. At once he said, 'I know all about

that.' I said to him: 'Does a man who has visited Delhi brag about it? Does a

gentleman go about telling everyone that he is a gentleman?' "

SHYAM: "But Kalikrishna Tagore has great respect for you."

MASTER: "Oh, how vanity turns a person's head! There was a scavenger

woman in the temple garden at Dakshineswar. And her pride! And all

because of a few ornaments. One day a few men were passing her on the

path and she shouted to them, 'Hey! Get out of the way, you people!' If a

scavenger woman could talk that way, what can one say about the vanity of

others?"

Master scolds Shyam Basu

SHYAM: "Sir, if God alone does everything, how is it that man is punished

for his sins?"

MASTER: "How like a goldsmith you talk!"

NARENDRA: "In other words, Shyam Babu has a calculating mind, like a

goldsmith, who weighs things with his delicate balance."

MASTER: "I say: O my foolish boy, eat the mangoes and be happy. What is

the use of your calculating how many hundreds of trees, how many

thousands of branches, and how many millions of leaves there are in the

orchard? You have come to the orchard to eat mangoes. Eat them and be

contented.

(To Shyam) "You have been born in this world as a human being to worship

God; therefore try to acquire love for His Lotus Feet. Why do you trouble

yourself to know a hundred other things? What will you gain by discussing

'philosophy'? Look here, one ounce of Liquor is enough to intoxicate you.

What is the use of your trying to find out how many gallons of liquor there

are in the tavern?"

DOCTOR: "Quite so. And what is more, the Wine in God's Tavern is

beyond all measure.

There is no limit to It."

MASTER (to Shyam): "Why don't you give your power of attorney to God?

Rest all your responsibilities on Him. If you entrust an honest man with

your responsibilities, will he misuse his power over you? God alone knows

whether or not He will punish you for your sins."

DOCTOR: "God alone knows what is in His mind. How can a man guess

it? God is beyond all our calculations."

MASTER (to Shyam): "That's the one theme of you Calcutta people. You

all say, 'God is stained by the evil of inequality', because He has made one

person happy and another miserable. What these rascals see in themselves

they see in God, too.

"Hem used to come to the temple garden at Dakshineswar. Whenever he

chanced to meet me, he would say: 'Well, priest, there is only one thing

worth having in this world, and that is honour. Isn't that so?' Very few

indeed say that the goal of human life is the realization of God."

SHYAM: "We hear a great deal about the subtle body. Can anyone show it

to us? Can anyone demonstrate that the subtle body, when a man dies,

leaves the gross body and goes away?"

MASTER: "True devotees don't care a rap about showing you these things.

What do they care whether some fool of a big man respects them or not?

The desire to have a big man under their control never enters their minds."

SHYAM: "What is the distinction between the gross body and the subtle

body?"

MASTER: "The body consisting of the five gross elements is called the

gross body. The subtle body is made up of the mind, the ego, the

discriminating faculty, and the mind-stuff. There is also a causal body, by

means of which one enjoys the Bliss of God and holds communion with

Him. The Tantra calls it the Bhagavati Tanu, the Divine Body.

Beyond all these is the Mahakarana, the Great Cause. That cannot be

expressed by words.

"What is the use of merely listening to words? Do something! What will

you achieve by merely repeating the word 'siddhi'? Will that intoxicate you?

You will not be intoxicated even if you make a paste of siddhi and rub it all

over your body. You must eat some of it. How can a man recognize yarns of

different counts, such as number forty and number forty-one, unless he is in

the trade? Those who trade in yarn do not find it at all difficult to describe a

thread of a particular count. Therefore I say, practice a little spiritual

discipline; then you will know all these-the gross, the subtle, the causal, and

the Great Cause. While praying to God, ask only for love for His Lotus

Feet.

"When Rāma redeemed Ahalyā from the curse, He said to her, 'Ask a boon

of Me.'

Ahalyā said, 'O Rāma, if You deign to grant me a boon, then please fulfill

my desire that I may always meditate on Your Lotus Feet, even though I

may be born in a pig's body.'

Master's prayer

"I prayed to the Divine Mother only for love. I offered flowers at Her Lotus

Feet and said with folded hands: 'O Mother, here is Thy ignorance and here

is Thy knowledge; take them both and give me only pure love for Thee.

Here is Thy holiness and here is Thy unholiness; take them both and give

me only pure love for Thee. Here is Thy virtue and here is Thy sin; here is

Thy good and here is Thy evil; take them all and give me only pure love for

Thee. Here is Thy dharma and here is Thy adharma; take them both and

give me only pure love for Thee.'

Pairs of opposites

"Dharma means good actions, like giving in charity. If you accept dharma,

you have to accept adharma too. If you accept virtue, you have to accept

sin. If you accept knowledge, you have to accept ignorance. If you accept

holiness, you have to accept unholiness. It is like a man's being aware of

light, in which case he is aware of darkness too. If a man is aware of one, he

is aware of many too. If he is aware of good, he is aware of evil too.

"Blessed is the man who retains his love for the Lotus Feet of God, even

though he eats pork. But if a man is attached to the world, even though he

lives only on boiled vegetables and cereals, then-"

DOCTOR: "He is a wretch. But let me interrupt you here and say

something. Buddha once ate pork and as a result had colic. To get rid of the

pain he would take opium and thus become unconscious. Do you know the

meaning of Nirvāna and such stuff? Buddha would become stupefied after

eating opium. He would have no consciousness of the outer world. This is

what they call Nirvāna!"

All laughed to hear this novel interpretation of Nirvāna. The conversation

went on.

MASTER (to Shyam): "There is no harm in your leading the life of a

householder. But do your duties in an unselfish spirit, fixing your mind on

the Lotus Feet of God. You must have noticed that a man with a carbuncle

on his back speaks to others in his usual way; perhaps he attends to his daily

duties also; but his mind is always on the carbuncle. It is like that.

"Live in the world like an immoral woman. Though she performs her

household duties, her mind is fixed on her sweetheart. (To the doctor) Do

you understand that?"

DOCTOR: "Never having had such an experience myself, how can I

understand?"

SHYAM: "Oh, yes! You understand a little." (All laugh.) MASTER:

"Moreover he has had long experience in that trade. Isn't that so?" (All

laugh.) SHYAM: "Sir, what do you think of Theosophy?"

MASTER: "The long and short of the matter is that those who go about

making disciples belong to a very inferior level. So also do those who want

occult powers to walk over the Ganges and to report what a person says in a

far-off country and so on. It is very hard for such people to have pure love

for God."

SHYAM: "But the Theosophists have been trying to re-establish the Hindu

religion."

MASTER: "I don't know much about them."

SHYAM: "You can learn from Theosophy where the soul goes after death-

whether to the lunar sphere or the stellar sphere or some other region."

MASTER: "That may be. But let me tell you my own attitude. Once a man

asked Hanuman, 'What day of the lunar fortnight is it?' Hanuman replied: 'I

know nothing about the day of the week, the day of the lunar fortnight, the

position of the stars in the sky, or any such things. On Rāma alone I

meditate.' That is my attitude too."

SHYAM: "The Theosophists believe in the existence of Mahatmas. Do you

believe in them, sir?"

MASTER: "If you believe in my words, I say yes. But now please leave

these matters alone. Come here again when I am a little better. Some way

will be found for you to attain peace of mind, if you have faith in me. You

must have noticed that I don't accept any gift of money or clothes. We do

not take any collection here. That is why so many people come. (Laughter.)

(To the doctor) "If you won't take offence, I shall tell you something. It is

this: You have had enough of such things as money, honour, lecturing, and

so on. Now for a few days direct your mind to God. And come here now

and then. Your spiritual feeling will be kindled by hearing words about

God."

After a little while, as the doctor stood up to take his leave, Girish Chandra

Ghosh entered the room and bowed low before the Master. Dr. Sarkar was

pleased to see him and took his seat again.

DOCTOR (pointing to Girish): "Of course he would not come as long as I

was here. No sooner am I about to leave than he enters the room."

Girish and Dr. Sarkar began to talk about the Science Association

established by the latter.

MASTER: "Will you take me there one day?"

DOCTOR: "If you go there you will lose all consciousness at the sight of

the wondrous works of God."

MASTER: "Oh, indeed!"

DOCTOR (to Ginsh): "Whatever you may do, please do not worship him as

God. You are turning the head of this good man."

GIRISH: "'What else can I do? Oh, how else shall I regard a person who has

taken me across this ocean of the world, and what is still more, the ocean of

doubt? There is nothing in him that I do not hold sacred. Can I ever look on

even his excreta as filthy?"

DOCTOR: 'This question of excreta doesn't bother me. I too have no feeling

of repugnance. Once a grocer's child was brought to my office for

treatment. His bowels moved there. All covered their noses with cloths; but

I sat by his side for half an hour without putting a handkerchief to my nose.

Besides, I cannot cover my nose when the scavenger passes by me with a

tub on his head. No, I cannot do that. I know very well that there is no

difference between a scavenger and myself. Why should I look down on

him? Can't I take the dust of his [meaning Sri Ramakrishna's] feet? Look

here,"

The doctor saluted Sri Ramakrishna and touched the Master's feet with his

forehead.

GIRISH: "Oh, the angels are saying, 'Blessed, blessed be this auspicious

moment!' "

DOCTOR: "What is there to marvel at in taking the dust of a man's feet? I

can take the dust of everybody's feet. Give me, all of you, the dust of your

feet."

The doctor touched the feet of all the devotees.

NARENDRA (to the doctor): "We think of him [meaning the Master] as a

person who is like God. Do you know, sir, what it is like? There is a point

between the vegetable creation and the animal creation where it is very

difficult to determine whether a particular thing is a vegetable or an animal.

Likewise, there is a stage between the man-world and the God-world where

it is extremely hard to say whether a person is a man or God."

DOCTOR: "Well, my dear young friend, one cannot apply analogies to

things divine."

NARENDRA: "I don't say that he is God. What I am saying is that he is a

godlike man."

Dr. Sarkar on expressing feelings

DOCTOR: "One should suppress one's feelings in such a matter. It is bad to

give vent to them. Alas! No one understands my own feelings. Even my

best friend thinks of me as a stern and cruel person. Even people like you

will perhaps one day throw me out after beating me with your shoes."

MASTER: "Don't say such a thing! They love you so much! They await

your coming as eagerly as the bridesmaids in the bridal chamber await the

coming of the groom."

GIRISH: "Everyone has the greatest respect for you."

DOCTOR: "My son and even my wife think of me as a hard-hearted

person. My only crime is that I do not display my feelings."

GIRISH: "In that case, sir, it would be wise for you to open the door of your

heart, at least out of pity for your friends; for you see that your friends

cannot otherwise understand you."

DOCTOR: "Will you believe me when I say that my feelings get worked up

even more than yours? (To Narendra) I shed tears in solitude.

(To Sri Ramakrishna) "Well, may I say something? When you are in ecstasy

you place your foot on others' bodies. That is not good."

MASTER: "Do you think I know at that time that I am touching another

with my foot?"

DOCTOR: "You feel that it is not the right thing to do, don't you?"

MASTER: "How can I explain to you what I experience in samādhi? After

coming down from that state I think, sometimes, that my illness may be due

to samādhi. The thing is, the thought of God makes me mad. All this is the

result of my divine madness. How can I help it?"

DOCTOR: "Now he accepts my view. He expresses regret for what he does.

He is conscious that the act is sinful"

MASTER (to Narendra): "You are very clever. Why don't you answer?

Explain it all to the doctor."

Cause of Master's illness

GIRISH (to the doctor): "Sir, you are mistaken. He is not expressing regret

for touching the bodies of his devotees during samādhi. His own body is

pure, untouched by any sin.

That he touches others in this way is for their good. Sometimes he thinks

that he may have got this illness by taking their sins upon himself.

"Think of your own case. Once you suffered from colic. Didn't you have

regrets at that time for sitting up and reading till very late at night? Does

that prove that reading till the late hours of the night is, in itself, a bad

thing? He [meaning Sri Ramakrishna] too may be sorry that he is ill. But

that does not make him feel that it is wrong on his part to touch others for

their welfare."

Dr. Sarkar felt rather embarrassed and said to Girish: "I confess my defeat

at your hands. Give me the dust of your feet." He saluted Girish.

DOCTOR (to Narendra): "Whatever else one may say about him [meaning

Girish], one must admit his intellectual powers."

NARENDRA (to the doctor): "You may look at the thing from another

standpoint. You can devote your life to scientific research without giving a

thought to your health or comfort.

But the Science of God is the grandest of all sciences. Isn't it natural for him

to risk his health to realize Him?"

DOCTOR: "All religious reformers, including Jesus, Chaitanya, Buddha,

and Mohammed, were in the end filled with egotism. They all said,

'Whatever I say is alone true.' How shocking!"

GIRISH (to the doctor): "Now, sir, you are committing the same mistake.

You are accusing them all of egotism. You are finding fault with them. For

that very reason you too can be accused of egotism."

Dr. Sarkar remained silent.

NARENDRA (to the doctor): "We offer worship to him bordering on divine

worship."

At these words the Master laughed like a child.

--------------------

Chapter 48

IN THE COMPANY OF DEVOTEES AT SYAMPUKUR

Thursday, October 29, 1885

M. and Dr. Sarkar

IT WAS ABOUT TEN O'CLOCK in the morning when M. arrived at Dr.

Sarkar's house in Sankharitola, Calcutta, to report Sri Ramakrishna's

condition. M. and Dr. Sarkar became engaged in conversation.

DOCTOR: "You see, Dr. Behari Bhaduri always harps on the same thing.

He says that Goethe's spirit came out of his body and that Goethe himself

saw it. It must have been very amazing."

The aim of human life

M: "As Sri Ramakrishna says, what shall we gain from these discussions?

We have been born in this world in order to cultivate devotion to the Lotus

Feet of God. He tells us the story of a man who entered an orchard to eat

mangoes. But instead of eating the fruit, he took out pencil and paper and

began to jot down the number of trees, branches, and leaves in the orchard.

A servant saw him and asked: 'What are you doing? Why have you come

here?' The man said: 'I have come here to eat mangoes. I am now counting

the trees, branches, and leaves in the orchard.' Thereupon the servant

replied: 'If you have come here to eat mangoes, then enjoy them. What will

you gain by counting the trees, branches, and leaves?' "

DOCTOR: "I see that the Paramahamsa has been able to extract the

essence."

Then Dr. Sarkar told M. many stories about his homeopathic hospital. He

showed M. the list of the patients who visited the hospital every day. He

further remarked that at the beginning many medical practitioners had

discouraged him about homeopathy and had even written against him in

magazines.

M. and Dr. Sarkar got into the doctor's carriage. The doctor visited many

patients. He entered a house of the Tagore family at Pathuriaghata and was

detained there by the head of the family. Returning to the carriage, he began

to talk to M.

DOCTOR: "I was talking to that gentleman about the Paramahamsa. We

also talked about Theosophy and Colonel Olcott. The Paramahamsa is

angry with the gentleman. Do you know why? Because he says he knows

everything."

M: "No, why should the Master be angry? I heard that they once met each

other.

Paramahamsadeva was talking about God. The gentleman said, 'Oh, yes! I

know all that!'

DOCTOR: "He has donated thirty-two thousand five hundred rupees to the

Science Association."

They drove on, talking about Sri Ramakrishna's illness and the care that

should be taken of him.

DOCTOR: "Do you intend to send him back to Dakshineswar?"

M: "No, sir. That would greatly inconvenience the devotees. They can

always visit him if he is in Calcutta."

DOCTOR: "But it is very expensive here."

M: "The devotees don't mind that. All they want is to be able to serve him.

As regards the expense, it must be borne whether he lives in Calcutta or at

Dakshineswar. But if he goes back to Dakshineswar, the devotees won't

always be able to visit him, and that will cause them great worry."

Dr. Bhaduri and Dr. Sarkar

Dr. Sarkar and M. arrived at Syampukur and found the Master sitting with

the devotees in his room. Dr. Bhaduri also was there.

Dr. Sarkar examined the Master's pulse and inquired about his condition.

The conversation turned to God.

DR. BHADURI: "Shall I tell you the truth? All this is unreal, like a dream."

Is the world a delusion?

DR. SARKAR: "Is everything delusion? Then whose is this delusion? And

why this delusion? If all know it to be delusion, then why do they talk? I

cannot believe that God is real and His creation unreal"

MASTER: "That is a good attitude. It is good to look on God as the Master

and oneself as His servant. As long as a man feels the body to be real, as

long as he is conscious of 'I'

and 'you', it is good to keep the relationship of master and servant; it is not

good to cherish the idea of 'I am He'.

"Let me tell you something else. You see the same room whether you look

at it from one side or from the middle of the room."

DR. BHADURI (to Dr. Sarkar): "What I have just said you will find in the

Vedānta. You must study the scriptures. Then you will understand."

DR. SARKAR: "Why so? Has he [meaning the Master] acquired all this

wisdom by studying the scriptures? He too supports my view. Can't one be

wise without reading the scriptures?"

MASTER: "But how many scriptures I have heard!"

DR. SARKAR: "A man may mistake the meaning if he only hears. In your

case it is not mere hearing."

MASTER (to Dr. Sarkar): "I understand that you spoke of me as insane.

That is why they (pointing to M. and the others) don't want to go to you."

DR. SARKAR (looking at M.): "Why Should I call you [meaning the

Master] insane? But I mentioned your egotism. Why do you allow people to

take the dust of your feet?"

M: "Otherwise they weep."

DR. SARKAR: "That is their mistake. They should be told about it."

M: "Why should you object to their taking the dust of his feet? Doesn't God

dwell in all beings?"

DR. SARKAR: "I don't object to that. Then you must take the dust of

everyone's feet."

M: "But there is a greater manifestation of God in some men than in others.

There is water everywhere; but you see more of it in a lake, a river, or an

ocean. Will you show the same respect to a new Bachelor of Science as you

do to Faraday?"

DR. SARKAR: "I agree with that. But why do you call him God?"

M: "Why do we salute each other? It is because God dwells in everybody's

heart. You haven't given much thought to this subject."

MASTER (to Dr. Sarkar): "I have already told you that some people reveal

more of God than others. Earth reflects the sun's rays in one way, a tree in

another way, and a mirror in still another way. You see a better reflection in

a mirror than in other objects. Don't you see that these devotees here are not

on the same level with Prahlada and others of his kind? Prahlada's whole

heart and soul were dedicated to God."

Dr. Sarkar did not reply. All were silent.

MASTER (to Dr. Sarkar): "You see, you have love for this [meaning

himself]. You told me that you loved me."

DR. SARKAR: "You are a child of nature. That is why I tell you all this. It

hurts me to see people salute you by touching your feet. I say to myself,

'They are spoiling such a good man.' Keshab Sen, too, was spoiled that way

by his devotees. Listen to me-"

Master sharply reprimands Dr. Sarkar

MASTER: "Listen to you? You are greedy, lustful, and egotistic."

DR. BHADURI (to Dr. Sarkar): "That is to say, you have the traits of a jiva,

an embodied being. These are his traits: lust, egotism, greed for wealth, and

a hankering after name and fame. All embodied beings have these traits."

DR. SARKAR (to the Master): "If you talk that way, I shall only examine

your throat and go away. Perhaps that is what you want. In that case we

should not talk about anything else. But if you want discussion, then I shall

say what I think to be right."

All remained silent.

After a while the Master became engaged in conversation with Dr. Bhaduri.

Paths of negation and affirmation

MASTER: "Let me tell you the truth. He [meaning Dr. Sarkar] is now

following the path of negation. Therefore he discriminates, following the

process of 'Neti, neti', and reasons in this way: God is not the living beings;

He is not the universe; He is outside the creation. But later he will follow

the path of affirmation and accept everything as the manifestation of God.

"By taking off, one by one, the sheaths of a banana tree, one obtains the

pith. The sheaths are one thing, and the pith is another. The sheaths are not

the pith, and the pith is not the sheaths. But in the end one realizes that the

pith cannot exist apart from the sheaths, and the sheaths cannot exist apart

from the pith; they are part and parcel of one and the same banana tree.

Likewise, it is God who has become the twenty-four cosmic principles; it is

He who has become man.

Three classes of devotees

(To Dr. Sarkar) "There are three kinds of devotees: superior, mediocre, and

inferior. The inferior devotee says, 'God is out there.' According to him God

is different from His creation. The mediocre devotee says: 'God is the

Antaryami, the Inner Guide. God dwells in everyone's heart. The mediocre

devotee sees God in the heart. But the superior devotee sees that God alone

has become everything; He alone has become the twenty-four cosmic

principles. He finds that everything, above and below, is filled with God.

"Read the Gitā, the Bhagavata, and the Vedānta, and you will understand all

this. Is not God in His creation?"

DR. SARKAR: "Not in any particular object. He is everywhere. And

because He is everywhere, He cannot be sought after."

The conversation turned to other things. Sri Ramakrishna was always

experiencing ecstatic moods, which the doctor said might aggravate his

illness. Dr. Sarkar said to him: "You must suppress your emotion. My

feelings, too, are greatly stirred up. I can dance much more than you."

THE YOUNGER NAREN (smiling): "What would you do if your emotion

increased a little more?"

DR. SARKAR: "My power of control would also increase."

MASTER AND M: "You may say that now!"

M: "Can you tell us what you would do if you went into an ecstatic mood?"

The conversation turned to money.

MASTER (to Dr. Sarkar): "I don't think about it at all. You know that very

well, don't you? This is not a pretence."

Absent-mindedness of worldly people

DR. SARKAR: "Even I have no desire for money-not to speak of yourself!

My cash-box lies open."

MASTER: "Jadu Mallick, too, is absent-minded. When he takes his meals

he sometimes becomes so absent-minded that he doesn't know whether the

food is good or bad. When someone says to him, 'Don't eat that; it doesn't

taste good', Jadu says: 'Eh? Is this food bad? Why, that's so!'"

Was the Master hinting that there was an ocean of difference between

absent-mindedness due to the contemplation of God, and absent-

mindedness due to preoccupation with worldly thoughts?

Pointing to Dr. Sarkar, Sri Ramakrishna said to the devotees, with a smile:

"When a thing is boiled, it becomes soft. At first he was very hard. Now he

is softening from inside."

DR. SARKAR: "When a thing is boiled, it begins to soften from the

outside. I am afraid that won't happen to me in this birth." (All laugh.) .

Dr. Sarkar was about to take his leave. He was talking to Sri Ramakrishna.

DOCTOR: "Can't you forbid people to salute you by touching your feet?"

MASTER: "Can all comprehend the Indivisible Satchidananda?"

DR. SARKAR: "But shouldn't you tell people what is right?"

Different disciplines for different temperaments MASTER: "People have

different tastes. Besides, all have not the same fitness for spiritual life."

DR. SARKAR: "How is that?"

MASTER: "Don't you know what difference in taste is? Some enjoy fish

curry; some, fried fish; some, pickled fish; and again, some, the rich dish of

fish pilau. Then too, there is difference in fitness. I ask people to learn to

shoot at a banana tree first, then at the wick of a lamp, and then at a flying

bird."

It was dusk. Sri Ramakrishna became absorbed in contemplation of God.

For the time being he forgot all about his painful disease. Several intimate

disciples sat near him and looked at him intently. After a long time he

became aware of the outer world and said to M. in a whisper: "You see, my

mind was completely merged in the Indivisible Brahman.

After that I saw many things. I found that the doctor will have spiritual

awakening. But it will take some time. I won't have to tell him much. I saw

another person while in that mood. My mind said to me, 'Attract him too.' I

shall tell you about him later."

Shyam Basu, Dr. Dukari, and a few other devotees arrived. Sri Ramakrishna

talked to them.

SHYAM: "Ah, what a fine thing you said to us the other day!"

MASTER (smiling): "What was that?"

Jnāna, ajnāna, and vijnāna

SHYAM: "What remains with a man when he goes beyond jnāna and

ajnāna, knowledge and ignorance."

MASTER (smiling): "It is vijnāna, special Knowledge of God. To know

many things is ignorance. To know that God dwells in all beings is

knowledge. And what is vijnāna? It is to know God in a special manner, to

converse with Him and feel Him to be one's own relative.

"To know that there is fire in wood is knowledge. But to make a fire with

that wood, cook food with that fire, and become healthy and strong from

that food is vijnāna."

SHYAM (smiling): "And about the thorn?"

MASTER (smiling): "Yes. When a thorn gets into the sole of your foot, you

procure a second thorn. After taking out the first thorn with the help of the

second, you throw both thorns away. Likewise, you should procure the

thorn of knowledge in order to remove the thorn of ignorance. After

destroying ignorance, you should discard both knowledge and ignorance.

Then you attain vijnāna."

Sri Ramakrishna was pleased with Shyam Basu. He was quite an elderly

person and wanted to devote his time to contemplation. This was his second

visit to the Master.

Master's advice to Shyam Basu

MASTER (to Shyam Basu): "Give up worldly talk altogether. Don't talk

about anything whatever but God. If you see a worldly person coming near

you, leave the place before he arrives. You have spent your whole life in the

world. You have seen that it is all hollow. Isn't that so? God alone is

Substance, and all else is illusory. God alone is real, and all else has only a

two days existence. What is there in the world? The world is like a pickled

hog plum: one craves for it. But what is there in a hog plum? Only skin and

pit.

And if you eat it you will have colic."

SHYAM: "Yes, sir. Everything you have said is true."

Nature of the world

MASTER: "For many years you have devoted yourself to various worldly

things. You will not be able to think of God and meditate on Him in this

confusion of the world. A little solitude is necessary for you; otherwise your

mind will not be steady. Therefore you must fix a place for meditation at

least half a mile away from your house."

Shyam Basu remained silent a few moments. He appeared absorbed in

thought.

MASTER (Smiling): "Besides, all your teeth are gone. Why should you

bother so much about the Durga Puja? (All laugh.) A man used to celebrate

the worship of Durga with the sacrifice of goats and with other ceremonies.

He continued the worship many years and then stopped it. A friend asked

him, 'Why don't you perform the Durga Puja any more?' 'Brother,' replied

the man, 'my teeth are all gone. I have lost the power to chew goat-meat.'"

SHYAM: "Ah! How sweet these words are!"

MASTER (smiling): "This world is a mixture of sand and sugar. Like the

ant, one should discard the sand and eat the sugar. He who can eat the sugar

is clever indeed. Build a quiet place for thinking of God-a place for your

meditation. Have it ready. I shall visit it."

SHYAM: "Sir, is there such a thing as reincarnation? Shall we be born

again?"

MASTER: "Ask God about it. Pray to Him sincerely. He will tell you

everything. Speak to Jadu Mallick, and he himself will tell you how many

houses he has, and how many government bonds. It is not right to try to

know these things at the beginning. First of all realize God; then He

Himself will let you know whatever you desire."

SHYAM: "Sir, how much wrong, how many sinful things a man does in this

world! Can he ever realize God?"

MASTER: "If a man practises spiritual discipline before his death and if he

gives up his body praying to God and meditating on Him, when will sin

touch him? It is no doubt the elephant's nature to smear his body with dust

and mud, even after his bath. But he cannot do so if the mahut takes him

into the stable immediately after his bath."

In spite of his serious illness the Master keenly felt the sorrow and suffering

of men. Day and night he thought about their welfare. The devotees

wondered at his compassion.

The assurance of Sri Ramakrishna that no sin can touch a man if he gives

up his body while praying to God was deeply impressed on their minds.

Friday, October 30, 1885

It was nine o'clock in the morning. Sri Ramakrishna was talking with M. in

his room. No one else was present. M. was going to Dr. Sarkar to report his

condition and bring him to examine the Master.

Master on Purna and Manindra

MASTER (to M., smiling): "Purna came this morning. He has such a nice

nature!

Manindra has an element of Prakriti, of womanliness. He has read the life

of Chaitanya and understood the attitude of the gopis. He has also realized

that God is Purusha and man is Prakriti, and that man should worship God

as His handmaid. How remarkable!"

M: "It is true, sir."

Purna was then fifteen or sixteen years old. Sri Ramakrishna always longed

to see him.

But his relatives did not allow him to visit the Master. One night, before his

illness, Sri Ramakrishna had been so eager to see Purna that he had

suddenly left Dakshineswar and arrived at M.'s house in Calcutta. M. had

brought Purna from his home to see Sri Ramakrishna. The Master had given

the boy many instructions about prayer and had afterwards returned to

Dakshineswar. Manindra was about the same age as Purna. The devotees

addressed him as "khoka". He used to dance in ecstasy when he heard the

chanting of God's name.

About half past ten M. arrived at Dr. Sarkar's house. He went up to the

second floor and sat in a chair on the porch adjacent to the drawing-room.

In front of Dr. Sarkar was a glass bowl in which some goldfish were kept.

Now and then Dr. Sarkar threw some cardamom shells into the bowl.

Again, he threw pellets of flour to the sparrows. M.

watched him.

Dr. Sarkar on bhakti and jnāna

DOCTOR (smiling, to M.): "You see, these goldfish are staring at me like

devotees staring at God. They haven't noticed the food I have thrown into

the water. Therefore I say, what will you gain by mere bhakti? You need

knowledge too. (M. smiles.) Look there at the sparrows! They flew away

when I threw flour pellets to them. They were frightened. They have no

bhakti because they are without knowledge. They don't know that flour is

their food."

Dr. Sarkar and M. entered the drawing-room. There were shelves all around

filled with books. The doctor rested a little. M. looked at the books. He

picked up Canon Farrar's Life of Jesus and read a few pages. Dr. Sarkar told

M. how the first homeopathic hospital was started in the teeth of great

opposition. He asked M. to read the letters relating to it, which had been

published in the "Calcutta Journal of Medicine" in 1876. Dr. Sarkar was

much devoted to homeopathy.

M. picked up another book, Munger's New Theology. Dr. Sarkar noticed it.

Dr. Sarkar on faith

DOCTOR: "Munger has based his conclusions on nice argument and

reasoning. It is not like your believing a thing simply because a Chaitanya

or a Buddha or Jesus Christ has said so."

M. (smiling): "Yes, we should not believe Chaitanya or Buddha; but we

must believe Munger!"

DOCTOR: "Whatever you say."

M: "We must quote someone as our authority; so it is Munger." (The doctor

smiles.) Dr. Sarkar got into his carriage accompanied by M. The carriage

proceeded toward Syampukur. It was midday. They gossiped together. The

conversation turned to Dr.

Bhaduri, who had also been visiting the Master now and then.

M. (smiling): "Bhaduri said about you that you must begin all over again

from the stone and brick-bat."

DR. SARKAR: "How is that?"

M: "Because you don't believe in the Mahatmas, astral bodies, and so forth.

Perhaps Bhaduri is a Theosophist. Further, you don't believe in the

Incarnation of God. That is why he teased you, saying that when, you died

this time you would certainly not be reborn as a human being. That would

be far off. You wouldn't be born even as an animal or bird, or even as a tree

or a plant. You would have to begin all over again, from stone and brick-

bat. Then, after many, many births, you might assume a human body."

DR. SARKAR: "Goodness gracious!"

M: "Bhaduri further said that the knowledge of your physical science was a

false knowledge. Such knowledge is momentary. He gave an analogy.

Suppose there are two wells. The one gets its water from an underground

spring. The other has no such spring and is filled with rain-water. But the

water of the second well does not last a long time.

The knowledge of your science is like the rain-water. It dries up."

DR. SARKAR (with a smile): "I see!"

The carriage arrived at Cornwallis Street. Dr. Sarkar picked up Dr. Pratap

Mazumdar.

Pratap had visited Sri Ramakrishna the previous day. They soon arrived at

Syampukur.

Sri Ramakrishna was sitting in his room, on the second floor, with several

devotees.

DR. SARKAR (to the Master): "I see you are coughing. (Smiling) But it is

good to go to Kasi." (All laugh.)

MASTER (smiling): "But that will give me liberation. I don't want

liberation; I want love of God!" (All laugh.)

Pratap was Dr. Bhaduri's son-in-law. Sri Ramakrishna was speaking to

Pratap in praise of his father-in-law.

MASTER (to Pratap): "Ah, what a grand person he has become! He

contemplates God and observes purity in his conduct. Further, he accepts

both aspects of God-personal and impersonal."

M. was very eager to mention Dr. Bhaduri's remarks about Dr. Sarkar's

being born again as a stone or brick-bat. He asked the younger Naren very

softly whether he remembered those remarks of Dr. Bhaduri. Sri

Ramakrishna overheard this.

MASTER (to Dr. Sarkar): "Do you know what Dr. Bhaduri said about you?

He said that, because you didn't believe these things, in the next cycle you

would have to begin your earthly life from a stone or brick-bat." (All

laugh.) DR. SARKAR (smiling): "Suppose I begin from a stone or brick-

bat, and after many births obtain a human body; but as soon as I come back

to this place I shall have to begin over again from a stone or brick-bat."

(The doctor and all laugh.) The conversation turned to the Master's ecstasy

in spite of his illness.

PRATAP: "Yesterday I saw you in an ecstatic mood."

MASTER: "It happened of itself; but it was not intense."

DR. SARKAR: "Ecstasy and talking are not good for you now."

MASTER (to Dr. Sarkar): "I saw you yesterday in my samādhi. I found that

you are a mine of knowledge; but it is all dry knowledge. You have not

tasted divine bliss. (To Pratap, referring to Dr. Sarkar) If he ever tastes

divine bliss, he will see everything, above and below, filled with it. Then he

will not say that whatever he says is right and what others say is wrong.

Then he will not utter sharp, strong, pointed words."

The devotees remained silent.

Advice to Dr. Sarkar

Suddenly Sri Ramakrishna went into a spiritual mood and said to Dr.

Sarkar: "Mahindra Babu, what is this madness of yours about money? Why

such attachment to wife? Why such longing for name and fame? Give up all

these, now, and direct your mind to God with whole-souled devotion. Enjoy

the Bliss of God."

Dr. Sarkar sat still without uttering a word. The devotees also remained

silent.

How a Jnāni should meditate

MASTER: "Nangta used to tell me how a Jnāni meditates. Everywhere is

water; all the regions above and below are filled with water; man, like a

fish, is swimming joyously in that water. In real meditation you will

actually see all this.

"Take the case of the infinite ocean. There is no limit to its water: Suppose a

pot is immersed in it: there is water both inside and outside the pot. The

Jnāni sees that both inside and outside there is nothing but Paramatman.

Then what is this pot? It is 'I-consciousness'. Because of the pot the water

appears to be divided into two parts; because of the pot you seem to

perceive an inside and an outside. One feels that way as long as this pot of

'I' exists. When the 'I' disappears, what is remains. That cannot be described

in words.

"Do you know another way a Jnāni meditates? Think of infinite Ākāśa and

a bird flying there, joyfully spreading Its wings. There is the Chidakasa, and

Ātman is the bird. The bird is not imprisoned in a cage; it flies in the

Chidakasa. Its joy is limitless."

The devotees listened with great attention to these words about

meditation.After a time Pratap resumed the conversation.

PRATAP (to Dr. Sarkar): "When one thinks seriously, one undoubtedly sees

everything as a mere shadow."

DR. SARKAR: "If you speak of a shadow, then you need three things: the

sun, the object, and the shadow. How can there be any shadow without an

object? And you say that God is real and the creation unreal. I say that the

creation is real too."

PRATAP: "Very well. As you see a reflection in a mirror, so you see this

universe in the mirror of your mind."

DR. SARKAR: "But how can there be a reflection without an object?"

NARENDRA: "Why, God is the object."

Dr. Sarkar remained silent.

MASTER (to Dr. Sarkar): "You said a very fine thing. No one else has said

before that samādhi is the result of the union of the mind with God. You

alone have said that.

"Shivanath said that one lost one's head by too much thinking of God. In

other words, one becomes unconscious by meditating on the Universal

Consciousness. Think of it!

Becoming unconscious by contemplating Him who is of the very nature of

Consciousness, and whose Consciousness endows the world with

consciousness!

"And what does your 'science' say? This combined with this produces that;

that combined with that produces this. One is more likely to lose

consciousness by contemplating those things-by handling material things

too much."

DR. SARKAR: "One can see God in those things."

M: "If so, one sees God more clearly in man, and still better in a great soul.

In a great soul there is a greater manifestation of God."

DR. SARKAR: "Yes, in man, no doubt."

Losing consciousness in the thought of God

MASTER: "Losing consciousness by contemplating God-through whose

Consciousness even inert matter appears to be conscious, and hands, feet,

and body move! People say that the body moves of itself; but they do not

know that it is God who moves it. They say that water scalds the hand. But

water can by no means scald the hand; it is the heat in the water, the fire in

the water, that scalds.

"Rice is boiling in a pot. Potatoes and eggplant are also jumping about in

the pot. The children say that the potatoes and eggplant jump of themselves;

they do not know that there is fire underneath. Man says that the sense-

organs do their work of themselves; but he does not know that inside dwells

He whose very nature is Consciousness."

Dr. Sarkar stood up. He was about to take his leave. Sri Ramakrishna also

stood up.

DR. SARKAR: "People call on God when they are faced with a crisis. Is it

for the mere fun of it that they say, 'O Lord! Thou, Thou!'? You speak of

God because of that trouble in your throat. You have now fallen into the

clutches of the cotton-carder. You had better speak to the carder. I am just

quoting your own words."

MASTER: "There is nothing for me to say."

DR. SARKAR: "Why not? We lie in the lap of God. We feel free with Him.

To whom should we speak about our illness if not to Him?"

MASTER: "Right you are. Once in a while I try to speak to Him about it,

but I do not succeed."

DR. SARKAR: "Why should you even speak to Him? Does He not know of

it?"

MASTER (smiling): "A Mussulman, while saying his prayers, shouted: 'O

Allah! O Allah!'

Another person said to him: 'You are calling on Allah. That's all right. But

why are you shouting like that? Don't you know that He hears the sound of

the anklets on the feet of an ant?'

Story of Vilwamangal

"When the mind is united with God, one sees Him very near, in one's own

heart. But you must remember one thing. The more you realize this unity,

the farther your mind is withdrawn from worldly things. There is the story

of Vilwamangal in the Bhaktamala. He used to visit a prostitute. One night

he was very late in going to her house. He had been detained at home by the

sraddha ceremony of his father and mother. In his hands he was carrying the

food offered in the ceremony, to feed his mistress. His whole soul was so

set upon the woman that he was not at all conscious of his movements. He

didn't even know how he was walking. There was a yogi seated on the path,

meditating on God with eyes closed. Vilwamangal stepped on him. The

yogi became angry, and cried out: 'What? Are you blind? I have been

thinking of God, and you step on my body!' 'I beg your pardon,' said

Vilwamangal, 'but may I ask you something? I have been unconscious,

thinking of a prostitute, and you are conscious of the outer world though

thinking of God. What kind of meditation is that?' In the end Vilwamangal

renounced the world and went away in order to worship God. He said to the

prostitute: 'You are my guru. You have taught me how one should yearn for

God.' He addressed the prostitute as his mother and gave her up."

DR. SARKAR: "To address a woman as mother is the Tantrik form of

worship."

Stories of the Bhagavata scholars

MASTER: "Listen to a story. There was a king who used daily to hear the

Bhagavata recited by a pundit. Every day, after explaining the sacred book,

the pundit would say to the king, 'O King, have you understood what I have

said?' And every day the king would reply, 'You had better understand it

first yourself.' The pundit would return home and think: 'Why does the king

talk to me that way day after day? I explain the texts to him so clearly, and

he says to me, "You had better understand it first yourself." What does he

mean?' The pundit used to practise spiritual discipline. A few days later he

came to realize that God alone is real and everything else-house, family,

wealth, friends, name, and fame-illusory. Convinced of the unreality of the

world, he renounced it. As he left home he asked a man to take this message

to the king: 'O King, I now understand.'

"Here is another story. A man needed a scholar of the Bhagavata to

expound the sacred text to him every day. But it was very difficult to

procure such a scholar. After he had searched a great deal, another man

came to him and said, 'Sir, I have found an excellent scholar of the

Bhagavata.' 'Very well,' said the man, 'bring him here.' The other man

replied: 'But there is a little hitch. The scholar has a few ploughs and

bullocks; he is busy with them all day. He must look after the cultivation of

his land. He hasn't a moment's leisure. Thereupon the man who required the

scholar said: 'I don't want a Bhagavata scholar who is burdened with

ploughs and bullocks. I want a man who has leisure and can tell me about

God.' (To Dr. Sarhar) Do you understand?"

Dr. Sarkar remained silent.

Uselessness of mere scholarship

MASTER: "Shall I tell you the truth? What will you gain by mere

scholarship? The pundits hear many things and know many things-the

Vedas, the Puranas, the Tantras. But of what avail is mere scholarship?

Discrimination and renunciation are necessary. If a man has discrimination

and renunciation, then one can listen to him. But of what use are the words

of a man who looks on the world as the essential thing?

"What is the lesson of the Gitā? It is what you get by repeating the word ten

times. As you repeat 'Gitā', 'Gitā', the word becomes reversed into 'tagi',

'tagi'-which implies renunciation. He alone has understood the secret of the

Gitā who has renounced his attachment to 'woman and gold' and has

directed his entire love to God. It isn't necessary to read the whole of the

Gitā. The purpose of reading the book is served if one practises

renunciation."

DR. SARKAR: "A man once explained the meaning of Radha to me. He

said to me: 'Do you know the meaning of Radha? Reverse the word and it

becomes "dhara." That's the meaning.' (All laugh.) Well, let us stop here for

today."

Dr. Sarkar left. M. sat near Sri Ramakrishna and repeated the conversation

he had had at Dr. Sarkar's house.

M: "Dr. Sarkar was feeding the goldfish with cardamom shells and the

sparrows with flour pellets. He said to me: 'Did you notice? The fish didn't

see the cardamom shells and therefore went away. First of all we want

knowledge, and then bhakti. Did you notice those sparrows? They too flew

away when I threw the pellets of flour. They have no jnāna; therefore they

have no bhakti.' "

MASTER (smiling): "That knowledge means the knowledge of the physical

world, the knowledge of 'science'."

M: "He said further: 'Must I believe a thing simply because a Chaitanya or a

Buddha or a Christ has said it? That would not be proper.' A grandson has

been born to him. He praised his daughter-in-law highly. He said, 'I don't

notice her at all in the house; she is so quiet and bashful.' "

MASTER: "He has been thinking of this place [meaning himself]. His faith

is growing. Is it possible to get rid of egotism altogether? Such scholarship!

Such fame! And he has so much money! But he doesn't show disrespect for

what I say."

It was about five o'clock in the afternoon. The devotees were sitting quietly

in the room.

Many outsiders also were present. All sat in silence.

M. was seated very near Sri Ramakrishna, Now and then they exchanged a

word or two in a low voice. The Master wanted to put on his coat. M.

helped him.

MASTER (to M.): "You see, nowadays it is not necessary for me to

meditate much. All at once I become aware of the Indivisible Brahman.

Nowadays the vision of the Absolute is continuous with me."

M. did not reply. The room was full of men, all silent.

Presently Sri Ramakrishna spoke.

MASTER: "Well, all these people are sitting here without uttering a word.

Their eyes are fixed on me. They are neither talking nor singing. What do

they see in me?"

M. said to the Master: "Sir, they have already heard many things you have

said. Now they are seeing what they can never see anywhere else-a man

always blissful, of childlike nature, free from egotism, and intoxicated with

divine love. The other day you were pacing the outer room of Ishan's house.

We too were with you. A man came to me and said that he had never before

seen such a happy person as you."

M. became silent. The room was still. A few minutes later Sri Ramakrishna

spoke to M. in a whisper.

MASTER: "Well, how is the doctor coming along? Does he now receive

well the ideas of this place?"

M: "How can an effective seed fail to sprout? It must germinate somehow

or other. I feel like laughing when I remember what you said the other day."

MASTER: "What was that?"

M: "You said that Jadu Mallick was so absent-minded that while taking his

meals he didn't know whether a particular dish was seasoned with salt or

not. If anyone pointed out to him that a dish was not salted, he would say, in

a surprised voice: 'Yes? Yes? I see it is not salted.' You told this to the

doctor because he had said to you that he was always absent-minded. You

meant that he became absent-minded thinking of worldly things and not

because of contemplation of God."

MASTER: "Will he not pay attention to what I say?"

M: "Of course he will. But he forgets many of your instructions because of

his numerous duties. Today, too, he made a nice remark when he said, To

look on a woman as mother is a spiritual discipline of the Tantra.'"

MASTER: "What did I say to that?"

M: "You told him about that Bhagavata scholar who owned bullocks and

ploughs. (The Master smiles.) Further, you told him about the king who

said to the pundit of the Bhagavata, 'You had better understand it yourself

first.' (The Master smiles.) "Then you told him about the Gitā, whose

essence is the renunciation of 'woman and gold', renunciation of the

attachment to 'woman and gold'. You said to him, 'How can a worldly man

who has not renounced "woman and gold" teach others?' Perhaps he didn't

understand the drift of your words. He changed the subject."

Sri Ramakrishna was thinking about the welfare of his devotees. Purna and

Manindra were two of his young devotees. He sent Manindra to talk to

Purna.

It was evening. A lamp was burning in Sri Ramakrishna's room. The

devotees and visitors were sitting at a distance. The Master was

introspective. Those in the room were also thinking of God and sat in

silence.

A few minutes afterwards Narendra entered the room with a friend, whom

he introduced to the Master as an author. Sri Ramakrishna talked with him

about the metaphysical significance of Radha and Krishna. The author said

that Radha and Krishna were the Supreme Brahman. Vishnu, Śiva, Durga,

and the other deities had sprung from them.

Different aspects of Radha

MASTER: "That is good. There are different aspects of Radha. In Her

seductive aspect She was Chandravali. In Her aspect of love She

participated in Sri Krishna's lila at Vrindāvan. Nandaghosh, Krishna's

foster-father, had the vision of the Eternal Radha.

"First is the seductive Radha, then the Radha of love. If you go farther, you

will see the Eternal Radha. It is like taking off the layers of an onion one by

one. First the red layers, then the pink, then the white. Afterwards you don't

find any more layers. Such is the nature of the Eternal Radha, Radha the

Absolute. There the discrimination following the process of 'Not this, not

this' comes to an end.

'There are two aspects of Radha-Krishna: the Absolute and the Relative.

They are like the sun and its rays. The Absolute may be likened to the sun,

and the Relative to the rays.

"A genuine bhakta dwells sometimes on the Absolute and sometimes on the

Relative.

Both the Absolute and the Relative belong to one and the same Reality. It is

all one-neither two nor many."

AUTHOR: "Sir, why do they speak of the 'Krishna of Vrindāvan' and the

'Krishna of Mathura'?"

MASTER: "That is the view of the goswamis. But the scholars of upper

India think differently. According to these scholars there is only Krishna,

and no Radha. The Krishna of Dwaraka is not associated with Radha."

AUTHOR: "Sir, Radha and Krishna are themselves the Supreme Brahman."

MASTER: "That is good. But you must remember that everything is

possible for God. He is formless, and again He assumes forms. He is the

individual and He is the universe. He is Brahman and He is Śakti. There is

no end to Him, no limit. Nothing is impossible for Him. No matter how

high the kites and vultures soar, they can never strike against the ceiling of

the sky.

Brahman is indescribable

If you ask me what Brahman is like, all I can say is that It cannot be

described in words.

Even when one has realized Brahman, one cannot describe It. If someone

asks you what ghee is like, your answer will be, 'Ghee is like ghee.' The

only analogy for Brahman is Brahman. Nothing exists besides It."

Saturday, October 31, 1885

Hariballav

Hariballav Bose, a cousin of Balarām, came to see Sri Ramakrishna. He

saluted the Master respectfully.

Hariballav was the government pleader at Cuttack. He did not approve of

Balarām's visiting the Master, especially with the ladies of the family:

Balarām had said to his cousin: "You had better meet him first. Then you

can say whatever you like."

Presently the Master and Hariballav became engaged in conversation.

MASTER: "Can you tell me how I shall get well? Do you think this is a

serious illness?"

HARIBALLAV: "Sir, the doctors can tell you better than I about that."

MASTER: "When the women take the dust of my feet, I say to myself that

they are saluting God, who dwells inside me. I look at it in that way."

HARIBALLAV: "You are a holy man. All should take the dust of your feet.

What harm is there in that?"

MASTER: "You may speak that way about sages like Dhruva, Prahlada,

Nārada, or Kapila; but who am I? Please come again."

HARIBALLAV: "I shall certainly come, because you attract me. You don't

have to urge me."

Hariballav was about to depart. He saluted Sri Ramakrishna and was going

to take the dust of the Master's feet, when Sri Ramakrishna moved his feet

away. But Hariballav persisted; he took the dust of Sri Ramakrishna's feet

against the latter's wish.

When he stood up, the Master stood up too, to show him courtesy. The

Master said to him: "Balarām feels unhappy because I don't go to his house.

I thought of visiting you all there one day, but then I was afraid you might

say to Balarām, 'Who asked him to come here?'"

HARIBALLAV: "Who has been telling you things? Please don't let such a

thought enter your mind."

Hariballav departed.

MASTER (to M.): "He is a devotee of God; why else would he have

forcibly taken the dust of my feet? I told you the other day that in samādhi I

had seen Dr. Sarkar and another person. He is the other person. So he has

come."

M: "Yes, sir. Undoubtedly he is a bhakta."

MASTER: "How guileless he is!"

M. went to Dr.Sarkar's house to report Sri Ramakrishna's condition. The

doctor talked to M. about Sri Ramakrishna, Mahimacharan, and the other

devotees.

DOCTOR: "Mahimacharan didn't bring the book he promised to show me.

He said he had forgotten all about it. It is quite possible. I am forgetful too."

M: "He has read a great deal."

DOCTOR: "Then why is he in such a plight?"

Referring to the Master, the doctor said: "What will a man accomplish with

mere bhakti?

He needs jnāna too."

M. explains Master's conceptions of jnāna and bhakti M: "Why, the

Master says that bhakti comes after jnāna. But his conception of jnāna and

bhakti is quite different from yours. When he says that one obtains bhakti

after jnāna, he means that first comes the Knowledge of Reality and then

bhakti; first the Knowledge of Brahman and then bhakti; first the

Knowledge of God and then love for Him. When you speak of jnāna you

mean the knowledge obtained through the senses. The jnāna Sri

Ramakrishna speaks of cannot be verified by our standards. The Knowledge

of Reality cannot be tested by the knowledge obtained through the senses.

But your jnāna, the knowledge through the senses, can be verified."

The doctor remained silent. Then he referred to the subject of Divine

Incarnation.

DOCTOR: "What is this idea of Divine Incarnation? What is this taking the

dust of a man's feet?"

M: "Why, you say that during your experiments in the laboratory you go

into ecstasy when you think of God's creation. Further, you feel the same

emotion when you think of man. If that is so, why shouldn't we bow our

heads before God? God dwells in the heart of man.

"According to Hinduism God dwells in all beings. You have not studied this

subject much.

Since God dwells in all beings, what is wrong in saluting a man?

"Sri Ramakrishna says that there is a greater manifestation of God in certain

things than in others, as the sun is reflected better by water and by a mirror

than by other objects.

Water exists everywhere, but is most apparent in a river or lake. We bow

down to God and not to man. God is God-not, man is God.

"God cannot be known through reasoning. All depends on faith. Of course,

I am repeating to you what Sri Ramakrishna says."

Dr. Sarkar presented M. with one of his books, The Physiological Basis of

Psychology. He wrote on the first page "As a token of brotherly regards."

Misra's visit

It was about eleven o'clock in the morning. Sri Ramakrishna was sitting in

his room with the devotees. He was talking to a Christian devotee named

Misra. Misra was born of a Christian family in northwestern India and

belonged to the Quaker sect. He was thirty-five years old. Though clad in

European dress he wore the ochre cloth of a sannyāsi under his foreign

clothes. Two of his brothers had died on the day fixed for the marriage of

one of them, and on that very day Misra had renounced the world.

MISRA: " 'It is Rāma alone who dwells in all beings.'"

Sri Ramkarishna said to the younger Naren, within Misra's hearing: "Rāma

is one, but He has a thousand names. He who is called 'God' by the

Christians is addressed by the Hindus as Rāma, Krishna, Isvara, and by

other names. A lake has many ghats. The Hindus drink water at one ghat

and call it 'jal'; the Christians at another, and call it 'water'; the Mussulmans

at a third, and call it 'pani'. Likewise, He who is God to the Christians is

Allah to the Mussulmans."

MISRA: "Jesus is not the son of Mary. He is God Himself. (To the

devotees) Now he (pointing to Sri Ramakrishna) is as you see him-again, he

is God Himself. You are not able to recognize him. I have seen him before,

in visions, though I see him now directly with my eyes. I saw a garden

where he was seated on a raised seat. Another person was seated on the

ground, but he was not so far advanced.

"There are four door-keepers of God in this country: Tukaram in Bombay,

Robert Michael in Kashmir, himself [meaning Sri Ramakrishna] in this part

of the country, and another person in eastern Bengal."

MASTER: "Do you see visions?"

MISRA: "Sir, even when I lived at home I used to see light. Then I had a

vision of Jesus.

How can I describe that beauty? How insignificant is the beauty of a

woman compared with that beauty!"

After a while Misra took off his trousers and showed the devotees the

Gerruā loincloth that he wore underneath.

Presently Sri Ramakrishna went out on the porch. Returning to the room, he

said to the devotees, "I saw him [meaning Misra] standing in a heroic

posture." As he uttered these words he went into samādhi. He stood facing

the west.

Regaining partial consciousness, he fixed his gaze on Misra and began to

laugh. Still in an ecstatic mood, he shook hands with him and laughed

again. Taking him by the hands, he said, "You will get what you are

seeking."

MISRA (with folded hands): "Since that day I have surrendered to you my

mind, soul, and body."

Sri Ramakrishna was laughing, still in an ecstatic mood.

The Master resumed his seat. Misra was describing his worldly life to the

devotees. He told them how his two brothers were killed when the canopy

came down at the time of the marriage.

Sri Ramakrishna asked the devotees to take care of Misra.

Dr.Sarkar arrived. At the sight of him Sri Ramakrishna went into samādhi.

When his ecstasy abated a little, he said, "First the bliss of divine

inebriation and then the Bliss of Satchidananda, the Cause of the cause."

DOCTOR: "Yes."

MASTER: "I am not unconscious."

The doctor realized that the Master was inebriated with divine bliss.

Therefore he said, "No, no! You are quite conscious."

Sri Ramakrishna smiled and said:

I drink no ordinary wine, but Wine of Everlasting Bliss, As I repeat my

Mother Kāli's name;

It so intoxicates my mind that people take me to be drunk!

First my guru gives molasses for the making of the Wine; My longing is the

ferment to transform it.

Knowledge, the maker of the Wine, prepares it for me then; And when it is

done, my mind imbibes it from the bottle of the mantra,

Taking the Mother's name to make it pure.

Drink of this Wine, says Ramprasad, and the four fruits of life are yours.

Master blesses Dr. Sarkar

As the doctor listened to the words, he too became almost ecstatic. Sri

Ramakrishna again went into a deep spiritual mood and placed his foot on

the doctor's lap. A few minutes later he became conscious of the outer

world and withdrew his foot. He said to the doctor: "Ah, what a splendid

thing you said the other day! 'We lie in the lap of God.

To whom shall we speak about our illness if not to Him?' If I must pray, I

shall certainly pray to Him." As Sri Ramakrishna said these words, his eyes

filled with tears. Again he went into ecstasy and said to the doctor, "You are

very pure; otherwise I could not have put my foot on your lap." Continuing,

he said: "'He alone has peace who has tasted the Bliss of Rāma.' What is

this world? What is there in it? What is there in money, wealth, honour, or

creature comforts? 'O mind, know Rāma! Whom else should you know?' "

The devotees were worried to see the Master's repeated ecstasies in this

state of ill health. He said, "I shall be quiet if someone sings that song- 'The

Wine of Heavenly Bliss'."

Narendra was sent for from another room. He sang in his sweet voice: Be

drunk, O mind, be drunk with the Wine of Heavenly Bliss!

Roll on the ground and weep, chanting Hari's sweet name!

Fill the arching heavens with your deep lion roar, Singing Hari's sweet

name! With both your arms upraised, Dance in the name of Hari and give

His name to all!

Swim day and night in the sea of the bliss of Hari's love; Slay desire with

His name, and blessed be your life!

MASTER: "And that one-'Upon the Sea of Blissful Awareness'."

Narendra sang:

Upon the Sea of Blissful Awareness waves of ecstatic love arise:

Rapture divine! Play of God's Bliss!

Oh, how enthralling! . .

Narendra sang again:

Meditate, O my mind, on the Lord Hari,

The Stainless One, Pure Spirit through and through.

How peerless is the light that in Him shines!

How soul-bewitching is His wondrous form!

How dear is He to all His devotees!

Ever more beauteous in fresh-blossoming love

That shames the splendour of a million moons, Like lightning gleams the

glory of His form,

Raising erect the hair for very joy.

Worship His feet in the lotus of your heart;

With mind serene and eyes made radiant

With heavenly love, behold that matchless sight.

Caught in the spell of His love's ecstasy,

Immerse yourself for evermore, O mind,

In Him who is Pure Knowledge and Pure Bliss.

Dr. Sarkar listened to the songs attentively. When the singing was over, he

said, 'That's a nice one- 'Upon the Sea of Blissful Awareness'."

At the sight of the doctor's joy, Sri Ramakrishna said: "The son said to the

father, 'Father, you taste a little wine, and after that, if you ask me to give up

drinking, I shall do so.' After drinking the wine, the father said: 'Son, you

may give it up. I have no objection. But I am certainly not going to give it

up myself!' (The doctor and the others laugh.)

"The other day the Divine Mother showed me two men in a vision. He

[meaning the doctor] is one. She also revealed to me that he will have much

knowledge; but it is dry knowledge. (Smiling, to the doctor) But you will

soften."

Dr. Sarkar remained silent.

Friday, November 6, 1885

It was the day of the Kāli Puja, the worship of the Divine Mother, Sri

Ramakrishna's Chosen Ideal. At about nine o'clock in the morning the

Master, clad in a new cloth, stood in the south room on the second floor of

his temporary residence at Syampukur. He had asked M. to offer worship to

Siddhesvari at Thanthania, in the central part of Calcutta, with flowers,

green coconut, sugar, and other sweets. After bathing in the Ganges, M.

had offered the worship and come barefoot to Syampukur. He had brought

the Prasad with him. Sri Ramakrishna took off his shoes and with great

reverence ate a little of the Prasad and placed a little on his head.

At the Master's request M. had purchased two books of songs by

Ramprasad and Kamlakanta for Dr. Sarkar.

M: "Here are the books of songs by Ramprasad and Kamlakanta."

MASTER: "Force songs like these on the doctor: How are you trying, O my

mind, to know the nature of God?

Who is there that can understand what Mother Kāli is?

O mind, you do not know how to farm!

Fallow lies the field of your life.. .

Come, let us go for a walk, O mind, to Kāli, the Wish-fulfilling Tree. . . ."

M: "Yes, sir."

Sri Ramakrishna was pacing the room with M. He had put on his slippers.

In spite of his painful illness his face beamed with joy.

MASTER: "And this song is also very good: 'This world is a framework of

illusion.' "

M: "Yes, sir."

Suddenly Sri Ramakrishna gave a start. He put aside his slippers and stood

still. He was in deep samādhi. It was the day of the Divine Mother's

worship. Was that why he frequently went into samādhi? After a long while

he sighed and restrained his emotion as if with great difficulty.

It was about ten o'clock. Sri Ramakrishna was seated on his bed, leaning

against the pillow. The devotees sat around him. Ram, Rākhāl, Niranjan,

Kalipada, M., and many others were present. Sri Ramakrishna was talking

about his nephew Hriday.

About Hriday

MASTER: "Hriday is even now clamouring for land. He said to me one day

while he was living with me at Dakshineswar, 'Give me a shawl, or I will

sue you.' The Divine Mother removed him from Dakshineswar. He pestered

the visitors for money. If he had stayed with me all these people could not

have come. That is why the Mother removed him. R-also began to act that

way. He became querulous. When he was asked to accompany me in a

carriage he would hold back. He would be annoyed if the other youngsters

came to me. If I went to Calcutta to see them, he would say: 'Why should

you bother about them? Will they renounce the world?' If I wanted to offer

refreshments to the other young boys, I would be afraid of R-and say to

him, 'Take some yourself and then give it to them.' I came to know that he

would not stay with me. Thereupon I Said to the Divine Mother, 'Mother,

don't remove him altogether, like Hriday.' Then I came to know that he was

going to Vrindāvan. If R-had stayed with me at that time, all these

youngsters could not have mixed with me. He left for Vrindāvan and these

young boys began to visit me frequently."

R- (humbly): "Sir, that wasn't really in my mind."

RAM (to R-): "Do you think you understand your mind as well as he

understands it?"

R-remained silent.

MASTER (to R-): "Why should you feel that way? I love you more than a

father loves his son. . . . Now please keep quiet. . . You no longer have that

attitude."

After a time the devotees went to another room. Sri Ramakrishna sent for

R-and said to him, "Did you mind what I said?"

R-: "No, sir."

Sri Ramakrishna said to M.: "It is the day of the Kāli Puja. It is good to

make some arrangements for the worship. Please speak to the devotees

about it."

M. went to the drawing-room and told the devotees what the Master had

said. Kalipada and others busied themselves with the arrangements.

About two o'clock in the afternoon Dr. Sarkar arrived, accompanied by

Professor Nilmani.

The doctor listened to the report of the illness and prescribed medicine. Sri

Ramakrishna said to him, "These two books have been purchased for you."

M. handed him the books.

The doctor wanted to hear some songs. At the Master's bidding, M. and

another devotee sang:

How are you trying O my mind, to know the nature of God?

You are groping like a madman locked in a dark room. . .

Then they sang:

Who is there that can understand what Mother Kāli is?

Even the six darsanas are powerless to reveal Her.

It is She, the scriptures say, that is the Inner Self Of the yogi, who in Self

discovers all his joy; She that, of Her own sweet will, inhabits every living

thing.

The macrocosm and microcosm rest in the Mother's womb; Now do you see

how vast it is? In the Muladhara The yogi meditates on Her, and in the

Sahasrara: Who but Śiva has beheld Her as She really is?

Within the lotus wilderness She sports beside Her Mate, the Swan.

When man aspires to understand Her, Ramprasad must smile; To think of

knowing Her, he says, is quite as laughable As to imagine one can swim

across the boundless sea.

But while my mind has understood, alas! my heart has not; Though but a

dwarf, it still would strive to make a captive of the moon.

Again they sang:

O mind, you do not know how to farm!

Fallow lies the field of your life.

If you had only worked it well,

How rich a harvest you might reap! . . .

Then:

Come, let us go for a walk, O mind, to Kāli, the Wish-fulfilling Tree,

And there beneath It gather the four fruits of life. . . .

Dr. Sarkar said to Girish, "That song of yours is very nice-the one about the

vina, in the Life of Buddha." At a hint from the Master, Girish and Kalipada

sang together: Behold my vina, my dearly beloved,

My lute of sweetest tone;

If tenderly you play on it,

The strings will waken, at your touch, To rarest melodies. . .

They continued:

We moan for rest, alas! but rest can never find; We know not whence we

come, nor where we float away.

Time and again we tread this round of smiles and tears; In vain we pine to

know whither our pathway leads, And why we play this empty play. . . .

They sang again:

Hold me fast, O Nitai! I feel as if I shall pass away!

Bestowing Hari's name on men,

I raised high waves in the river of my love,

And now upon its raging stream I am carried helplessly.

With grief my heart is laden down;

Alas! Nitai, to whom shall I speak of it?

Behold, I am swiftly borne away by the current of man's deep woe.

Then they sang:

Jagai! Madhai! Oh come and dance,

Chanting Hari's name with fervour! . . .

And finally:

Come one and all! Take Radha's love!

The high tide of her love flows by;

It will not last for very long.

Oh, come then! Come ye, one and all! . . .

Listening to these songs, two or three of the devotees-among them,

Manindra and Lātu, went into a spiritual mood. Lātu was seated by

Niranjan's side. When the singing was over, the Master spoke with the

doctor. The previous day Dr. Pratap Mazumdar had prescribed nux vomica

for the Master. Dr. Sarkar was annoyed to hear of it.

DOCTOR: "To give him nux vomica! Why, I am not dead yet"

MASTER (smiling): "Why should you die? God forbid! May your avidyā

die."

DOCTOR: "I never have any avidyā!"

Dr. Sarkar understood avidyā to mean "Mistress".

MASTER (smiling): "Oh, no! I don't mean that! In the case of a sannyāsi,

his mother, Avidyā, Ignorance, dies giving birth to a child, Viveka,

Discrimination."

Hariballav arrived. Sri Ramakrishna said, "I feel very happy when I see

you." Hariballav was a man of very humble nature; he sat on the bare floor

and not on the mat. He began to fan the Master. He was the government

lawyer at Cuttack. Professor Nilmani sat near them. Sri Ramakrishna did

not want to offend him; casting his glance on the professor, he said, "Oh,

what a grand day it is for me!"

A few minutes later Dr. Sarkar and Professor Nilmani took their leave.

Hariballav also departed, saying that he would come again.

Worship of Kāli

It is the dark night of the new moon. At seven o'clock the devotees make

arrangements for the worship of Kāli in Sri Ramakrishna's room on the

second floor. Flowers, sandal-paste, vilwa-leaves, red hibiscus, rice

pudding, and various sweets and other articles of worship are placed in

front of the Master. The devotees are sitting around him. There are present,

among others, Sarat, Śaśi, Ram, Girish, Chunilal, M., Rākhāl, Niranjan, and

the younger Naren.

Sri Ramakrishna asks a devotee to bring some incense. A few minutes later

he offers all the articles to the Divine Mother. M. is seated close to him.

Looking at M., he says to the devotees, "Meditate a little." The devotees

close their eyes.

Presently Girish offers a garland of flowers at Sri Ramakrishna's feet. M.

offers flowers and sandal-paste. Rākhāl, Ram, and the other devotees follow

him.

Niranjan offers a flower at Sri Ramakrishna's feet, crying: "Brahmamayi!

Brahmamayi!"

and prostrates himself before him, touching the Master's feet with his head.

The devotees cry out, "Jai Ma!", "Hail to the Mother!"

Manifestation of the Divine Mother through the Master In the twinkling

of an eye Sri Ramakrishna goes into deep samādhi. An amazing

transformation takes place in the Master before the very eyes of the

devotees. His face shines with a heavenly light. His two hands are raised in

the posture of granting boons and giving assurance to the devotees; it is the

posture one sees in images of the Divine Mother. His body is motionless; he

has no consciousness of the outer world. He sits facing the north. Is the

Divine Mother of the Universe manifesting Herself through his person?

Speechless with wonder, the devotees look intently at Sri Ramakrishna,

who appears to them to be the embodiment of the Divine Mother Herself.

The devotees begin to sing hymns, one of them leading and the rest

following in chorus.

Girish sings:

Who is this Woman with the thick black hair,

Shining amidst the assembly of the gods?

Who is She, whose feet are like crimson lotuses Planted on Śiva's chest?

Who is She, whose toe-nails shine like the full moon, Whose legs burn with

the brightness of the sun?

Who is She, who now speaks soft and smiles on us, And now fills all the

quarters of the sky

With shouts of terrible laughter?

Again:

O Mother, Saviour of the helpless, Thou the Slayer of sin!

In Thee do the three Gunās dwell-sattva, rajas, and tamas; Thou dost create

the world;

Thou dost sustain it and destroy it;

Binding Thyself with attributes, Thou yet transcendest them; For Thou, O

Mother, art the All. . . .

Behari sings:

O Syama, Thou who dost sit upon a corpse!

I beg Thee, hear my heart's most fervent prayer: As my last breath forsakes

this mortal flesh,

Reveal Thyself within my heart!

Then, in my mind, from forest and from grove

I shall gather Thee red hibiscus flowers,

And, scenting them with the sandal-paste of Love, Shall lay them at Thy

Lotus Feet.

M. sings with the other devotees:

O Mother, all is done after Thine own sweet will; Thou art in truth self-

willed, Redeemer of mankind!

Thou workest Thine own work; men only call it theirs. . .

They sing again:

All things are possible, O Mother, through Thy grace; Obstacles mountain

high Thou makest to melt away.

Thou Home of Bliss! To all Thou givest peace and joy; Why then should I be

made to suffer fruitlessly, Brooding on the success or failure of my deeds?

And again:

O Mother, ever blissful as Thou art,

Do not deprive Thy worthless child of bliss!

My mind knows nothing but Thy Lotus Feet.

The King of Death scowls at me terribly;

Tell me, Mother, what shall I say to him? . . .

They conclude:

In dense darkness, O Mother, Thy formless beauty sparkles; Therefore the

yogis meditate in a dark mountain cave. .

Gradually Sri Ramakrishna came back to the consciousness of the outer

world. He asked the devotees to sing "O Mother Syama, full of the waves of

drunkenness divine". They sang:

O Mother Syama, full of the waves of drunkenness divine!

Who knows how Thou dost sport in the world?

Thy fun and frolic and Thy glances put to shame the god of love. . . .

When this song was over, Sri Ramakrishna asked the devotees to sing

"Behold my Mother playing with Śiva". The devotees sang: Behold my

Mother playing with Śiva, lost in an ecstasy of joy!

Drunk with a draught of celestial wine, She reels, and yet She does not fall.

. .

Master in deep ecstasy

Sri Ramakrishna tasted a little Pudding to make the devotees happy, but

immediately went into deep ecstasy.

A few minutes later the devotees prostrated themselves before the Master

and went into the drawing-room. There they enjoyed the Prasad.

It was nine o'clock in the evening. Sri Ramakrishna sent word to the

devotees, asking them to go to Surendra's house to participate in the

worship of Kāli.

They arrived at Surendra's house on Simla Street and were received very

cordially.

Surendra conducted them to the drawing-room on the second floor. The

house was filled with a festive atmosphere and a veritable mart of joy was

created with the songs and music of the devotees. It was very late at night

when they returned to their homes after enjoying the sumptuous feast given

by Surendra, the Master's beloved disciple.

--------------------

Chapter 49

THE MASTER AT COSSIPORE

Wednesday, December 23, 1885

Master moved to Cossipore

ON FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11, Sri Ramakrishna was moved to a beautiful

house at Cossipore, a suburb of Calcutta. The house was situated in a

garden covering about five acres of land and abounding in fruit trees and

flowering plants. Here the final curtain fell on the Master's life.

At Cossipore he set himself with redoubled energy to the completion of the

work of spiritual ministration he had begun long before at Dakshineswar.

Realizing that the end of' his physical life was approaching, he gave away

his spiritual treasures without stint to one and all. He was like one of those

fruit-sellers who bring their fruit to the marketplace, bargain at first about

the prices, but then toward sunset, when the market is about to close, give

away the fruit indiscriminately. Here his disciples saw the greatest

manifestation of his spiritual powers.

Predicting his passing away

Here they saw the fulfilment of his prophecies about his own end: "I shall

make the whole thing public before I go." "When people in large numbers

come to know and whisper about the greatness of this body, then the

Mother will take it back." "The devotees will be sifted into inner and outer

circles toward the end." And so on. Here he predicted that a band of young

disciples, with Narendranath as their leader, would in due course renounce

the world and devote themselves to the realization of God and the service of

humanity.

The main building at Cossipore had two storeys, with three rooms below

and two above.

The Master occupied the central hall of the upper storey; a small room to

the left was used at night by his attendants. To the right of the hall was an

open balcony where Sri Ramakrishna sometimes sat or walked. On the

ground floor, a hall just below the Master's and a small room to the right of

it were used by the devotees, and a small room to the extreme left was

occupied by the Holy Mother. In the garden compound were some

outbuildings, two reservoirs, and pleasant walks. Sri Ramakrishna breathed

more freely in the open air of the new place.

The companion of devotees

Almost all the devotees had gathered by this time. They had started coming

to him in 1881. By the end of 1884 Sarat and Śaśi had become known to the

Master, and since their college examinations in the middle of 1885 they had

been visiting him almost daily.

Girish Ghosh had first met the Master in September 1884 at the Star

Theatre. Since the beginning of the following December he had been a

constant visitor. And it was during the latter part of December 1884 that

Sarada Prasanna first visited the Master at the Dakshineswar temple.

Subodh and Kshirode first visited him in August 1885.

The young devotees had taken up their quarters at the garden house to tend

Sri Ramakrishna, although many of them visited their own homes every

now and then. The householders came to see the Master almost every day,

and some of them occasionally spent the night.

Master's love for devotees

On the morning of December 23 Sri Ramakrishna gave unrestrained

expression to his love for the devotees. He said to Niranjan, "You are my

father: I shall sit on your lap."

Touching Kalipada's chest, he said, "May your inner spirit be awakened!"

He stroked Kalipada's chin affectionately and said, "Whoever has sincerely

called on God or performed his daily religious devotions will certainly

come here." In the morning two ladies received his special blessing. In a

state of samādhi he touched their hearts with his feet. They shed tears of

joy. One of them said to him, weeping, "You are so kind!"

His love this day really broke all bounds. He wanted to bless Gopal of

Sinthi and said to a devotee, "Bring Gopal here."

It was evening. Sri Ramakrishna was absorbed in contemplation of the

Mother of the Universe. After awhile he began to talk very softly with some

of the devotees. Kāli, Chunilal, M., Navagopal, Śaśi, Niranjan, and a few

others were present.

MASTER (to M.): "Buy a stool for me. What will it cost?"

M: "Between two and three rupees."

MASTER: "If a small wooden seat costs only twelve ānnās, why should

you have to pay so much for a stool?"

M: "Perhaps it won't cost so much."

MASTER: "Tomorrow is Thursday. The latter part of the afternoon is

inauspicious. Can't you come before three o'clock?"

M: "Yes, sir. I shall."

MASTER: "Well, can you tell how long it will take me to recover from this

illness?"

M: "It has been aggravated a little and will take some days."

MASTER: "How long?"

M: "Perhaps five to six months."

Hearing this, Sri Ramakrishna became impatient, like a child, and said: "So

long? What do you mean?"

M: "I mean, Sir, for complete recovery:"

Significance of the Master's illness MASTER: "Oh, that! I am relieved.

Can you explain one thing? How is it that in spite of all these visions, all

this ecstasy and samādhi, I am so ill?"

M: "Your suffering is no doubt great; but it has a deep meaning."

MASTER: "What is it?"

M: "A change is coming over your mind. It is being directed toward the

formless aspect of God. Even your 'ego of Knowledge is vanishing.' "

MASTER: "That is true. My teaching of others is coming to an end. I

cannot give any more instruction. I see that everything is Rāma Himself.

And sometimes I say to myself, 'Whom shall I teach?' You see, because I

am living in a rented house many kinds of devotees are coming here. I hope

I shall not have to put up a 'signboard', like Shashadhar or Krishnaprasanna

Sen, announcing my lectures." (The Master and M.

laugh.)

M: "There is yet another purpose in this illness. It is the final sifting of

disciples. The devotees have achieved in these few days what they could

not have realized by five years' tapasya. Their love and devotion are

growing by leaps and bounds."

MASTER: "That may be true; but Niranjan went back home. (To Niranjan)

Please tell me how you feel."

NIRANJAN: "Formerly I loved you, no doubt, but now it is impossible for

me to live without you."

M: "One day I found out how great these young men were."

MASTER: "Where?"

M: "Sir, one day I stood in a corner of the house at Syampukur and watched

the devotees. I clearly saw that every one of them had made his way here

through almost insurmountable obstacles and given himself over to your

service."

As Sri Ramakrishna listened to these words he became abstracted. He was

silent a few moments. Presently he went into samādhi.

Regaining consciousness of the outer world, he said to M.: "I saw

everything passing from form to formlessness. I want to tell you all the

things I saw, but I cannot. Well, this tendency of mine toward the formless

is only a sign of my nearing dissolution. Isn't that so?"

M. (wonderingly): "It may be."

MASTER: "Even now I am seeing the Formless Indivisible Satchidananda-

just like that. .

. But I have suppressed my feelings with great difficulty.

"What you said about the sifting of disciples was right: this illness is

showing who belong to the inner circle and who to the outer. Those who are

living here, renouncing the world, belong to the inner circle; and those who

pay occasional visits and ask, 'How are you, sir?' belong to the outer circle.

"Didn't you notice Bhavanāth? The other day he came to Syampukur

dressed as a bridegroom and asked me, 'How are you?' I haven't seen him

since. I show him love for Narendra's sake, but he is not in my thought any

more.

Different classes of devotees

(To M.) "When God assumes a human body for the sake of His devotees,

many of His devotees accompany Him to this earth. Some of them belong

to the inner circle, some to the outer circle, and some become the suppliers

of His physical needs.

The great visions

"I experienced one of my first ecstasies when I was ten or eleven years old,

as I was going through a meadow to the shrine of Viśālākśi. What a vision!

I became completely unconscious of the outer world.

"I was twenty-two or twenty-three when the Divine Mother one day asked

me in the Kāli temple, 'Do you want to be Akshara?' I didn't know what the

word meant. I asked Haladhāri about it. He said, 'Kshara means jiva, living

being; Akshara means Paramatman, the Supreme Soul.'

"At the hour of the evening worship in the Kāli temple I would climb to the

roof of the kuthi and cry out: 'O devotees, where are you all? Come to me

soon! I shall die of the company of worldly people!' I told all this to the

'Englishmen'. They said it was all an illusion of my mind. 'Perhaps it is', I

said to myself, and became calm. But now it is all coming true; the devotees

are coming.

Five suppliers of the Master's needs

"The Divine Mother also showed me in a vision the five suppliers of my

needs; first, Mathur Babu, and second, Sambhu Mallick, whom I had not

then met. I had a vision of a fair-skinned man with a cap on his head. Many

days later, when I first met Sambhu, I recalled that vision; 1 realized that it

was he whom I had seen in that ecstatic state. I haven't yet found out the

three other suppliers of my wants. But they were all of a fair complexion.

Surendra looks like one of them.

"When I attained this" state of God-Consciousness, a person exactly

resembling myself thoroughly shook my Ida, Pingala, and Sushumna

nerves. He licked with his tongue each of the lotuses of the six centres, and

those drooping lotuses at once turned their faces upward. And at last the

Sahasrara lotus became full-blown.

Master's foreseeing of the coming of devotees

"The Divine Mother used to reveal to me the nature of the devotees before

their coming.

I saw with these two eyes-not in a trance-the kirtan party of Chaitanya

going from the banyan-tree to the bakul-tree in the Panchavati. I saw

Balarām in the procession and also, I think, yourself [meaning M.]. Chuni's

spiritual consciousness and yours, too, have been awakened by frequent

visits to me. In a vision I saw that Śaśi and Sarat had been among the

followers of Christ.

"Under the banyan-tree in the Panchavati I had a vision of a child. Hriday

said to me, 'Then a son will soon be born to you.' I said to him: 'But I regard

all women as mother. How can I have a son?' That child is Rākhāl .

"I said to the Divine Mother, 'O Mother, since You have placed me in this

condition, provide me with a rich man. That is why Mathur served me for

fourteen years. And in how many different ways! At my request he

arranged a special store-room for the sādhus. He provided me with carriage

and palanquin. And whatever I asked him to give to anyone, he gave. The

Brahmani identified him with Prataprudra.

"Vijay had a vision of this form [meaning himself]. How do you account for

it? Vijay said to me, 'I touched it exactly as I am touching you now.'

"Lātu counted thirty-one devotees in all. That's not many. But a few more

are becoming devotees through Vijay and Kedār.

"It was revealed to me in a vision that during my last days I should have to

live on pudding. During my present illness my wife was one day feeding

me with pudding. I burst into tears and said, 'Is this my living on pudding

near the end, and so painfully?' "

Monday, January 4 1886

It was the fourteenth day of the dark fortnight of the moon. At four o'clock

in the afternoon Sri Ramakrishna was sitting in his room. He told M. that

Ram Chatterji had come from the Kāli temple at Dakshineswar to inquire

about his health. He asked M.

whether it was now very cold at the temple garden.

Master and Narendra

Narendra arrived. Now and then the Master looked at him and smiled. It

appeared to M.

that that day the Master's love for his beloved disciple was boundless. He

indicated to M.

by a sign that Narendra had wept. Then he remained quiet. Again he

indicated that Narendra had cried all the way from home.

No one spoke. Narendra broke the silence.

NARENDRA: "I have been thinking of going there today."

MASTER: "Where?"

NARENDRA: "To Dakshineswar. I intend to light a fire under the bel-tree

and meditate."

MASTER: "No, the authorities of the powder-magazine will not allow it.

The Panchavati is a nice place. Many sādhus have practised japa and

meditation there. But it is very cold there. The place is dark, too."

Again for a few moments all sat in silence.

MASTER (to Narendra, smiling): "Won't you continue your studies?"

NARENDRA (looking at the Master and M.): "I shall feel greatly relieved

if I find a medicine that will make me forget all I have studied."

The elder Gopal, who was also in the room, said, "I shall accompany

Narendra."

Kalipada Ghosh had brought a box of grapes for Sri Ramakrishna; it lay

beside the Master. The Master gave Narendra a few and poured the rest on

the floor for the devotees to pick up.

Narendra's yearning for God

It was evening. Narendra was sitting in a room downstairs. He was smoking

and describing to M. the yearning of his soul. No one else was with them.

NARENDRA: "I was meditating here last Saturday when suddenly I felt a

peculiar sensation in my heart."

M: "It was the awakening of the Kundalini."

NARENDRA: "Probably it was. I clearly perceived the Ida and the Pingala

nerves. I asked Hazra to feel my chest. Yesterday I saw him [meaning the

Master] upstairs and told him about it. I said to him: 'All the others have

had their realization; please give me some.

All have succeeded; shall I alone remain unsatisfied?' "

M: "What did he say to you?"

NARENDRA: "He said: 'Why don't you settle your family affairs first and

then come to me? You will get everything. What do you want?' I replied, 'It

is my desire to remain absorbed in samādhi continually for three or four

days, only once in a while coming down to the sense plane to eat a little

food.' Thereupon he said to me: 'You are a very small-minded person. There

is a state higher even than that. "All that exists art Thou" -it is you who sing

that song.'"

M: "Yes, he always says that after coming down from samādhi one sees that

it is God Himself who has become the universe, the living beings, and all

that exists. The Isvarakotis alone can attain that state. An ordinary man can

at the most attain samādhi; but he cannot come down from that state."

NARENDRA: "He [the Master] said: 'Settle your family affairs and then

come to me. You will attain a state higher than samādhi.' I went home this

morning. My people scolded me, saying: 'Why do you wander about like a

vagabond? Your law examination is near at hand and you are not paying

any attention to your studies. You wander about aimlessly.'"

M: "Did your mother say anything?"

NARENDRA: "No. She was very eager to feed me. She gave me venison. I

ate a little, though I didn't feel like eating meat."

M: "And then?"

NARENDRA: "I went to my study at my grandmother's. As I tried to read I

was seized with a great fear, as if studying were a terrible thing. My heart

struggled within me. I burst into tears: I never wept so bitterly in my life. I

left my books and ran away. I ran along the streets. My shoes slipped from

my feet-I didn't know where. I ran past a haystack and got hay all over me. I

kept on running along the road to Cossipore."

Narendra remained silent a few minutes and then resumed.

NARENDRA: "Since reading the Viveka Chudāmani I have felt very much

depressed. In it Sankaracharya says that only through great tapasya and

good fortune does one acquire these three things: a human birth, the desire

for liberation, and refuge with a great soul.

I said to myself: 'I have surely gained all these three. As a result of great

tapasya I have been born a human being; through great tapasya, again, I

have the desire for liberation; and through great tapasya I have secured the

companionship of such a great soul.' "

M: "Ah!"

His intense dispassion

NARENDRA: "I have no more taste for the world. I do not relish the

company of those who live in the world-of course, with the exception of

one or two devotees."

Narendra became silent again. A fire of intense renunciation was burning

within him. His soul was restless for the vision of God. He resumed the

conversation.

NARENDRA (to M.): "You have found peace, but my soul is restless. You

are blessed indeed."

M. did not reply, but sat in silence. He said to himself, "Sri Ramakrishna

said that one must pant and pine for God; only then may one have the vision

of Him."

Immediately after dusk M. went upstairs. He found Sri Ramakrishna asleep.

It was about nine o'clock in the evening. Niranjan and Śaśi were sitting near

the Master.

He was awake. Every now and then he talked of Narendra.

MASTER: "How wonderful Narendra's state of mind is! You see, this very

Narendra did not believe in the forms of God. And now you see how his

soul is panting for God! You know that story of the man who asked his guru

how God could be realized. The guru said to him: 'Come with me. I shall

show you how one can realize God.' Saying this, he took the disciple to a

lake and held his head under the water. After a short time he released the

disciple and asked him, 'How did you feel?' 'I was dying for a breath of air!'

said the disciple.

"When the soul longs and yearns for God like that, then you will know that

you do not have long to wait for His vision. The rosy colour on the eastern

horizon shows that the sun will soon rise."

This day Sri Ramakrishna's illness was worse. In spite of much suffering he

said many things about Narendra-though mostly by means of signs.

At night Narendra left for Dakshineswar. It was very dark, being the night

of the new moon. He was accompanied by one or two devotees. M. spent

the night at the Cossipore garden. He dreamt that he was seated in an

assembly of sannyāsis.

Tuesday, January 5, 1886

Sri Ramakrishna was sitting on his bed and talking to M. No one else was

in the room. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon.

MASTER: "If Kshirode makes a pilgrimage to Gangasagar, then please buy

a blanket for him."

M: "Yes, sir."

Sri Ramakrishna was silent a few minutes. Then he continued.

Devotees' detachment from the world

MASTER: "Well can you tell me what is happening to these youngsters?

Some are running off to Puri, and some to Gangasagar. All have renounced

their homes. Look at Narendra! When a man is seized with the spirit of

intense renunciation, he regards the world as a deep well and his relatives as

venomous cobras."

M: "Yes, sir. Life in the world is full of suffering."

MASTER: "Yes, it is the suffering of hell-and that from the very moment of

birth! Don't you see what a trouble one's wife and children are?"

M: "Yes, sir. You yourself said: 'These youngsters have no relationship

whatsoever with the world. They owe nothing to the world, nor do they

expect anything from it. It is the sense of obligation that entangles a man in

the world.' "

MASTER: "Don't you see how Niranjan is? His attitude toward the world is

this: 'Here, take what is Thine, and give me what is mine.' That is all. He

has no further relationship with the world. There is nothing to pull him from

behind.

"'Woman and gold' alone is the world. Don't you see that if you have money

you want to lay it by?"

M. burst out laughing. Sri Ramakrishna also laughed.

M: "One thinks a great deal before taking the money out. (Both laugh.) But

once you said at Dakshineswar that it is quite different if one is able to live

in the world free from the three Gunās."

MASTER: "Yes-like a child!"

M: "Yes, sir. But it is exceedingly difficult; it requires tremendous power."

Sri Ramakrishna remained silent.

M: "Yesterday they went to Dakshineswar to meditate. I had a dream."

MASTER: "What did you dream?"

M: "I dreamt that Narendra and some others had become sannyāsis. They

were sitting around a lighted fire, I too was there. They were smoking

tobacco and blowing out puffs of smoke. I told them that I could smell

hemp."

MASTER: "Mental renunciation is the essential thing. That, too, makes one

a sannyāsi."

Sri Ramakrishna kept silent a few minutes and then went on.

MASTER: "But one must set fire to one's desires. Then alone can one

succeed."

M: "You said to the pundit of the Mārwāris from Burrabazar that you had

the desire for bhakti. Isn't the desire for bhakti to be counted as a desire?".

MASTER: "No, just as Hinche greens are not to be counted as greens.

Hinche restrains the secretion of bile.

"Well, all my joy, all my ecstasy-where are they now?"

M: "Perhaps you are now in the state of mind that the Gitā describes as

beyond the three Gunās. Sattva, rajas, and tamas are performing their own

functions, and you yourself are unattached-unattached even to sattva."

MASTER: "Yes, the Divine Mother has put me into the state of a child. Tell

me, won't the body live through this illness?"

The Master and M. became silent. Narendra entered the room. He was

going home to settle his family affairs.

Since his father's death Narendra had been in great distress about his mother

and brothers. Now and then they had been threatened with starvation.

Narendra was the family's only hope: they expected him to earn money and

feed them. But Narendra could not appear for his law examination; he was

passing through a state of intense renunciation. He was going to Calcutta

that day to make some provision for the family. A friend had agreed to lend

him one hundred rupees. That would take care of the family for three

months.

NARENDRA: "I am going home. (To M.) I shall visit Mahimacharan on

the way. Will you come with me?"

M. did not want to go. Looking at M., Sri Ramakrishna asked Narendra,

"Why?"

NARENDRA: "I am going that way; so I shall stop at Mahima's place and

have a chat with him."

Sri Ramakrishna looked at Narendra intently.

NARENDRA: "A friend who comes here said he would lend me a hundred

rupees. That will take care of the family for three months. I am going home

to make that arrangement."

Sri Ramakrishna remained silent and looked at M.

M. (to Narendra): "No; you go ahead. I shall go later."

Thursday, March 11, 1886

It was eight o'clock in the evening. Sri Ramakrishna was in the big hall on

the second floor. Narendra, Śaśi, M., Sarat, and the elder Gopal were in the

room. Sri Ramakrishna was lying down. Sarat stood by his bed and fanned

him. The Master was speaking about his illness.

MASTER: "If some of you go to Dakshineswar and see Bholanath, he will

give you a medicinal oil and also tell you how to apply it."

THE ELDER GOPAL: "Then we shall go for the oil tomorrow morning."

M: "If someone goes this evening he can bring the oil."

ŚAŚI: "I can go."

MASTER (pointing to Sarat): "He may go."

After a time Sarat set out for Dakshineswar to get the oil from Bholanath.

The devotees, sitting around Sri Ramakrishna's bed, were silent. Suddenly

the Master sat up. He spoke to Narendranath.

Brahman is beyond the Gunās

MASTER: "Brahman is without taint. The three Gunās are in Brahman, but

It is Itself untainted by them.

"You may find both good and bad smells in the air; but the air itself is

unaffected.

"Sankaracharya was going along a street in Benares. An outcaste carrying a

load of meat suddenly touched him. 'What!' said Sankara. 'You have

touched me!' 'Revered sir,'

said the outcaste, 'I have not touched you nor have you touched me. The

Ātman is above all contamination, and you are that Pure Ātman.'

Brahman and māyā

"Of Brahman and māyā, the Jnāni rejects māyā.

"Māyā is like a veil. You see, I hold this towel between you and the lamp.

You no longer see the light of the lamp."

Sri Ramakrishna put the towel between himself and the devotees.

MASTER: "Now you cannot see my face any more. As Ramprasad said,

'Raise the curtain, and behold!'

"The bhakta, however, does not ignore māyā. He worships Mahamaya.

Taking refuge in Her, he says: 'O Mother, please stand aside from my path.

Only if You step out of my way shall I have the Knowledge of Brahman.'

The jnanis explain away all three states-waking, dream, and deep sleep. But

the bhaktas accept them all. As long as there is the ego, everything else

exists. So long as the 'I' exists, the bhakta sees that it is God who has

become māyā, the universe, the living beings, and the twenty-four cosmic

principles."

Narendra and the other devotees sat silently listening.

MASTER: "But the theory of māyā is dry. (To Narendra) Repeat what I

said."

NARENDRA: "Māyā is dry."

Sri Ramakrishna affectionately stroked Narendra's face and hands and said:

"Your face and hands show that you are a bhakta. But the Jnāni has different

features; they are dry.

Wicked ego and spiritualised ego

"Even after attaining Jnāna, the Jnāni can live in the world, retaining Vidyā-

māyā, that is to say, bhakti, compassion, renunciation, and such virtues.

This serves him, two purposes: first, the teaching of men, and second, the

enjoyment of divine bliss. If a Jnāni remains silent, merged in samādhi, then

men's hearts will not be illumined.

Therefore Sankaracharya kept the 'ego of Knowledge'. And further, a Jnāni

lives as a devotee, in the company of bhaktas, in order to enjoy and drink

deep of the Bliss of God.

"The 'ego of Knowledge' and the 'ego of Devotion' can do no harm; it is the

'wicked I'

that is harmful. After realizing God a man becomes like a child. There is no

harm in the 'ego of a child'. It is like the reflection of a face in a mirror: the

reflection cannot call names. Or it is like a burnt rope, which appears to be a

rope but disappears at the slightest puff. The ego that has been burnt in the

fire of Knowledge cannot injure anybody. It is an ego only in name."

"Returning to the relative plane after reaching the Absolute is like coming

back to this shore of a river after going to the other side. Such a return to

the relative plane is for the teaching of men and for enjoyment-participation

in the divine sport in the world."

Sri Ramakrishna was talking in a very low voice. Addressing the devotees,

he said: "The body is so ill, but the mind is free from Avidyā-māyā. Let me

tell you, there is no thought in my mind of Ramlal or home or wife. But I

have been worrying about Purna, that kayastha boy. I am not in the least

anxious about the others.

"It is God alone who has kept this Vidyā-māyā in me, for the good of men,

for the welfare of the devotees.

No liberation for Divine Incarnations

"But if one retains Vidyā-māyā one comes back to this world. The Avatars

keep this Vidyā-māyā. So long as a man has even the slightest desire, he

must be born again and again. When he gets rid of all desires, then he is

liberated. But the bhaktas do not seek liberation.

"If a person dies in Benares he attains liberation; he is not born again.

Liberation is the goal of the jnanis."

NARENDRA: "The other day we went to visit Mahimacharan."

MASTER (smiling): "Well?"

NARENDRA: "I have never before met such a dry Jnāni."

MASTER (smiling): "What was the matter?"

NARENDRA: "He asked us to sing. Gangadhar sang: Radha is restored to

life by hearing her Krishna's name She looks about; in front of her she sees

a tamala tree.

"On hearing this song, Mahimacharan said: 'Why such songs here? I don't

care for love and all that nonsense. Besides, I live here with my wife and

children. Why all these songs here?' "

MASTER (to M.): "Do you see how afraid he is?"

Sunday, March 14, 1886

Sri Ramakrishna sat facing the north in the large room upstairs. It was

evening. He was very ill. Narendra and Rākhāl were gently massaging his

feet. M, sat near by. The Master, by a sign, asked him, too, to stroke his

feet. M. obeyed.

The previous Sunday the devotees had observed Sri Ramakrishna's birthday

with worship and prayer. His birthday the year before had been observed at

Dakshineswar with great pomp; but this year, on account of his illness, the

devotees were very sad and there was no festivity at all.

The Holy Mother busied herself day and night in the Master's service.

Among the young disciples, Narendra, Rākhāl, Niranjan, Sarat, Śaśi,

Baburam, Jogin, Lātu, and Kāli had been staying with him at the garden

house. The older devotees visited him daily, and some of them occasionally

spent the night there.

That day Sri Ramakrishna was feeling very ill. At midnight the moonlight

flooded the garden, but it could wake no response in the devotees' hearts.

They were drowned in a sea of grief. They felt that they were living in a

beautiful city besieged by a hostile army.

Perfect silence reigned everywhere. Nature was still, except for the gentle

rustling of the leaves at the touch of the south wind. Sri Ramakrishna lay

awake. One or two devotees sat near him in silence. At times he seemed to

doze.

Master's great suffering

M. was seated by his side. Sri Ramakrishna asked him by a sign to come

nearer. The sight of his suffering was unbearable. In a very soft voice and

with great difficulty he said to M:

"I have gone on suffering so much for fear of making you all weep. But if

you all say: 'Oh, there is so much suffering! Let the body die', then I may

give up the body."

These words pierced the devotees' hearts. And he who was their father,

mother, and protector had uttered these words! What could they say? All sat

in silence. Some thought, "Is this another crucifixion-the sacrifice of the

body for the sake of the devotees?"

It was the dead of night. Sri Ramakrishna's illness was taking a turn for the

worse. The devotees wondered what was to be done. One of them left for

Calcutta. That very night Girish came to the garden house with two

physicians, Upendra and Navagopal.

The devotees sat near the Master. He felt a little better and said to them:

"The illness is of the body. That is as it should be; I see that the body is

made of the five elements."

Turning to Girish, he said: "I am seeing many forms of God. Among them I

find this one also [meaning his own form]."

Monday, March 15, 1886

About seven o'clock in the morning Sri Ramakrishna felt a little better. He

talked to the devotees, sometimes in a whisper, sometimes by signs.

Narendra, Rākhāl, Lātu, M., Gopal of Sinthi, and others were in the room.

They sat speechless and looked grave, thinking of the Master's suffering of

the previous night.

His vision of unity

MASTER (to the devotees): "Do you know what I see right now? I see that

it is God Himself who has become all this. It seems to me that men and

other living beings are made of leather, and that it is God Himself who,

dwelling inside these leather cases, moves the hands, the feet, the heads. I

had a similar vision once before, when I saw houses, gardens, roads, men,

cattle-all made of One Substance; it was as if they were all made of wax.

"I see that it is God Himself who has become the block, the executioner,

and the victim for the sacrifice."

As he describes this staggering experience, in which he realizes in full the

identity of all within the One Being, he is overwhelmed with emotion and

exclaims, "Ah! What a vision!"

Immediately Sri Ramakrishna goes into samādhi. He completely forgets his

body and the outer world. The devotees are bewildered. Not knowing what

to do, they sit still.

Presently the Master regains partial consciousness of the world and says:

"Now I have no pain at all. I am my old self again."

The devotees are amazed to watch this state of the Master, beyond pleasure

and pain, weal and woe.

He casts his glance on Lātu and says: "There is Loto. He bends his head,

resting it on the palm of his hand. I see that it is God Himself who rests his

head on His hand."

Sri Ramakrishna looks at the devotees and his love for them wells up in a

thousand streams. Like a mother showing her tenderness to her children he

touches the faces and chins of Rākhāl and Narendra.

Master about himself

A few minutes later he says to M., "If the body were to be preserved a few

days more, many people would have their spirituality awakened."

He pauses a few minutes.

"But this is not to be. This time the body will not be preserved."

The devotees eagerly await the Master's next words.

"Such is not the will of God. This time the body will not be preserved, lest,

finding me guileless and foolish, people should take advantage of me, and

lest I, guileless and foolish as I am, should give away everything to

everybody. In this Kaliyuga, you see, people are averse to meditation and

japa."

RĀKHĀL (tenderly): "Please speak to God that He may preserve your body

some time more."

MASTER: "That depends on God's will."

NARENDRA: "Your will and God's will have become one."

Sri Ramakrisna remains silent. He appears to be thinking about something.

MASTER (to Narendra, Rākhāl , and the others): "And nothing will happen

if I speak to God. Now I see that I and the Mother have become one. For

fear of her sister-in-law, Radha said to Krishna, 'Please dwell in my heart.'

But when, later on, she became very eager for a vision of Krishna-so eager

that her heart pined and panted for her Beloved-He would not come out."

RĀKHĀL (in a low voice, to the devotees): "He is referring to God's

incarnation as Gaurānga."

The devotees sit silently in the room. Sri Ramakrishna looks at them

tenderly. Then he places his hand on his heart He is about to speak.

MASTER (to Narendra and the others): "There are two persons in this. One,

the Divine Mother-"

He pauses. The devotees eagerly look at him to hear what he will say next.

MASTER: "Yes, One is She. And the other is Her devotee. It is the devotee

who broke his arm, and it is the devotee who is now ill. Do you

understand?"

The devotees sit without uttering a word.

MASTER: "Alas! To whom shall I say all this? Who will understand me?"

Pausing a few moments, he says:

"God becomes man, an Avatār, and comes to earth with His devotees. And

the devotee leave the world with Him."

RĀKHĀL : "Therefore we pray that you may not go away and leave us

behind."

Sri Ramakrishna smiles and says:

"A band of minstrels suddenly appears, dances, and sings, and it departs in

the same sudden manner. They come and they return, but none recognizes

them."

The Master and the devotees smile.

After a few minutes he says:

"Suffering is inevitable when one assumes a human body.

"Every now and then I say to myself, 'May I not have to come back to earth

again!' But there is something else. After enjoying sumptuous feasts

outside, one does not relish cheap home cooking.

"Besides, this assuming of a human body is for the sake of the devotees."

Sri Ramakrishna looks at Narendra very tenderly.

Master teaches Narendra Brahmajnana

MASTER (to Narendra) : "An outcaste was carrying a load of meat.

Sankaracharya, after bathing in the Ganges, was passing by. Suddenly the

outcaste touched him. Sankara said sharply: 'What! You touched me!'

'Revered sir,' he replied, 'I have not touched you nor have you touched me.

Reason with me: Are you the body, the mind, or the buddhi?

Analyse what you are. You are the Pure Ātman, unattached and free,

unaffected by the three Gunās-sattva, rajas, and tamas.'

"Do you know what Brahman is like? It is like air. Good and bad smells are

carried by the air, but the air itself is unaffected."

NARENDRA: "Yes, sir."

MASTER: "He is beyond the Gunās and māyā-beyond both the 'māyā of

knowledge' and the 'māyā of ignorance'.'Woman and gold' is the 'māyā of

ignorance'. Knowledge, renunciation, devotion, and other spiritual qualities

are the splendours of the 'māyā of knowledge'.

"Ego of Knowledge"

Sankaracharya kept this 'māyā of knowledge'; and that you and these others

feel concerned about me is also due to this 'māyā of knowledge'.

"Following the 'māyā of knowledge' step by step, one attains the

Knowledge of Brahman.

This 'māyā of knowledge' may be likened to the last few steps of the stairs.

Next is the roof. Some, even after reaching the roof, go up and down the

stairs; that is to say, some even after realizing God, retain the 'ego of

Knowledge'. They retain this in order to teach others, taste divine bliss, and

sport with the devotees of God."

NARENDRA: "Some people get angry with me when I speak of

renunciation."

MASTER (in a whisper): "Renunciation is necessary.

(Pointing to his different limbs) "If one thing is placed upon another, you

must remove the one to get the other. Can you get the second thing without

removing the first?"

NARENDRA: "True, sir."

MASTER (in a whisper, to Narendra): "When one sees everything filled

with God alone, does one see anything else?"

NARENDRA: "Must one renounce the world?"

MASTER: "Didn't I say just now: 'When one sees everything filled with

God alone, does one see anything else?' Does one then see any such thing as

the world?

"I mean mental renunciation. Not one of those who have come here is a

worldly person.

Some of them had a slight desire-for instance, a fancy for woman. (Rākhāl

and M.

smile.) And that desire has been fulfilled."

The Master looks at Narendra tenderly and becomes filled with love.

Looking at the devotees, he says, "Grand!"

With a smile Narendra asks the Master, "What is grand?"

MASTER (smiling): "I see that preparations are going on for a grand

renunciation."

Narendra and the devotees look silently at the Master. Rākhāl resumes the

conversation.

RĀKHĀL (smiling, to the Master): "Narendra is now beginning to

understand you rather well."

Sri Ramakrishna laughs and says: "Yes, that is so. I see that many others,

too, are beginning to understand. (To M.) Isn't that so?"

M: "Yes, sir."

Narendra and M

Sri Ramakrishna turns his eyes to Narendra and M. and by a sign of his

finger draws the attention of the devotees to them. He first points out

Narendra and then M.

Rākhāl understands the Master's hint and says to him with a smile, "Don't

you mean that Narendra has the attitude of a hero, and he [meaning M.] that

of a handmaid of God?"

Sri Ramakrishna laughs.

NARENDRA (smiling, to Rākhāl): "He [meaning M.] doesn't talk much

and is bashful. Is that why you say he is a handmaid of God?"

MASTER (smiling, to Narendra): "Well, what do you think of me?"

NARENDRA: "You are a hero, a handmaid of God, and everything else."

These words fill Sri Ramakrishna with divine emotion. He places his hand

on his heart and is about to say something.

He says to Narendra and the other devotees:

"I see that all things-everything that exist-have come from this."

He asks Narendra by a sign, "What did you understand?"

NARENDRA: "All created objects have come from you."

The Master's face beams with joy. He says to Rākhāl, "Did you hear what

he said?"

Sri Ramakrishna asks Narendra to sing. Narendra intones a hymn. His mind

is full of renunciation. He sings:

Unsteady is water on the lotus petal;

Just as unsteady is the life of man.

One moment with a sādhu is the boat

That takes one across the ocean of this world. . . .

Narendra has hardly finished one or two lines, when Sri Ramakrishna says

to him by a sign: "What are you singing? That is a very insignificant

attitude, a very commonplace thing."

Now Narendra sings about the love of Krishna, impersonating one of His

handmaids: How strange, O friend, are the rules of life and death!

The Youth of Braja has Red away,

And this poor maid of Braja soon will die.

Madhava is in love with other maids

More beautiful than I.

Alas! He has forgotten the milkman's artless daughter.

Who would ever have guessed, dear friend, that He, A Lover so tender, so

divine,

Could be a beggar simply for outward charm?

I was a fool not to have seen it before;

But carried away by His beauty,

I yearned alone to hold His two feet to my breast.

Now I shall drown myself in the Jamuna's stream, Or take a draught of

poison, friend!

Or I shall bind a creeper round my neck,

Or hang myself from a young tamala tree; Or, failing all of these,

Destroy my wretched self by chanting Krishna's name.

Sri Ramakrishna and the devotees are greatly moved by the song. The

Master and Rākhāl shed tears of love. Narendra is intoxicated with the love

of the gopis of Braja for their Sweetheart, Sri Krishna, and sings:

O Krishna! Beloved! You are mine.

What shall I say to You, O Lord?

What shall I ever say to You?

Only a woman am I,

And never fortune's favourite;

I do not know what to say.

You are the mirror for the hand,

And You are the flower for the hair.

O Friend, I shall make a flower of You

And wear You in my hair;

Under my braids I shall hide You, Friend!

No one will see You there.

You are the betel-leaf for the lips,

The sweet collyrium for the eyes;

O Friend, with You I shall stain my lips,

With You I shall paint my eyes.

You are the sandal-paste for the body;

You are the necklace for the neck.

I shall anoint myself with You,

My fragrant Sandal-paste,

And soothe my body and my soul.

I shall wear You, my lovely Necklace,

Here about my neck,

And You will lie upon my bosom,

Close to my throbbing heart.

You are the Treasure in my body;

You are the Dweller in my house.

You are to me, O Lord,

What wings are to the flying bird,

What water is to the fish.

--------------------

Chapter 50

THE MASTER AND BUDDHA

Friday, April 9, 1886

IT WAS FIVE ’CLOCK in the afternoon. Narendra, Kāli, Niranjan, and M.

were talking downstairs in the Cossipore garden house.

NIRANJAN (to M.): "Is it true that Vidyāsāgar is going to open a new

school? Why don't you try to secure employment there for Naren?"

NARENDRA: "I have had enough of service under Vidyāsāgar."

Narendra's visit to Bodh-Gaya

Narendra had just returned from a visit to Bodh-Gaya, where he had gone

with Kāli and Tārak. In that sacred place he had been absorbed in deep

meditation before the image of Buddha. He had paid his respects to the

Bodhi-tree, which is an offshoot of the original tree under which Buddha

attained Nirvāna.

Kāli said, "One day at Gaya, at Mesh Babu's house, Narendra sang many

classical songs to the accompaniment of the Mridanga."

Sri Ramakrishna sat on his bed in the big hall upstairs. It was evening. M.

was alone in the room, fanning the Master. Lātu came in a little later.

MASTER (to M.): "Please bring a chaddar for me and a pair of slippers.

M: "Yes, sir."

MASTER (to Lātu): "The chaddar will cost ten ānnās, and then the slippers.

What will be the total cost?"

LĀTU: "One rupee and ten ānnās."

Sri Ramakrishna asked M., by a sign, to note the price.

Narendra entered the room and took a seat. Śaśi, Rākhāl, and one or two

other devotees came in. The Master asked Narendra to stroke his feet. He

also asked him whether he had taken his meal.

MASTER (smiling, to M.): "He went there [referring to Bodh-Gaya]."

Buddha's doctrines

M. (to Narendra): "What are the doctrines of Buddha?"

NARENDRA: "He could not express in words what he had realized by his

tapasya. So people say he was an atheist."

MASTER (by signs): "Why atheist? He was not an atheist. He simply could

not express his inner experiences in words.

The meaning of Buddha

Do you know what 'Buddha' means? It is to become one with Bodha, Pure

Intelligence, by meditating on That which is of the nature of Pure

Intelligence; it is to become Pure Intelligence Itself."

NARENDRA: "Yes, sir. There are three classes of Buddhās: Buddha, Arhat,

and Bodhisattva."

MASTER: "This too is a sport of God Himself, a new lila of God.

"Why should Buddha be called an atheist? When one realizes Svarupa, the

true nature of one's Self, one attains a state that is something between Asti,

is, and Nāsti, is not."

NARENDRA (to M:): "It is a state in which contradictions meet. A

combination of hydrogen and oxygen produces cool water; and the same

hydrogen and oxygen are used in the oxyhydrogen blowpipe.

"In that state both activity and non-activity are possible; that is to say, one

then performs unselfish action.

"Worldly people, who are engrossed in sense-objects, say that everything

exists Asti. But the Mayavadis, the illusionists, say that nothing exists Nāsti.

The experience of a Buddha is beyond both 'existence' and 'non-existence'. "

MASTER: "This 'existence' and 'non-existence' are attributes of Prakriti.

The Reality is beyond both."

The devotees remained silent a few moments.

MASTER (to Narendra): "What did Buddha preach?"

NARENDRA: "He did not discuss the existence or non-existence of God.

But he showed compassion for others all his life.

"A hawk pounced upon a bird and was about to devour it. In order to save

the bird, Buddha gave the hawk his own flesh."

Narendra's enthusiasm about Buddha

Sri Ramakrishna remained silent. Narendra became more and more

enthusiastic about Buddha.

NARENDA: "How great his renunciation was! Born a prince, he renounced

everything! If a man has nothing, no wealth at all, what does his

renunciation amount to? After attaining Buddhahood and experiencing

Nirvāna, Buddha once visited his home and exhorted his wife, his son, and

many others of the royal household to embrace the life of renunciation.

How intense his renunciation was! But look at Vyāsa's conduct! He forbade

his son Sukadeva to give up the world, saying, 'My son, practise religion as

a householder.' "

Sri Ramakrishna was silent. As yet he had not uttered a word.

NARENDRA: "Buddha did not care for Śakti or any such thing. He sought

only Nirvāna.

Ah, how intense his dispassion was! When he sat down under the Bodhi-

tree to meditate, he took this vow: 'Let my body wither away here if I do not

attain Nirvāna.'

Such a firm resolve!

"This body, indeed, is the great enemy. Can anything be achieved without

chastising it?"

ŚAŚI: "But it is you who say that one develops sattva by eating meat. You

insist that one should eat meat."

NARENDRA: "I eat meat, no doubt, but I can also live on rice, mere rice,

even without salt."

After a few minutes Sri Ramakrishna broke his silence. He asked Narendra,

by sign, whether he had seen a tuft of hair on Buddha's head.

NARENDRA: "No, sir. He seems to have a sort of crown; his head seems to

be covered by strings of rudraksha beads placed on top of one another."

MASTER: "And his eyes?"

NARENDRA: "They show that he is in samādhi."

Master about himself

Sri Ramakrishna again became silent. Narendra and the other devotees

looked at him intently. Suddenly a smile lighted his face and he began to

talk with Narendra. M. was fanning him.

MASTER (to Narendra): "Well, here you find everything-even ordinary red

lentils and tamarind. Isn't that so?"

NARENDRA: "After experiencing all those states, you are now dwelling

on a lower plane."

M. (to himself): "Yes, after realizing all those ideals, he is now living as a

bhakta, a devotee of God."

MASTER: "Someone seems to be holding me to a lower plane."

Master's vision of God

Saying this, Sri Ramakrishna took the fan from M.'s hand and said: "As I

see this fan, directly before me, in exactly the same manner have I seen

God. And I have seen- "

With these words he placed his hand on his heart and asked Narendra, by a

sign, "Can you tell me what I said?"

NARENDRA: "I have understood."

MASTER: "Tell me."

NARENDRA: "I didn't hear you well"

Sri Ramakrishna said again, by a sign, "I have seen that He and the one who

dwells in my heart are one and the same Person."

NARENDRA: "Yes, yes! Soham-I am He."

MASTER: "But only a line divides the two-that I may enjoy divine bliss."

NARENDRA (to M.): "Great souls, even after their own liberation, retain

the ego and experience the pleasure and pain of the body that they may help

others to attain liberation.

"It is like coolie work. We perform coolie work under compulsion, but great

souls do so of their own sweet pleasure."

Again all fell into silence. After a time Sri Ramakrishna resumed the

conversation.

MASTER (to Narendra and the others): "The roof is clearly visible; but it is

extremely hard to reach it."

NARENDRA: "Yes, sir."

MASTER: "But if someone who has already reached it drops down a rope,

he can pull another person up.

Different kinds of samādhi

"Once a sādhu from Hrishikesh came to Dakshineswar. He said to me: 'How

amazing! I find five kinds of samādhi manifested in you.'

"Just as a monkey climbs a tree, jumping from one branch to another, so

also does the Mahāvāyu, the Great Energy, rise in the body, jumping from

one centre to another, and one goes into samādhi. One feels the rising of the

Great Energy, as though it were the movement of a monkey.

"Just as a fish darts about in the water and roams in great happiness, so also

does the Mahāvāyu move upward in the body, and one goes into samādhi.

One feels the rising of the Great Energy, as though it were the movement of

a fish.

"Like a bird hopping from one branch to another, the Mahāvāyu goes up in

the tree of the body, now to this branch and now to that. One feels the rising

of the Great Energy, as though it were the movement of a bird.

"Like the slow creeping of an ant, the Mahāvāyu rises from centre to centre.

When it reaches the Sahasrara one goes into samādhi. One feels the rising

of the Great Energy, as though it were the movement of an ant.

"Like the wriggling of a snake, the Mahāvāyu rises in a zigzag way along

the spinal column till it reaches the Sahasrara, and one goes into samādhi.

One feels. the rising of the Great Energy, as though it were the movement of

a snake."

RĀKHĀL (to the other devotees): "Let us stop here. He has already talked a

great deal.

It will aggravate his illness."

Monday, April 12, 1886

About five o'clock in the afternoon Sri Ramakrishna was sitting on the bed

in his room in the Cossipore garden house. Śaśi and M. were with him. He

asked M., by a sign, to fan him. There was a fair in the neighbourhood in

celebration of the last day of the Bengali year. A devotee, whom Sri

Ramakrishna had sent to the fair to buy a few articles, returned. "What have

you bought?" the Master asked him.

DEVOTEE: "Candy for five pice, a spoon for two pice, and a vegetable-

knife for two pice."

MASTER: "What about the penknife?"

DEVOTEE: "I couldn't get one for two pice."

MASTER (eagerly): "Go quickly and get one!"

M. was pacing the garden. Narendra and Tārak returned from Calcutta.

They had visited

Girish Ghosh's house and other places.

TĀRAK: "We have eaten a great deal of meat and other heavy stuff today."

NARENDRA: "Yes, our minds have come down a great deal. Let us

practise tapasya. (To M.) What slavery to body and mind! We are just like

coolies-as if this body and mind were not ours but belonged to someone

else."

In the evening lamps were lighted in the house. Sri Ramakrishna sat on his

bed, facing the north. He was absorbed in contemplation of the Mother of

the Universe. A few minutes later Fakir, who belonged to the priestly

family of Balarām, recited the Hymn of Forgiveness addressed to the

Divine Mother. Śaśi, M., and two or three other devotees were in the room.

After the recital Sri Ramakrishna, with folded hands, very respectfully

bowed to the Deity.

M. was fanning Sri Ramakrishna. The Master said to him by signs, "Get a

stone cup for me that will hold a quarter of a seer of milk-white stone." He

drew the shape of the cup with his finger.

M: "Yes, sir."

MASTER: "When eating from other cups I get the smell of fish."

Tuesday, April 13, 1886

It was about eight o'clock in the morning. M. had spent the night at the

garden house.

After taking his bath in the Ganges he prostrated himself before Sri

Ramakrishna. Ram had just come. He saluted the Master and took a seat.

He had brought a garland of flowers, which he offered to the Master. Most

of the devotees were downstairs; only one or two were in the Master's

room.

Sri Ramakrishna was talking to Ram.

MASTER: "How do you find me?"

RAM: "In you one finds everything. "Presently there will be a discussion

about your illness."

The Master smiled and asked Ram by a sign, "Will there really be a

discussion about my illness?"

Sri Ramakrishna's slippers were not comfortable. Dr. Rajendra Dutta

intended to buy a new pair and had asked for the measurement of his feet.

The measurement was taken.

"Sri Ramakrishna asked M., by a sign, about the stone cup. M. at once

stood up. He wanted to go to Calcutta for the cup.

MASTER: "Don't bother about it now."

M: "Sir, these devotees are going to Calcutta. I will go with them."

M. bought the cup in Calcutta and returned to Cossipore at noon. He saluted

the Master and placed the cup near him. Sri Ramakrishna took the cup in

his hand and looked at it.

Dr. Rajendra Dutta, Dr. Sreenāth, Rākhāl, Haldār, and several others came

in. Rākhāl, Śaśi, and the younger Naren were in the room. The physicians

heard the report of the Master's illness. Dr. Sreenath had a copy of the Gitā

in his hand.

DR. SREENATH (to his friends): "Everything is under the control of

Prakriti. Nobody can escape the fruit of past action. This is called

Prārabdha."

Power of God's name

MASTER: "Why, if one chants the name of God, meditates on Him, and

takes refuge in Him-"

DR. SREENATH: "But, sir, how can one escape Prārabdha, the effect of

action performed in previous births?"

MASTER: "No doubt a man experiences a little of the effect; but much of it

is cancelled by the power of God's name. A man was born blind of an eye.

This was his punishment for a certain misdeed he had committed in his past

birth, and the punishment was to remain with him for six more births. Be,

however, took a bath in the Ganges, which gives one liberation. This

meritorious action could not cure his blindness, but it saved him from his

future births."

DR. SREENATH: "But, sir, the scriptures say that nobody can escape the

fruit of karma."

Dr. Sreenāth was ready to argue with the Master.

MASTER (to M.): "Why don't you tell him that there is a great difference

between the Isvarakoti and an ordinary man? An Isvarakoti cannot commit

sin. Why don't you tell him that?"

M. remained silent and then said to Rākhāl, "You tell him."

After a few minutes the physicians left the room. Sri Ramakrishna was

talking to Rākhāl Haldar.

HALDAR: "Dr. Sreenath studies Vedānta. He is a student of the Yoga-

vasishtha."

MASTER: "A householder should not hold the view that everything is

illusory, like a dream."

Referring to a man named Kalidas, a devotee said, "He too discusses

Vedānta, but he has lost all his money in lawsuits."

MASTER (smiling): "Yes, one proclaims everything to be māyā, and still

one goes to court! (To Rākhāl ) Mukherji of Janai, too, talked big. But at

last he came to his senses.

If I were well I should have talked a little more with Dr. Sreenath. Can one

obtain jnāna just by talking about it?"

HALDAR: "You are right, sir. I have seen enough of jnāna. Now all I need

in order to live in the world is a little bhakti. The other day I came to you

with a problem on my mind, and you solved it."

MASTER (eagerly): "What was it?"

HALDAR: "Sir, when that boy (pointing to the younger Naren) came in,

you said he had controlled his passions."

MASTER: "Yes, it is true. He is totally unaffected by worldliness. He says

he doesn't know what lust is. (To M.) Just feel my body. All the hair is

standing on end."

The Master's hair actually stood on end at the thought of a pure mind totally

devoid of lust. He always said that God manifests Himself where there is no

lust.

Rākhāl Haldar took his leave.

Sri Ramakrishna was seated with the devotees. A crazy woman had been

troubling everybody in order to see the Master. She had assumed toward

him the attitude of a lover and often ran into the garden house and burst into

the Master's room. She had even been beaten by the devotees; but that did

not stop her.

ŚAŚI: "If she comes again I shall shove her out of the place!"

MASTER (tenderly): "No, no! Let her come and go away."

RĀKHĀL : "At the beginning I too used to feel jealous of others when they

visited the Master. But he graciously revealed to me that my guru is also the

Guru of the Universe.

Has he taken this birth only for a few of us?"

ŚAŚI: "I don't mean that. But why should she trouble him when he is ill?

And she is such a nuisance!"

RĀKHĀL : "We all give him trouble. Did we all come to him after attaining

perfection?

Haven't we caused him suffering? How Narendra and some of the others

behaved in the beginning! How they argued with him!"

ŚAŚI: "Whatever Narendra expressed in words he carried out in his

actions."

RĀKHĀL: "How rude Dr. Sarkar has been to him! No one is guiltless, if it

comes to that."

MASTER (to Rākhāl, tenderly): "Will you eat something?"

RĀKHĀL: "Not now. Later on."

Sri Ramakrishna asked M., by a sign, whether he was going to have his

meal there.

RĀKHĀL (to M.): "Please take your meal here. He is asking you to."

Sri Ramakrishna was seated completely naked. He looked like a five-year-

old boy. Just then the crazy woman climbed the stairs and stood near the

door.

M. (in a low voice, to Śaśi): "Ask her to salute him and go away. Don't

make any fuss."

Śaśi took her downstairs.

It was the first day of the Bengali year. Many woman devotees arrived.

They saluted Sri Ramakrishna and the Holy Mother. Among them were the

wives of Balarām and Manomohan, and the brahmani of Baghbazar.

Several of them had brought their children along.

Some of the women offered flowers at the Master's feet. Two young girls,

nine or ten years of age, sang a few songs.

First they sang:

We moan for rest, alas! but rest can never find; We know not whence we

come, nor where we float away.

Time and again we tread this round of smiles and tears; In vain we pine to

know whither our pathway leads, And why we play this empty play. . . .

Then:

There comes Radha, and there see your Krishna, With arching eyes and the

flute at His lips.. . .

And finally:

O tongue, always repeat the name of Mother Durga!

Who but your Mother Durga will save you in distress? .

. .

Sri Ramakrishna said by a sign: "That's good! They are singing of the

Divine Mother." The Brahmani of Baghbazar had the nature of a child. Sri

Ramakrishna told Rākhāl , by a sign, to ask her to sing. The devotees

smiled as the brahmani sang:

O Hari, I shall sport with You today;

For I have found You alone in the Nidhu wood. . .

The woman devotees went downstairs.

It was afternoon. M. and a few other devotees were seated near the Master.

Narendra came in. He looked, as the Master used to say, like an unsheathed

sword.

Narendra sat down near the Master and within his hearing expressed his

utter annoyance with women. He told the devotees what an obstacle women

were in the path of God-realization.

Sri Ramakrishna made no response. He listened to Narendra.

Narendra said again: "I want peace. I do not care even for God."

Sri Ramakrishna looked at him intently without uttering a word. Now and

then Narendra chanted, "Brahman is Truth, Knowledge, the Infinite."

It was eight o'clock in the evening. Sri Ramakrishna sat on his bed. A few

devotees sat on the floor in front of him. Surendra arrived from his office.

He carried in his hands four oranges and two garlands of flowers. Now he

looked at the Master and now at the devotees. He unburdened his heart to

Sri Ramakrishna.

Surendra's faith

SURENDRA (looking at M, and the others): "I have come after finishing

my office work. I thought, 'What is the good of standing on two boats at the

same time?' So I finished my duties first and then came here. Today is the

first day of the year; it is also Tuesday, an auspicious day to worship the

Divine Mother. But I didn't go to Kalighat. I said to myself,' 'It will be

enough if I see him who is Kāli Herself, and who has rightly understood

Kāli.' "

Sri Ramakrishna smiled.

SURENDRA: "It is said that a man should bring fruit and flowers when

visiting his guru or a holy man. So I have brought these. . . . . (To the

Master) I am spending all this money for you. God alone knows my heart.

Some people feel grieved to give away a penny; and there are people who

spend a thousand rupees without feeling any hesitation. God sees the inner

love of a devotee and accepts his offering."

Sri Ramakrishna said to Surendra, by a nod, that he was right.

SURENDRA: "I couldn't come here yesterday. It was the last day of the

year. But I decorated your picture with flowers."

Sri Ramakrishna said to M., by a sign, "Ah, what devotion!"

SURENDRA: "As I was coming here I bought these two garlands for four

ānnās.

Almost all the devotees took their leave. The Master asked M. to stroke his

legs and fan him.

Friday, April 16, 1886

The moon was shining brilliantly, flooding the garden paths, the trees, and

the water of the lake with its white rays. Girish, M., Lātu, and a few other

devotees were seated on the steps leading to the lake. The house stood to

the west of the lake. A lamp burnt in the Master's room on the second floor.

Sri Ramakrishna was sitting on his bed. There were several devotees in the

room.

A few minutes later Girish and M. were strolling along a garden path lined

with flowering plants and fruit-trees.

M: "How beautiful this moonlight is! Perhaps nature has had the same laws

from time out of mind."

GIRISH: "How do you know that?"

M: "There is no change in the uniformity of nature. European scientists

have been discovering new stars through the telescope. There are mountains

on the moon; they have seen them."

GIRISH: "It is difficult to be sure of that. It is hard for me to believe it."

M: "Why? The mountains have been observed through the telescope."

GIRISH: "How can you be sure that they have been rightly observed?

Suppose there are other things between the moon and the earth. Light

passing through them may conjure up such visions."

Narendra, Rākhāl, Niranjan, Sarat, Śaśi, Baburam, Kāli, Jogin, Lātu, and a

few other young devotees had been living at the Cossipore garden house in

order to nurse Sri Ramakrishna. That evening Narendra, Kāli, and Tārak

had gone to Dakshineswar. They were going to spend the night in the

Panchavati, meditating on God.

Girish, Lātu, and M. went to Sri Ramakrishna's room and found him sitting

on the bed.

Śaśi and one or two devotees had been tending the Master. Baburam,

Niranjan, and Rākhāl also entered the room. It was a large room. Some

medicines and a few other accessories were kept near the bed. One entered

the room by a door at the north end.

Since Sri Ramakrishna had to be tended all night, the devotees stayed

awake by turns.

The devotee who tended him fixed Sri Ramakrishna's mosquito net and then

either lay on a mat on the floor or spent the night sitting up. Since Sri

Ramakrishna got very little sleep on account of his illness, his attendant,

too, slept very little.

Master's love for Girish

That evening Sri Ramakrishna was somewhat better. The devotees saluted

the Master and sat down on the floor. The Master asked M. to bring the

lamp near him. He greeted Girish cordially.

MASTER (to Girish): "Are you quite well? (To Lātu) Prepare a smoke for

him and give him a betel-leaf."

A few minutes afterwards he asked Lātu to give Girish some refreshments.

Lātu said that they had been sent for.

Sri Ramakrishna was sitting up. A devotee offered him some garlands of

flowers. Sri Ramakrishna put them around his neck one by one. Was he thus

worshipping God who dwelt in his heart? The devotees looked at him

wonderingly. He took two garlands from his neck and gave them to Girish.

Every now and then Sri Ramakrishna asked whether the refreshments had

been brought.

M. was fanning the Master. On the bed was a sandalwood-fan, the offering

of a devotee. The Master gave it to M., who continued to fan him with it.

He also gave M. two garlands.

M. had lost a son aged seven or eight about a year and a half before. The

child had seen the Master many a time. Lātu was telling Sri Ramakrishna

about M.

LĀTU: "M. wept bitterly last night at the sight of some books that had

belonged to his dead child. His wife is almost mad with grief. She

sometimes treats her other children violently. She creates a scene at home

because he spends the night here now and then."

Sri Ramakrishna seemed worried to hear of this.

GIRISH: "It is nothing to be wondered at. Even after receiving the

instruction of the Bhagavad Gitā, Arjuna fainted from grief at the death of

his son Abhimanyu."

Girish was given the refreshments on a tray. Sri Ramakrishna took a grain

and Girish accepted the rest as Prasad. He sat in front of the Master and

began to eat. He needed water to drink. There was an earthen jug in the

southeast corner of the room. It was the month of April, and the day was

hot. Sri Ramakrishna said, "There is some nice water here."

The Master was so ill that he had not enough strength even to stand up. And

what did the disciples see to their utter amazement? They saw him leave the

bed, completely naked, and move toward the jug! He himself was going to

pour the water into a tumbler.

The devotees were almost frozen with fear. The Master poured the water

into a glass. He poured a drop or two into his hand to see whether it was

cool. He found that it was not very cool; but since nothing better could be

found, he reluctantly gave it to Girish.

Girish was eating the sweets. The devotees were sitting about, and M. was

fanning Sri Ramakrishna.

GIRISH (to the Master): "Deben Babu has decided to renounce the world."

On account of his illness Sri Ramakrishna could hardly talk. Touching his

lips with his finger, he asked Girish, by signs, "Who will feed his wife and

children?"

GIRISH: "I don't know."

The other devotees remained silent. Girish began talking again while he ate

the refreshments.

GIRISH: "Sir, which is wiser-to renounce the world regretfully, or to call on

God, leading a householder's life?"

MASTER (to M.): "Haven't you read the Gitā? One truly realizes God if

one performs one's worldly duties in a detached spirit, if one lives in the

world after realizing that everything is illusory.

"Those who regretfully renounce the world belong to an inferior class.

"Do you know what a householder Jnāni is like? He is like a person living

in a glass house. He can see both inside and outside."

Again there was silence in the room.

MASTER (to M.): "The refreshments are hot and good."

M. (to Girish): "Yes, they were bought from Fagu's shop. The place is

famous."

MASTER (smiling) "Yes, famous."

GIRISH: "They are really nice.

(To the Master) "Sir, my mind is now on a very lofty plane. Why does it

come down again?"

Nature of the mind

MASTER: "That always happens when one leads a worldly life. sometimes

the householder's mind goes up; sometimes it goes down. Sometimes he

feels a great deal of devotion; sometimes he feels less. This happens

because he lives in the midst of 'woman and gold'.

Monks and householders

Sometimes a householder contemplates God or chants His name, and

sometimes he diverts his mind to 'woman and gold'. He is like an ordinary

fly, which now sits on a sweetmeat and now on filth or rotting sores.

"But it is quite different with sannyāsis. They are able to fix their minds on

God alone, completely withdrawing them from 'woman and gold'. They can

enjoy the Bliss of God alone. A man of true renunciation cannot enjoy

anything but God. He leaves any place where people talk of worldly things;

he listens only to spiritual talk. A man of true renunciation never speaks

about anything but God. The bees light only on flowers, in order to sip

honey; they do not enjoy anything else."

Girish went to the small terrace to rinse his hands.

MASTER (to M.): "A man needs the grace of God to fix his whole mind on

Him. Well, Girish has eaten a great many sweets. Tell him not to eat

anything else tonight."

Girish returned to the room and sat in front of the Master. He was chewing

a betel-leaf.

About Rākhāl

MASTER (to Girish): "Rākhāl has now understood what is good and what

is bad, what is real and what is unreal. He lives with his family, no doubt,

but he knows what it means.

He has a wife. And a son has been born to him. But he has realized that all

these are illusory and impermanent. Rākhāl will never be attached to the

world.

"He is like a mudfish. The fish lives in the mud, but there is not the slightest

trace of mud on its body."

GIRISH: "Sir, I don't understand all this. You can make everyone pure and

unattached if you want to. You can make everyone good, whether he is a

worldly man or a sannyāsi.

The Malaya breeze, I believe, turns all trees into sandalwood."

MASTER: "Not unless there is substance in them. There are a few trees, the

cotton-tree for instance, which are not turned into sandalwood."

GIRISH: "I don't care."

MASTER: "But this is the law."

GIRISH: "But everything about you is illegal."

The devotees were listening to this conversation in great amazement. Every

now and then, the fan in M.'s hand stopped moving.

MASTER: "Yes, that may be true. When the river of bhakti overflows, the

land all around is flooded with water to the depth of a pole.

"When a man is inebriated with divine love, he doesn't abide by the

injunctions of the Vedas. He picks Durva grass for the worship of the Deity,

but he doesn't clean it. He picks whatever he lays his hands on. While

gathering tulsi-leaves he even breaks the branches. Ah! what state of mind I

passed through!

(To M.) "When one develops love of God, one needs nothing else."

M: "Yes, sir."

MASTER: "But a devotee must assume toward God, a particular attitude.

God in His Incarnation as Rāma demonstrated Śānta, Dāsya, Vātsalya, and

sakhya. But Krishna demonstrated Madhur, besides all these.

Radha's love for Krishna

"Radha cherished the attitude of Madhur toward Krishna. Her love was

romantic. But in the case of Sita it was the pure love of a chaste wife for her

husband. There was no romance in her love.

"But all this is the lila of God. He demonstrates different ideals to suit

different times."

The crazy woman

A crazy woman used to accompany Vijay Goswami to the Kāli temple at

Dakshineswar and sing for Sri Ramakrishna. Her songs were about Kāli.

She also used to sing the songs of the Brahmo Samaj. The devotees called

her "Pagli" and tried to keep her away from the Master.

MASTER (to Girish and the others): "Pagli cherishes the attitude of

Madhur toward me.

One day she came to Dakshineswar. Suddenly she burst out crying. 'Why

are you crying?' I asked her. And she said, 'Oh, my head is aching!' (All

laugh.) Another day I was eating when she came to Dakshineswar. She

suddenly said, 'Won't you be kind to me?' I had no idea of what was passing

through her mind and went on eating. Then she said, 'Why did you push me

away mentally?' I asked her, 'What is your attitude?' She said, 'Madhur.'

'Ah!' I said. 'But I look on all women as manifestations of the Divine

Mother. All women are mothers to me.' There upon she said, 'I don't know

all that.' Then I called Ramlal and said to him: 'Ramlal, listen to her! What

is she talking about this ‘pushing away mentally? ' Even now she keeps up

that attitude."

GIRISH: "Blessed indeed is Pagli! May be she is crazy. May be she is

beaten by the devotees. But she meditates on you twenty-four hours a day.

No matter how she meditates on you, no harm can ever befall her.

"Sir, how can I express my own feelings about it? Think what I was before,

and what I have become now by meditating on you! Formerly I was

indolent; now that indolence has turned into resignation to God. Formerly I

was a sinner; now I have become humble.

What else can I say?"

The devotees remained silent. Rākhāl expressed his sympathy for Pagli.

He said: 'We all feel sorry for her. She causes so much annoyance, and for

that she suffers, too."

NIRANJAN (to Rākhāl): "You feel that way for her because you have a

wife at home. But we could kill her."

RĀKHĀL (sharply): "Such bragging! How dare you utter such words

before him [meaning Sri Ramakrishna]?"

MASTER (to Girish): "'Woman and gold' alone is the world. Many people

regard money as their very life-blood. But however you may show love for

money, one day, perhaps, every bit of it will slip from your hand.

"In our part of the country the farmers make narrow ridges around their

paddy-fields.

You know what those ridges are. Some farmers make ridges with great care

all the way around their fields. Such ridges are destroyed by the rush of the

rain-water. But some farmers leave a part of the ridge open and put sod

there. The water flows through the sod, leaving the field covered with silt

after the rain. They reap a rich harvest.

Good use of money

"They alone make good use of their money who spend it for the worship of

God or the service of holy men and devotees. Their money bears fruit.

"I cannot eat anything offered by physicians. I mean those who traffic in

human suffering. Their money is blood and pus."

Sri Ramakrishna mentioned two physicians in this connection.

GIRISH: "Dr. Rajendra Dutta is a generous person. He doesn't accept a

penny from anybody. He gives away money in charity."

Saturday, April 17, 1886

It was the night of the full moon. For some time Narendra had been going

to Dakshineswar daily. He spent a great deal of time in the panchavati in

meditation and contemplation. This day he returned from Dakshineswar in

the evening. Tārak and Kāli were with him.

It was eight o'clock in the evening. Moonlight and the south wind added to

the charm of the garden house. Many of the devotees were meditating in the

room downstairs.

Referring to them, Narendra said to M., "They are shedding their Upādhis

one by one."

A few minutes later M. came into Sri Ramakrishna's room and sat down on

the floor.

The Master asked him to wash his towel and the spittoon. M. washed them

in the reservoir.

Master's anxiety about M.'s wife

Next morning Sri Ramakrishna sent for M. After taking his bath in the

Ganges and saluting the Master, he had gone to the roof. Sri Ramakrishna

asked M. to bring his grief-stricken wife to the garden house, where she

could have her meal.

The Master said to M., by a sign: "Ask her to come. Let her stay here a

couple of days.

She may bring the baby."

M: "Yes, sir. It would be fine if she developed intense love of God."

Sri Ramakrishna again answered by signs: "Oh, grief pushes out devotion.

And, he was such a big boy!

"Krishnakishore had two sons. They were of the same age as Bhavanāth,

and each had two university degrees. They both died. And Krishnakishore,

Jnāni that he was, could not at first control himself. How lucky I am that I

have none!

"Arjuna was a great Jnāni; and Krishna was his constant companion.

Nevertheless, he was completely overwhelmed with grief at the death of his

son Abhimanyu.

"Why doesn't Kishori come?"

A DEVOTEE: "He comes to the Ganges every day for his bath."

MASTER: "But why doesn't he come here?"

DEVOTEE: "I shall ask him to come, sir."

MASTER: "Why doesn't Harish come?"

Two young girls aged nine and ten, who belonged to M.'s family, sang

several songs about the Divine Mother for the Master. They had sung for

him when he had visited M.'s house at Syampukur. The Master was very

much pleased with their songs. After they had finished, they were sent for

by the devotees to sing for them downstairs.

MASTER (to M.): "Don't teach the girls any more songs. It is different if

they sing spontaneously. But they will lose their modesty by singing before

anyone and everyone.

It is very necessary for women to be modest."

Flowers and sandal-paste were placed before the Master in a flower-basket.

He sat on his bed and worshipped himself with these offerings. Sometimes

he placed flowers and sandal-paste on his head, sometimes on his throat,

sometimes on his heart, and sometimes on his navel.

Manomohan of Konnagar came in and took a seat after saluting the Master.

Sri Ramakrishna was still busy with the worship of his inner Self. He put a

garland of flowers on his own neck. After a while he seemed to be pleased

with Manomohan and gave him some flowers. M., too, received a flower.

It was about nine o'clock in the morning. The Master and M: were talking.

Śaśi was also in the room.

MASTER (to M.): "What were Narendra and Śaśi talking about? What did

they discuss?"

M. (to Śaśi): "What were you talking about?"

ŚAŚI: "Was it Niranjan that told you about it?"

MASTER: "What were you discussing? I heard 'God', 'Being', 'Non-being',

and so forth."

ŚAŚI (smiling): "Shall I call Narendra?"

MASTER: "Yes."

Narendra came in and took a seat.

MASTER (to M.): "Ask him something. (To Narendra) Tell us what you

were talking about."

NARENDRA: "I have indigestion. What's there to tell you about?"

MASTER: "You will get over your indigestion."

M. (smiling): 'Tell us about the experience of Buddha."

NARENDRA: "Have I become a Buddha, that you want me to talk about

him?"

M: "What does Buddha say about the existence of God?"

NARENDRA: "How can you say that God exists? It is you who have

created this universe.

Don't you know what Berkeley says about it?"

M: "Yes, I do. According to him, esse is percipi. The world exists as long as

the sense-organs perceive it."

MASTER: " 'Nangta used to say, The world exists in mind alone and

disappears in mind alone.' But as long as 'I-consciousness' exists, one

should assume the servant-and-master relationship with God."

NARENDRA (to M:): "How can you prove by reasoning that God exists?

But if you depend on faith, then you must accept the relationship of servant

and Master. And if you accept that-and you can't help it-then you must also

say that God is kind.

"You think only of the suffering in the world-why do you forget that God

has also given you so much happiness? How kind He is to us! He has

granted us three very great things: human birth, the yearning to know God,

and the companionship of a great soul."

All were silent.

MASTER (to Narendra): "I feel very clearly that there is Someone within

me.

Dr. Rajendralal arrived and took a seat. He had been treating the Master

with homeopathic medicine. When the talk about medicine was over, Sri

Ramakrishna pointed out Manomohan to the doctor.

RAJENDRA: "He is a distant relative of mine."

Narendra went downstairs. He was singing to himself: Lord, Thou hast

lifted all my sorrow with the vision of Thy face,

And the magic of Thy beauty has bewitched my mind; Beholding Thee, the

seven worlds forget their never-ending woe; What shall I say, then, of

myself, a poor and lowly soul?

. . .

Narendra had a little indigestion. He said to M.: "If one follows the path of

bhakti, then the mind comes down a little to the body. Otherwise, who am

I? Neither man nor God. I have neither pleasure nor pain."

It was about nine o'clock in the evening. Surendra and a few other devotees

entered Sri Ramakrishna's room and offered him garlands of flowers.

Baburam, Lātu, and M. were also in the room. Sri Ramakrishna put

Surendra's garland on his own neck. All sat quietly.

Suddenly the Master made a sign to Surendra to come near him. When the

disciple came near the bed, Sri Ramakrishna took the garland from his neck

and put it around Surendra's. Surendra saluted the Master. Sri Ramakrishna

asked him, by a sign, to rub his feet. Surendra gave them a gentle massage.

Several devotees were sitting on the bank of the reservoir in the garden,

singing to the accompaniment of drum and cymbals. Sri Ramakrishna sent

them word through Lātu to sing the name of Hari.

M., Baburam, and several others were still sitting in the Master's room.

They heard the devotees singing:

There dances my Gora, chanting Hari's name! . . .

When the Master heard the song he made a sign to Baburam and M. to join

them. He also asked them to dance.

A few minutes later Sri Ramakrishna sent another devotee to the singers to

ask them to sing the following improvised lines: "Ah, my Gora even knows

how to dance!" "How can I describe my Gora's moods?" "My Gora dances

with both his hands upraised."

The music was over. Surendra was almost in an ecstatic mood. He sang:

Crazy is my Father, crazy is my Mother,

And I, their son, am crazy too!

Syama is my Mother's name.

My Father strikes His cheeks and makes a hollow sound:

Ba-ba-bom! Ba-ba-bom!

And my Mother, drunk and reeling,

Falls across my Father's body!

Syama's streaming tresses hang in vast disorder; Bees are swarming

numberless

About Her crimson Lotus Feet.

Listen, as She dances, how Her anklets ring!

--------------------

Chapter 51

THE MASTER'S LOVE FOR HIS DEVOTEES

Wednesday, April 21, 1886

Narendra and M. & Narendra's scepticism

M. AND NARENDRA were strolling in the garden of the house at

Cossipore. Narendra was very much worried, because he had not yet been

able to solve the financial difficulties of his family.

NARENDRA: "I don't care for the job at the Vidyāsāgar School. I have

been thinking of going to Gaya. I have been told that a Zamindār there

needs the services of a manager for his estate. There is no such thing as

God."

M. (smiling): "You may say that now, but later on you will talk differently.

Scepticism is a stage in the path of God-realization. One must pass through

stages like this and go much farther; only thus can one realize God. That is

what the Master says."

NARENDRA: "Has anybody seen God as I see that tree?"

M: "Yes, our Master has seen God that way."

NARENDRA: "It may be his hallucination."

M: "Whatever a person experiences in a particular state is real for him in

that state.

Suppose you are dreaming that you have gone to a garden. As long as the

dream lasts, the garden is real for you. But you think of it as unreal when

your mind undergoes a change, as, for instance, when you awake. When

your mind attains the state in which one sees God, you will know God to be

real."

NARENDRA: "I want truth. The other day I had a great argument with Sri

Ramakrishna himself."

M. (smiling): "What happened?"

NARENDRA: "He said to me, 'Some people call me God.' I replied, 'Let a

thousand people call you God, but I shall certainly not call you God as long

as I do not know it to be true.'

He said, 'Whatever many people say is indeed truth; that is dharma.'

Thereupon I replied, 'Let others proclaim a thing as truth, but I shall

certainly not listen to them unless I myself realize it as truth.' "

M. (smiling): "Your attitude is like that of Western savants-Copernicus and

Berkeley, for instance. The whole world said it was the sun that moved, but

Copernicus did not listen.

Everybody said the external world was real, but Berkeley paid no heed.

Therefore Lewis says, 'Why was Berkeley not a philosophical Copernicus?'

NARENDRA: "Can you give me a History of Philosophy?

M: "By whom? Lewis?"

NARENDRA: "No, Uberweg. I must read a German author."

M: "You just said, 'Has anybody seen God as I see that tree?' Suppose God

comes to you as a man and says, 'I am God.' Will you believe it then? You

certainly remember the story of Lazarus. After his death, Lazarus said to

Abraham, 'Let me go back to the earth and tell my friends and relatives that

hell and the after-life exist.' Abraham replied: 'Do you think they will

believe you? They will say it is a charlatan who is telling them such things.'

The Master says that God cannot be known by reasoning. By faith alone

one attains everything-knowledge and super-knowledge. By faith alone one

sees God and becomes intimate with Him."

It was about three o'clock in the afternoon. Sri Ramakrishna was in bed.

Ramlal, who had come from Dakshineswar, was massaging his feet. Gopal

of Sinthi and M. were in the room.

Sri Ramakrishna asked M. to shut the windows and massage his feet. At the

Master's request Purna had come to the Cossipore garden in a hired

carriage. M. was to pay the carriage hire. Sri Ramakrishna made a sign to

Gopal, asking whether he had obtained the money from M. Gopal answered

in the affirmative.

Devotees about the Master

At nine o'clock in the evening Surendra, Ram, and the others were about to

return to Calcutta. It was the sultry month of April and Sri Ramakrishna's

room became very hot during the day; so Surendra had brought some straw

screens to keep the room cool.

SURENDRA: "Why, nobody has hung up these straw screens. Nobody here

pays attention to anything."

A DEVOTEE (smiling): "The devotees here are now in the state of

Brahmajnana. They feel, 'I am He.' The world is unreal to them. When they

come down to a lower plane and regard God as the Master and themselves

as His servants, they will pay attention to the service of Sri Ramakrishna."

(All laugh.)

Thursday, April 22, 1886

In the evening Rākhāl , Śaśi, and M. were strolling in the garden at

Cossipore.

M: "The Master is like a child-beyond the three Gunās."

ŚAŚI AND RĀKHĀL: "He himself has said that."

RĀKHĀL: "He sits in a tower, as it were, from which he gets all

information and sees everything; but others cannot go there and reach him."

M: "He said, 'In such a state of mind one sees God constantly.' In him there

is not the slightest trace of worldliness. His mind is like dry fuel, which

catches fire quickly."

ŚAŚI: "He described the different kinds of intelligence to Charu. The right

intelligence is that through which one attains God; but the intelligence that

enables one to become a deputy magistrate or a lawyer, or to acquire a

house, is a mean intelligence. It is like thin and watery curd, which merely

soaks flattened rice but does not add any flavour to it. It is not like thick,

superior curd. But the intelligence through which one attains God is like

thick curd."

M: "Ah, what wonderful words!"

Bliss of Brahman and bliss of the world

ŚAŚI: "Kāli said to the Master: 'What's the good of having joy? The Bhils

are joyous.

Savages are always singing and dancing in a frenzy of delight.' "

RĀKHĀL: "He [meaning the Master] replied to Kāli: 'What do you mean?

Can the Bliss of Brahman be the same as worldly pleasure? Ordinary men

are satisfied with worldly pleasure. One cannot enjoy the Bliss of Brahman

unless one completely rids oneself of attachment to worldly things. There is

the joy of money and sense experience, and there is the Bliss of God-

realization. Can the two ever be the same? The rishis enjoyed the Bliss of

Brahman.' "

Master on Buddha

M: "You see, Kāli nowadays meditates on Buddha; that is why he speaks of

a state beyond Bliss."

RĀKHĀL: "Yes, Kāli told the Master about Buddha. Sri Ramakrishna said

to him: 'Buddha is an Incarnation of God. How can you compare him to

anybody else? As he is great, so too is his teaching great.' Kāli said to him:

'Everything, indeed, is the manifestation of God's Power. Both worldly

pleasure and the Bliss of God are the manifestation of that Power.' "

M: "What did the Master say to that?"

RĀKHĀL: "He said: 'How can that be? Is the power to beget a child the

same as the power through which one realizes God?'"

Sri Ramakrishna was sitting in his room on the second floor. Narendra,

Rākhāl , Śaśi, Surendra, M., Bhavanāth, and other devotees were present.

Dr. Mahendra Sarkar and Dr. Rajendra Dutta were also there to examine

him. His condition was growing worse.

On "woman and gold"

The house-rent was between sixty and sixty-five rupees. Surendra bore

most of the expenses and had rented the house in his name. The other

householder devotees contributed financial help according to their power. A

cook and a maid had been engaged to look after the members of the

household.

MASTER (to Dr. Sarkar and the others): "The expenses are mounting."

DR. SARKAR (pointing to the devotees): "But they are ready to bear them.

They do not hesitate to spend money. (To Sri Ramakrishna) Now, you see,

gold is necessary."

MASTER (to Narendra): "Why don't you answer?"

Narendra remained silent. Dr. Sarkar resumed the conversation.

DR. SARKAR: "Gold is necessary, and also woman."

RAJENDRA: "Yes, his [meaning Sri Ramakrishna's] wife has been cooking

his meals."

DR. SARKAR (to the Master): "Do you see?"

MASTER (smiling): "Yes-but very troublesome!"

DR. SARKAR: "If there were no troubles, then all would become

paramahamsas."

MASTER: "If a woman touches me I fall ill. That part of my body aches as

if stung by a horned fish."

DR. SARKAR: "I believe that. But how can you get along without

woman?"

MASTER: "My hand gets all twisted up if I hold money in it; my breathing

stops. But there is no harm in spending money to lead a spiritual life in the

world-if one spends it, for instance, in the worship of God and the service

of holy men and devotees.

"A man forgets God if he is entangled in the world of māyā through a

woman. It is the Mother of the Universe who has assumed the form of

māyā, the form of woman. One who knows this rightly does not feel like

leading the life of māyā in the world. But he who truly realizes that all

women are manifestations of the Divine Mother may lead a spiritual life in

the world. Without realizing God one cannot truly know what a woman is."

Sri Ramakrishna had, felt a slight improvement as a result of the

homeopathic treatment.

RAJENDRA (to the Master): "After getting rid of this illness you must

begin to practise medicine as a homeopath. Otherwise, what's the use of this

human life?" (All laugh.) NARENDRA: "Nothing like leather!" (All laugh.)

A few minutes later the physicians took their leave. Sri Ramakrishna and

M. were engaged in conversation. The Master was telling M. how he felt

about woman.

MASTER (to M.): "They say I cannot get along without 'woman and gold'.

They don't understand the state of my mind.

Sri Ramakrishna and woman

"If I touch a woman my hand becomes numb; it aches. If in a friendly spirit

I approach a woman and begin to talk to her, I feel as if a barrier had been

placed between us. It is impossible for me to cross that barrier.

"If a woman enters my room when I am alone, at once I become like a child

and regard her as my mother."

As M. listened to these words, he became speechless with wonder at Sri

Ramakrishna's exalted state of mind. Bhavanāth and Narendra were sitting

at a distance, talking together.

Encouraging Bhavanāth

Bhavanāth had married and was trying to find a job; so he could not visit

Sri Ramakrishna frequently at Cossipore. He had said to M.: "I understand

that Vidyāsāgar wants to start a new school. I have to earn my livelihood.

Will it be possible for me to secure a job in that school?" The Master was

much worried about Bhavanāth's being entangled in worldly life. Bhavanāth

was twenty-three or twenty four years old.

MASTER (to Narendra): "Give him a lot of courage."

Narendra and Bhavanāth smiled. Sri Ramakrishna said to Bhavanāth, by

signs: "Be a great hero. Don't forget yourself when you see her weeping

behind her veil. Oh, women cry so mucheven when they blow their noses!

(Narendra, Bhavanāth, and M. laugh.) "Keep your mind firm on God. He

who is a hero lives with a woman but does not indulge in physical

pleasures. Talk to your wife only about God."

A few minutes later Sri Ramakrishna said to Bhavanāth, by a sign, "Take

your meal here today."

BHAVANĀTH: "Yes, sir. I am quite all right. Don't worry about me."

Surendra came in and took a seat. The devotees offered garlands of flowers

to the Master every evening. Sri Ramakrishna put these garlands around his

neck. Surendra sat quietly in the room. Sri Ramakrishna was in a very

happy mood and gave him two garlands. Surendra saluted the Master and

put them around his neck.

All sat in silence and looked at Sri Ramakrishna. Surendra saluted the

Master again and stood up. He was about to leave. He asked Bhavanāth to

hang the straw screens over the windows.

Hirananda

Hirananda came in with two of his friends. He was a native of Sindh, about

twenty-two hundred miles from Calcutta. After finishing his college

education in Calcutta in 1883, he had returned to Sindh and taken charge of

editing two papers, the Sindh Times and the Sindh Sudhar. While studying

in Calcutta he had often visited Keshab Chandra Sen and had come to know

him intimately. He had met Sri Ramakrishna at the Kāli temple at

Dakshineswar and had spent an occasional night there with the Master.

Hearing of Sri Ramakrishna's illness, he now came to Calcutta from Sindh

to see him. The Master himself had been very eager to see Hirananda.

Sri Ramakrishna pointed to Hirananda and said to M., by signs: "A very

fine boy. Do you know him?"

M: "Yes, sir."

MASTER (to Hirananda and M.): "Please talk a little. I want to hear you

both."

When M. remained silent, Sri Ramakrishna asked him: "Is Narendra here?

Call him."

Narendra entered the room and sat near the Master.

MASTER (to Narendra and Hirananda): "I want to hear you two talk."

Hirananda was silent a few moments and then after great hesitation began

the conversation.

Narendra argues with Hirananda

HIRANANDA (to Narendra): "Why does a devotee of God suffer?" His

words were sweet as nectar. Everyone in the room could feel that his heart

was filled with love.

NARENDRA: "The plan of the universe is devilish. I could have created a

better world."

HIRANANDA: "Can one feel happiness without misery?"

NARENDRA: "I am not making a plan for a universe, but simply giving

my opinion of the present plan.

"But all these problems are solved if we have faith only in one thing, and

that is Pantheism. All doubts disappear if one believes that everything is

God. God alone is responsible for all that happens."

HIRANANDA: "Very easy to say that."

Narendra sang Sankara's Six Stanzas on Nirvāna:

Om I am neither mind, intelligence, ego, nor chitta, Neither ears nor tongue

nor the senses of smell and sight;

Nor am I ether, earth, fire, water, or air:

I am Pure Knowledge and Bliss: I am Śiva! I am Śiva!

I am neither the Prāna nor the five vital breaths, Neither the seven elements

of the body nor its five sheaths,

Nor hands nor feet nor tongue, nor the organs of sex and voiding:

I am Pure Knowledge and Bliss: I am Śiva! I am Śiva!

Neither loathing nor liking have I, neither greed nor delusion;

No sense have I of ego or pride, neither dharma nor moksha;

Neither desire of the mind nor object for its desiring: I am Pure Knowledge

and Bliss: I am Śiva! I am Śiva!

Neither right nor wrongdoing am I, neither pleasure nor pain,

Nor the mantra, the sacred place, the Vedas, the sacrifice;

Neither the act of eating, the eater, nor the food: I am Pure Knowledge and

Bliss: I am Śiva! I am Śiva!

Death or fear I have none, nor any distinction of caste; Neither father nor

mother nor even a birth have I; Neither friend nor comrade, neither disciple

nor guru: I am Pure Knowledge and Bliss: I am Śiva! I am Śiva!

I have no form or fancy; the All-pervading am I; Everywhere I exist, yet I

am beyond the senses; Neither salvation am I, nor anything that may be

known:

I am Pure Knowledge and Bliss: I am Śiva! I am Śiva!

HIRANANDA: "Good!"

SRI RAMAKRISHNA (to Hirananda, by a sign): "Give him an answer."

HIRANANDA: "It is all the same, whether you look at a room from a

corner or look at it from the middle. It is the same God-Consciousness that

one feels, whether one says, 'O

God, I am Thy servant', or, 'I am He.' One may enter a room by several

doors."

Narendra's spirit of renunciation

All sat in silence. Hirananda said to Narendra, "Please sing some more."

Narendra sang the Five Stanzas on the Kaupina:

Roaming ever in the grove of Vedānta, Ever pleased with his beggar's

morsel,

Ever walking with heart free from sorrow,

Blest indeed is the wearer of the loincloth.

Sitting at the foot of a tree for shelter,

Using the palms of his hands for eating,

Wrapped in a garment fine or ugly,

Blest indeed is the wearer of the loincloth.

Satisfied fully by the Bliss within him,

Curbing wholly the cravings of his senses,

Contemplating day and night the Absolute Brahman, Blest indeed is the

wearer of the loincloth.

When Sri Ramakrishna heard the line, "Contemplating day and night the

Absolute Brahman", he said in a very low voice, "Ah!" Then, by a sign, he

said to the devotees, "This is the characteristic of the yogi."

Narendra finished the hymn: Witnessing the changes of mind and body,

Naught but the self within him beholding,

Thinking not of outer, of inner, or of middle, Blest indeed is the wearer of

the loincloth.

Chanting "Brahman", the Word of redemption, Meditating only on "I am

Brahman",

Living on alms and wandering freely,

Blest indeed is the wearer of the loincloth.

Again Narendra sang:

Meditate on Him, the Perfect, the Embodiment of Bliss; Meditate on Him,

the Formless, the Root of the Universe,

The Hearer behind the ear, the Thinker behind the mind,

The Speaker behind the tongue, Himself beyond all words:

He is the Life of life, the Ultimate, the Adorable!

MASTER (to Narendra): "And that one 'All that exists art Thou.' "

Narendra sang:

I have joined my heart to Thee: all that exists art Thou; Thee only have I

found, for Thou art, all that exists.

O Lord, Beloved of my heart! Thou art the Home of all; Where indeed is the

heart in which Thou dost not dwell?

Thou hast entered every heart: all that exists art Thou.

Whether sage or fool, whether Hindu or Mussulman, Thou makest them as

Thou wilt: all that exists art Thou.

Thy presence is everywhere, whether in heaven or in Kaaba;

Before Thee all must bow, for Thou art all that exists.

From earth below to the highest heaven, from heaven to deepest earth,

I see Thee wherever I look: all that exists art Thou.

Pondering, I have understood; I have seen it beyond a doubt;

I find not a single thing that may be compared to Thee.

To Jafar it has been revealed that Thou art all that exists.

As the Master listened, to the line, "Thou hast entered every heart", he said

by a sign: "God dwells in everybody's heart. He is the Inner Guide."

As Narendra sang the line, "I see Thee wherever I look: all that exists art

Thou", Hirananda said to him: "Yes, 'All that exists art Thou.' Now you say:

'Thou!

Thou! Not I, but Thou!'"

NARENDRA: Give me a one and I'll give you a million. Thou art I; I am

Thou. Nothing exists but I "

Narendra recited a few verses from the Ashtāvakra Samhitā. The room

again became silent.

MASTER (to Hirananda, pointing to Narendra): "He seems to be walking

with an unsheathed sword in his hand. (To M., pointing to Hirananda) How

quiet! Like a cobra, quiet before the charmer, with its hood spread."

Sri Ramakrishna fell into an inward mood. Hirananda and M. were seated

near him.

There was complete silence in the room. The Master's body was being

racked with indescribable pain. The devotees could not bear the sight of this

illness; but somehow the Master made them forget his suffering. He sat

there, his face beaming as if there were no trace of illness in his throat. The

devotees had placed flowers and garlands before him as their loving

offerings. He picked up a flower and touched with it first his head, then his

throat, heart, and navel. To the devotees he seemed a child playing with

flowers.

Sri Ramakrishna used to tell the devotees that his divine visions and moods

were accompanied by the rising of a spiritual current inside his body.

Now he talked to M.

MASTER: "I don't remember when the current went up. Now I am in the

mood of a child.

That is why I am playing with the flowers this way.

Master's exalted vision

Do you know what I see now? I see my body as a frame made of bamboo

strips and covered with a cloth. The frame moves. And it moves because

someone dwells inside it.

"Again, I see the body to be like a pumpkin with the seeds scooped out.

Inside this body there is no trace of passion or worldly attachment. It is all

very clean inside, and- "

It became very painful for Sri Ramakrishna to talk further. He felt very

weak. M. quickly guessed what the Master wanted to tell the devotees, and

said, "And you are seeing God inside yourself."

MASTER: "Both inside and outside. The Indivisible Satchidananda-I see It

both inside and outside. It has merely assumed this sheath [meaning his

body] for a support and exists both inside and outside. I clearly perceive

this."

M. and Hirananda listened intently to these words about his exalted state of

God-Consciousness. A few moments later Sri Ramakrishna looked at them

and resumed the conversation.

MASTER: "You all seem to me to be my kinsmen. I do not look on any of

you as a stranger.

"I see you all as so many sheaths, and the heads are moving.

"I notice that when my mind is united with God the suffering of the body is

left aside.

"No I perceive only this: the Indivisible Satchidananda is covered with skin,

and this sore in

the

throat is on one side of it."

The Master again fell silent. A few minutes later he said: "The attributes of

matter are superimposed on Spirit, and the attributes of Spirit are

superimposed on matter.

Therefore when the body is ill a man says, 'I am ill.' "

Hirananda wanted to understand what the Master had just said; so M. told

him, "Then hot water scalds the hand, people say that the water scalds; but

the truth is that it is the heat that scalds."

Master and Hirananda

HIRANANDA (to the Master): "Please tell us why a devotee of God

suffers."

MASTER: "It is the body that suffers."

Sri Ramakrishna seemed about to say something more. Hirananda and M.

eagerly awaited his words.

Sri Ramakrishna said, "Do you understand?"

M. said to Hirananda, in a whisper: "The body suffers for the purpose of

teaching men.

His life is like a book of reference. In spite of so much physical suffering,

his mind is one hundred percent united with God."

HIRANANDA: "Yes, it is like Christ's crucifixion. But still the mystery

remains-why should he, of all people, suffer like this?"

M: "The Master says it is the will of the Divine Mother. This is how She is

sporting through his body."

The two devotees were talking in whispers. Sri Ramakrishna asked

Hirananda, by a sign, what

M. was talking about. Since Hirananda could not understand the sign, Sri

Ramakrishna repeated it.

HIRANANDA: "He says that your illness is for the teaching of men."

MASTER: "But that's only his guess.

(To M. and Hirananda) "My mood is changing. I think that I should not say

to everyone, 'May your spiritual consciousness be awakened.' People are so

sinful in the Kaliyuga; if I awaken their spiritual consciousness I shall have

to accept the burden of their sins."

M. (to Hirananda): "He will not awaken people's spiritual consciousness

except at the right time. When a person is ready, he will awaken his

spiritual consciousness."

Friday, April 23, 1886

It was Good Friday. Hirananda had taken his midday meal at the Cossipore

garden house. About one o'clock in the afternoon he was stroking Sri

Ramakrishna's feet. M. sat near by. Lātu and one or two other devotees

were going in and out of the room. It was the Master's earnest desire that

Hirananda should stay for some time at the Cossipore garden house.

While massaging the Master's feet, Hirananda conversed with him. He

spoke in a very sweet voice, as if trying to console a child.

HIRANANDA: "Why should you worry so much? You can enjoy peace of

mind if you have faith in the physician. You are a child."

MASTER (to M.): "How can I have faith in the doctor? Dr. Sarkar said that

I would not recover."

HIRANANDA: "But why should you worry so much about that? What is to

happen must happen."

M. (to Hirananda, aside): "He is not worrying about himself. The

preservation of his body is for the welfare of the devotees."

It was a sultry day and the room became very hot at noontime. The straw

screens had been hung over the windows. Hirananda adjusted them. The

Master looked at him.

MASTER (to Hirananda): "Please don't forget to send the pajamas."

Hirananda had told Sri Ramakrishna that he would feel more comfortable if

he wore the pajamas used in Sindh. Sri Ramakrishna was reminding him of

them.

Hirananda had not eaten well. The rice had not been well cooked. The

Master felt very sorry about it and asked him again and again whether he

would have some refreshments. On account of his illness he could hardly

talk; but still he repeated the question. He said to Lātu, "Did you too eat that

rice?'

Sri Ramakrishna could hardly keep the cloth on his body. He was almost

always naked, like a child. Hirananda had brought with him one or two of

his Brahmo friends. Therefore every now and then the Master pulled the

cloth to his waist.

MASTER (to Hirananda): "Will you take me for an uncivilized person if I

don't cover my body with my cloth?"

HIRANANDA: "What difference does that make with you? You are but a

child."

MASTER (pointing to a Brahmo devotee): "But he feels that way"

Hirananda was about to take his leave. In a very few days he was going to

start for Sindh.

MASTER (to Hirananda): "Suppose you don't go to Sindh."

HIRANANDA (smiling): "But there is nobody there to do my work. I have

my duties."

MASTER: "How much do you earn?"

HIRANANDA (smiling): "My work doesn't bring me a large salary."

MASTER: "Still, how much?"

Hirananda laughed.

MASTER: "Why don't you live here?"

Hirananda did not reply.

MASTER: "Suppose you give up the job."

Hirananda said nothing. He was ready to take his leave.

MASTER: "When will you see me again?"

HlRANANDA: "I shall leave for Sindh on Monday, the day after tomorrow

I shall see you that morning."

Hirananda left.

M. was seated by the Master's side.

MASTER (to M.): "He is a fine young man, isn't he?"

M: "Yes, sir. He has a very sweet nature."

MASTER: "He said that Sindh is twenty-two hundred miles from Calcutta;

and he has come all that way to see me."

M: "True, Sir. That would be impossible without real love."

MASTER: "He wants very much to take me to Sindh."

M: "The journey is very painful. It takes four or five days by train."

MASTER: "He has three university degrees."

M: "Yes, sir."

Sri Ramakrishna was tired. He wanted to take a little rest. He asked M. to

open the shutters of the windows and spread the straw mat over his bed. M.

was fanning him. Sri Ramakrishna became drowsy.

After a short nap Sri Ramakrishna said to M., "Did I sleep?"

M: "A little."

Narendra, Sarat, and M. were talking downstairs.

NARENDRA: "How amazing it is! One learns hardly anything though one

reads books for many years. How can a man realize God by practising

sādhanā for two or three days? Is it so easy to realize God? (To Sarat) You

have obtained peace. M., too, has obtained it.

But I have no peace."

It was afternoon. Many devotees were sitting in the Master's room.

Narendra, Sarat, Śaśi, Lātu, Nityagopal, Girish, Ram, M., and Suresh were

present.

Kedār came in. This was his first visit to the Master for some time. While

staying in Dāccā, in connection with his official duties, he had heard of Sri

Ramakrishna's illness.

On entering Sri Ramakrishna's room he took the dust of the Master's feet on

his head and then joyously gave it to the others. The devotees accepted it

with bowed heads. As he offered it to Sarat, the latter himself took the dust

of Sri Ramakrishna's feet. M.

smiled. The Master also smiled, looking at M. The devotees sat without

uttering a word.

Sri Ramakrishna seemed about to go into an ecstatic mood. Now and then

he breathed heavily as if trying to suppress his emotion. He said to Kedār,

by a sign, "Argue with Girish."

Girish said to Kedār: "Sir, I beg your pardon. At first I did not know who

you were. That is why I argued with you. But now it is quite different."

Sri Ramakrishna smiled.

The Master drew Kedār's attention to Narendra and said: "He has renounced

everything.

(To the devotees) Kedār once said to Narendra, 'You may reason and argue

now, but in the end you will roll on the ground, chanting Hari's name.' (To

Narendra) Take the dust of Kedār's feet."

KEDĀR (to Narendra): "Take the dust of his [meaning the Master's] feet.

That will do."

Surendra was seated behind the other devotees. The Master looked at him

with a smile and said to Kedār, "Ah, how sweet his nature is!" Kedār

understood the Master's hint and went toward Surendra.

Surendra was very sensitive. Some of the devotees had been collecting

funds from the householder devotees to meet the expenses of the Cossipore

garden house. Surendra felt piqued at this. He was bearing most of the

expenses himself.

SURENDRA (to Kedār): "How can I sit near all these holy people? A few

days ago some of them [referring to Narendra] put on the ochre robe of the

sannyāsi and went on a pilgrimage to Buddha-Gaya. They wanted to see

bigger sādhus there."

Sri Ramakrishna was trying to console Surendra. He said: "You are right.

They are mere children. They don't know what is good."

SURENDRA (to Kedār): "Doesn't our gurudeva know our inner feeling? He

does not care for money. It is our inner attitude that pleases him."

Sri Ramakrishna with a nod of his head approved Surendra's words.

The devotees had brought various food offerings for the Master and placed

them in front of him. Sri Ramakrishna put a grain on his tongue and gave

the plate to Surendra. He asked Surendra to distribute the Prasad to the

devotees. Surendra went downstairs with the offerings.

MASTER (to Kedār): "You had better go downstairs and explain it all to

Surendra. See that they don't get into any hot arguments."

M. was fanning Sri Ramakrishna. The Master said to him, "Won't you eat

anything?" He sent M. downstairs.

Girish and M.

It was about dusk. Girish and M. were strolling near the small reservoir in

the garden. '

GIRISH: "I understand that you are writing something about the Master. Is

it true?"

M: "Who told you that?"

GIRISH: "I have heard about it. Will you give it to me?"

M: "No, I won't part with it unless I feel it is right to do so. I am writing it

for myself, not for others."

GIRISH: "What do you mean?"

M: "You may get it when I die."

It was evening. A lamp was lighted in the Master's room. Amrita Basu, a

Brahmo devotee, came in. Sri Ramakrishna had expressed his eagerness to

see him. M. and a few other devotees were there. A garland of jasmine lay

in front of the Master on a plantain-leaf. There was perfect silence in the

room. A great yogi seemed to be silently communing with God. Every now

and then the Master lifted the garland a little, as if he wanted to put it

around his neck.

AMRITA (tenderly): "Shall I put it around your neck?"

Sri Ramakrishna accepted the garland. He had a long conversation with

Amrita. When the latter was about to take his leave, the Master said, "Come

again."

AMRITA: "Yes, sir. I like to come very much. But I live at a great distance;

so I cannot always come."

MASTER: "Do come, and take the carriage hire from here."

The devotees were amazed at the Master's tender love for Amrita.

Master's kindness to M. and his wife The next day M. came to the garden

house accompanied by his wife and a son. The boy was seven years old. It

was at the Master's request that he brought his wife, who was almost mad

with grief owing to the death of one of her sons.

That day the Master several times allowed M.'s wife the privilege of waiting

on him. Her welfare seemed to occupy his attention a great deal. In the

evening the Holy Mother came to the Master's room to feed him. M.'s wife

accompanied her with a lamp. The Master tenderly asked her many

questions about her household. He requested her to come again to the

garden house and spend a few days with the Holy Mother, not forgetting to

ask her to bring her baby daughter. When the Master had finished his meal

M.'s wife removed the plates. He chatted with her a few minutes.

About nine o'clock in the evening Sri Ramakrishna was seated in his room

with the devotees. He had a garland of flowers around his neck. He told M.

that he had requested his wife to spend a few days at the garden house with

the Holy Mother. His kindness touched M.'s heart.

M. was fanning him. The Master took the garland from his neck and said

something to himself. Then in a very benign mood he gave the garland to

--------------------

Chapter 52

AFTER THE PASSING AWAY

SRI RAMAKRISHNA passed away on Sunday, August 15, 1886, plunging

his devotees and disciples into a sea of grief. They were like men in a

shipwreck. But a strong bond of love held them together, and they found

assurance and courage in each other's company. They could not enjoy the

friendship of worldly people and would talk only of their Master. "Shall we

not behold him again?" -this was the one theme of their thought and the one

dream of their sleep. Alone, they wept for him; walking in the streets of

Calcutta, they were engrossed in the thought of him. The Master had once

said to M., "It becomes difficult for me to give up the body, when I realize

that after my death you will wander about weeping for me." Some of them

thought: "He is no longer in this world.

How surprising that we still enjoy living! We could give up our bodies if we

liked, but still we do not." Time and again Sri Ramakrishna had told them

that God reveals Himself to His devotees if they yearn for Him and call on

Him with whole-souled devotion. He had assured them that God listens to

the prayer of a sincere heart.

The young unmarried disciples of the Master, who belonged to his inner

circle, had attended on him day and night at the Cossipore garden house.

After his passing away most of them returned to their families against their

own wills. They had not yet formally renounced the world. For a short

while they kept their family names. But Sri Ramakrishna had made them

renounce the world mentally. He himself had initiated several of them into

the monastic life, giving them the ochre cloths of sannyāsis.

Baranagore Monastery

Two or three of the Master's attendants had no place to go. To them the

large-hearted Surendra said: "Brothers, where will you go? Let us rent a

house. You will live there and make it our Master's shrine; and we

householders shall come there for consolation. How can we pass all our

days and nights with our wives and children in the world? I used to spend a

sum of money for the Master at Cossipore. I shall gladly give it now for

your expenses." Accordingly he rented a house for them at Baranagore, in

the suburbs of Calcutta, and this place became gradually transformed into

Math, or, monastery.

For the first few months Surendra contributed thirty rupees a month. As the

other members joined the monastery one by one, he doubled his

contribution, which he later increased to a hundred rupees. The monthly

rent for the house was eleven rupees. The cook received six rupees a month.

The rest was spent for food.

First members

The younger Gopal brought the Master's bed and other articles of daily use

from the garden house at Cossipore. The brahmin who had been cook at

Cossipore was engaged for the new monastery. The first permanent member

was the elder Gopal. Sarat spent the nights there. In the beginning Sarat,

Śaśi, Baburam, Niranjan, and Kāli used to visit the monastery every now

and then, according to their convenience. Tārak, who had gone to

Vrindāvan following the Master's death, returned to Calcutta after a few

months and soon became a permanent member of the monastery. Rākhāl,

Jogin, Lātu, and Kāli were living at Vrindāvan with the Holy Mother when

the monastery was started. Kāli returned to Calcutta within a month, Rākhāl

after a few months, and Jogin and Lātu after a year. The householder

devotees frequently visited the monastic brothers and spent hours with them

in meditation and study.

After a short time Narendra, Rākhāl, Niranjan, Sarat, Śaśi, Baburam, Jogin,

Tārak, Kāli, and Lātu renounced the world for good. Sarada Prasanna and

Subodh joined them some time later. Gangadhar, who was very much

attached to Narendra, visited the Math regularly. It was he who taught the

brothers the hymn sung at the evening service in the Śiva temple at

Benares. He had gone to Tibet to practise austerity; now, having returned,

he lived at the monastery. Hari and Tulasi, at first only visitors at the

monastery, soon embraced the monastic life and thus completed the list of

the Master's sannyāsi disciples.

Surendra's magnanimity

Surendra was indeed a blessed soul. It was he who laid the foundation of

the great Order later associated with Sri Ramakrishna's name. His devotion

and sacrifice made it possible for those earnest souls to renounce the world

for the realization of God.

Through him Sri Ramakrishna made it possible for them to live in the world

as embodiments of his teaching, the renunciation of "woman and gold" and

the realization of God.

The brothers lived at the Math like orphan boys. Sometimes they would not

have the money to pay their house-rent; sometimes they would have no

food in the monastery.

Surendra would come and settle all these things. He was the big brother of

the monks.

Later on, when they thought of his genuine love, the members of this first

Math shed tears of gratitude.

Ascetic zeal of the young sannyāsis

The new monastery became known among the Master's devotees as the

Baranagore Math. Narendra, Rākhāl, and the other young disciples were

filled with intense renunciation. One day Rākhāl's father came to the Math

and asked Rākhāl to return home. "Why do you take the trouble to come

here?" Rākhāl said to him. "I am very happy here. Pleased pray to God that

you may forget me and that I may forget you too."

The young disciples said to each other: "We shall never return to the

worldly life. The Master enjoined upon us the renunciation of 'woman and

gold'. How can we go back to our families?"

Śaśi had taken charge of the daily worship in the Math. The Master's relics

had been brought from Balarām's house and Sri Ramakrishna was

worshipped daily in the worship hall. Narendra supervised the household.

He was the leader of the monastery. He would often tell his brother

disciples, "The selfless actions enjoined in the Gitā are worship, japa,

meditation, and so on, and not worldly duties." The brothers at the Math

depended on him for their spiritual inspiration. He said to them, "We must

practise sādhanā; otherwise we shall not be able to realize God."

He and his brother disciples, filled with an ascetic spirit, devoted

themselves day and night to the practice of spiritual discipline. Their one

goal in life was the realization of God. They followed to their hearts'

content the injunctions prescribed in the Vedas, Puranas, and Tantras for an

ascetic life. They spent their time in japa and meditation and study of the

scriptures. Whenever they would fail to experience the Divine Presence,

they would feel as if they were on the rack. They would practise austerity,

sometimes alone under trees, sometimes in a cremation ground, sometimes

on the bank of the Ganges. Again, sometimes they would spend the entire

day in the meditation room of the monastery in japa and contemplation;

sometimes they would gather to sing and dance in a rapture of delight. All

of them, and Narendra particularly, were consumed with the desire to see

God. Now and then they would say to each other, "Shall we not starve

ourselves to death to see God?"

Monday, February 21, 1887

Narendra, Rākhāl, Niranjan, Sarat, Śaśi, Kāli, Baburam, Tārak, and Sarada

Prasanna were living in the monastery. All day the members had been

fasting in observance of the Sivaratri. Sarat, Kāli, Niranjan, and Sarada

were planning to go to Puri, the following Saturday, on a pilgrimage to the

sacred Jagannath. Jogin and Lātu were at Vrindāvan and had not yet seen

the new place.

Narendra had gone to Calcutta that morning to look after a lawsuit in which

his family had been involved since the death of his father. At nine o'clock in

the morning M. arrived at the Math. Tārak saw him and began to sing in

praise of Śiva, Rākhāl joining him: There Śiva dances, striking both His

cheeks; and they resound, Ba-ba-bom!

Dimi-dimi-dimi! sounds His drum; a garland of skulls from His neck is

hanging!

In His matted locks the Ganges hisses; fire shoots from His mighty trident!

Round His waist a serpent glitters, and on His brow the moon Is shining!

Rākhāl and Tārak danced as they sang. Narendra had recently composed the

song.

Śaśi finished the morning worship in the shrine. Sarat then sang about Śiva

to the accompaniment of the Tānpura.

Narendra had just arrived from Calcutta. He had not yet taken his bath. Kāli

asked him, "What about the lawsuit?" "Why should you bother about it?"

Narendra replied sharply.

Renunciation of "woman and gold"

Narendra was smoking and talking to M. and the others. He said: "Nothing

can be achieved in spiritual life without the renunciation of 'woman and

gold'. 'Woman' is the doorway to hell. All people are under the control of

women. The cases of Śiva and Krishna are quite different. Śiva turned His

Consort into His servant. Sri Krishna, no doubt, led a householder's life. But

how unattached He was! How quickly He renounced Vrindāvan and the

gopis!"

RĀKHĀL: "And how He renounced Dwaraka, too, where He was king!"

Narendra took his bath in the Ganges and returned to the monastery. He

carried his wet cloth and towel in his hand. Sarada prostrated himself before

Narendra. He too had been fasting on account of the Sivaratri. He was

going to the Ganges for his bath. Narendra entered the worship room and

prostrated himself before the picture of Sri Ramakrishna, who was daily

worshipped there as the Deity. For a few minutes he was absorbed in

meditation.

The devotees assembled in a room and began to converse. The talk turned

to Bhavanāth. Narendra said, "People like him live like worms in the

world."

Śiva festival at the Math

It was afternoon. Arrangements were being made to worship Śiva in the

evening. Leaves of the bel-tree were gathered for the worship. Bel-wood

was chopped for the homa.

In the evening Śaśi, who was in charge of the worship at the monastery,

burnt incense before the pictures of the various gods and goddesses.

The worship of Śiva was to take place under the bel-tree in the monastery

compound.

The Deity was to be worshipped four times, during the four watches of the

night. The brothers assembled under the bel-tree. Bhupati and M. were

present also. One of the young members of the Math was in charge of the

worship. Kāli was reading from the Gitā. Now and then he argued with

Narendra.

KĀLI: "I alone am everything. I create, preserve, and destroy."

NARENDRA: "How is it possible for me to create? Another power creates

through me.

Our various actions-even our thoughts-are caused by that power."

M. (to himself): "The Master used to say: 'As long as a man feels that it is

he who meditates, he is under the jurisdiction of the Ādyāśakti. Śakti must

be acknowledged.'"

Kāli reflected in silence a few moments and then said: "The actions you are

talking about are illusory. There is not even any such thing as thought. The

very idea of these things makes me laugh."

NARENDRA: "The 'I' that is implied in 'I am He' is not this ego. It is that

which remains after one eliminates mind, body, and so on."

After completing the recital of the Gitā, Kāli chanted, "Śāntih! Śāntih!

Śāntih!"

Narendra and the other devotees stood up and circled round and round the

tree, singing and dancing. Now and then they chanted in chorus: "Śiva

Guru! Śiva Guru!"

It was midnight, the fourteenth day of the dark fortnight of the moon. Pitch

darkness filled all the quarters. Men, birds, and animals were all hushed into

silence. The young sannyāsis were clad in Gerruā robes. The words "Śiva

Guru", chanted in their full-throated voices, rose into the infinite sky like

the rumblings of rain-clouds and disappeared in the Indivisible

Satchidananda.

The worship was over. The sun, about to rise, was painting the eastern

horizon crimson.

In this sacred twilight, the conjunction of night and day, the holy

Brahmamuhurta, the young worshippers finished their baths in the Ganges.

It was morning. The devotees went to the shrine room, prostrated

themselves before the Deity, and gradually assembled in the big hall.

Narendra was clad in a new ochre cloth.

The bright orange colour of his apparel blended with the celestial lustre of

his face and body, every pore of which radiated a divine light. His

countenance was filled with fiery brilliance and yet touched with the

tenderness of love. He appeared to all as a bubble that had risen up in the

Ocean of Absolute Existence and Bliss and assumed a human body to help

in the propagation of his Master's message. All eyes were fixed on him.

Narendra was then just twenty-four years old, the very age at which the

great Chaitanya had renounced the world.

Balarām had sent fruit and sweets to the monastery for the devotees'

breakfast. Rākhāl, Narendra, and a few others partook of the refreshments.

After eating one or two morsels some of them cried out, "Blessed indeed is

Balarām!" All laughed.

Narendra now began to joke like a child. He was imitating Sri

Ramakrishna. He put a sweet into his mouth and stood still, as if in

samādhi. His eyes remained unwinking. A devotee stepped forward and

pretended to hold him up by the hand lest he should drop to the ground.

Narendra closed his eyes. A few minutes later, with the sweetmeat still in

his mouth, he opened his eyes and drawled out, "I--am--all--right." All

laughed loudly.

Refreshments were now given to everyone. M. looked on at this wonderful

mart of happiness.

The devotees shouted joyfully, "Jai Guru Mahārāj"!

Monday, March 25, 1887

M. arrived at the Baranagore Math to visit his brother disciples. Devendra

accompanied him. M. had been coming to the monastery very frequently

and now and then had spent a day or two. The previous week he had spent

three days at the Math. He was very eager to observe the spirit of intense

renunciation of these young men.

It was evening. M. intended to spend the night in the monastery. Śaśi

lighted the lamp in the worship room and chanted the name of God. Next he

burnt incense before all the pictures of gods and goddesses in the various

rooms. The evening service began. Śaśi conducted the worship. The

members of the Math, with M. and Devendra, stood with folded hands and

sang the hymn of the Ārati.

Narendra's reminiscences of the Master

When the worship was over, Narendra and M. became engaged in

conversation.

Narendra was recalling his various meetings with Sri Ramakrishna.

NARENDRA: "One day, during one of my early visits, the Master in an

ecstatic mood said to me, 'You have come!' 'How amazing!' I said to myself.

'It is as if he had known me a long time.' Then he said to me, 'Do you ever

see light?' I replied: 'Yes, sir. Before I fall asleep I feel something like a

light revolving near my forehead.' "

M: "Do you see it even now?"

NARENDRA:"I used to see it frequently. In Jadu Mallick's garden house

the Master one day touched me and muttered something to himself. I

became unconscious. The effect of the touch lingered with me a month, like

an intoxication.

"When he heard that a proposal had been made about my marriage, he wept,

holding the feet of the image of Kāli. With tears in his eyes he prayed to the

Divine Mother: 'O

Mother, please upset the whole thing! Don't let Narendra be drowned.'

"After my father's death my mother and my brothers were starving. When

the Master met Annada Guha one day, he said to him: 'Narendra's father has

died. His family is in a state of great privation. It would be good if his

friends helped him now with money.'

"After Annada had left I scolded him. I said, 'Why did you say all those

things to him?'

Thus rebuked, he wept and said, 'Alas! for your sake I could beg from door

to door.'

"He tamed us by his love. Don't you think so?"

M: "There is not the slightest doubt about it. His love was utterly unselfish."

NARENDRA: "One day when I was alone with him he said something to

me. Nobody else was present. Please don't repeat it to anyone here,"

M: "No, I shall not. What did he say?"

NARENDRA: "He said: 'It is not possible for me to exercise occult powers;

but I shall do so through you. What do you say?' 'No,' I replied, 'you can't

do that.'

"I used to laugh at his words. You must have heard all these things from

him. I told him that his visions of God were all hallucinations of his mind.

"He said to me: 'I used to climb to the roof of the kuthi and cry: "O

devotees, where are you all? Come to me, O devotees! I am about to die. I

shall certainly die if I do not see you." And the Divine Mother told me,

"The devotees will come." You see, everything is turning out to be true.'

"What else could I say? I kept quiet.

"One day he closed the door of his room and said to Devendra Babu and

Girish Babu, referring to me, 'He will not keep his body if he is told who he

is.'"

M: "Yes, we have heard that. Many a time he repeated the same thing to us,

too. Once you came to know about your true Self in nirvikalpa samādhi at

the Cossipore garden house. Isn't that true?"

NARENDRA: "Yes. In that experience I felt that I had no body. I could see

only my face.

The Master was in the upstairs room. I had that experience downstairs. I

was weeping. I said, 'What has happened to me?' The elder Gopal went to

the Master's room and said, 'Narendra is crying.'

"When I saw the Master he said to me: 'Now you have known. But I am

going to keep the key with me.'

"I said to him, 'What is it that happened to me?'

"Turning to the devotees, he said: 'He will not keep his body if he knows

who he is. But I have put a veil over his eyes.'

"One day he said to me, 'You can see Krishna in your heart if you want.' I

replied, 'I don't believe in Krishna or any such nonsense!' (Both M. and

Narendra laugh.) Narendra's foreknowledge of things

"I have noticed a peculiar thing. Some men, objects, or places make me feel

as if I had seen them before, in a previous birth. They appear familiar to me.

One day I went to Sarat's house in Calcutta, on Amherst Street.

Immediately I said to Sarat: 'This house seems familiar to me. It seems to

me that I have known the rooms, the passages, and the rest of the house for

many, many days.

"I used to follow my own whims in everything I did. The Master never

interfered. You know that I became a member of the Sadharan Brahmo

Samaj."

M: "Yes, I know that."

NARENDRA: "The Master knew that women attended the meetings of the

Brahmo Samaj.

A man cannot meditate with women sitting in front of him; therefore he

criticized the meditation of the Brahmo Samaj. But he didn't object to my

going there. But one day he said to me, 'Don't tell Rākhāl about your being

a member of the Brahmo Samaj, or he too will feel like becoming one.'"

M: "You have greater strength of mind. That is why the Master didn't

prevent your going to the Samaj."

NARENDRA: "I have attained my present state of mind as a result of much

suffering and pain. You have not passed through any such suffering. I now

realize that without trials and tribulations one cannot resign oneself to God

and depend on Him absolutely.

Narendra's ego

"Well, X-is so modest and humble! He is totally self-effacing. Can you tell

me how I can develop humility?"

M: "Speaking about your ego, the Master said, 'Whose ego is it?'"

NARENDRA: "What did he mean?"

M: "A friend one day said to Rādhika: 'You are egotistic. That is why you

insulted Krishna.' Whereupon another friend said to the first: 'Yes, Rādhika

is egotistic, no doubt.

But whose ego is it?' What she meant was that Radha was egotistic because

she regarded Krishna as her Lord. It was Krishna Himself who kept that ego

in Radha.

"What the Master meant was that it is God alone who has kept this ego in

you, so that He may accomplish many things through you.

NARENDRA: "But my ego loudly proclaims to all that I have no

suffering."

M. (smiling): "You may loudly proclaim it, if that be your sweet will."

The conversation turned to other devotees.

NARENDRA: "The Master said about Vijay Goswami, 'He is knocking at

the door.' "

M: "That is to say, he has not yet entered the room. At Syampukur Vijay

said to the Master, 'I saw you at Dāccā in this tangible form, in this very

body.' You were there too."

NARENDRA: "Devendra Babu and Ram Babu want to renounce the World.

They are trying hard. Ram Babu told me privately that he would give up the

world after two years."

M: "After two years? After making provision for his children?"

NARENDRA: "Besides, he will rent his present house and buy a small

house. Other relatives will arrange his daughter's marriage."

About Nityagopal

M: "Gopal is in an exalted state of mind, isn't he?"

NARENDRA: "What do you mean?"

M: "So much emotion, so much weeping and such exaltation in the name of

God!"

NARENDRA: "Does mere emotion make a man spiritually great?

Youngsters like Kāli, Sarat, Śaśi, and Sarada are more spiritual than Gopal.

How great their renunciation is!

Gopal does not accept the Master, does he?"

M: "That is true. The Master remarked that Gopal did not belong to the

circle of his devotees. But I saw him show great reverence for Sri

Ramakrishna."

NARENDRA: "What did you see?"

M: "At that time I was just becoming acquainted with Sri Ramakrishna.

One day after the meeting of the devotees in his room had broken up, I

came out and saw Gopal on the footpath, kneeling with folded hands before

the Master. The moon was shining brightly overhead. It was the red path

sprinkled with brick-dust, just outside the long verandah north of the

Master's room. Nobody else was there. It appeared to me that Gopal had

taken shelter at Sri Ramakrishna's feet and the Master was encouraging

him."

NARENDRA: "I didn't see it."

M: "Further, the Master used to say, 'Gopal is in the state of a

paramahamsa.' But I also distinctly remember his forbidding Gopal to be

intimate with woman devotees. Many a time he warned him about it."

NARENDRA: "Speaking to me about Gopal, the Master asked why, if

Gopal was a real Paramahamsa, he should hanker after money.'He doesn't

belong to this place', the Master said.'Those who are my own will always

come here.' He used to be angry with T -

because he was Gopal's constant companion and didn't come to the Master

more often.

'Gopal has spiritual realizations, no doubt,' the Master said to me, 'but he

has attained them all of a sudden, without the necessary preparations. He is

not one of my own. If he is, why haven't I wept for him?'

"Some are proclaiming Gopal as the reincarnation of Nityananda. But times

without number the Master said to me: 'In me alone are embodied Advaita,

Chaitanya, and Nityananda. I am all these three.'"

Friday, April 8, 1887

About eight o'clock in the morning two devotees, one a householder and the

other a monk, were conversing in a room in the Barangore monastery, when

M. came in. The devotees were of the same age-twenty-four or twenty-five

years old. M. intended to spend three days at the monastery. He went to the

shrine and saluted the Deity. After visiting Narendra, Rākhāl, and the other

brothers, he at last came into the room where the two devotees were

engaged in conversation. The householder devotee wanted to renounce the

world, The monk was trying to persuade him not to do so.

MONK: "Why don't you finish the few duties you have in the world? Very

soon they will be left behind,

"A man was told that he would go to hell. He asked a friend, 'What is hell

like?'

Thereupon the friend began to draw a picture of hell on the ground with a

piece of chalk.

No sooner was the picture drawn than the man rolled over it and said, 'Now

I have gone through hell!'"

HOUSEHOLDER: "I don't relish worldly life, Ah, how happy you are

here!"

MONK: "Why don't you renounce the world, if you want to? Why do you

talk about it so much? But I repeat, why don't you enjoy the fun once for

all?"

Śaśi finished the regular worship in the worship hall. About eleven the

brothers of the Math returned from the Ganges after taking their baths. They

put on clean cloths, went to the shrine, prostrated themselves before the

Deity, and meditated there a little while.

After the food was offered to the Deity they had their meal. M. ate with

them.

It was evening. Incense was burnt before the pictures of gods and goddesses

and the evening service was performed. Rākhāl, Śaśi, the elder Gopal, and

Harish were seated in the big hall. M. also was there.

Rākhāl's reminiscences of the Master

Rākhāl warned one of the brothers to be careful about the food to he offered

to the Master in the shrine.

RĀKHĀL (to Śaśi and the others): "One day I ate part of his [meaning the

Master's]

refreshments before he took them. At this he said: 'I cannot look at you.

How could you do such a thing?' I burst into tears."

THE ELDER GOPAL: "One day at Cossipore I breathed hard on his food.

At this he said, 'Take that food away.' "

M. and Narendra were pacing the verandah and recalling old times.

NARENDRA: "I did not believe in anything."

M:" You mean the forms of God?"

NARENDRA: "At first I did not accept most of what the Master said. One

day he asked me, 'Then why do you come here?' I replied, 'I come here to

see you, not to listen to you.' "

M: "What did he say to that?"

NARENDRA: "He was very much pleased."

Saturday, April 9, 1887

The Master and Narendra

The members of the Math were resting a little after their meal. Narendra

and M. sat under a tree in the garden to the west of the monastery. It was a

solitary place and no one else was present. Narendra was recounting to M.

his various experiences with Sri Ramakrishna, Narendra was about twenty-

four years old, and M. thirty-two.

M: "You must remember vividly your first visit to him."

NARENDRA: "Yes. It was at the temple garden at Dakshineswar, in his

own room. That day I sang two songs."

Narendra sang them for M.:

Let us go back once more, O mind, to our own abode!

Here in this foreign land of earth

Why should we wander aimlessly in stranger's guise?

These living beings round about, and the five elements; Are strangers to

you, all of them; none is your own.

Why do you thus forget yourself,

In love with strangers, O my mind?

Why do you thus forget your own?

Ascend the path of Truth, O mind! Unflaggingly climb, With Love as the

lamp to light your way.

As your provision for the journey, bring with you The virtues, carefully

concealed; for, like two highwaymen,

Greed and delusion wait to rob you of your wealth.

And keep beside you constantly,

As guards to shelter you from harm,

Calmness of mind and self-control.

Companionship with holy men will be for you

A welcome rest-house by the road;

There rest your weary limbs awhile, asking your way, If ever you should be

in doubt, of him who watches there.

If anything along the path should frighten you, Then loudly shout the name

of the Lord;

For He is Ruler of that road,

And even Death must bow to Him.

O Lord, must all my days pass by so utterly in vain?

Down the path of hope I gaze with longing, day and night.

Thou art the Lord of all the worlds, and I but a beggar here;

How can I ask of Thee to come and dwell within my heart?

My poor heart's humble cottage door is standing open wide;

Be gracious, Lord, and enter there but once, and quench its thirst!

M: "What did he say after listening to your songs?"

NARENDRA: "He went into samādhi. He said to Ram Babu: 'Who is this

boy? How well he sings!' He asked me to come again."

M: "Where did you see him next?"

NARENDRA: "At Rājmohan's house. The third visit was at Dakshineswar

again. During that visit he went into samādhi and began to praise me as if I

were God. He said to me, 'O Narayana, you have assumed this body for my

sake.' But please don't tell this to anybody else."

M: "What else did he say?"

NARENDRA: "He said: 'You have assumed this body for my sake. I asked

the Divine Mother, "Mother, unless I enjoy the company of some genuine

devotees completely free from 'woman and gold', how shall I live on earth?"

Then he said to me, 'You came to me at night woke me up, and said, "Here I

am!"' But I did not know anything of this. I was sound asleep in our

Calcutta house."

M: "In other words, you may be both present and absent at the same time. It

is like God, who is both formless and endowed with form."

NARENDRA: "But you must not tell this to anyone else. At Cossipore he

transmitted his power to me."

M: "Didn't it happen when you used to meditate before a lighted fire under

a tree at the Cossipore garden house?"

NARENDRA: "Yes. One day, while meditating, I asked Kāli to hold my

hand. Kāli said to me, 'When I touched your body I felt something like an

electric shock coming to my body.'

"But you must not tell this to anybody here. Give me your promise."

M: "There is a special purpose in his transmission of power to you. He will

accomplish much work through you. One day the Master, wrote on a piece

of paper, 'Naren will teach people.'"

NARENDRA: "But I said to him, 'I won't do any such thing.' Thereupon he

said, 'Your very bones will do it.' He has given me charge of Sarat. Sarat is

now yearning for God; the Kundalini is awakened in him."

M: "He must be careful that dead leaves do not accumulate there. Perhaps

you remember what the Master used to say: 'In a lake the fish make holes so

that they may rest there. But if dead leaves accumulate in the holes, the fish

do not go there.' "

NARENDRA: "The Master used to call me Narayana."

M: "Yes, I know he did."

NARENDRA: "When he was ill he would not allow me to pour water to

wash his hands. At Cossipore he said: 'Now the key is in my hands. He will

give up his body when he knows who he is.'"

M; "Didn't he say it when you were in nirvikalpa samādhi?"

NARENDRA: "Yes. At the time it seemed to me I had no body. I felt only

my face.

"I was studying law at home to prepare for the examinations. Suddenly I

said to myself, 'What am I doing?' "

M: "Didn't it happen when the Master was at Cossipore?"

NARENDRA: "Yes. Like an insane person I ran out of our house. He asked

me, 'What do you want?' I replied, 'I want to remain immersed in samādhi.'

He said: 'What a small mind you have! Go beyond samādhi! Samādhi is a

very trifling thing.' "

M: "Yes, he used to say that vijnāna is the stage after jnāna. It is like going

up and down the stairs after reaching the roof."

NARENDRA: "Kāli has a craving for knowledge. I scold him for that. Is

knowledge so easy to get? Let his bhakti first mature. The Master told

Tārak at Dakshineswar that emotion and bhakti are by no means the last

word."

M: "What other things did he say about you?"

NARENDRA: "Once I said to him, The forms of God and things like that,

which you see in your visions, are all figments of your imagination.' He had

so much faith in my words that he went to the Divine Mother in the temple

and told Her what I had said to him. He asked Her, 'Are these

hallucinations, then?' Afterwards he said to me, 'Mother told me that all

these are real.'

"Perhaps you remember that he said to me, 'When you sing, He who dwells

here (touching his heart), like a snake, hisses as it were, and then, spreading

His hood, quietly holds Himself steady and listens to your music.'

"He has no doubt said many things about me; but what have I realized?"

M: "Now you have put on the garb of Śiva; you cannot touch money. Do

you remember the Master's story?"

NARENDRA: "Please tell it to me."

M: "A Bahurupi disguised himself as Śiva and visited a house. The master

of the house wanted to give him a rupee, but he did not accept it. Then the

mendicant went home, removed his disguise, came back to the gentleman,

and asked for the rupee. 'Why didn't you accept it before?' he was asked. He

said: 'I was impersonating Śiva, a sannyāsi. I couldn't touch money that

time.' "

When Narendra heard the story he laughed a long while.

M: "You have now put on the garb of a physician, as it were. You have

become the guardian of these young men. Yours is the entire responsibility.

You have to bring up the brothers of the monastery."

NARENDRA: "Whatever spiritual disciplines we are practising here are in

obedience to the Master's command. But it is strange that Ram Babu

criticizes us for our spiritual practices. He says: 'We have seen him. What

need have we of any such practice?' "

M: "Let people act according to their faith."

NARENDRA: "But the Master asked us to practise sādhanā."

Master's love for Narendra

Narendra was again telling M. about the Master's love for him.

NARENDRA: "How many times he prayed to the Divine Mother for my

sake! After my father's death, when I had no food at home and my mother

and sisters and brothers were starving too, the Master prayed to the Divine

Mother to give me money."

M: "Yes, I know that. You once told me."

NARENDRA: "But I didn't get any money. The Master told me what the

Divine Mother had said to him: 'He will get simple food and clothing. He

will eat rice and dāl.'

"He loved me so much! But whenever an impure idea crept into my mind

he at once knew about it. While going around with Annada, sometime I

found myself in the company of evil people. On those occasions the Master

could not eat any food from my hands. He could raise his hand only a little,

and could not bring it to his mouth. On one such occasion, while he was ill,

he brought his hand very close to his mouth, but it did not go in. He said to

me, 'You are not yet ready.'

"Now and then I feel great scepticism. At Baburam's house it seemed to me

that nothing existed-as if there were no such thing as God."

M: "The Master used to say that he too had passed through that mood."

Both M. and Narendra remained silent. Then M. said: "You are all indeed

blessed! You think of the Master day and night."

NARENDRA: "But how little it is! We don't yet feel like giving up the

body because we haven't realized God."

It was night. Niranjan had just returned from Puri The members of the

Math, and M., greeted him with great joy. Niranjan was telling them his

experiences. He was then about twenty-five years old.

The evening worship was over. Some of the brothers were meditating. But

many of them assembled in the big hall around Niranjan. They were

talking. After nine o'clock Śaśi offered food to the Deity.

The members of the Math finished their supper, which consisted of home-

made bread, a little vegetable, and a little hard molasses.

Saturday, May 7, 1887

It was the full-moon day of the month of Vaiśākh. Narendra and M. were

seated on a couch in M.'s study in Calcutta. They were talking. Just before

Narendra's arrival, M. had been studying The Merchant of Venice, Comus,

and Blackie's Self-culture, which he taught at school.

Narendra and the other brothers of the monastery were full of yearning for

God-realization. A fire of intense renunciation raged in their hearts.

NARENDRA: "I don't care for anything. You see, I am now talking with

you, but I feel like getting up this minute and running away."

Narendra sat in silence a few minutes. Then he said, "I shall fast to death

for the realization of God."

M: "That is good. One can do anything for God."

NARENDRA: "But suppose I cannot control my hunger."

M: "Then eat something and begin over again."

Narendra remained silent a few minutes.

NARENDRA: "It seems there is no God. I pray so much, but there is no

reply-none whatsoever.

"How many visions I have seen! How many mantrās shining in letters of

gold! How many visions of the Goddess Kāli! How many other divine

forms! But still I have no peace. "Will you kindly give me six pice?"

Narendra asked for the money to pay his carriage hire to the Barangore

Math. Just then Satkari arrived in a carriage. Of the same age as Narendra,

he dearly loved the members of the monastery. He lived near the Math and

worked in Calcutta. The carriage was his own. Narendra returned the

money to M. and said that he would go with Satkari in his carriage. He

asked M. to give them some refreshments.

M. accompanied the two friends to the Barangore Math. He wanted to see

how the brothers spent their time and practised sādhana. He wanted to see

how Sri Ramakrishna, the Master, was reflected in the hearts of the

disciples. Niranjan was not at the Math. He had gone home to visit his

mother, the only relative he had in the world.

Baburam, Sarat, and Kāli had gone to Puri. They intended to spend a few

days there.

Prasanna's austere sādhanā

Narendra was in charge of the members of the monastery. Prasanna had

been practising austere sādhanā for the past few days. Once Narendra had

told him of his desire to fast to death for the realization of God. During

Narendra's absence in Calcutta, Prasanna had left the monastery for an

unknown destination. When Narendra heard about it, he said to the

brothers, "Why did Raja allow him to go?" But Rākhāl had not been in the

monastery at the time, having gone to the Dakshineswar temple for a stroll.

NARENDRA: "Just let Raja come back to the monastery! I shall scold him.

Why did he allow Prasanna to go away? (To Harish) I am sure you were

lecturing him then, standing with your feet apart. Couldn't you prevent his

going away?"

Harish replied in a very low voice, "Brother Tārak asked him not to go, but

still he went away."

NARENDRA (to M.): "You see what a lot of trouble I am in! Here, too, I

am involved in a world of māyā. Who knows where this boy has gone?"

Rākhāl returned from Dakshineswar. Bhavanāth had accompanied him.

Narendra told Rākhāl about Prasanna's going away from the monastery.

Prasanna had left a letter for Narendra. This was the substance of the letter:

"I am going to Vrindāvan on foot. It is very risky for me to live here. Here

my mind is undergoing a change.

Formerly I used to dream about my parents and other relatives. Then I

dreamt of woman, the embodiment of māyā. I have suffered twice; I had to

go back to my relatives at home. Therefore I am going far away from them.

The Master once told me, 'Your people at home are apt to do anything;

never trust them.' "

Rākhāl said: "These are the reasons for his going away. Once he remarked:

'Narendra often goes home to look after his mother, brothers, and sisters.

And he supervises the family's lawsuit. I am afraid that I too may feel like

going home, following his example.'"

Narendra remained silent.

Rākhāl was talking to them about making pilgrimages. He said: "We have

achieved nothing by staying here. The Master always exhorted us to realize

God. Have we succeeded?"

Rākhāl lay down. The other devotees were either lying down or sitting.

RĀKHĀL: "Let us go to the Narmada."

NARENDRA: "What will you achieve by wandering about? Can one ever

attain jnāna, that you are talking about it so much?"

A DEVOTEE: "Then why have you renounced the world?"

NARENDRA: "Must we live with Shyam because we have not seen Ram?

Must we go on begetting children because we have not realized God? What

are you talking about?"

Narendra went out, returning after a few minutes. Rākhāl was still lying

down.

A member of the monastery who was also lying down said teasingly,

feigning great suffering on account of his separation from God: "Ah! Please

get me a knife. I have no more use for this life. I can't stand this pain any

more!"

NARENDRA (feigning seriousness): "It is there. Stretch out your hand and

take it."

Everybody laughed.

The conversation again turned to Prasanna.

NARENDRA: "Even here we are involved in māyā. Why have we become

sannyāsis, I wonder?"

RĀKHĀL: "I have read in a book that sannyāsis should not live together.

The author has described a city of sannyāsis."

ŚAŚI: "I don't care about sannyās or any such thing. There is no place

where I cannot live."

They were talking of Bhavanāth, whose wife had been seriously ill.

Narendra said to Rākhāl: "I understand that his wife has been snatched from

the jaws of death. Is that why he went to Dakshineswar to enjoy the fresh

air?"

Ram Babu intended to build a temple in the garden at Kankurgachi, where

some of Sri Ramakrishna's ashes were buried.

NARENDRA (to Rākhāl): "Ram Babu has made M. one of the trustees of

the garden."

M. (to Rākhāl): "But I don't know anything about it."

It was dusk. Śaśi burnt incense before the picture of Sri Ramakrishna in the

worship room and then before the pictures of gods and goddesses in the

other rooms.

The evening worship began. The members of the Math and the other

devotees stood with folded hands near the door of the shrine and witnessed

the Ārati. Then they all sang in chorus the following hymn to Śiva, to the

accompaniment of bell and gong: Jaya Śiva Omkara, Bhaja Śiva Omkara,

Brahma Vishnu Sadasiva,

Hara Hara Hara Mahadeva!

Narendra had introduced this song for the evening worship. It is sung in the

temple of Śiva in Benares.

It was eleven o'clock at night when their supper was over. The brothers

prepared a bed for M., and all went to sleep.

It was midnight. M. was wide awake. He said to himself: "Everything is as

it was before.

The same Ayodhya only Rāmā is not there." M. silently left his bed. It was

the full-moon night of Vaiśākh, the thrice-blessed day of the Buddhists,

associated with Buddha's birth, realization, and passing away. M. was

walking alone on the bank of the Ganges, contemplating the Master.

It was Sunday. M. had arrived the day before and was planning to stay till

Wednesday.

The householder devotees generally visited the monastery on Sundays.

The Yoga-vāsishta was being studied and explained. M. had heard a little

about the teachings of this book from Sri Ramakrishna. It taught the

absolute identity of Brahman and the soul, and the unreality of the world.

The Master had forbidden him and the other householder devotees to

practise spiritual discipline following the method of the Advaita Vedānta,

since the attitude of the oneness of the soul and God is harmful for one still

identified with the body. For such a devotee, the Master used to say, it was

better to look on God as the Lord and oneself as His servant.

The conversation turned to the Yoga-vāsishta.

M: "Well, how is Brahmajnana described in the Yoga-vāsishta?"

RĀKHĀL: "Hunger, thirst, pain, pleasure, and so on, are all māyā. The

annihilation of the mind is the only means to the realization of Brahman."

M: "What remains after the annihilation of the mind is Brahman. Is that not

true?"

RĀKHĀL: "Yes."

M: "Sri Ramakrishna used to say that Nangta taught him that way. Have

you found in the book that Vasishtha asked Rāma to lead a householder's

life?"

RĀKHĀL: "I haven't yet found anything like that in the book. Rāma is not

even admitted by the author to be an Incarnation of God."

Presently Narendra, Tārak, and another devotee returned from the bank of

the Ganges.

They had intended to go to Konnagar, on the other side of the river, but had

been unable to find a ferryboat. They sat down. The conversation about the

Yoga-vāsishta went on.

NARENDRA (to M.): "There are many nice stories in the book. Do you

know the incident of Lila?"

M: "Yes, I have read the book here and there. Lila had attained

Brahmajnana."

NARENDRA: "Yes. Do you remember the story of Indra and Ahalyā, and

the story of how King Viduratha became a chandala?"

M: "Yes, I remember."

NARENDRA: "What a wonderful description of the forest!"

Narendra and the other devotees were going to the Ganges to bathe. M.

accompanied them. The sun was very hot; so M. took his umbrella. Sarat, a

devotee from Barangore, was going with them to take his bath. He often

visited the monastery.

M. (to Sarat): "It is very hot."

NARENDRA: "Is that your excuse for taking the umbrella?"

M. laughed.

The members of the monastery were clad in Gerruā.

M. (to Narendra): "It is really very hot. One is liable to get a sunstroke."

NARENDRA: "I see that your body is the obstacle in your path of

renunciation. Isn't that so? I mean you, Devendra Babu-"

M. laughed and said to himself, "Is it merely the body?"

After bathing, the devotees returned to the monastery. They washed their

feet and entered the worship room. Saluting the Deity, they offered flowers.

Narendra was a little late in coming to the worship room. He found that

there was no flower on the tray. There were only a few bel-leaves. He

sprinkled the leaves with sandal-paste and offered them to Sri Ramakrishna.

He rang the bell, saluted the Deity again, and joined the other brothers in

the big hall, which was known as the room of the "Dānās".

The members of the Math called themselves the "Dānās" and the "Daityās",

which mean the "ghosts" and the "demons", the companions of Śiva. They

took these names because of their utter indifference to worldly pleasures

and relationships.

The southernmost room of the second floor was used for meditation,

contemplation, and study, and was known as Kāli Tapasvi's room, since

Kāli used to shut himself in there most of the day. North of this room was

the worship room, and north of that, again, was the room where the

offerings for the worship were prepared. From this room the devotees used

to watch the evening worship. North of the "offering room" was the room of

the "Dānās", a very long hall where the members of the Math used to

assemble. Here the householder devotees and visitors were received. North

of this hall was a small room where the devotees took their meals. East of

the worship room and of Kāli Tapasvi's room ran a long verandah, at the

southwest corner of which was the library of a society of Barangore.

Between Kāli Tapasvi's room and this library was a staircase; and north of

the dining room was another staircase, leading to the roof.

Narendra and the other members of the Math often spent their evenings on

this roof.

There they devoted a great deal of time to discussion of the teachings of Sri

Ramakrishna, Sankaracharya, Ramanuja, and Jesus Christ, and of Hindu

philosophy, European philosophy, the Vedas, the Puranas, and the Tantras.

Narendra, who had a beautiful voice, used to sing in the room of the

"Dānās" and teach music to Sarat and a few others. Kāli used to take

lessons on the instruments. Many, many happy hours they spent together in

that hall, dancing and singing.

Narendra was sitting with the devotees in the room of the "Dānās". The

conversation turned to religious preaching.

Vidyāsāgar's reluctance about preaching

M. (to Narendra): "Vidyāsāgar says that he does not speak about God to

anyone for fear of being caned."

NARENDRA: "For fear of being caned? What does he mean?"

M: "This is what Vidyāsāgar says: 'Suppose that after death we all go to

God. The emissaries of Death will have sent Keshab Sen there too. Keshab

Sen, no doubt, committed sins while he lived on earth. When that is proved,

perhaps God will say, "Give him twenty-five stripes." Then suppose I am

taken to God. I used to go to Keshab Sen's Brahmo Samaj in my earthly

life. I too have committed many sins; so I too am ordered to be caned. Then

suppose I say to God that I acted in that sinful way because I listened to

Keshab's preaching. Thereupon God will ask His emissaries to bring

Keshab back.

When he is brought, the Almighty Lord will say to him: "Did you really

preach that way?

You yourself knew nothing about spiritual matters and yet you had the

hardihood to teach others about God! Emissaries! Give him twenty-five

stripes more." ' "

Everybody laughed.

M: "Therefore Vidyāsāgar says: 'I cannot take care of my own self, should I

be foolish enough to get an additional caning for misleading others? I

myself do not understand God. How shall I lecture to others about Him?' "

NARENDRA: "How has he-who could not understand God-understood

other things?"

M: "What other things?"

NARENDRA: "He says that he has not understood God. But how, then, can

he understand charity and doing good to others? How can he understand

about the school?

How can he understand about educating boys by establishing schools? How

can he understand that it is right to enter the world, marry, and beget

children?

"He who rightly understands one thing understands everything else."

M. (to himself): "Yes, Sri Ramakrishna, too, said that he who knows God

knows everything else. Further, he said to Vidyāsāgar that leading a worldly

life, establishing schools, and so on are the outcome of rajas. The Master

also said that Vidyāsāgar's philanthropy was due to the influence of sattva

on rajas. Such rajas is not harmful."

After their meal the brothers of the monastery rested. M. and Chunilal were

conversing.

Chunilal told M. of his first visit to Sri Ramakrishna at Dakshineswar. He

also told him how at one time he had felt disgusted with the world, had

renounced it, and had wandered about in holy places. A few minutes later

Narendra came and sat by them. He asked the younger Gopal to prepare a

smoke for him. The latter had been meditating.

Narendra said to him: "I say! Prepare a smoke. What do you mean by this

meditation?

First of all prepare yourself for spiritual life by serving God and holy men;

then you will be able to meditate. First of all karma, and then meditation."

Everybody laughed.

There was a big plot of wooded land to the west of the monastery

compound. M. was seated alone under a tree, when suddenly Prasanna

appeared. It was about three o'clock in the afternoon.

M: "Where have you been all these days? Everyone has been so worried

about you. Have you seen the brothers? When did you arrive?"

PRASANNA: "Just now. Yes, I have seen them."

M: "You left a note saying that you were going to Vrindāvan. We were

terribly worried about you. How far did you go?"

PRASANNA: "Only as far as Konnagar."

Both of them laughed.

M: "Sit down. Tell me all about it. Where did you stop first?"

PRASANNA: "At the Dakshineswar temple garden. I spent one night

there."

M. (smiling): "What is Hazra's present mood?"

PRASANNA: "Hazra asked me, 'What do you think of me?'"

Both laughed.

M. (smiling): "What did you say?"

PRASANNA: "I said nothing."

M: "Then?"

PRASANNA: "Then he asked me whether I had brought tobacco for him."

Both laughed.

PRASANNA: "He wanted me to wait on him." (Laughter.) M: "Where did

you go next?"

PRASANNA; "By degrees I got to Konnagar. I spent the night in the open.

I intended to proceed farther and asked some gentlemen whether I could

procure enough money there for a railway ticket to the up-country."

M: "What did they say?"

PRASANNA: "They said, 'You may get a rupee or so; but who will give

you the whole fare?'"

Both laughed.

M: "What did you take with you?"

PRASANNA: "Oh, one or two pieces of cloth and a picture of the Master. I

didn't show the picture to anybody."

About Śaśi

Śaśi's father came to the Math. He wanted to take his son home. During Sri

Ramakrishna's illness Śaśi had nursed the Master for nine months with

unswerving zeal.

He had won a scholarship in the Entrance Examination for his academic

ability and had studied up to the B.A., but he had not appeared at the

examination. His father, a poor brahmin, was a devout Hindu and spent

much of his time in spiritual practice. Śaśi was his eldest son. His parents

had hoped that, after completing his education, he would earn money and

remove the family's financial difficulties. But Śaśi had renounced the world

for the realization of God. Whenever he thought of his father and mother he

felt great anguish of heart. Many a time he said to his friends, with tears in

his eyes: "I am at a loss as to my duty. Alas, I could not serve my parents; I

could not be of any use to them. What great hope they placed in me! On

account of our poverty my mother did not have any jewelry. I cherished the

desire to buy some for her. But now all my hopes are frustrated; it is

impossible for me to return home. My Master asked me to renounce

'woman and gold'. I simply cannot return home."

After Sri Ramakrishna's passing away Śaśi's father had hoped that his son

would come back to his family. The boy had spent a few days at home, but

immediately after the establishment of the new monastery he had begun to

frequent it and, after a few days, had decided to remain there as one of the

members. Every now and then his father came to the monastery to persuade

him to come home; but he had not succeeded.

This day, on learning that his father had come, Śaśi fled the monastery by

another door.

He did not want to meet him.

Śaśi's father knew M. They paced the upper verandah together and talked.

ŚAŚI'S FATHER: "Who is in charge of this place? Narendra alone is the

cause of all the mischief. For a while all these young men returned home

and devoted themselves to their studies."

M: "There is no master here. They are all equals. What can Narendra do?

Can a man renounce home against his own will? Have we householders, for

instance, been able to give up our homes altogether?"

ŚAŚI'S FATHER: "You are doing the right thing. You are serving both the

world and God.

Can't one practise religion after your method? That is exactly what we want

Śaśi to do.

Let him live at home and come here too. You have no idea how much his

mother weeps for him."

M. became sad and said nothing.

ŚAŚI'S FATHER: "And if you speak of searching for holy men, I know

where to find a good one. Let Śaśi go to him."

Rākhāl's yearning for God

Rākhāl and M. were walking on the verandah to the east of Kāli Tapasvi's

room.

RĀKHĀL (earnestly): "M., let us practise sādhanā! We have renounced

home for good.

When someone says, 'You have not realized God by renouncing home; then

why all this fuss?', Narendra gives a good retort. He says, 'Because we

could not attain Ram, must we live with Shyam and beget children?' Ah!

Every now and then Narendra says nice things. You had better ask him."

M: "What you say is right. I see that you too have become restless for God."

RĀKHĀL: "M., how can I describe the state of my mind? Today at

noontime I felt great yearning for the Narmada. M., please practise

sādhanā; otherwise you will not succeed.

Even Sukadeva was afraid of this world. That is why immediately after his

birth he fled the world. His father asked him to wait, but he ran straight

away."

M: "Yes, the Yogopanishad describes how Sukadeva fled this world of

māyā. It also describes Vyāsa's conversation with Suka. Vyāsa asked his son

to practise religion in the world. But Suka said that the one essential thing is

the Lotus Feet of God. He also expressed his disgust with worldly men for

getting married and living with women."

RĀKHĀ : "Many people think that it is enough not to look at the face of a

woman. But what will you gain merely by turning your eyes to the ground

at the sight of a woman?

Narendra put it very well last night, when he said: 'Woman exists for a man

as long as he has lust. Free from lust, one sees no difference between man

and woman.' "

M: "How true it is! Children do not see the difference between man and

woman."

RĀKHĀL: "Therefore I say that we must practise spiritual discipline. How

can one attain Knowledge without going beyond māyā?

"Let's go to the big hall. Some gentlemen have come from Baranagore.

Narendra is talking with them. Let's go and listen to him."

M. did not enter the room. As he was pacing outside he overheard some of

the conversation.

NARENDRA: "There is no fixed time or place for the Sandhya and other

devotions."

GENTLEMAN: "Sir, can one realize God through spiritual practice alone?"

NARENDRA: "Realization depends on God's grace. Sri Krishna says in the

Gitā: The Lord, O Arjuna, dwells in the hearts of all beings, causing them,

by His māyā, to revolve as if mounted on a machine. Take refuge in Him

with all thy heart, O Bharata. By His grace wilt thou attain Supreme Peace

and the Eternal Abode.

"Without the grace of God mere worship and prayer do not help at all.

Therefore one should take refuge in Him."

GENTLEMAN: "May we come now and then and disturb you?"

NARENDRA: "Please come whenever you like. We take our baths in the

Ganges at your ghat."

GENTLEMAN: "I don't mind that. But please see that others don't use it."

NARENDRA: "We shall not use your ghat, if that is what you mean"

GENTLEMAN: "No, I don't mean exactly that. But if you see other people

using it, then you had better not go."

It was dusk. The evening worship was over. The devotees, as usual, sang in

chorus, "Jaya Śiva Omkara". Afterwards they assembled in the room of the

"Dānās". M., too, was seated there. Prasanna was reading from the Guru

Gitā.

Narendra sang:

I salute the Eternal Teacher, who is the Embodiment of the Bliss of

Brahman,

The Essence of knowledge and liberation, the Giver of Supreme Joy;

Who is all-pervading, like the Ākāśa, and is the goal of the Vedānta's

teachings;

Who is One, eternal, stainless, pure, and is the constant Witness of all

things;

Who dwells beyond all moods, transcending the three Gunās.

Narendra sang again:

There is none, higher than the Guru, none better than the Guru;

This is what Śiva has declared.

I shall sing of the blessed Guru, the Supreme Brahman; I shall worship the

blessed Guru, the Supreme

Brahman;

I shall meditate on the blessed Guru, the Supreme Brahman;

I shall bow down to the blessed Guru, the Supreme Brahman.

As Narendra sang these verses from the Guru Gitā in his melodious voice,

the minds of the devotees became steady, like a candle-flame in a windless

place.

Rākhāl was seated in Kāli Tapasvi's room. Prasanna sat near him. M., too,

was there.

Rākhāl had renounced the world, leaving behind his wife and child. A fire

of intense renunciation burnt day and night in his heart. He was thinking

seriously of going away, by himself, to the bank of the Narmada or some

other holy place. Still, he was trying to persuade Prasanna not to run away

from the monastery.

RĀKHĀL (to Prasanna): "Where do you want to go, running away from

here? Here you are in the company of holy men. Wouldn't it be foolish to

run away from this? Where will you find another like Narendra?"

PRASANNA: "My parents live in Calcutta. I am afraid of being drawn by

their love: That is why I want to flee to a distant place."

RĀKHĀL: "Can our parents love us as intensely as Gurumaharaj [meaning

Sri Ramakrishna] did? What have we done for him, to deserve all this love?

Why was he so eager for our welfare in body, mind, and soul? What have

we done for him, to deserve all this?"

M. (to himself): "Ah! Rākhāl is right. Therefore a person like Sri

Ramakrishna is described as the 'Ocean of Mercy without any reason'."

PRASANNA (to Rākhāl ): "Don't you yourself feel like running away from

here?"

RĀKHĀL: "Yes, now and then I have a fancy to spend a few days on the

bank of the Narmada. I say to myself, 'Let me go to a place like that and

practise sādhanā in a garden.' Again, I feel a strong desire to practise the

Panchatapa for three days. But I hesitate to live in a garden that belongs to

worldly people."

Tārak and Prasanna

Tārak and Prasanna were talking in the room of the "Dānās". Tārak had lost

his mother.

His father, like Rākhāl 's father, had married a second time. Tārak himself

had married but had lost his wife. Now the monastery was his home. He too

was trying to persuade Prasanna to live there.

PRASANNA: "I have neither jnāna nor prema. What have I in the world for

a support?"

TĀRAK: "It is no doubt difficult to attain jnāna; but how can you say you

have no prema?"

PRASANNA: "I have not yet wept for God. How can I say I have prema?

What have I realized in all these days?"

TĀRAK: "But you have seen the Master. And why do you say that you

have no jnāna?"

PRASANNA: "What sort of jnāna are you talking about? Jnāna means

Knowledge.

Knowledge of what? Certainly of God. But I am not even sure of the

existence of God."

TĀRAK: "Yes, that's true. According to the Jnāni, there is no God."

M. (to himself): "Ah! The Master used to say that those who seek God pass

through the state that Prasanna is now experiencing. In that state sometimes

one doubts the very existence of God. I understand that Tārak is now

reading Buddhistic philosophy. That is why he says that according to the

Jnāni God does not exist. But Sri Ramakrishna used to say that the Jnāni

and the bhakta will ultimately arrive at the same destination."

Narendra asks Prasanna to practise self-surrender N arendra and

Prasanna were talking in the meditation room. Rākhāl , Harish, and the

younger Gopal were seated in another part of the room. After a while the

elder Gopal came in. Narendra was reading from the Gitā and explaining

the verses to Prasanna: The Lord, O Arjuna, dwells in the hearts of all

beings, causing them, by His māyā, to revolve as if mounted on a machine.

Take refuge in Him with all thy heart, O

Bharata. By His grace wilt thou attain Supreme Peace and the Eternal

Abode.

Relinquishing all dharmas, take refuge in Me alone. I shall liberate thee

from all sins. Grieve not.

NARENDRA: "Did you notice what Krishna said? 'Mounted on a machine.'

The Lord, by His māyā, causes all beings to revolve as if mounted on a

machine. To seek to know God? You are but a worm among worms-and you

to know God? Just reflect a moment: what is a man? It is said that each one

of the myriads of stars that shine overhead represents a solar system. This

earth of ours is a part of only one solar system, and even that is too big for

us. Like an insect man walks about on this earth, which, compared to the

sun, is only a tiny ball."

Narendra sang:

We are born, O Lord, in the dust of earth,

And our eyes are blinded by the dust;

With dust we toy like children at play:

O give us assurance, Thou Help of the weak!

Wilt Thou cast us out of Thy lap, O Lord,

For a single mistake? Wilt Thou turn away

And abandon us to our helplessness?

Oh, then we shall never be able to rise,

But shall lie for ever dazed and undone.

Mere babes are we, Father, with baby minds;

At every step we stumble and fall.

Why, then, must Thou show us Thy terrible face?

Why, Lord, must we ever behold Thy frown?

Small are we-oh, do not be angry with us,

But tenderly speak to us when we do wrong;

For though Thou dost raise us a hundred times, A hundred times we shall

fall again!

What else can one do with a helpless mind?

Then he said to Prasanna: "Surrender yourself at His feet. Resign your self

completely to His will."

Narendra sang again in an ecstatic mood:

O Lord, I am Thy servant, I am Thy servant! Thy servant am I!

O Lord, Thou art my Master, Thou art my Master! My Master art Thou!

From Thee I have received two pieces of bread and a kaupin;

When I sing Thy name, devotion wells up in my heart and shields me from

harm.

Thou art the Master, the All-compassionate; this I repeat, O Lord!

Thy servant Kabir has taken refuge at Thy feet.

Narendra said to Prasanna: "Don't you remember Sri Ramakrishna's words?

God is the hill of sugar and you are but an ant. One grain is enough to fill

your stomach, and you think of bringing home the entire hill! Don't you

remember what the Master said about Sukadeva? Even Sukadeva was a big

ant at the most. That is why I scolded Kāli, saying: 'You fool! Do you want

to measure God with your tape and foot-rule?'

"God is the Ocean of Mercy. Be His slave and take refuge in Him. He will

show compassion. Pray to Him: 'Protect me always with Thy

compassionate face. Lead me from the unreal to the Real, from darkness to

Light, from death to Immortality. Reveal Thyself to me and protect me

always with Thy compassionate face.' "

PRASANNA: "What kind of spiritual discipline should one practise?"

NARENDRA: "Repeat His name. That's enough. Don't you remember Sri

Ramakrishna's song?"

Narendra sang:

O Syama, my only hope is in Thy hallowed name!

What need have I of kosha and kushi? What need of smiles and

conventions?

Thy name dissolves death's bonds, as Śiva has

proclaimed,

And I myself am Śiva's servant; whom else should I obey?

O Mother come what may, I shall repeat Thy name; Why should I fret

myself to death? To Śiva's words I cling.

He sang again:

Mere babes are we, Father, with baby minds;

At every step we stumble and fall.

Why, then, must Thou show us Thy terrible face?

Why, Lord, must we ever behold Thy frown?

PRASANNA: "Now you are saying that there is a God. Again, it is you

who say that according to Chārvāka and many other thinkers the world was

self-created."

NARENDRA: "Haven't you studied chemistry? Who combines the different

elements? It is a human hand that combines hydrogen, oxygen, and

electricity to prepare water.

Everybody admits the existence of an Intelligent Force-a Force that is the

essence of Knowledge and that guides all these phenomena."

PRASANNA: "How are we to know that God is kind?"

NARENDRA: "The Vedas say, 'That which is Thy compassionate face.'

John Stuart Mill said the same thing. He said, 'How much kindness must He

have, who has implanted kindness in the hearts of men.' The Master used to

say: 'Faith is the one essential thing.

God exists. He is very near us. Through faith alone one sees Him.' "

Narendra sang:

Where are you seeking Me, My servant? I am very close to you.

Far away you still are seeking, though I am so very near.

I am not in skin or hair, I am not in bones or flesh, Not in mosque and not in

temple, not in Kasi or Kailas.

Never will you come on Me in Ayodhya or Dwaraka; But you will be sure to

find Me if you search where faith abides.

Not in pleasant tasks or yoga, not in vairāgya or sannyās,

Yet I come without delaying if you only search for Me.

PRASANNA: "Sometimes you say that God does not exist, and now you

are saying all these things! You are not consistent. You keep changing your

opinions."

All laughed.

NARENDRA: "All right! I shall never change what I have just said. As

long as one has desires and cravings, so long one doubts the existence of

God. A man cherishes some desire or other. Perhaps he has the desire to

study or pass the university examination or become a scholar, and so forth

and so on."

Narendra sang again, in a voice choked with emotion: Hail to Thee, our

God and Lord! Hail, Giver of every blessing!

Hail, Thou Giver of good!

O Redeemer from fear, from danger and suffering!

Upholder of the worlds!

Hail, Lord! Victory to Thee!

Unfathomable and infinite, immeasurable, beyond compare,

O God, none equals Thee!

Lord of the Universe! O All-pervading Truth!

Thou the Ātman Supreme!

Hail, Lord! Victory to Thee!

O Thou, the All-compassionate One, adored by the whole universe,

I bow before Thy feet!

Thou art the only Refuge in life and death, O Lord; Before Thy feet I bow!

Hail, Lord! Victory to Thee!

This is our only prayer, O Lord! What other boon can we implore?

Thus do we pray to Thee:

Grant us true wisdom here, and in the life hereafter Reveal Thyself to us.

Hail, Lord! Victory to Thee!

Again Narendra sang, describing how very near God is to us-as near as the

musk to the deer-and exhorting his brother disciples to drink deep from the

cup of Divine Bliss: Drinking the Bliss of Hari from the cup of prema,

Sādhu, be intoxicated!

Childhood you spent in crying, and youth in women's control;

Now, in your old age, full of phlegm and wind, You wait for the funeral

couch to bear you to the cremation ground.

Within the musk-deer's navel the fragrant musk is found; But how can you

make it understand?

Without the proper teacher to guide him on his way, Man, too, is blindly

roaming through the world, Deluded as the foolish deer that wanders round

and round the woods.

M. heard all this from the verandah.

Narendra got up. As he left the room he remarked, "My brain is heated by

talking to these youngsters."

He met M. on the verandah and said, "Please, let us have a drink of water."

One of the members of the Math said to Narendra, "Why, then, do you say

that God does not exist?"

Narendra laughed.

Monday, May 9, 1887

The next morning M. was sitting alone under a tree in the garden. He said to

himself: "Sri Ramakrishna has made the brothers of the monastery renounce

'woman and gold'.

Ah, how eager they are to realize God! This place has become a veritable

Vaikuntha, and the brothers living here are embodiments of Narayana. It is

not many days since the Master passed away; that is why all the ideas and

ideals he stood for are there, almost intact. 'The same Ayodhya-only Rāma

is not there.' The Master has made these brothers renounce their homes.

Why has he kept a few in the world? Is there no way of liberation for

them?"

Narendra's longing for God-vision

From a room upstairs Narendra saw M. sitting alone under the tree. He

came down and said with a smile, "Hello, M.! What are you doing?"

After a little conversation M. said to him: "Ah, you have such a sweet

voice. Please sing a hymn."

Narendra sang the following hymn to Śiva, in which the devotee prays for

forgiveness for his sins:

Even before I saw the light of this world, my sins from previous births,

Through which I passed because of desire for the fruit of my deeds,

Punished me as I lay in my mother's womb.

There I was boiled in the midst of filthy things: Who can describe the pain

that afflicts the child in its mother's womb?

Therefore, O Śiva! O Mahadeva! O Sambhu! forgive me, I pray, for my

transgressions.

In childhood my suffering never came to an end; My body was covered with

filth and I craved for my mother's breasts.

Over my body and limbs I had no control;

I was pursued by troublesome flies and mosquitoes; Day and night I cried

with the pain of many an ailment, forgetting Thee, O

Sankara!

Therefore, O Śiva! O Mahadeva! O Sambhu! forgive me, I pray, for my

transgressions.

In youth the venomous snakes of sound, sight, taste, touch, and smell, Bit

into my vitals and slew my discrimination; I was engrossed in the pleasures

of wealth, sons, and a youthful wife.

Alas! my heart, bereft of the thought of Śiva, Was filled with arrogance and

pride.

Therefore, O Śiva! O Mahadeva! O Sambhu! forgive me, I pray, for my

transgressions.

Now in old age my senses have lost the power of proper judging and acting;

My body, though still not wholly bereft of life, Is weak and senile from many

afflictions, from sins and illnesses and bereavements;

But even now my mind, instead of meditating on Śiva, Runs after vain

desires and hollow delusions.

Therefore, O Śiva! O Mahadeva! O Sambhu! forgive me, I pray, for my

transgressions.

The duties laid down in the smriti-perilous and abstruse-are now beyond

me; How can I speak of the Vedic injunctions for brahmins, as means for

attaining Brahman?

Never yet have I rightly grasped, through discrimination, The meaning of

hearing the scriptures from the guru and reasoning on his instruction;

How then can I speak of reflecting on Truth without interruption?

Therefore, O Śiva! O Mahadeva! O Sambhu! forgive me, I pray, for my

transgressions.

Not even once have I finished my bath before sunrise and brought from the

Ganges

Water to bathe Thy holy image;

Never, from the deep woods, have I brought the sacred vilwa leaves for Thy

worship;

Nor have I gathered full-blown lotuses from the lakes, Nor ever arranged

the lights and the incense for worshipping Thee.

Therefore, O Śiva! O Mahadeva! O Sambhu! forgive me, I pray, for my

transgressions.

I have not bathed Thine image with milk and honey, with butter and other

oblations;

I have not decked it with fragrant sandal-paste; I have not worshipped Thee

with golden flowers, with incense, with camphor-flame and savoury

offerings.

Therefore, O Śiva! O Mahadeva! O Sambhu! forgive me, I pray, for my

transgressions.

I have not made rich gifts to the brahmins, cherishing in my heart, O

Mahadeva, Thy sacred form;

I have not made in the sacred fire the million oblations of butter, Repeating

the holy mantra given to me by my guru; Never have I done penance along

the Ganges with japa and study of the Vedas.

Therefore, O Śiva! O Mahadeva! O Sambhu! forgive me, I pray, for my

transgressions.

I have not sat in the lotus posture, nor have I ever controlled The Prāna

along the Sushumna, repeating the syllable Om; Never have I suppressed

the turbulent waves of my mind, nor merged the self-effulgent Om In the

ever shining Witness-Consciousness, whose nature is that of the highest

Brahman;

Nor have I, in samādhi, meditated on Sankara, who dwells in every form as

the Inner Guide.

Therefore, O Śiva! O Mahadeva! O Sambhu! forgive me, I pray, for my

transgressions.

Never, O Śiva! have I seen Thee, the Pure, the Unattached, the Naked One,

Beyond the three Gunās, free from delusion and darkness, absorbed in

meditation, And ever aware of the true nature of the world; Nor, with a

longing heart, have I meditated on Thine auspicious and sin-destroying

form.

Therefore, O Śiva! O Mahadeva! O Sambhu! forgive me, I pray, for my

transgressions.

O mind, to gain liberation, concentrate wholly on Śiva, The sole Reality

underlying the worlds, the Giver of good; Whose head is illumined by the

crescent moon and in whose hair the Ganges is hidden;

Whose fire-darting eyes consumed the god of earthly love; whose throat and

ears are decked with snakes;

Whose upper garment is a comely elephant-skin.

Of what avail are all the other rituals?

O mind, of what avail are wealth or horses, elephants or a kingdom?

Of what avail the body or a house?

Know all these to be but momentary and quickly shun them; Worship Śiva,

as your guru instructs you, for the attaining of Self Knowledge.

Day by day does man come nearer to death;

His youth wears away; the day that is gone never returns.

Almighty Time devours everything;

Fickle as lightning is the goddess of fortune.

O Śiva! O Giver of shelter to those that come to Thee for refuge!

Protect me, who have taken refuge at Thy feet.

I salute the ever auspicious Śiva, the Home of Peace, Who sits in the lotus

posture; who has five mouths and three eyes; Who holds in both His hands

weapons and gong and drum; Who is bedecked with many an ornament;

Whose skin is clear as crystal; who is Parvati's Lord.

I salute the self-effulgent Guru of the gods, the Lord of Uma; I salute the

Cause of the Universe;

I salute the Lord of beasts, adorned with snakes; I salute Śiva, whose three

eyes shine like the sun, the moon, and fire; I salute the Beloved of Krishna;

I salute Sankara, who bestows boons on His devotees and gives them

shelter;

I salute the auspicious Śiva.

O Śiva! White is Thy body, covered with ashes; white shine Thy teeth when

Thou smilest!

White is the skull Thou holdest in Thy hand; white is Thy club, which

threatens the wicked!

White is the bull on which Thou ridest; white are the rings that hang from

Thine ears!

White appear Thy matted locks, covered with the form of the Ganges; White

shines the moon on Thy forehead!

May He who is all white, all pure, bestow on me the treasure of forgiveness

for my transgressions!

O Śiva, forgive all the sins that I have committed With hands or feet, with

words or body, with ears or eyes, with mind or heart; Forgive my sins, those

past and those that are yet to come! Victory unto Śiva, the Ocean of

Compassion, the Great God, the Abode of Blessedness!

After the hymn Narendra and M. talked again.

NARENDRA: "You may speak of leading a detached life in the world, and

all that, but you will not attain anything unless you renounce 'woman and

gold'. Don't you feel disgusted with your wife's body?

Fools enjoy the contact of the body, filled with filth, peopled with worms,

foul of smell by nature, made of flesh, blood, bone, and marrow; but the

wise shun it.

"Vain is the life of a person who does not take delight in the teachings of

Vedānta and drink the Nectar of Divine Bliss. Listen to a song."

Narendra sang:

O man, abandon your delusion! Cast aside your wicked counsels!

Know the Lord and free yourself from earthly suffering!

For a few days' pleasure only, you have quite forgotten Him

Who is the Comrade of your soul. Alas, what mockery!

"No liberation is possible for a man unless he puts on the loincloth of a

sannyāsi. The world must be renounced."

Narendra sang from the Five Stanzas on the glory of the monk's loin cloth:

Roaming ever in the grove of Vedānta,

Ever pleased with his beggar's morsel

Ever walking with heart free from sorrow,

Blest indeed is the wearer of the loincloth. . . .

Continuing, Narendra said: "Why should a man be entangled in

worldliness? Why should he be ensnared by māyā? What is man's real

nature? He is the blessed Śiva, the Embodiment of Bliss and Spirit."

He sang Sankaracharya's Six Stanzas on Nirvāna:

Om. I am neither mind, intelligence, ego, nor chitta, Neither ears nor

tongue nor the senses of smell and sight;

Nor am I ether, earth, fire, water, or air:

I am Pure Knowledge and Bliss: I am Śiva! I am Śiva! . .

Narendra recited another hymn, the Eight Stanzas on the glory of Krishna:

I am consumed with false desires and wrapped in the sleep of lust: Save me,

O Madhusudana!

Thou art my only Refuge, Lord! I have no other salvation.

I am entrapped in the mire of sin:

O Madhusudana, redeem me!

I am ensnared in the net of love for children, wife, and home:

Save me, O Madhusudana!

I am without devotion, helpless, smitten by wrong desire,

Afflicted with grief and misery:

O Madhusudana, redeem me!

Lord, I have neither master nor place of shelter to call my own: Save me, O

Madhusudana!

Utterly wearied out am I by all this going and coming Along the endless

road of life:

O Madhusudana, redeem me!

From this hard and unavailing journey through life and death,

Save me, O Madhusudana!

Many the births that I have seen in many a bodily form, And painful it is in

the mother's womb:

O Madhusudana, redeem me!

To Thee I come for salvation out of the cycle of existence:

Save me, O Madhusudana!

For I am terrified alike of old age and of death: I come to Thee for shelter,

Lord!

O Madhusudana, redeem me!

Never a good deed have I done, but many have been my sins:

Save me, O Madhusudana!

Headlong have I fallen into the mire of worldliness; Countless the births I

have endured:

O Madhusudana, redeem me!

I have lorded it over men but happiness is not there: Save me, O

Madhusudana!

What my words have promised, my deeds have never carried out;

Lord, I am full of wretchedness:

O Madhusudana, redeem me!

If as a man or a woman I must be born again and again-Save me, O

Madhusudana!-

May my devotion be unswerving to Thy feet, O Lord!

From the delusion of this world,

O Madhusudana, redeem me!

M. remained spellbound as he listened to these hymns sung by Narendra.

He said to himself: "How intense Narendra's dispassion is! This is how he

has infused the spirit of dispassion into the hearts of the other brothers of

the monastery. The very contact with them awakens in the hearts of the

Master's householder devotees the desire for renunciation of 'woman and

gold'. Ah, how blessed are these all-renouncing brothers!

Why has the Master kept us few in the world? Will he show us a way? Will

he give us the spirit of renunciation, or will he delude us with worldliness?"

After the meal all were resting. The elder Gopal was copying some songs.

Niranjan was on a visit to his mother. Sarat, Baburam, and Kāli were in

Puri.

Narendra, with one or two brothers, left for Calcutta. He had to see to his

lawsuit. He was going to return in the evening; the brothers could not bear

his absence.

About Rabindra

In the afternoon Rabindra arrived, looking like a mad person. He was

barefoot and had only half of his black-bordered cloth round his waist. His

eyeballs were rolling like a madman's. All asked him anxiously what the

matter was.

"Let me recover my breath!" he said. "I shall tell you everything presently. I

am certainly not going back home; I shall stay at this very place with you

all. She is certainly a traitor! Let me tell you something, friends. For her

sake I gave up my habit of drinking, which I had indulged for five years. I

have not taken a drop for the last eight months. And she is a traitor!" The

brothers of the Math said: "Be calm, please! How did you come?"

RABINDRA: "I have come barefoot all the way from Calcutta."

The brothers asked him where he had lost the other half of his cloth.

RABINDRA: "When I was leaving her place she began to pull at my cloth.

That is how half of it was torn off."

The brothers told him to bathe in the Ganges and cool off; then they would

hear his story.

Rabindra belonged to a respectable kayastha family of Calcutta. He was

twenty or twenty-two years old. He had first met Sri Ramakrishna at the

Dakshineswar temple and had received his special blessing. On one

occasion he had spent three nights with the Master. His disposition was very

sweet and tender, and the Master had loved him dearly.

Once he had said to Rabindra: "You will have to wait some time; you have

to go through a few more experiences. Nothing can be done now. You see,

the police can't do much just when the robbers attack a house. When the

plundering is almost over, the police make their arrests."

Rabindra had many virtues. He was devoted to God and to service of the

poor. He had many spiritual qualities. But he had walked into the snare of a

prostitute. Now, suddenly, he had discovered that the woman was being

unfaithful to him. Therefore he had come to the Math in this dishevelled

state, resolved not to go back to the world.

A devotee accompanied Rabindra to the Ganges. It was his inmost desire

that Rabindra's spiritual consciousness should be awakened in the company

of these holy men. When Rabindra finished his bath, the devotee took him

to the adjacent cremation ground, showed him the corpses lying about, and

said: "The brothers of the Math come here every now and then to meditate

on God. It is a good place for meditation. Here one sees clearly that the

world is impermanent."

Rabindra sat down in the cremation ground to meditate. But he could not

meditate long; his mind was restless.

Rabindra and the devotee returned to the Math. They went to the worship

room to salute the Deity. The devotee said to him, "The brothers of the

Math meditate in this room."

Rabindra sat there to meditate, but could not meditate long there either.

DEVOTEE: "How do you feel? Is your mind very restless? Is that why you

have got up from your seat? Perhaps you could not concentrate well."

RABINDRA: "I am sure I shall not go back to the world. But the mind is

restless."

M. and Rabindra were talking. No one else was present. M. was telling him

stories from the life of Buddha. At that time, the members of the Math

regularly read the lives of Buddha and Chaitanya. M. said to Rabindra that

Buddha's spiritual consciousness was first awakened by hearing a song of

some heavenly maidens.

M. sang the song:

We moan for rest, alas! but rest can never find; We know not whence we

come, nor where we float away.

Time and again we tread this round of smiles and tears; In vain we pine to

know whither our pathway leads, And why we play this empty play. . . .

That night Narendra, Tārak, and Harish returned from Calcutta. They said,

"Oh, what a big meal we had!" They had been entertained by a devotee in

Calcutta.

The members of the monastery assembled in the room of the "Dānās".

Narendra heard Rabindra's story. He sang by way of giving instruction to

him: O man, abandon your delusion! Cast aside your wicked counsels!

Know the Lord and free yourself from earthly suffering!

For a few days' pleasure only, you have quite forgotten Him

Who is the Comrade of your soul. Alas, what mockery!

Narendra sang again:

Drinking the Bliss of Hari from the cup of prema, Sādhu, be intoxicated! . . .

A few minutes later the brothers went to Kāli Tapasvi's room. Girish Ghosh

had just sent two of his new books to the monastery: the Life of Buddha and

the Life of Chaitanya.

Since the founding of the new Math Śaśi had devoted himself heart and soul

to the worship and service of the Master. All were amazed at his devotion.

Just as he had tended Sri Ramakrishna's physical body during his illness, so

now, with the same unswerving zeal, he worshipped the Master in the

shrine room.

A member of the monastery was reading aloud from the lives of Buddha

and Chaitanya.

He was a little sarcastic while reading Chaitanya's life. Narendra snatched

the book from his hand and said, "That is how you spoil a good thing!"

Narendra read the chapter describing how Chaitanya gave his love to all,

from the brahmin to the pariah.

A BROTHER: "I say that one person cannot give love to another person."

NARENDRA: "But the Master gave it to me."

BROTHER: "Well, are you sure you have it?"

NARENDRA: "What can you understand about love? You belong to the

servant class. All of you must serve me and massage my feet. Don't flatter

yourselves by thinking you have understood everything. Now go and

prepare a smoke for me."

All laughed.

THE BROTHER: "I surely will not."

M. (to himself): "Sri Ramakrishna has transmitted mettle to all the brothers

of the Math.

It is no monopoly of Narendra's. Is it possible to renounce 'woman and gold'

without this inner fire?"

May 10, 1887

It was Tuesday, a very auspicious day for the worship of the Divine the

Mother.

Arrangements were being made for Her special worship at the monastery.

M. was going to the Ganges to take his bath. Rabindra was walking alone

on the roof. He heard Narendra singing the Six Stanzas on Nirvāna: Death

or fear I have none, nor any distinction of caste; Neither father nor mother

nor even a birth have I; Neither friend nor comrade, neither disciple nor

guru: I am Pure Knowledge and Bliss: I am Śiva! I am Śiva!

I have no form or fancy; the All-pervading am I; Everywhere I exist, yet I

am beyond the senses; Neither salvation am I, nor anything that may be

known: I am Pure Knowledge and Bliss: I am Śiva! I am Śiva!

Rabindra went to the Ganges to take his bath. Presently he returned to the

monastery clad in his wet cloth.

Narendra said to M. in a whisper: "He has bathed in the Ganges. It would

be good to initiate him now into sannyās."

Both Narendra and M. smiled.

Prasanna asked Rabindra to change his wet cloth and gave him a dry

Gerruā cloth.

Narendra said to M., "Now he is going to put on the cloth of renunciation."

M. (with a smile): "What kind of renunciation?"

NARENDRA: "Why, the renunciation of 'woman and gold'."

Rabindra put on the ochre cloth and entered Kāli Tapasvi's room to

meditate.

--------------------

Appendix A

KESHAB AT DAKSHINESWAR

Saturday, January 1, 1881

KESHAB CHANDRA SEN, the leader of the Brahmo Samaj, was expected

to visit Sri Ramakrishna at the temple garden at Dakshineswar. With the

Master were many Brahmo celebrities-Pratap, Trailokya, Jaygopal, and

others. It was only a few days before the annual festival of the Brahmo

Samaj, and the Brahmos were eagerly awaiting the arrival of their leader,

who was to come by steamer. They were restless and talking rather noisily.

Ram, Manomohan, and several other devotees of .the Master were also

there.

Keshab's reverence for the Master

At last Keshab entered the Master's room with two fruits and a bouquet of

flowers in his hands. Touching the Master's feet, he laid the offering at his

side. Then he saluted Sri Ramakrishna with great reverence, bowing very

low before him. Sri Ramakrishna returned in like manner his distinguished

visitor's salutation. Then he laughingly began the conversation.

MASTER: "You, Keshab, want me; but your disciples don't. I was saying to

them: 'Let us be restless. Then Govinda will come.' (To Keshab's disciples)

See, here is your Govinda!

"We have been showing signs of restlessness all this while to set the stage

for your arrival. It isn't easy to have the vision of Govinda. You must have

noticed in the Krishnayatra that Narada enters Vrindavan and prays with

great yearning: 'O Govinda! O

my soul! O Life of my life!', and then Krishna comes on the stage with the

cowherd boys, followed by the gopis. No one can see God without that

yearning.

"Well, Keshab, say something! They are eager to hear your words."

KESHAB (humbly, with a smile): "To open my lips here would be like

trying to 'sell needles to a blacksmith'."

MASTER (smiling): "But don't you know that the nature of devotees is like

that of hemp-smokers? One hemp-smoker says to another, 'Please take a

puff for yourself and give me one.'" (All laugh.)

Tasting divine bliss in different ways

It was about four o'clock in the afternoon. They heard the music from the

nahabat in the temple garden.

MASTER (to Keshab and the others): "Do you hear how melodious that

music is? One player is producing only a monotone on his flute, while

another is creating waves of melodies in different ragas and raginis. That is

my attitude. Why should I produce only a mortotone when I have an

instrument with seven holes? Why should I say nothing but, 'I am He, I am

He'? I want to play various melodies on my instrument with seven holes.

Why should I say only, 'Brahma! Brahma!'? I want to call on God through

all the moods-through santa, dasya, sakhya, vatsalya, and madhur. I want to

make merry with God. I want to sport with God."

Keshab listened to these words with wonder in his eyes and said to the

Brahmo devotees, "I have never before heard such a wonderful and

beautiful interpretation of jnana and bhakti."

KESHAB (to the Master): "How long will you hide yourself in this way? I

dare say people will be thronging here by and by in great crowds."

Master's abhorrence of public preaching

MASTER: "What are you talking of? I only eat and drink and sing God's

name. I know nothing about gathering crowds. Hanuman once declared: 'I

know nothing about the day of the week or the position of the moon and

stars in the sky. I simply meditate on Rama.'"

KESHAB: "All right, sir, I shall gather the crowd. But they all must come

to your place."

Master instructs about humility

MASTER: "I am the dust of the dust of everybody's feet. If anyone is

gracious enough to come here, he is welcome."

KESHAB: "Whatever you may say, sir, your advent cannot be in vain."

In the mean time the devotees had arranged a kirtan. Many of them had

joined it. The party started at the Panchavati and moved toward the Master's

room. Hriday blew the horn, Gopidas played the drum, and two devotees

played the cymbals.

Sri Ramakrishna sang:

O man, if you would live in bliss, repeat Lord Hari's name; Then you will

lead a life of joy and go to paradise, And feed upon the fruit of moksha

evermore:

Such is the glory of His name!

I give you the name of Hari, which Siva, God of Gods, Repeats aloud with

His five mouths.

The Master danced with the strength of a lion and went into samadhi.

Regaining consciousness of the outer world, he sat down in his room and

began to talk with Keshab and the other devotees.

MASTER: "God can be realized through all paths. It is like your coming to

Dakshineswar by carriage, by boat, by steamer, or on foot. You have chosen

the way according to your convenience and taste; but the destination is the

same. Some of you have arrived earlier than others; but all have arrived.

Renunciation of "woman and gold"

"The more you rid yourself of upadhis, the nearer you will feel the presence

of God.

Rain-water never collects on a high mound; it collects only in low land.

Similarly, the water of God's grace cannot remain on the high mound of

egotism. Before God one should feel lowly and poor.

"One should be extremely watchful. Even clothes create vanity. I notice that

even a man suffering from an enlarged spleen sings Nidhu Babu's light

songs when he is dressed up in a black-bordered cloth. There are men who

spout English whenever they put on high boots. And when an unfit person

puts on an ochre cloth he becomes vain; the slightest sign of indifference to

him arouses his anger and pique.

Yearning for God

"God cannot be seen without yearning of heart, and this yearning is

impossible unless one has finished with the experiences of life. Those who

live surrounded by 'woman and gold', and have not yet come to the end of

their experiences, do not yearn for God.

"When I lived at Kamarpukur, Hriday's son, a child four or five years old,

used to spend the whole day with me. He played with his toys and almost

forgot everything else. But no sooner did evening come than he would say,

'I want to go to my mother.' I would try to cajole him in various ways and

would say, 'Here, I'll give you a pigeon.' But he wouldn't be consoled with

such things; he would weep and cry, 'I want to go to my mother.' He didn't

enjoy playing any more. I myself wept to see his state.

"One should cry for God that way, like a child. That is what it means to be

restless for God. One doesn't enjoy play or food any longer. After one's

experiences of the world are over, one feels this restlessness and weeps for

God."

The devotees sat in silence, listening to the Master's words. When evening

came, a lamp was lighted in the room. Preparations were being made for

feeding Keshab and the devotees.

KESHAB (with a smile): "What? Puffed rice again today?"

MASTER (smiling): "Hriday knows."

The devotees were served first with puffed rice, and then with luchi and

curries on leaf-plates. All enjoyed the meal very much. It was about ten

o'clock when supper was over.

The Master went to the Panchavati with Keshab and the devotees.

Master(to Keshab and the others):"One can very well live in the world after

realizing God. Why don't you first touch the 'granny' and then play hide-

and-seek?

"After attaining God, a devotee becomes unattached to the world. He lives

like a mudfish. The mudfish keeps its body unstained though it lives in

mud."

About eleven o'clock the Brahmos became eager to go home. Pratap said,

"It would be nice if we could spend the night here."

MASTER (to Keshab): "Why not stay here tonight?"

KESHAB (smiling): "No, I have business to attend to. I must go."

Story of the fishwife and her basket

MASTER: "Why must you, my dear sir? Can't you sleep without your fish-

basket? Once a fishwife was a guest in a gardener's house. She was asked to

sleep in a room full of flowers. But she couldn't get any sleep there. (All

laugh.) She was restless and began to fidget about. The gardener called to

her: 'Hello there! Why aren't you asleep?' 'Oh, I don't know', said the

fishwife. 'There are flowers here. The smell keeps me awake. Can't you

bring me my fish-basket?' She sprinkled a little water in the basket, and

when she smelled the fish she fell fast asleep." (All laugh heartily.) Keshab

took a few of the flowers that he had offered at Sri Ramakrishna's feet on

his arrival. He and his Brahmo devotees cried out as the Master, "Hail,

Navavidhan!" Thus they bade him adieu.

One day during the rainy season of 1881 Sri Ramakrishna and a number of

devotees visited Surendra's house. It was about dusk.

The Master entered the drawing-room on the second floor, where several of

Surendra's neighbours had already gathered. Kashab had also been invited

but could not come.

Trailokya and a few Brahmo devotees were present. A mat covered with a

white sheet was spread on the floor, and on it had been placed a beautiful

carpet with a cushion.

Surendra requested the Master to sit on the carpet; but Sri Ramakrishna

would not listen to him and sat on the mat next to Mahendra Goswami, one

of Surendra's neighbours.

MAHENDRA (to the devotees): "For several months I spent most of my

time with him [meaning Sri Ramakrishna]. I have never before seen such a

great man. His spiritual moods are not of the ordinary kind."

MASTER (to Mahendra): "How dare you say that? I am the most

insignificant of the insignificant, the lowliest of the lowly. I am the servant

of the servants of God. Krishna alone is great.

Personal God and Impersonal Reality

"Krishna is none other than Satchidananda, the Indivisible Brahman. The

water of the ocean looks blue from a distance. Go near it and you will find

it colourless. He who is endowed with attributes is also without attributes.

The Absolute and the Relative belong to the same Reality.

"Why is Krishna tribhanga, bent in three places? Because of His love for

Radha.

"That which is Brahman is also Kali, the Adyasakti, who creates, preserves,

and destroys the universe. He who is Krishna is the same as Kali. The root

is one-all these are His sport and play.

The pure mind sees God

"God can be seen. He can be seen through the pure mind and the pure

intelligence.

Through attachment to 'woman and gold' the mind becomes impure.

"The mind is everything. It is like a white cloth just returned from the

laundry. It will take any colour you dye it with. Knowledge is of the mind,

and ignorance is also of the mind. When you say that a certain person has

become impure, you mean that impurity has coloured his mind."

Surendra's vanity curbed

Surendra approached the Master with a garland and wanted to put it around

his neck.

But the Master took it in his hand and threw it aside. Surendra's pride was

wounded and his eyes filled with tears. He went to the west porch and sat

with Ram, Manomohan, and the others. In a voice choked with sadness he

said: "I am really angry. How can a poor brahmin know the value of a thing

like that? I spent a lot of money for that garland, and he refused to accept it.

I was unable to control my anger and said that the other garlands were to be

given away to the devotees. Now I realize it was all my fault. God cannot

be bought with money; He cannot be possessed by a vain person. I have

really been vain. Why should he accept my worship? I don't feel like living

any more," Tears streamed down his cheeks and over his chest.

In the mean time Trailokya was singing inside the room. The Master began

to dance in an ecstasy of joy. He put around his neck the garland that he had

thrown aside; holding it with one hand, he swung it with the other as he

danced and sang. Now Surendra's joy was unbounded. The Master had

accepted his offering. Surendra said to himself, "God crushes one's pride,

no doubt, but He is also the cherished treasure of the humble and lowly."

The Master now sang:

Behold, the two brothers have come, who weep while chanting Hari's name,

The brothers who, in return for blows, offer to sinners Hari's love!

Behold them, drunk with Hari's love, who make the world drunk as well,

Embracing everyone as brother, even the outcaste shunned by men.

Behold, the two brothers have come, who once were Kanai and Balai of

Braja.. . .

Many of the devotees danced while Sri Ramakrishna sang this song.

When the kirtan was over, everyone sat around the Master and became

engaged in pleasant conversation. Sri Ramakrishna said to Surendra, "Won't

you give me something to eat?" Then he went into the inner apartments,

where the ladies saluted him. After the meal Sri Ramakrishna left for

Dakshineswar.

Saturday, December 3, 1881

In the afternoon Sri Ramakrishna paid a visit to his householder disciple

Manomohan, at 23 Simla Street, Calcutta. It was a small two-storey house

with a courtyard. The Master was seated in the drawing-room on the first

floor. Ishan of Bhawanipur asked him: "Sir, why have you renounced the

world? The scriptures extol the householder's life as the best."

MASTER: "I don't know much about what is good and what is bad. I do

what God makes me do and speak what He makes me speak."

ISHAN: "If everybody renounced the world, they would be acting against

God's will"

MASTER: "Why should everybody renounce? On the other hand, can it be

the will of God that all should revel in 'woman and gold' like dogs and

jackals? Has He no other wish?

Do you know what accords with His will and what is against it?

"You say that God wants everybody to lead a worldly life. But why don't

you see it as God's will when your wife and children die? Why don't you

see His will in poverty, when you haven't a morsel to eat?

Maya obstructs vision of God

"Maya won't allow us to know the will of God. On account of God's maya

the unreal appears as real, and the real as unreal. The world is unreal. This

moment it exists and the next it disappears. But on account of His maya it

seems to be real. It is only through His maya that the ego seems to be the

doer. Furthermore, on account of this maya a man regards his wife and

children, his brother and sister, his father and mother, his house and

property, as his very own.

"There are two aspects of maya: vidya and avidya. Avidya deludes one with

worldliness, and vidya-wisdom, devotion, and the company of holy men-

leads one to God.

"He who has gone beyond maya, through the grace of God, views alike

both Vidyā and Avidyā. Worldly life is a life of enjoyment. After all, what is

there to enjoy in 'woman and gold'? As soon as a sweetmeat has gone down

the throat, one doesn't remember whether it tasted sweet or sour.

"But why should everybody renounce?

Renunciation, true and false

Is renunciation possible except in the fullness of time? The time for

renunciation comes when one reaches the limit of enjoyment. Can anybody

force himself into renunciation?

There is a kind of renunciation known as 'monkey renunciation'. Only

small-minded people cultivate it. Take the case of a fatherless boy. His poor

widowed mother earns her livelihood by spinning. The boy loses his

insignificant job and suddenly is seized with a fit of renunciation. He puts

on the ochre cloth of a monk and goes to Benares. A few days later he

writes home, 'I have secured a job for ten rupees a month.' In the mean time

he tries to buy a gold ring and beautiful clothes. How can he stifle his desire

for enjoyment?"

Keshab arrived with some Brahmo devotees and respectfully saluted the

Master. He took a seat on Sri Ramakrishna's left, Ram on his right. For

some time a reader recited from the Bhagavata and explained the text.

God and worldly duties

MASTER (to the devotees): "It is very difficult to do one's duty in the

world. If you whirl round too fast you feel giddy and faint; but there is no

such fear if you hold on to a post.

Do your duty, but do not forget God.

"You may ask, 'If worldly life is so difficult, then what is the way?' The way

is constant practice. At Kamarpukur I have seen the women of the carpenter

families flattening rice with a husking-machine. They are always fearful of

the pestle's smashing their fingers; and at the same time they go on nursing

their children and bargaining with customers.

They say to the customers, 'Pay us what you owe before you leave.'

"An immoral woman goes on performing her household duties, but all the

time her mind dwells on her sweetheart.

"But one needs spiritual discipline to acquire such a state of mind; one

should pray to God in solitude every now and then. It is possible to perform

worldly duties after obtaining love for God. If you try to break a jackfruit,

your hands will be smeared with its sticky juice. But that won't happen if,

beforehand, you rub them with oil."

The kirtan began. Trailokya was singing. The Master danced, Keshab and

the other devotees dancing with him. Though it was winter, the Master

became hot and perspired.

After the music he wanted something to eat. A plate of sweetmeats was sent

from the inner apartments. Keshab held the plate before Sri Ramakrishna

and the Master ate.

When he had finished, Keshab poured water on his hands and then dried the

Master's hands and face with a towel. Afterwards he began to fan the

Master.

MASTER (to Keshab and the other devotees): "They are heroes indeed who

can pray to God in the midst of their worldly activities. They are like men

who strive for God-realization while carrying heavy loads on their heads.

Such men are real heroes. You may say that this is extremely difficult. But

is there anything, however hard, that cannot be achieved through God's

grace? His grace makes even the impossible possible. If a lamp is brought

into a room that has been dark a thousand years, does it illumine the room

little by little? The room is lighted all at once."

These reassuring words gladdened the hearts of Keshab and the other

householder devotees.

KESHAB (to Rajendra Mitra, the uncle of Ram and Manomohan):

"Wouldn't it be nice if you could arrange a festival like this at your house

one day?"

RAJENDRA: "Very good, I will. Well, Ram, you'll have to take charge of

everything."

Sri Ramakrishna was asked to go to the inner apartments, where

Manomohan's mother had prepared his meal. A glass of ice-water, of which

the Master was very fond, was placed near his plate.

Keshab and the other devotees sat in the courtyard and were treated to a

sumptuous feast. The Master joined them and watched them eat. He danced

and sang to entertain the guests.

When it was time for Sri Ramakrishna to leave for Dakshineswar, Keshab

and the other devotees took the dust of his feet and saw him off in a hired

carriage.

Saturday, December 10, 1881

At Keshab's request Rajendra Mitra arranged a religious festival at his home

in Calcutta and invited Sri Ramakrishna and the devotees, including the

members of the Brahmo Samaj.

Two days before, Aghorenath, a prominent member of the Brahmo Samaj,

had suddenly passed away in Lucknow. Keshab and the other Brahmo

devotees were in mourning, and Rajendra thought they could not possibly

join in the festival at his house. This worried him. But Ram, the Master's

devotee, said to him: "Why are you so sad? If Keshab can't come, let him

stay away. Our Master will be here. He is always in communion with God.

He enables one to see God. And his presence will make the festival a

success."

Rajendra, accompanied by Ram and a few others, paid Keshab a visit to

express their condolence for the death of Aghorenath. Keshab said to

Rajendra: "Why, I haven't said I shall not join in the festival at your house.

Sri Ramakrishna will be there; so how can I stay away? I am in mourning, it

is true, but I shall come."

On the wall in Keshab's room hung a picture of Sri Ramakrishna absorbed

in samiidhi.

RAJENDRA (to Keshab): "Many people say that he (pointing to the

picture) is an incarnation of Chaitanya."

KESHAB (looking at the picture): "One doesn't see such samadhi. Only

men like Christ, Mohammed, and Chaitanya experienced it."

About three o'clock in the afternoon Sri Ramakrishna arrived at

Manomohan's house. He rested there awhile and had some refreshments.

Surendra took the Master in a carriage to the studio of the Bengal

Photographer. The art of photography was explained to him, and he was

shown how glass covered with silver nitrate takes the image. As the Master

was being photographed he went into samadhi.

A little later Sri Ramakrishna arrived at Rajendra Mitra's house. Keshab had

not yet come, and Mahendra Goswami was reading from the Bhagavata.

The Master conversed with the devotees.

MASTER: "Why shouldn't one be able to lead a spiritual life in the world?

But it is extremely difficult. While coming here I passed over the bridge at

Baghbazar. How many chains it is tied with! Nothing will happen if one

chain is broken, for there are so many others to keep it in place. Just so,

there are many ties on a worldly man. There is no way for him to get rid of

them except through the grace of God.

"One need not be afraid of the world after one has had the vision of God.

Both vidya and avidya exist in His maya; but one becomes indifferent to

them after realizing God. One understands it rightly after attaining the state

of a paramahamsa. Only a swan can discard the water and drink the milk

from a mixture of milk and water. A robin cannot do so."

Faith in the guru

A DEVOTEE: "Then what is the way for a householder?"

MASTER: "Faith in the guru's words. You should depend on his instruction.

Do your duties in the world, holding fast to his words, like a person

whirling round and holding fast to a pillar.

"One must not look on one's guru as a mere human being: it is

Satchidananda Himself who appears as the guru. When the disciple has the

vision of the Ishta, through the guru's grace, he finds the guru merging in

Him.

"What can one not achieve through simple faith! Once there was an

annaprasana ceremony in a guru's house. His disciples volunteered,

according to their powers, to supply the different articles of food. He had

one disciple, a very poor widow, who owned a cow. She milked it and

brought the guru a jar of milk. He had thought she would take charge of all

the milk and curd for the festival. Angry at her poor offering, he threw the

milk away and said to her, 'Go and drown yourself.' The widow accepted

this as his command and went to the river to drown herself. But God was

pleased with her guileless faith and, appearing before her, said: 'Take this

pot of curd. You will never be able to empty it. The more curd you pour out,

the more will come from the pot. This will satisfy your teacher.' The guru

was speechless with amazement when the pot was given to him.

After hearing from the widow the story of the pot, he went to the river,

saying to her, 'I shall drown myself if you cannot show God to me.' God

appeared then and there, but the guru could not see Him. Addressing God,

the widow said, 'If my teacher gives up his body because Thou dost not

reveal Thyself to him, then I too shall die.' So God appeared to the guru-but

only once.

"Now you see, because of faith in her guru the disciple herself had the

vision of God and also showed Him to her teacher. Therefore I say, 'Even

though my guru frequents a grog-shop, still to me he is the embodiment of

Eternal Bliss.'

"All want to be the guru, but very few indeed want to be the disciple. But

you know that rain-water doesn't collect on a high mound; it collects in low

land, in a hollow.

Parable of pearl oyster

"One should have faith in the holy name given by the guru and with it

practise spiritual discipline. It is said that the pearl oyster makes itself ready

for the rain that falls when the star Svati is in the ascendant. Taking a drop

of that rain, it dives into the fathomless depths of the ocean and remains

there until the pearl is formed."

At the sight of the many Brahmo devotees assembled there, the Master said:

"Is the meeting of the Brahmos a real devotional gathering or a mere show?

It is very good that the Brahmo Samaj holds regular devotions. But one

must dive deep; mere ceremonial worship or lectures are of no avail. One

should pray to God that one's attachment to worldly enjoyment may

disappear; that one may have pure love for His Lotus Feet.

"The elephant has outer tusks and inner grinders as well. The tusks are mere

ornaments; but the elephant chews its food with the grinders. The inner

enjoyment of 'woman and gold' injures the growth of one's devotion.

"What will you achieve through mere public lectures? The vulture

undoubtedly soars high, but its eyes are fixed on the charnel-pit. The rocket

undoubtedly shoots up into the sky, but the next moment it falls to the

ground.

"He who has renounced his attachment to worldly enjoyments will

remember nothing but God in the hour of death. Otherwise he will think

only of worldly things: wife, children, house, wealth, name and fame.

Through practice a bird can be trained to repeat 'Radha-Krishna'; but when

a cat catches it, it only squawks.

"Therefore one should constantly practise the singing of God's name and

glories, and meditation and contemplation as well. And further, one should

always pray that one's attachment to the world may disappear and one's love

for God's Lotus Feet may grow.

"Householders devoted to God live in the world like a maidservant, who

performs her duties for her master but always keeps her mind fixed on her

own native village; that is to say, they do their duties in the world keeping

their minds on God. Anyone leading a worldly life is sure to come in

contact with its dirt; but a householder who is a true devotee of God lives

like the mudfish, which, though remaining in the mud, is not stained by it.

"Brahman and Sakti are identical. One acquires love and devotion quickly

by calling on God as Mother."

Saying this, the Master sang:

High in the heaven of the Mother's feet, my mind was soaring like a kite,

When came a blast of sin's rough wind that drove it swiftly toward the earth.

Maya disturbed its even flight by bearing down upon one side, And I could

make it rise no more.

Entangled in the twisting string of love for children and for wife,

Alas! my kite was rent in twain.

It lost its crest of wisdom soon and downward plunged as I let it go;

How could it hope to fly again, when all its top was torn away?

Though fastened with devotion's cord, it came to grief in playing here;

Its six opponents worsted it.

Now Nareschandra rues this game of smiles and tears, and thinks it better

Never to have played at all.

He sang again:

O Mother, for Yasoda Thou wouldst dance, when she called Thee her

precious "Blue Jewel":

Where hast Thou hidden that lovely form, O terrible Syama?

Dance that way once for me, O Mother! Throw down Thy sword and take

the flute;

Cast off Thy garland of heads, and wear Thy wild-flower garland……

As Sri Ramakrishna sang, he left his seat and began to dance. The devotees,

too, stood up. Every now and then the Master went into samadhi and the

devotees gazed at him intently. Dr. Dukari touched the Master's eyeballs

with his finger to test the genuineness of his samadhi. This disgusted the

devotees.

When the music and dancing were over, the devotees took their seats. Just

then Keshab arrived with some of his Brahmo disciples. Rajendra told him

about their great joy in the Master's kirtan and requested Trailokya to sing

again. Keshab replied, "Since Sri Ramakrishna has taken his seat, the kirtan

will sound flat."

Trailokya and the Brahmo devotees sang:

Chant, O mind, the name of Hari,

Sing aloud the name of Hari,

Praise Lord Hari's name!

And praising Hari's name, O mind,

Cross the ocean of this world.

Hari dwells in earth, in water,

Hari dwells in fire and air;

In sun and moon He dwells.

Hari's ever living presence

Fills the boundless universe.

While preparations were being made to give the guests something to eat, Sri

Ramakrishna talked with Keshab.

MASTER (with a smile): "Today I enjoyed very much the machine by

which a man's picture is taken. One thing I noticed was that the impression

doesn't stay on a bare piece of glass, but it remains when the glass is stained

with a black solution. In the same way, mere hearing of spiritual talk doesn't

leave any impression. People forget it soon afterwards. But they can retain

spiritual instruction if they are stained inside with earnestness and

devotion."

The Master was conducted to the second floor of the house and was asked

to sit on a beautiful carpet. The ladies waited .on him while he ate his meal.

Keshab and the other devotees were also sumptuously fed.

Sunday, January 1, 1882

Sri Ramakrishna arrived with his devotees at the house of Jnan Choudhury,

in Calcutta, to join the annual festival of the Simla Brahmo Samaj. Keshab,

Ram, Manomohan, Balaram, Kedar, Narendra, Rakhal, and other devotees

were present. Narendra had met the Master only a few days before at the

temple garden at Dakshineswar. He used to participate now and then in the

worship of the Simla Brahrno Samaj and sing for the congregation.

The worship was arranged according to the usual custom of the Samaj. First

the scripture was read; then Narendra sang. It was dusk. The devotees made

merry.

Company of holy men extolled

The Master looked at the householder devotees seated around him and said

with a smile: "Why shouldn't it be possible for a householder to give his

mind to God? But the truth is that he no longer has his mind with him. If he

had it, then he could certainly offer it to God. But, alas, the mind has been

mortgaged-mortgaged to 'woman and gold'.

So it is necessary for him constantly to live in the company of holy men.

When, he gets back his own mind, then he can devote it to spiritual

practice; but first it is necessary to live constantly with the guru, wait on

him, and enjoy the company of spiritual people.

Either he should think of God in solitude day and night, or he should live

with holy men.

The mind left to itself gradually dries up. Take a jar of water, for instance. If

the jar is set aside, the water dries up little by little. But that will not happen

if the jar is kept immersed in the Ganges.

Concerning the ego

"The iron becomes red in the furnace of a smithy. Take it out and it

becomes black as before. Therefore the iron must be heated in the furnace

every now and then.

"Do you know what ignorance means? It is the feeling: 'This is my house;

these are my relatives; I am the doer; and the household affairs go on

smoothly because I manage them.' But to feel, 'I am the servant of God, His

devotee, His son'-that is a good attitude.

"The 'I' cannot be effaced altogether. You may explain it away through

reasoning, but the next moment it reappears, nobody knows from where. It

is like a goat that still bleats faintly and jerks its legs even after its head has

been cut off.

"But the 'I' that God retains in His devotee after he has seen Him is called

the 'ripe I'. It is like a sword turned into gold by touching the philosopher's

stone; you cannot hurt anybody with it."

Thus the Master talked, seated in the worship hall, and Keshab and the

other devotees listened with rapt attention. It was about eight o'clock in the

evening. The bell rang three times for the worship. .

MASTER (to Keshab and the others): "What's this? I see you haven't yet

begun your regular worship."

KESHAB: "What further worship do we need? We are having all this."

MASTER: "Oh no, my dear sir! Let the worship be performed according to

your custom."

KESHAB: "Why? We are getting on very well"

At the Master's repeated request Keshab began the worship. In the midst of

it Sri Ramakrishna suddenly stood up and went into samadhi. The Brahmo

devotees sang: Chant, O mind, the name of Hari,

Sing aloud the name of Hari,

Praise Lord Hari's name!

And praising Hari's name, O mind,

Cross the ocean of this world. . . .

The Master still stood there absorbed in ecstasy. Keshab led him down very

carefully from the temple to the courtyard. The music went on. The Master

danced to the music, the devotees dancing around him.

After the refreshments Sri Ramakrishna again talked with Keshab. Soon he

began to sing. Keshab sang with the Master:

The black bee of my mind is drawn in sheer delight To the blue lotus flower

of Mother Syama's feet, The blue flower of the feet of Kali, Siva's Consort;

Tasteless, to the bee, are the blossoms of desire.

My Mother's feet are black, and black, too, is the bee; Black is made one

with black! This much of the mystery My mortal eyes behold, then hastily

retreat.

But Kamalakanta's hopes are answered in the end; He swims in the Sea of

Bliss, unmoved by joy or pain.

Again they sang:

High in the heaven of the Mother's feet, my mind was soaring like a kite,

When came a blast of sin's rough wind that drove it swiftly to ward the

earth. . . .

Both Keshab and the Master were in a state of divine fervour. The other

devotees joined them and sang and danced till midnight.

The Master rested a few minutes and then said to Keshab: "Why did you

send me presents when your son was married? What shall I do with them?

Take them back."

Keshab smiled a little, and the Master continued: "Why do you write about

me in your paper? You cannot make a man great by writing about him in

books and magazines. If God makes a man great, then everybody knows

about him even though he lives in a forest. When flowers bloom in the deep

woods, the bees find them, but the flies do not.

What can man do? Don't look up to him. Man is but a worm. The tongue

that praises you today will abuse you tomorrow. I don't want name and

fame. May I always remain the humblest of the humble and the lowliest of

the lowly!"

--------------------

Appendix B

A LETTER

(Written to M. from by Ashwini Kumar Dutta)

My beloved brother M.,

Three days ago I received the fourth part of the Sri Sri Râmakrishna

Kathāmrita sent by you, and today I have finished reading it. You are

blessed indeed. What heavenly nectar you have sprinkled all over the

country! A long time ago you wanted me to set down my conversations

with the Master. Now I shall try to write them for you. But I was not born

under the lucky star of an M., that I might jot down the days, the dates, and

the hours of my visits with the Master and note down correctly all the

words uttered by his holy lips. In this letter I am giving you as many of my

experiences as I remember. Very likely I shall confuse the events of one day

with another-and I have forgotten many things.

It was probably during the autumn holidays of 1881 that I met Sri

Ramakrishna the first time. I arrived at Dakshineswar in a country boat and,

going up the steps of the landing-ghāt, asked someone where the

Paramahamsa was.

"There is the Paramahamsa", was the reply. A man was pointed out on the

north verandah, which faces the garden. He was sitting reclining against a

bolster. He wore a black-bordered cloth. At the sight of the bolster and the

black-bordered cloth I said to myself, "What kind of paramahamsa is this?"

Going nearer, I found him half leaning against the bolster with his hands

clasped around his drawn-up knees. Then I thought: "Evidently he is not

used to pillows as gentlemen are. So perhaps he is the Paramahamsa." At

his right, very near the pillow sat a gentleman whose name, I came to know,

was Rajendra Lal Mitra, later an Assistant Secretary to the Government of

Bengal. A little farther off sat some others.

After a few moments the Master said to Rajendra Bābu, "See whether

Keshab is coming."

Evidently Keshab Sen was expected that day.

Someone walked away a few steps and, coming back, said, "No, he isn't."

After a brief interval, hearing a sound outside, he said, "Please look once

more."

Again someone went out and came back with the same reply.

Then Sri Ramakrishna laughed and said, quoting a popular saying, "The

leaves rustle outside, and Radha say's, 'Oh, here comes my Sweetheart!'"

Continuing, he said: "You see, Keshab always tantalizes me like this. It is

his way."

At dusk Keshab came with his party. Keshab bowed low before the Master,

touching the ground with his forehead. The Master returned his salutation in

the same manner.

Shortly afterwards Sri Ramakrishna said, in a state of partial consciousness:

"Look! He has brought the whole Calcutta crowd. I am supposed to deliver

a lecture. I won't do anything of the sort. Do it yourself if you like.

Lecturing is none of my business."

Still in the ecstatic mood, he said with a divine smile: "I shall eat, drink, and

be merry. I shall play and sleep. But I can't give lectures."

As Keshab Babu watched him, he became overpowered with divine

emotion. Every now and then he said, "Ah me! Ah me!"

I too watched the Master and said to myself, "Can this be pretence?" I had

never seen anything like it before, and you know how deep my faith is.

Coming back from samadhi, the Master said to Keshab: "Keshab, once I

went to your temple. In the course of your preaching I heard you say, 'We

shall dive into the river of devotion and go straight to the Ocean of

Satchidananda.' At once I looked up [at the gallery where Keshab's wife and

the other ladies were sitting] and thought, 'Then what will become of these

ladies?' You see, Keshab, you are householders. How can you reach the

Ocean of Satchidananda all at once? You are like a mongoose with a brick

tied to its tail. When something frightens it, it runs up the wall and sits in a

niche. But how can it stay there any length of time? The brick pulls it down

and it falls to the floor with a thud.

You may practise a little meditation, but the weight of wife and children

will pull you down. You may dive into the river of devotion, but you must

come up again. You will alternately dive and come up. How can you dive

and disappear once for all?"

Keshab Babu said: "Can't a householder ever succeed? What about

Maharshi Devendranath Tagore?"

Twice or thrice the Master repeated softly, "Devendranath Tagore -

Devendra-Devendra"

and bowed to him several times.

Then he said: "Let me tell you a story. A man used to celebrate the Durga

Puja at his house with great pomp. Goats were sacrificed from sunrise to

sunset. But after a few years the sacrifice was not so imposing. Then

someone said to him, 'How is it; sir, that the sacrifice at your place has

become such a tame affair?' 'Don't you see?' he said. 'My teeth are gone

now. Devendra is now devoted to meditation and contemplation. It is only

natural that he should be, at his advanced age. But no doubt he is a great

man.

"You see, as long as a man is under māyā's spell, he is like a green coconut.

When you scoop out the soft kernel from a green coconut, you cannot help

scraping a little of the shell at the same time. But in the case of a ripe and

dry coconut, the shell and kernel are separated from each other. When you

shake the fruit you can feel the kernel rattling inside. The man who is freed

from maya is like a ripe and dry coconut. He feels the soul to be separated

from the body. They are no longer connected with each other.

"It is the 'I' that creates all the trouble. Won't this wretched ego ever leave a

person?

You see a peepal-tree growing from the rubbish of a tumble down house.

You cut it down today, but tomorrow you find a new sprout shooting up. It

is the same with the ego. You may wash seven times a cup that onions have

been kept in, but the wretched smell never leaves it."

In the course of the conversation he said to Keshab: "Well, Keshab, I

understand that your Calcutta babus say that God does not exist. Is that

true? A Calcutta babu wants to climb the stairs. He takes one step, but

before taking the next he cries out: 'Oh, my side! My side!' and drops down

unconscious. His relatives raise a hue and cry and send for a doctor; but

before the doctor arrives the man is very likely dead. And people of such

stamina say, 'There is no God'!"

After an hour or so the kirtan began. What I saw then I shall never forget

either in this life or in the lives to come. Everybody danced, Keshab

included. The Master was in the centre. All danced around. him in a circle.

During the dancing Sri Ramakrishna suddenly stood motionless, transfixed

in samadhi. A long time passed this way. After hearing his words and

seeing all this, I said to myself, "Yes, a paramahamsa indeed!"

Another day, probably in 1883, I visited the Master with a few young men

from Srirampore. Looking at them, he asked, "Why have they come here?"

MYSELF: "To see you."

MASTER: "What's there to see in me? Why don't they look at the buildings

and temples?"

MYSELF: "Sir, they haven't come to see those things. They have come to

see you."

MASTER: "Ah! Then they must be flints. There is fire in them. You may

keep a flint under water a thousand years, but the moment you strike it,

sparks come out. They must be of that type. But it will be useless to try to

strike fire out of me!"

At this last remark we all laughed. I do not recall now what other things he

said to us that day. But it seems to me he told us about the renunciation of

"woman and gold" and the impossibility of getting rid of the ego.

I visited him another day. When I bowed down to him and took a seat, he

said, "Can you bring me some of that stuff-a little sour, a little sweet-that

begins to fizz when you push down the cork?"

MYSELF: "Lemonade?"

MASTER: "Why don't you bring a bottle for me?"

I think I brought him a bottle. So far as I remember, I was alone with him

that day. I asked him a few questions.

MYSELF: "Do you observe caste?"

MASTER: "How can I say yes? I ate curry at Keshab Sen's house. Let me

tell you what once happened to me. A man with a long beard brought some

ice here, but I didn't feel like eating it. A little later someone brought me a

piece of ice from the same man, and I ate it with great relish. You see, caste

restrictions fall away of themselves. As coconut and palm trees grow up,

the branches drop off of themselves. Caste conventions drop off like that.

But don't tear them off as those fools do [meaning the Brahmos]."

MYSELF: "What do you think of Keshab Babu?"

MASTER: "Oh, he is a saintly man."

MYSELF: "And Trailokya Babu?"

MASTER: "A fine man. He sings very well."

MYSELF: "Shivanath Babu?"

MASTER: " . . . A very good man. But he argues."

MYSELF: "What is the difference between a Hindu and a Brahmo?"

MASTER: "There is not much difference. In the serenade we have here,

one flutist plays a single note right along, while another plays various

melodies. The Brahmos play one note, as it were; they hold to the formless

aspect of God. But the Hindus bring out different melodies; that is to say

they enjoy God in His various aspects.

"The formless Deity and God with form may be likened to water and ice.

The water freezes into ice. The ice melts into water through the heat of

jnana. Water takes the form of ice through the cooling influence of bhakti.

"The Reality is one. People give It various names. Take the case of a lake

with four landing-ghats on its four banks. People who draw water at one

ghat call it 'jal', and those who draw it at the second ghat call it 'pani'. At the

third ghat they call it 'water', and at the fourth, 'aqua'. But it is one and the

same thing water."

I told the Master that I had met Achalananda Tirthavadhuta of Barisal.

MASTER: "Isn't that Ramkumar of Kotrang?"

MYSELF': "Yes, sir."

MASTER: "How did you like him?"

MYSELF: "Very much."

MASTER: "Well, whom do you like better-him or me?"

MYSELF: "Oh, can there be any comparison between you two? He is a

scholar, an erudite person; but are you one?"

Sri Ramakrishna was a little puzzled at my reply and became silent. A

moment later I said: "He may be a scholar, but you are full of fun! There is

great fun in your company."

At this the Master laughed and said: "Well said! Well said! Right you are!"

He asked me, "Have you seen my Panchavati?"

MYSELF: "Yes sir."

He told me a little of what he had practised there-his various religious

austerities. He also told me about Nangta.

Then I asked him, "How can I realize God?"

MASTER: "You see, He is constantly attracting us, as a magnet attracts

iron. But the iron cannot come to the magnet if it is covered with dirt. When

the dirt is washed away, the iron is instantly drawn to the magnet. Weep for

God and the tears will wash away the dirt from your mind."

As I was writing down his words, he remarked: "Look here. Only repeating

the word 'siddhi' will not produce intoxication. You must actually get some

hemp, rub it in water, and then drink the solution. . . ."

Later he said: "Since you are going to lead a householder's life, create a

roseate intoxication in your mind with the thought of God. You will be

doing your duties, but let that pleasant intoxication remain with you. You

cannot, of course, like Sukadeva, be so inebriated with the thought of God

that you will lie naked and unconscious. As long as you have to live in the

world, give God the power of attorney. Make over all your responsibilities

to Him; let Him do as He likes. Live in the world like a maidservant in a

rich man's house. She bathes her master's children, washes them, feeds

them, and takes affectionate care of them in many ways, as if they were her

own children; but in her heart she knows very well that they do not belong

to her. No sooner is she dismissed than all is over; she has no more

relationship with the children.

"Before breaking open the jackfruit you should rub your hands with oil in

order to protect them from the sticky juice. Likewise, protect yourself with

the oil of devotion; then the world will not cling to you and you will not be

affected by it."

All this time Sri Ramakrishna was seated on the floor. Now he got up and

stretched himself on his cot.

He said to me, "Fan me a little."

I began to fan him and he was silent.

After a while he said: "Oh, it's so hot! Why don't you dip the fan in water?"

"Ah!" I said. "You have your fancies, too!"

The Master smiled and drawled out, "And-why-not?"

"Very well!" I said. "Have your full measure of them."

I cannot express in words how immensely I enjoyed his company that day.

The last time I visited him-you have mentioned it in the third part of your

book-I had with me the headmaster of our school, who had just then

graduated. You met him the other day. As soon as Sri Ramakrishna saw

him, he asked me: "Where did you pick him up? He's a fine fellow!"

Then he continued: "You are a lawyer. You are very clever. Can you give

me a little of your cleverness? The other day your father came here and

stayed three days."

MYSELF: "How did you find him?"

MASTER: "A nice man. But now and then he talks nonsense."

MYSELF: "Please help him get over it when you see him next."

At this Sri Ramakrishna smiled a little.

MYSELF: "Please give us a few instructions."

MASTER:, "Do you know Hriday?"

MYSELF: "Your nephew? I know him only by name."

MASTER: "Hriday used to say to me: 'Uncle, please don't give out your

stock of instructions all at once. Why should you repeat the same things

over and over again?' I would reply: 'You fool, what's that to you? These are

my words and if I like I shall repeat them a hundred thousand times. You

keep quiet!'"

MYSELF (smiling): "Exactly so!"

A little later he sat up on the bed. He repeated "Om" several times and

began to sing a song whose first line is:

Dive deep, O mind, dive deep in the Ocean of God's Beauty.

Hardly had he sung one or two lines when he himself dived deep and was

lost in samadhi.

When the samadhi was over, he began to pace the room and with both

hands pulled up the cloth he was wearing, till it reached his waist. One end

of it was trailing on the floor and the other was hanging loose.

Nudging my companion, I whispered, "See how nicely he wears his cloth!"

A moment later he threw away the cloth, with the words: "Ugh! What a

nuisance! Off with it!"

He began to pace up and down the room naked. From the northern end of

the room he brought an umbrella and a stick, and asked us, "Are these

yours?"

Scarcely had I replied no when he said: "I knew it. I can judge a man by his

stick and umbrella. They must belong to that man who was here some time

ago and swallowed a lot of my words without understanding them."

A few minutes later he sat down, still naked, on the northern end of his cot,

facing the west, and asked me, "Well, do you consider me ungentlemanly?"

MYSELF: "Of course not. You are a perfect gentleman. But why do you

ask me that?"

MASTER: "You see, Shivanath and others don't think I am a gentleman.

When they come I have to wrap a cloth or something around me. Do you

know Girish Ghosh?"

MYSELF: "Which Girish Ghosh? The one who is in the theatre?"

MASTER: "Yes."

MYSELF: "I have never seen him. But I know him by reputation."

MASTER: "A good man."

MYSELF: "They say he drinks."

MASTER: "Let him! Let him! How long will he continue that? Do you

know Narendra?"

MYSELF: "No, sir."

MASTER: "I wish very much that you could meet him. He has passed the

B. A.

examination and is unmarried."

MYSELF: "Very well, sir. I shall meet him."

MASTER: "Today there will be a kirtan at Ram Dutta's house. You may

meet him there.

Please go there this evening."

MYSELF: "All right."

MASTER: "Yes, do. Don't forget."

MYSELF: "It is your command. Shall I not obey it? Surely I will go."

He showed us the pictures in his room and asked me whether a picture of

Buddha could be had.

MYSELF: "Very likely."

MASTER : "Please get one for me."

MYSELF: "Very well. I'll bring one when I come again."

But alas, I never returned to Dakshineswar.

That evening I went to Ram Babu's house and met Narendra. In one of the

rooms the Master sat reclining against a pillow. Narendra sat at his right,

and I in front.

He asked Narendra to talk with me. But Narendra said: "I have a bad

headache today. I don't feel like talking."

I replied, "Then let us put it off till another day."

And that came to pass in May or June of 1897, at Almora. The will of the

Master had to be fulfilled, and it was fulfilled after twelve years. Ah, how

happily I spent those few days with Swami Vivekananda at Almora!

Sometimes at his house, sometimes at mine, and one day on the top of a hill

with nobody accompanying us. I never met him after that. It was as if to

fulfil the Master's wish that we saw each other at Almora.

I saw the Master not more than four or five times; but in that short time we

became so intimate that I felt as if we had been classmates. How much

liberty I took while speaking with him! But no sooner had I left his

presence than it flashed on me: "Goodness gracious! Think where I have

been!" What I saw and received in those few days has sweetened my whole

life. That Elysian smile of his, laden with nectar, I have locked up in the

secret closet of my memory. That is the unending treasure of a hapless

person like myself. A thrill of joy passes through my heart when I think

how a grain of the bliss shed from that laughter has been sweetening the

lives of millions, even in distant America. If that be my case, you may very

well understand how lucky you are.

--------------------

Chronology

A CHRONOLOGY OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA'S LIFE

Year

Event(s)

Birth of Khudirām.

Birth of Chandrā Devi.

Birth of Rāmkumār.

Khudirām settles at Kāmārpukur.

Birth of Rāmeswar.

Khudirām's pilgrimage to Gayā.

Birth of Sri Rāmakrishna, February 18, about 5:15 a.m.

Death of Khudirām.

Sri Rāmakrishna's Sacred Thread Ceremony.

Rāmkumar opens his school in Calcutta.

Sri Rāmakrishna comes to Calcutta.

Birth of Holy Mother, Sri Sāradā Devi, December 22.

Dakhineśwar Kāli Temple founded. Hriday at Dakshineśwar.

Sri Ramakrishna appointed Priest of the Vishnu Temple and then, of the

Kāli Temple.

Death of Rāmkumār. Realization of God and first God-intoxicated state

1856

of Sri Rāmakrishna.

Sri Rāmakrishna's treatment under Gangā Prasād.

Haladhāri as Priest at Dakshineswar. Sri Rāmakrishna goes to 1858

Kāmārpukur.

Sri Rāmakrishna's marriage.

Return to Dakshineśwar. Mathur's vision.

Death of Rāni Rāsmani. Meeting with the Brāhmani. Tantra practice 1861

under the Brāhmani. Second divine madness.

Completion of Tantra practice. Meeting with Pundit Padmalochan.

Chandrā Devi comes to live at Dakshineśwar.

Sri Rāmakrishna's practice of the Vātsalya Bhāva under Jatādhāri.

Practice of the Madhur Bhāva. Initiation into Sannyās by Totāpuri.

Akshay replaces Haladhāri. Totāpuri leaves Dakshineśwar.

Sri Rāmakrishna in the Advaita plane for six months. Illness. Practise 1866

of Mohammadanism.

Sri Rāmakrishna at Kāmārpukur. Brāhmani takes leave.

Pilgrimage. Meeting with Ganga Mā.

Tour with Mathur. Sri Rāmakrishna at the Colootola Harisabha. Visit to

1870

Kālna and Navadvip.

Death of Mathur.

The Holy Mother's first visit to Dakshineśwar. The Shodashi Puja.

1873

Death of Rāmeswar.

The Holy Mother again at Dakshineśwar.

Sri Rāmakrishna's first visit to Keshab Chandra Sen 1876

Death of Chandrā Devi.

Intimacy with Keshab. The Holy Mother's third visit to Dakshineśwar.

Coming of disciples begins.

Last visit to Kāmārpukur.

Dismissal of Hriday. Meeting with Rākhāl and Narendranāth.

Visit to Pundit Vidyāsāgar. The Holy Mother again at Dakshineswar.

Death of Keshab. Meeting with Pundit Shashadhar, Gopal Mā. Holy 1884

Mother comes to live at Dakshineśwar for the last time.

Last visit to Panihati. Illness and shifted to Śyāmpukur. Association 1885

with Dr. Sarkār. Shifted to Cossipore.

Treatment at Cossipore. Organization of disciples.

Mahā-samādhi, August 16, at two minutes past 1 a.m.

--------------------

Document Outline
Sri Ramakrishna
Foreword
Preface
The Recorder of the Gospel
Introduction
Master and Disciple
In the Company of Devotees
Visit to Vidyasagar
Advice to Householders
The Master and Keshab
The Master With the Brahmos Devotees (I)
The Master and Vijay Goswami
The Master Birthday Celebration at Dakshineswar
Advice to the Brahmos
The Master With the Brahmo Devotees (II)
With the Devotees at Dakshineswar (I)
The Festival at Panihati
The Master and M.
Instruction to Vaishnavas and Brahmos
Last Visit to Keshab
With the Devotees at Dakshineswar (II)
M. at Dakshineswar (I)
M. at Dakshineswar (II)
The Master and His Injured Arm
Rules for Householders and Monks
A Day at Dakshineswar
Advice to an Actor
Festival at Surendra's House
Pundit Shashadhar
Advice to Pundit Shashadhar
Festival at Adhar's House
At Dakshineswar
At the Star Theatre

The Durga Puja Festival
The Master in Various Moods
Advice to Ishan
Visit to the Sinthi Brahmo Samaj
With Various Devotees
Bankim Chandra
At the Star Theatre (II)
The Master's Birthday
The Master and Narendra
With the Devotees in Calcutta
The Master's Reminiscences
The Master at the Houses of Balaram and Girish
At Ram's House
Car Festival at Balaram's House
Visit to Nanda Bose's House
The Master on Himself and His Experiences
Sri Ramakrishna at Syampukur
The Master and Dr. Sarkar
The Master's Training of His Disciples
In the Company of Devotees at Syampukur
The Master at Cossipore
The Master and Buddha
The Master's Love for His Devotees
After the Passing Away
Appendix A
Appendix B
Chronology