Home
Downloads
Search
Site Index
Contact UsTales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna
Tales and Parables of Sri Ramakrishna
Published by Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai
E-Text Source: www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info
Index
Preface To The First Edition
Preface To The Second Edition
Introduction
Srimad
Bhagavatam Sloka
I. The World
This Is Indeed The World! (1)
In The Forest Of The World (2)
What The World Makes Of Men (3)
II. Men Of The World
When They Are Annoyed (4)
When All Teeth Fell (5)
There Are Such Men Indeed! (6)
The Jackal That Won't Leave The Company Of A Bullock (7)
The Plunderers Who Go About As Religious (8)
How They Quarrel! (9)
A Worldling Is A Poor Exponent Of The Sastras (10)
Elder, The Pumpkin Cutter (11)
There Is Need For Everything (12)
There Are Men And Men (13)
III. The Bane Of Worldliness
The Root Of All Troubles (14)
All For A Single Piece Of Loin-Cloth (15)
The Tiger That Lurks Behind Worldly Joys (16)
That Oppressing Stench Of Worldliness (17)
Worldly Goods Are Not Thine For Ever (18)
The Jar Of Desire Can Never Be Filled Up (19)
Why Yogi Slips Down From His Yoga (20)
Those Worthless Things! (21)
IV. Kama-Kanchana (Lust And Gold)
Court Marriage And Court Servitude (22)
The Fall Of The Twelve Hundred (23)
Master Of Everything, Slave Of Sex! (24)
Bhagavata In The Ear, Brothel In The Mind (25)
Greater Even Than The Guru! (26)
Modern Janakas! (27)
How's A Fallen Sannyasi (28)
If You Would Conquer Lust, Look On Women As Mother (29)
Money Is Also A Great Upadhi (30)
Such Is The Pride That Money Begets (31)
Enmeshed In Maya, Brahman Weeps! (32)
How Is Maya? (33)
Such Indeed Is Maya! (34)
Maya Vanishes The Moment It Is Known (35)
The Prolonged Dream That We Call Life (36)
It's Nothing, It's Nothing! (37)
If All Is Really Unreal! (38)
A Siddha Stops The Storm (39)
Occult Powers Are More A Hindrance Than A Help To God-Vision (40)
The Pandit Who Could Not Swim (41)
For Man Proposes And God Disposes (42)
As One Thinks, So One Receives (43)
'She Is So Well Off!' (44)
Feigning Madness Too Is Risky! (45)
Welcome Good, And Evil Welcomes You (46)
What Occult Powers Are Like (47)
Horses In Cowshed! (48)
Those Fascinating Obstructions (49)
V. Egoism: Vanity
From 'Hamba' To Tuhu' (50)
Egotism Is Ruinous (51)
Sankaracharya And His Foolish Disciple (52)
When Siva's Bull Bared Its Teeth (53)
How Vanity Turns A Person's Head (54)
VI. Previous Tendencies
Powerful Are The Inborn Tendencies (55)
A Hindu Who Was Forced To Embrace Islam (56)
Nothing Is Lost In The Economy of God (57)
The Inevitables (58)
VII. The Way
The Only Way (59)
VIII. Faith
This Faith Of A Child (60)
A Boy Actually Fed God (61)
A Disciple And Her Pot Of Curds (62)
The Simple Secret (63)
The Basic Faith (64)
A True Devotee's Faith (65)
Faith Absolute (66)
Faith Unbounded (67)
Faith Tremendous (68)
The Power Of Faith (69)
Hanuman Singh And The Wrestler From Punjab (70)
Faith Knows No Miracles (71)
Faith Works Miracles (72)
Faith Is The Mother Of Miracles (73)
Power Of The Holy Name (74)
The Doubting Soul Perishes (75)
IX. Devotion
The Best Offering To God Is Love (76)
The Love That Freely Giveth Is The Highest (77)
Who Wins The Prize (78)
That Great Devotee Of A Crow (79)
Three Friends And The Tiger (80)
Single-Minded Devotion To One Ideal (81)
In Weal And Woe, God For Evermore (82)
Ravana - The Great Devotee Of Rama (83)
Devotion, The Divine Open Sesame (84)
A Devotee Avoids What The World Runs After (85)
Glory Unto Krishna! (86)
That Pure Love For God (87)
Back To The Divine Mother (88)
Conceit Is To Devotion What Canker Is To Buds (89)
God Alone Is The Giver (90)
No Beggar, I, For Common Fruit (91)
Thorns Denied Prick No Less Keenly (92)
Single-Mindedness Is Another Name For Devotion (93)
X. Yearning
To Have Genuine Yearning For God Is To Attain Him (94)
That Divine Yearning (95)
If You Are Earnest (96)
How A Guru Taught His Disciple To See God (97)
XI. Self-Help & Self-Surrender
Self-Help And Self-Surrender (98)
Lord Narayana And His Self-Defending Devotee (99)
Self-Surrender Knows No Complaint (100)
XII. Humility
It's Not Easy To Attain True Humility (101)
XIII. Tyaga And Vairagya (Renunciation And Dispassion)
The Homa Bird (102)
He Went Away, Towel On His Shoulder (103)
Dispassion Comes Like A Flood And Never By Drops (104)
Not Until The Illusion Breaks (105)
None Will Follow Thee After Death (106)
Today's Imitation Is Tomorrows Inspiration (107)
Simulation Of Holiness May Become A Stimulation For It (108)
Equal Vision Is The First And Last Sign Of Renunciation (109)
Hard Are The Rules For A Sannyasi (110)
A Bahurupi Impersonating Siva (111)
Hold Hard Your Spade (112)
As You Go From Near To Nearer (113)
The King And The Pandit (114)
Even If You Wish To Renounce The World (115)
When Renunciation Becomes The Life-Breath (116)
A Ghost Sought A Companion (117)
A Salt Doll Went To Fathom The Ocean (118)
XIV. Brahman
Four Friends Looked Beyond (119)
Where Silence Is Eloquent And Speech Doth Falter (120)
Neither 'Yes' Nor 'No'! (121)
The King And The Magician (122)
When Face To Face (123)
'Behold, O King! Behold' (124)
An Ant Went To A Sugar Hill (125)
He Eats, Yet Eats Not (126)
All Pure Spirit (127)
XV. Aspects Of The Divine
The Chameleon (128)
Man With A Tub Of Dye (129)
What The Divine Mother Revealed To Me (130)
How A Monk Knew The Truth About God (131)
God Alone Has Become All Things (132)
Strip Name And Form And Look Beyond (133)
Few, Very Few Are They (134)
She Came And Went Away (135)
Thus Saw Arjuna (136)
Nothing Is Impossible For Him (137)
To Him These Are Mere Dust And Straw (138)
Nature Of God (139)
God Is Under The Control Of His Devotees (140)
All Else Is Unreal (141)
The Lure Of Divine Lila (142)
A Peacock That Tasted Opium (143)
Ka! Ka! Ka! (144)
Inscrutable Are The Ways Of God (145)
An Interesting Incident! (146)
Why Not Through A Man? (147)
When God Laughs (148)
How Do You Explain That? (149)
Who Can Tell? (150)
XVI. Man In Divine State
The Wine Of Heavenly Bliss (151)
They Wander In Many Disguises (152)
Vishnu Everywhere (153)
Where Is The Misery For Him Who Sees The One? (154)
Both Friend And Foe The Saints Adore (155)
Illusory Alike! (156)
Childlike Should Be The Man Of Highest Wisdom (157)
She Behaved In A Queer Way (158)
On Company Of The Holy (159)
In That Divine State (160)
The Nature Of A Paramahamsa (161)
Sri Sankara And The Butcher (162)
XVII. Guru (Teacher Of Men)
The Physician With His Jars Of Molasses (163)
That Insignia Of Authority (164)
One Cannot Teach Others Without Receiving Commission From God (165)
The Avadhuta And His Upa-Gurus (166)
The Grass-Eating Tiger (167)
How Sri Chaitanya Attracted The Worldly (168)
Like Teacher, Like Disciple (169)
When All Conceptions Of Difference Vanish (170)
XVIII. Imperatives
Go Forward! (171)
Count Not Leaves, Eat Mangoes (172)
Be Drowned! (173)
Stick To Your Own Religion (174)
Have Both Your Hands Free (175)
Let Not The Bell Of Bigotry Deaden Your Hearing (176)
See Advaita Everywhere Or See It Nowhere (177)
Go Beyond Knowledge And Ignorance (178)
Beware Of The Touch Of The Worldlings (179)
Don't Measure Spiritual Values By Secular Standards (180)
Be Watchful (181)
Give The Dog A Good Beating At Times (182)
Sink Now And Then (183)
Keep A Part Of The Ridge Open (184)
Count Not On The Unknown Future (185)
Discriminate Even In Giving In Charity (186)
Hiss You May, But Bite You Shall Not (187)
If You Must Serve, Serve But One Master (188)
First Cleanse Thee Pure, Then Preach And Cure (189)
Either 'I' Ad-Infinitum Or None Of It (190)
XIX. Counsels
If You Would Enjoy The Fun! (191)
What To Pray For? (192)
How To Escape Prarabdha (193)
Then, What's The Way? (194)
One Who Sees 'Elephant God' Should Heed The Words Of 'Mahut God' (195)
Damn-Damn-Damn-Da-Damn-Damn (196)
Brood Over Other's Sins, And You Sin Yourself (197)
Not 'There' But 'Here' (198)
What You Are After, Is Within Yourself (199)
How One Can Enter The Mansion Of God (200)
Then Comes The Time For Action (201)
Partial Knowledge Breeds Narrowness (202)
Fanaticism Is Another Name For Ignorance (203)
No Scripturist Ever Vaunts Of His Learning (204)
Unfortunate It Is To Be Seized By A Water-Snake (205)
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 all
was over. Then he returned home with the mat under his arm!
<< Sri Ramakrishna >>
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
The abstruse ideas of religion and philosophy have an unerring
appeal when clothed in homely imagery. Great truths are easily
comprehended when expressed through a simple figure or similitude.
The homeliness of the outer crust endows the core of the teaching
with an effortless familiarity, ensuring its usefulness in the day
to day life of religious practice. Parables therefore occupy a
most important place in the teachings of the saints and seers.
Jesus and Muhammad, Buddha, and the Vedic Sages have again and
again adopted the allegorical method of presentation as an
effective way of religious instruction. In this respect they have
widely differed from professional philosophers and theologians.
The Bible tells us that when Jesus delivered one of his parables,
'the people were astonished at his doctrine, for he taught as one
having authority and not as the scribes'. The directness of appeal
inherent in parables is well borne out by this observation.
Another point about the way in which the great Teachers taught
deserves mention here. When Jesus taught the gathered, crowd his
first parable, he was questioned by his disciples as to the
propriety of speaking to the multitude in parables. His reply was
that by so doing he had thrown a veil over the inner import,
making it difficult of comprehension by all except those who
really cared to understand. This should not be taken as an
indication of a narrow conservatism in his outlook; on the
contrary, it points out only the excellence of the methodology
adopted by true and great Teachers of men. Easy winning makes the
prize always cheap. The Mahabharata hands down to us an ancient
tradition which advises teachers to part with the great truths of
religion only to earnest enquirers. The motive of Jesus was not
different from this. Sri Ramakrishna, the spiritual teacher par
excellence that he was, however, does not make any effort to make
his parables obscure; the morals they convey lie on the surface.
Many of his parables are drawn from ordinary domestic and social
life, customary with the people who lived around him. Some he had
devised on the model of Puranic stories. But all have a humorous
vein and bear witness to his consummate wit and keenness of
observation. We hope this collection of the parables published for
the first time in separate book form will be of service to all who
wish to get some acquaintance with the fundamentals of spiritual
life through the interesting medium, of parables and stories.
August, 1943
Publisher
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
The present volume is an improvement, quite a large improvement,
upon The Parables of Sri Ramakrishna, which was first published in
August, 1943. It will be noticed that the name of the book has
been changed a little. This change has been necessitated because
of the incorporation of new matter in the book. Now, apart from an
exhaustive collection of the parables of the Master, we have here
a bumper harvest of his tales as well.
The addition of the tales has been thought needful because the
distinction between a tale and a parable - as they are understood
from the standpoint of a profound spiritual preceptor and an eager
aspirant - is often insignificant. With them a tale becomes a
parable as easily as a tadpole a frog. Secondly, the element of
didacticism which makes the primary difference between a tale and
a parable is equally pronounced in both the tales and parables of
the Master. Again though generally the tales of the Master are
based on facts of his own or others' experience in life, yet the
strange eye with which they are seen and the mystic way they are
narrated give them all a more or less parabolic stamp.
For the convenience of the readers, the tales and the parables
have been brought under different groupings according to the
spirit they strongly evince. But these groupings should not be
taken as rigid and absolute, for like the facets of a gem, there
are several aspects to a tale or parable of the Master.
To make the collection exhaustive we have freely used different
books of the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda literature of which The
Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna has supplied the main bulk. We have
taken that version of a tale or a parable - for, several of them
have more than one version (all of them authentic, being spoken by
the Master in different contexts) - which is more pleasant and
richer with story element.
We have also added in this edition an Introduction, which gives a
short account of the life and teachings of Sri Ramakrishna.
We believe that this enlarged edition will be of greater use and
benefit to all readers.
May, 1947
Publisher
Introduction
SRI RAMAKRISHNA
A Short Account of His Life and Teachings
ON February 18, 1836, was born in India a God-man, who has come to
be known as Sri Ramakrishna - a name which spontaneously evokes in
the minds of millions of Hindus heart-full adoration and love.
Above the din and confusion of modern life we hear the clarion
call of Sri Ramakrishna directing our attention to the deeper
verities of existence.
The life of Sri Ramakrishna, though devoid of spectacular events,
is filled with spiritual romance of the rarest type. The fifty one
years of his mortal existence give us vivid stories of religion in
practice. During these years he constantly lived on the exalted
plane of God-consciousness. The natural tendency of his mind was
to soar above the phenomena of the world. It seems to the reader
of his biography that he brought down his mind with utmost
difficulty to the ordinary level in order to talk with men and
women. His sayings are not those of a learned man, but pages from
the Book of Life, written with the fluid of his own experiences
and realisations. His utterances have upon them the badge of
authority.
Sri Ramakrishna was born of poor parents living in a wayside
village* of Bengal. His father was full of piety and never
deviated from the path of truth. He was dispossessed of his
ancestral house and property as he refused to bear false witness
to the advantage of his landlord. He observed all the strict
disciplines of the life of a Brahmin, devoting most of the time to
prayers and meditation as enjoined by his religion. He was content
to lead a life of utter simplicity, practically depending upon God
for his daily food and other necessities of life. The mother was
full of womanly grace and her heart overflowed with the sweet milk
of kindness for her neighbours. Many a time she would turn over
her own meal to the poor and needy and thus starve for the whole
day. She was always respected by the villagers for the crystal
sincerity of her character and the total absence of guile and
other sordid traits of worldly nature. Sri Ramakrishna, like other
lads of his age, was full of fun and life, mischievous and
charming, with a feminine grace he preserved to the end of his
life. He was adored and petted by the young girls and women of the
village. They found in him a kindred and understanding spirit. It
was a dream of his childhood, as he told later on, to be reborn as
a little Brahmin widow, a lover of Krishna, who would visit her in
her house. Sri Ramakrishna showed, during the years of his
childhood, a precocious understanding of the deeper mysteries of
the spiritual realm. He manifested supreme indifference to the
education imparted in the school. It did not proceed beyond the
most rudimentary stage. He used to say, later on, that books are
fetters which impede the free expression of the soul. But even at
the early age he possessed great wisdom. One day during that
period of his life, he gave in a learned assembly of the Pundits a
simple solution to an intricate problem of theology which had been
puzzling the brains of those astute book-worms. This profound
wisdom uttered in simple words, and coming directly from his soul
characterised all his later sayings. The soul is the fountain of
all knowledge and wisdom, but in the commonalty it is covered by a
thick pall of ignorance created by our so-called experiences of
life. But simple and artless saints, like a Christ or a
Ramakrishna, always have had access to this perennial fountainhead
of knowledge. Sri Ramakrishna took special delight in studying and
hearing about the great heroes and heroines of the Hindu religious
epics. Stories of saints and association with them always set his
imagination on fire and created an exalted state of mind. He often
played truant from school. The simple village had an extensive
mango grove where he would repair with his schoolmates and enact
dramas, selecting episodes from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.
The boy, with his clear skin, beautiful flowing locks, charming
voice and independent spirit, would always play the leading parts.
He also showed efficiency in clay modelling.
* Named Kamarpukur in the Hoogly district
At the age of nine Sri Ramakrishna lost his father. This event,
which cast a gloom over the whole family, made the boy more
thoughtful and serious. Now and then he was found strolling alone
in the mango groove or the cremation ground. His serious nature,
though hidden under the thin film of boyish merriment, perhaps got
a glimpse of the transitory nature of human life. After that he
became more attached to his mother and every day spent some time
with her assisting her in the household work and daily worship in
the family chapel. He thought it his duty to lessen the burden of
his mother's grief and to infuse into her melancholy life whatever
joy and consolation he could. Instinctively he shrank from objects
and ideas that might prove obstacles to his future spiritual
progress. His first spiritual ecstasy was the outcome of his
innate artistic nature. Observing the flight of a flock of cranes
with their snow-white wings shining against the background of the
sky covered with dark rain-clouds, he lost physical consciousness
and said afterwards that he had felt, in that state, an ineffable
peace. More than once, during the period of boyhood, he
experienced the bliss of spiritual ecstasy evoked by the
contemplation of divine ideas.
At the age of seventeen, Sri Ramakrishna came to Calcutta, then
the metropolitan city of India, where his elder brother conducted
a Sanskrit academy. To the earnest request of his brother to
continue his studies in [keeping with the tradition of the
Brahminical ancestry, the boy made the spirited and significant
reply, "Brother, what shall I do with a mere bread-winning
education? I shall rather acquire that wisdom which will illumine
my heart and in getting which one is satisfied forever." In his
vivid imagination he saw the scholars of Calcutta, devoid of
wisdom, scrambling for recognition and power. Regarding the merely
intellectual Pundits, without a higher idealism, he would say,
later on, "They are like vultures who soar high on the wings of
their undisciplined intellect, having their attention fixed, all
the time, on the carrion of name, fame and wealth."
The life of Sri Ramakrishna took a new turn when he was engaged as
a priest in a temple where the Deity is worshipped as the Divine
Mother of the Universe under the name of Kali. Seated before the
graceful basalt image, he would often ask himself, "Is this image
filled with the indwelling presence of God? Or is it mere stone,
devoid of life and spirit, worshipped by countless devotees from
time immemorial?" Now and then a kind of scepticism would creep
into his soul and fill his mind with intense agony. But his inborn
intuition revealed to him the evanescent nature of the objects of
sense-enjoyment and the presence of a deeper reality behind the
phenomena. He conceived of God as our Eternal Mother who is ever
ready to grant us the priceless boon of divine wisdom if we only
turn our gaze from the shadowy objects of this world. For a few
days he worshipped the Deity following the rituals and ceremonies
of his ancestors. But his was a soul not to be satisfied with a
mere mechanical observance of religion. He craved for the vision
of God.
Soon, before the onrush of his fervour, formalities of religion
were swept away. Henceforth his worship consisted of the
passionate cry and prayer of a child pained at the separation from
his beloved Mother. For hours he would sing the songs composed by
seers of God. Tears, then, would flow continuously from his eyes.
He would weep and pray, "O Mother! Where art Thou? Reveal Thyself
to me. Many devotees before me obtained Thy grace. Am I a wretch
that Thou dost not come to me? Pleasure, wealth, friends,
enjoyments --- I do not want any of these, I only desire to see
Thee, Mother." He spent day and night in such agonising prayer.
Words of a worldly nature would singe, as it were, his ears. Often
people would be amazed to see him rolling on the ground and
rubbing his face against the sand with the piteous wail, "Another
day is spent in vain, Mother, for I have not seen Thee! Another
day of this short life has passed and I have not realised the
Truth!" In another mood, he would sit before the Deity and say to
Her, "Art Thou true, Mother, or is it all a fiction of the mind
--- mere poetry without any reality? If Thou dost exist, why can I
not see Thee? Is religion then a phantasy, a mere castle in the
air?" Scarcely would these words pass his lips when in a flash he
would recollect the lives of saints who had actually seen God in
this life. "She can't be a mere freak of human imagination," the
young worshipper would think, "there are people who have actually
seen Her. Then why can't I see Her? Life is passing away. One day
is gone followed by another, never to return. Every day I am
drawing much nearer to death. But where is my Mother? The
scriptures say that there is only one thing to be sought in this
life and that is God. Without Him life is unbearable, a mockery.
When God is realised, life has a meaning, it is a pleasure, a
veritable garden of ease. Therefore in pursuit of God sincere
devotees renounce the world and sacrifice their lives. What is
this life worth if I am to drag on a miserable existence from day
to day without tapping the eternal source of Immortality and
Bliss?" Thoughts like these would only increase his longing and
make him redouble his efforts to realise God. As a consequence he
was blessed with the realisation of God. Regarding this God-vision
he said, later on, to Swami Vivekananda, "Yes, my child, I have
seen God, only more intensely than I see you. I have talked to God
and more intensely than I am talking to you." Sri Ramakrishna used
to emphasise that if an aspirant shows the same attachment to God
as the miser feels for his hoarded treasure, the devoted wife for
her beloved husband and the helpless child for its affectionate
mother, God is sure to reveal Himself to such a fervent soul in
three days.
A tremendous statement for these modern times! Yes, he has seen
God! Not as an extra-cosmic Being, not as the personification of
moral law, but as the very substratum of our being, the indwelling
presence in all, in whom all human and moral relationships reach
their culmination. His vision of God was not a remote entity of
theology or the vague dream of a poet, but the irresistible
content of his inner experience. Is it not a great inspiration to
know that a man of our own times could assert that he had seen
God, when humanity as a whole seems to be moving away from the
deeper aspect of life? The first impression even a casual reader
of the life and gospel of Sri Ramakrishna gets is that God is not,
after all, an unrealisable object living behind the clouds, but
our dearest and nearest possession, in whom we live, move, and
have our being. There is truly such a thing as God-realisation in
this life.
Sri Ramakrishna's first vision of God as we have just seen, was
the result of his passionate prayer and fervent desire. He did not
follow any particular ritual or ceremony laid down by the
scriptures, Thus he showed that the realisation of God is
perfectly possible through earnestness alone even if one be not
affiliated with any church or religious organisation.
Later on, the desire arose in his mind to follow different paths
of Hinduism through the rituals prescribed by various teachers for
the vision of God. And it may be remarked here that whenever he
followed any particular method of discipline, he poured his entire
heart into it.
He was a great scientist in the realm of spirituality. He followed
to the very letter the disciplines and austerities laid down by
his religion. Like all true scientists, he knew that the success
of an experiment depends upon the scrupulous observance of its
laws. He did not spare himself at all in that direction. Purity
became the very breath of his life. Nothing could persuade him to
deviate, even by a hair's breadth, from the path of truth in
thought, deed and word. To learn humility he would go to the house
of a pariah, at dead of night, and clean the dirty places with his
long hair. He knew that the two great impediments of spiritual
life were lust and gold. He looked upon all women as the
manifestation of the Blessed Mother of the Universe and his body
would writhe in pain if he touched a coin, even in sleep. As a
result of deep discrimination he could not see any difference
between gold and clay, and found them both equally worthless for
the realisation of Truth. Absolutely trustful of the Divine
Providence, who hears even the footfall of an ant, he lived from
moment to moment depending upon God and without worrying as to
what he should eat and drink the next day. His life became a
perfect example of resignation and of self-surrender to a higher
Power who ever cares for our needs. His entire physical and
nervous system became attuned to such a high state of
consciousness that any contact with objects or thoughts of a
worldly nature would give him a strong reaction of pain and
suffering. His zeal for the vision of God, which ate him up day by
day, beggars all description. While practising spiritual
disciplines he forgot food and drink as necessities of life, and
sleep, he left out altogether. He had only one burning passion,
the vision of God. With such a mind he practised different rituals
and ceremonies as laid down by Hinduism for spiritual unfoldment.
There also he came to the realisation that different paths lead to
the same goal.
The friends and relatives of Sri Ramakrishna, unable to realise
the meaning of his God-intoxicated state, thought that he had
fallen a victim to lunacy. In human society one who does not share
the insanity of his neighbours is stigmatised as insane. So they
thought that marriage with a suitable girl would help him to get
back his normal state of mind. To this suggestion Sri Ramakrishna
gave his willing consent, seeing in it also the hand of
Providence. When later on, the wife, a pure maiden of sixteen,
came to her husband at the Temple of Dakshineswar where Sri
Ramakrishna practised his austerities; the saint knelt down before
her and said, "The Divine Mother has shown me that every woman is
Her manifestation. Therefore I look upon all women as the images
of the Divine Mother. I also think of you as such. But I am at
your disposal. If you like, you can drag me down to the worldly
plane." This girl, during her childhood, used to pray to God,
saying, "O God, make my character as white and fragrant as yonder
tube rose. There is a stain even on the moon, but make my life
stainless."
In the twinkling of an eye, she understood the state of her
husband's mind and said with humility that she had no desire to
drag him down from the spiritual heights; all that she wanted was
the privilege of living near him as his attendant and disciple.
When asked about instruction, Sri Ramakrishna said, "God is
everybody's beloved, just as the moon is dear to every child.
Everyone has an equal right to pray to Him. Out of His grace He
manifests Himself to all who call upon Him. You, too, will see Him
if you but pray to Him." Henceforth the two souls lived together
in the temple-garden as the sharers of many divine visions. Not
for a moment would either of them think of any worldly
relationship. One night the wife, since adored as the Holy Mother
by the numerous devotees of Sri Ramakrishna, asked him while
massaging his body, "How do you look upon me?" Sri Ramakrishna
replied without a moment's hesitation, "The Mother who is
worshipped in the Temple is the mother who has given birth to this
body and is now living in the temple-garden, and she again is
massaging my feet at this moment. Verily I always look upon you as
the visible representation of the Blissful Mother." Thus Sri
Ramakrishna showed by his own life that the mind of a man dwelling
in God becomes totally free from all sex-relationship. The same
mind which feels a physical urge during the lower state sees the
vision of the Divine at the higher level. Lust is not inherent in
an object; it is only an idea of the impure mind. Hitherto Sri
Ramakrishna's vision of God was limited to a Personal Deity whom
he worshipped alternately as the compassionate Mother or the
all-loving Father. In this conception God has human attributes
which, according to the religious philosophy of India, is a lower
conception of Truth. There is a transcendental aspect of God which
defies all human definitions. It is beyond names and forms but is
termed Existence, Knowledge and Bliss Absolute. Realising this,
the aspirant transcends the world of multiplicity and merges
himself in the Unity of Awareness. Sri Ramakrishna wanted to
realise that aspect of the Divine as well. It is a strange
phenomenon of his spiritual life that whenever he wanted to pursue
a particular spiritual path, a suitable teacher, of his own
accord, would come to Dakshineswar. Thus there came to him a monk
by the name of Totapuri. This teacher had renounced the world at
an early age, did not believe in any worldly relationship, had no
earthly possessions, would not stay at one place for more than
three days for fear of creating a new attachment and had realised
the highest Truth which the philosophers describe as unknown and
unknowable for ordinary minds. Through the help of this teacher
Sri Ramakrishna realised in three days the Truth which is beyond
names and forms and which the Vedas designate as Brahman the
Absolute. In this realisation Sri Ramakrishna found the identity
of soul and God.
Subsequently he practised the instructions of Christianity and
Islam and arrived at the same conclusion. Thus he demonstrated by
his own life and inner experience the Truth of his forefathers as
laid down in the Vedas: "Reality is One: Sages call It by various
names." Sri Ramakrishna also used to say in his own simple and
inimitable way: "Different opinions are but different paths, and
the goal is one and the same." Rituals and ceremonies, found in
all great ancient religions, are external but necessary steps of
spiritual growth. They are indispensable for most aspirants during
the lower stages of evolution. Like the husks protecting the
kernel and falling off when the seed germinates, the rituals and
ceremonies also protect the aspirants during the earlier stages
and drop off when the Divine Love awakens in their heart.
Having attained the goal of human birth, namely the realisation of
Truth, Sri Ramakrishna became eager to share with all this vision
of joy and peace. All religious experiences ultimately end in
mysticism. But this inspired prophet of the nineteenth century was
unlike the mystics who generally go by that name. He did not enter
into a cave or lead the life of a recluse, to enjoy, for himself,
the bliss of his meditation. He realised that he had become an
instrument in the hand of God to help his fellow human beings.
Thus he wanted one and all to partake of the joy of his
realisation. Many a time he prayed thus to the Divine Mother, "Do
not make me, O Mother, a cross-grained, pain-hugging recluse. I
want to enjoy the world seeing in it Thy manifestation." Drawn by
the aroma of his transfigured existence, people began to flock to
him from far and near. Men and women, young and old, scientists
and agnostics,
Christians and Sikhs --- people irrespective of their race, creed,
caste, or religious affiliation --- came to him and felt
themselves spiritually uplifted according to their inner
evolution. Yet, Sri Ramakrishna was no preacher of the ordinary
type. He did not move from the little village of Dakshineswar, did
not mount upon a public platform to preach his message and did not
advertise himself in the Press. He used to say that the bees come
of their own accord in search of honey when the flower is in full
bloom.
Among those who came to the saint was a young man who subsequently
became world-famous as Swami Vivekananda. Narendranath, as he was
then known, represented the spirit of modern times; sceptical,
inquisitive, demanding evidence for everything and yet alert and
eager to learn Truth. Sri Ramakrishna was the embodiment of the
spirit of his ancient religion, self-assured, serene and at peace
with himself as the result of his experience of divine Wisdom. He
stood at the confluence of these two streams of thought, the
ancient and the modern. In answer to the first question of this
young man, "Have you seen God?" he gave the emphatic reply that he
had seen Him. Though resisting him at every point, ultimately
Narendranath became his disciple. Sri Ramakrishna, with the
infinite love of a mother and the infinite patience of a teacher,
initiated him step by step, into the deepest mysteries of
spiritual life. It may be noted here that the teacher did not
impose upon the student any blind faith nor demand from him
enforced allegiance. Sri Ramakrishna, through his superior
intellect, satisfied the demands of his disciple's inquisitive
mind. Under the direction of his teacher, Swami Vivekananda became
the leader of a group of young men who, later on, took the vow of
dedicating their lives to the realisation of Truth and service to
humanity.
For a quarter of a century this God-man preached his gospel of
God-life. Never did he refuse anyone the solace of his
instructions, if the seeker was earnest about them. He said,
"Where will you find God except in man? Man is the highest
manifestation of the Divine. I will give up twenty thousand such
bodies to help one man. It is glorious to help even one man"
During that period of his spiritual ministration, never did a word
of condemnation escape from his blessed lips. He was incapable of
seeing evil in others. His whole personality was transfused with
love and compassion. Bowing before even the fallen woman, whom
society looks down upon as a sinner, he would say, "Thou art also
the manifestation of the Divine Mother. In one form thou art
standing in the street and in another form thou art worshipped in
the temple. I salute Thee." As a result of his constant teaching,
he was attacked with cancer of the throat. Even when it became
almost impossible for him to Swallow liquid food, he could not
send away any eager enquirer without some words of solace. One
day, during this period, a Yogi remarked that he could easily cure
himself through his Yoga powers, by concentrating on the throat.
Quick came the reply, "How can my mind, which has been given to
God, be directed again to this cage of flesh and blood?" Swami
Vivekananda begged him to pray to God for the cure of his ailment.
Such a prayer for his own physical body was impossibility for Sri
Ramakrishna. But at the earnest importunity of his disciple, he
relented. After a while he said to Swami Vivekananda, "Yes, at
your request I prayed to the Mother, 'O Mother, on account of pain
I cannot eat anything through this mouth. Please relieve my pain
if it be Thy pleasure.' She showed you all to me and said, 'Why,
are you not eating through all these mouths?" This is a
demonstration of how the realisation of God frees the soul from
the limitations of the body. At last, on the 16th of August, 1886,
Sri Ramakrishna, uttering the sacred name of his beloved God,
entered into a state of spiritual ecstasy from which his mind
never came back to the mortal plane of existence...
Thus there lived, in our age, a man who saw God face to face.
Having realised the fountain of Divine Love, he radiated love for
all without any national or geographical limits. Every particle of
his being was filled with God-consciousness. Though living in this
world, he seemed to be a man of the other world. The man in him
was completely transformed into God. Of such, the Vedas declare:
"He who realises Truth becomes one with Truth. By the vision of
the Divine, man himself becomes Divine."
The life and teachings of this God-man have a tremendous
significance for the people of modern times. Living during the
transitional period of the nineteenth century when science was
most arrogant, and practising austerities in a suburb of Calcutta,
the most materialistic city of India, Sri Ramakrishna demonstrated
that ideal spiritual life is always possible and that it is not
the monopoly of any particular age. The revelation of God takes
place at all times and the wind of Divine Mercy never ceases to
blow. Who could live, who could breathe if God did not form the
very core of our existence? Disciplines laid down by religion can
be practised even today if we have the requisite earnestness; and
the vision of Truth, revealed to man in olden times, cannot be
denied to us now if we are eager for it. On account of its
transcendental experience, the life of Sri Ramakrishna is a great
challenge to the narrow outlook of our generation. The reader of
his life finds undeniable assurance that the highest vision of God
is accessible to all as it has been given to him, one of our own
times. His life and realisation are not clouded in the haze of
mystery and tradition, but have been well sifted in the light of
modern reason. The essence of the scientific method consists of
experimentation, observation and verification. The science of
religion, called Yoga by the Hindus, is based upon this method.
Sri Ramakrishna, as a great Yogi, experimented with the spiritual
laws without accepting them in blind faith. He observed his own
reactions and then came to certain conclusions. The Hindus
challenged others also to verify these by their own
experimentations and observation. Religion is not occultism or
so-called mysticism, but a higher way of life.
God, Sri Ramakrishna has taught us, is not the monopoly of any
religion or creed, but the common property of all; He is the
loving Father of mankind. He is not only an extra-cosmic Being,
but He permeates the entire universe as intelligence and
consciousness. He is present everywhere from the blade of grass to
Brahma as the inmost essence of all. He is the Life and Substratum
of all entities, from the atom to the highest Prophet. The same
infinite expanse of water forms the basis of the froth, bubbles
and mountain-high waves. The difference between man and man, and
between other animate and inanimate objects, lies in the degree of
divine manifestation. When God is involved, He is the grain of
sand, and when He is fully evolved, He is Jesus Christ. Through
our strivings and our struggles we are approaching the Central
Truth. Art, Science, and Religion are but different expressions of
Truth. But one can understand it only when one has realised the
Unity of Existence.
Has God any form? Or is He formless? God is both with and without
form and yet transcends both. He alone can say what else He is.
God with form and God without form are like ice and water. When
water freezes into ice it has form. When the same ice is melted
into water, all form is lost. God with form and without form are
not two different beings. He who is with form is also without
form. To a devotee, the worshipper of a Personal God, He manifests
Himself in various forms. Just think of a shoreless ocean --- an
infinite expanse of water --- no land visible in any direction!
Only here and there are visible blocks of ice formed by the
intense cold, similarly under the intensifying influence of the
deep devotion of His worshipper, the Infinite reduces Himself, as
it were, into the Finite and appears before him as a Being with
form. Again, as on the appearance of the sun the ice melts away,
so with the awakening of knowledge, God with form melts away into
the Formless, The water of the ocean, when viewed from a distance,
appears to have a dark-blue colour, but becomes colourless when
taken in the hand; in the same way God is also associated with a
definite colour and complexion from a distance, but He is the
attribute-less Truth when the devotee merges in Him.
Religion does not consist of dogmas and creeds. It is Realisation.
It is being and becoming. No one can ever put any finality upon
God's nature. It is beyond the conception of our relative mind. We
grasp only a limited aspect of God according to our mental
development. Sri Ramakrishna used to say that everything in the
world --- the word of saints, the statements of the scriptures ---
has been polluted like food thrown from the mouth; but God alone
is unpolluted as no human tongue has been able to describe fully
what He is. His nature can be known only in the silent depth of
our heart.
Again, Sri Ramakrishna said that once a doll, made of salt, wanted
to measure the depth of the ocean; but no sooner did it touch the
water than it melted in the ocean. How could it tell about the
depth? Similarly, neither the mind nor words can express the real
nature of God when the aspirant has merged in Him. A text of the
Vedas says: "The words come back with the mind vainly trying to
express what Truth is."
What is the relation of God to man? This is the moot question of
religion. Sri Ramakrishna said in a simple way that when we
consider ourselves as physical beings, then God is the Master and
the Father and we are His servants or children. When we look upon
ourselves as embodied souls, then God is the Universal Soul and we
are Its emanations. Like fire and its sparks, God and man possess
the same attributes and qualities. But when we think of ourselves
as Spirit, then we are identical with God --- the one and the same
Spirit, birthless, deathless, causeless, and infinite. Prof. Max
Muller wrote that Sri Ramakrishna's simple words and illustrations
have such a force of directness and irresistibility because his
mind was unspoiled by any academic education. They were the
outcome of his direct experience.
The four cardinal points of Sri Ramakrishna's teachings are the
Oneness of Existence, Divinity of Man, Unity of God, and the
Harmony of Religions. The entire universe is one --- not only as a
stretch of matter or idea but also as Indivisible Spirit. The
multiplicity of names and forms, created by our ignorance,
vanishes at the dawn of Divine Knowledge. The cherished treasures
of human progress, such as love, understanding, unselfishness and
other ethical principles, can be explained only from the
standpoint of this Unity. Otherwise there is no room for
fellow-feeling in a world of multiplicity, governed by lifeless
natural laws. This Unity comprehends all objects, animate and
inanimate, as well as men and angels.
Man is divine by nature. Either as created in the image of God, or
as His spark or as one with Him, the essential nature of man can
never lose this perfection. There is no such thing as sin which
can change the quality of the soul. The wicked action of a man may
impose a veil upon his divine nature but can never destroy it. God
exists in us as potentiality and possibility. An action is called
good or moral that helps us to re-discover this hidden Divinity.
And an action is immoral or bad which conjures up before us the
appearance of manifoldness. The experiences we gather at the
physical, mental or aesthetic level do not belong to our real
soul. They may be called, at best, a mixture of Truth and
falsehood. Through this inscrutable ignorance we behave as if we
were corporeal beings. We have hypnotised ourselves into thinking
that we are imperfect and limited and that we exist in time and
space, subject to the law of causation. The aim of religion is to
dehypnotise ourselves and make us aware of our divine heritage.
God is one and indivisible. The different gods of religion and
mythology are but different aspects of the Absolute as
comprehended by finite human minds. Father in Heaven, just and
moral Governor, Eternal Spirit, Nirvana or the extinction of
desires, Light, Law, etc., are but different facets of the one
Godhead. He is all these and infinitely more than the human mind
can think. The God that is defined as the goal of different
religions is only the highest reading of the Absolute by the
finite human mind and expressed through imperfect human language.
The greatest contribution of Sri Ramakrishna to the modern world,
torn by theological quarrels, is the Harmony of Religions. Each
great ancient religion has three steps, namely, ritual, mythology
and philosophy. The first two are the externals of religion, and
philosophy is its basis. There can never be any uniformity in
rituals and mythologies. These are the abstract ideas of
philosophy made concrete for the grasp of ordinary minds. They are
to be given up when the soul, through it purity and discipline, is
able to comprehend the essence of religion. Religious quarrels
arise when we insist that the externals of religion are to be kept
forever. As Swami Vivekananda used to say, a man must be born in a
church but he must not die in a church. There never has been my
religion or your religion, my national religion or your national
religion, but there is only one Eternal Religion of which
different religions are but different manifestations to suit
different temperaments. It is not the case that this religion or
that religion is true in this or that respect, but the fact is
that all religions are efficacious in all respects as suited to
diverse conditions of our mind. If one religion proves false then
all religions fall to the ground. Men quarrel about religions
because they emphasise personalities, words and explanations and
never go to the fountainhead. We are quarrelling about the empty
baskets while the contents have slipped into the ditch. Different
religions are but different forces in the economy of God. They are
necessary to maintain the equilibrium of the world and enhance the
richness of creation. They are not antagonistic but complementary.
Like the different photographs of a building taken from different
angles, different religions also give us the picture of one Truth
from different standpoints. Various religions are but flowers of
different colours which we should tie with the cord of love into a
beautiful bouquet and offer at the altar of Truth. By the test of
the survival of the fittest the great ancient religions of the
world do justify their existence and usefulness. Therefore Sri
Ramakrishna's attitude towards other religions is not that of
toleration which implies viewing faiths other than one's own as if
they were inferior. His ideal is that of acceptance. To him all
religions are the revelation of God in His diverse aspects to
satisfy the manifold demands of human minds. One day a young
disciple criticised before him the questionable methods of a
religious sect. Sri Ramakrishna said, "That is also a pathway to
reach God. To enter a house there are many doors, There are front
doors side-doors and there is also a backdoor. But you need not go
in by that door." As a result of his spiritual experiences he came
to the conclusion that there are not only many mansions in the
Father's House, but there are also many doors leading thereto.
What is the utility of religious experiences in our daily and
practical life? If man were only an animal with eating, drinking
and sleeping propensities; satisfied with a little display of
reason and the solution of some intellectual problems, then
perhaps, there would be no meaning in his excursion into the realm
of Spirit. But the infinite nature of the human soul can never be
happy with the finite experiences of life. Through the travail of
our finite experience and knowledge we are trying to reach the
Infinite. The whole life of man is the play of the Infinite in the
finite. Therefore any experience of life devoid of the touch of
the Divine is barren and futile. The drab and grey of life can be
illumined by the sunrise glow of divine experience. It invests
life with a new meaning and dignity. What does it avail a man if
he gains the whole world but loses his soul? Nothing else matters
if the touch of God is felt in our daily activities. And what else
does matter if we do not feel that indwelling Presence in our
everyday action? Man without the touch of the Divine roams
aimlessly in the blind alleys of the world. Therefore Sri
Ramakrishna used to say, "Do whatever you please with the
knowledge of God in your pocket."
Mind uninspired by Divine Wisdom is like milk that gets easily
mixed up with the water of the world. But if by churning, one
transforms milk into butter, then it floats on the water. In the
same way we are to purify the mind by divine knowledge; and then
if it dwells in the world, it will not be polluted by worldliness.
And again, as our saints used to say, as long as we spin around
holding fast to a post, there is no danger of our falling to the
ground. In the same way, if we work in the world with our mind
steadfastly devoted to God, there is no risk of losing ourselves
in confusion. "Be like a nurse," Sri Ramakrishna said, "who takes
care of her master's children as her own, but in her heart of
hearts knows that she has no claim upon them; so think also that
you are but the trustees and guardians of your people, but the
real Master is God Himself." We are all instruments in the hands
of God who has assigned to us our respective duties for the
discipline of our heart. Religious life does not mean the shirking
of duties or avoidance of responsibilities. The same Truth
manifests Itself as our inner vision and the external manifold. As
such there is no intrinsic difference between the sacerdotal and
the secular. Everything is sacred. There is no difference between
the temple and the farm-yard. The cloister and the laboratory, the
temple and the studio, the cell and the marketplace are equally
fit places of worship. To accept life after transcending its
limitations is the last divine sacrifice. To labour is to pray. To
have and hold is as stern a trust as to quit and avoid. Life
itself is Religion, True to this ideal of its patron Saint, the
Ramakrishna Mission has the twin methods of discipline, namely
'work' and 'worship'; or rather its members say that 'work is
worship'. One day when young Swami Vivekananda begged his Master
to grant him the boon of a spiritual ecstasy in which the disciple
could keep his mind above for four or five days together, coming
down occasionally to the physical plane for a few minutes to eat
some morsels of food, Sri Ramakrishna answered reproachfully "Why
are you so anxious to see God with your eyes closed? Can't you see
Him with your eyes open? Worship God through suffering humanity."
Great Prophets like Sri Ramakrishna are born now and then to
demonstrate the eternal truths of Religion. There may be nothing
new in what he preached and taught. Without him Hindu religion
would have been equally valid today as it has been for the past
thousands of years. The spiritual texts, without him, would have
carried equal weight with students who care for them. But in Sri
Ramakrishna we have the revealer and modern interpreter of the
spiritual truths about which our minds may be in doubt for want of
actual demonstration. Like the giant American hickory tree, he
stands raising his head above the storms of doubt and scepticism.
He has laid emphasis on these aspects of religion which we can
grasp and follow in our modern daily life. Above all, he is a
figure in history and his life is not obscured by doubtful myths.
He stands as the justification of not only the Hindu faith but of
the life of the Spirit in general. His realisations furnish us
with the master-key by which we can unlock every door in the
mansion of Spirit. His teachings act like a powerful searchlight
by which we can see through the mummeries and externals of
religion and discern its innermost essence. This Prophet of the
nineteenth century did not found any cult nor did he show a new
oath to salvation. When under the relentless sledge-hammer blows
of modern thought our cherished ideals of the time-honoured
ancient faiths began to crumble. Sri Ramakrishna, by his own life,
has demonstrated the validity and truth of the Prophets and
Saviours of the past and thus restored the falling edifice of
Religion upon a new and more secure foundation.*
* An address delivered by Swami Nikhilananda at New York on the
occasion of Sri Ramakrishna Centenary in 1936.
तव कथामृतं तप्तजीवनं कविभिरीडितं
कल्मषापहम् ।
श्रवणमङ्गलं श्रीमदाततं भुवि गृणन्ति ये भूरिदा जना: ॥
tava kathāmṛtaṁ tapta-jīvanaṁ kavibhir īḍitaṁ kalmaṣāpaham |
śravaṇa-maṅgalaṁ śrīmad ātataṁ bhuvi gṛṇanti ye bhūri-dā janāḥ
||
The nectar of your story, the praise of poet-seers, Elixir to
parched souls, delight of listening ears, The cleanser out of
sin, is grand and glorious; They who spread it wide on earth are
generous.
<< Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam X, xxxi 9 >>
I. The World
This Is Indeed The World! (1)
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 the 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
unconscious. Only after a long time did I regain consciousness.
* A nephew of Sri Ramakrishna who attended on the Master for a
long time
** Temple garden of Dakshineswar where Sri Ramakrishna
lived
*** A village in Bengal, where Sri Ramakrishna was born
**** Native village of Hriday
In The Forest Of The World (2)
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 his 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 high
way." After a long time they reached the road. 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 Satva, 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 Satva rescues him from the clutches of rajas and tamas. Under
the protection of Satva, man is rescued from anger, passion and
other evil effects of tamas.
Further, Satva loosens the bonds of the world. But Satva also is a
robber. It cannot give man the ultimate Knowledge of Truth, though
it shows him the road leading to the Supreme Abode of God. Setting
him on the path, Satva tells him: "Look yonder. There is your
home." Even Satva is far away from the knowledge of Brahman.
What The World Makes Of Men (3)
As a boy, at Kamarpukur, I loved Ram Mallick dearly. But
afterwards, when he came here, I couldn't 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, all his 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 Benares?" You see, he called his
wife crazy. Grief for the boy totally diluted him. J found he had
no stuff within him. I couldn't touch him.
II. Men Of The World
When They Are Annoyed (4)
You see, we don't take any collection during the performance at
our place. Jadu's* mother says to me, "Other sadhus 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 centre of the hall. There he
picked out a nice seat for himself, twirled his mustache, and sat
through the performance.
* A devotee of Sri Ramakrishna
When All Teeth Fell (5)
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."
There Are Such Men Indeed! (6)
It is not mentioned in their 'Science' that God can take human
form; so how can they believe it? There are such men indeed!
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."
The Jackal That Won't Leave The Company Of A Bullock (7)
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. Sometime 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.
That also happens to flatterers. They think that the rich man will
loosen his purse strings for them. But it is very difficult to get
anything from him.
The Plunderers Who Go About As Religious (8)
THERE was a goldsmith who kept a jewellery shop. He looked like a
great devotee, a true Vaishnava, with beads round 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!'
How They Quarrel! (9)
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
Saktas. The Vaishnava says, 'My Kesava is the only Saviour',
whereas the Sakta insists, 'My Bhagavati is the only Saviour.'
Once I took Vaishnavacharan* to Mathur Babu.** Mathur welcomed him
with great courtesy and fed him from silver plates. Now,
Vaishnavacharan 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
Vaishnavacharan said, "Kesava is the only Saviour." No sooner did
Mathur hear this then his face became red with anger and he
blurted out, "You rascal!" He was a Sakta. Wasn't it natural for
him to say like that? I gave Vaishnavacharan a nudge!
* A contemporary of Sri Ramakrishna
** The son-in-law of Rani Rasmani, the foundress of the
Kali Temple at Dakshineswar, where Sri Ramakrishna lived and did
his Sadhana
A Worldling Is A Poor Exponent Of The Sastras (10)
A MAN wanted to engage a Bhagavata pandit who could explain the
Bhagavata to him. His friend said: "I know of an excellent pandit.
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
pandit who has no leisure. I am not looking for a Bhagavata
scholar burdened with ploughs and bullocks. I want a pandit who
can really expound the sacred book to me."
Elder, The Pumpkin Cutter (11)
You must have seen the sort of elderly man who lives in a family
and is always ready, day and 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.
This is the extent of his usefulness - hence his nickname, 'Elder,
the pumpkin cutter.'
He is neither a man of the world nor a devotee of God. That is not
good.
There Is Need For Everything (12)
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 hard
administrator that the tenants trembled at the very mention of the
name.
There is need for everything. Once Sita said to her husband:
"Rama, it would be grand if every house in Ayodhya were a mansion!
I find many houses are old and dilapidated." "But, my dear," said
Rama, "If all the houses were beautiful ones, what would the
masons do?" 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.
There Are Men And Men (13)
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 truths.
Those in bondage are sunk in worldliness and are 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 straggle 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.
III. The Bane Of Worldliness
The Root Of All Troubles (14)
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, 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.'
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.
All For A Single Piece Of Loin-Cloth (15)
A SADHU under the instruction of his Guru built for himself a
small shed, thatched with leaves at a distance from the haunts of
men. He began his devotional exercises in this hut. Now, every
morning after ablution he would hang his wet cloth and the kaupina
(loin-cloth) on a tree close to the hut, to dry them. One day on
his return from the neighbouring village, which he would visit to
beg for his daily food, he found that the rats had cut holes in
his kaupina. So the next day he was obliged to go to the village
for a fresh one. A few days later, the sadhu spread his loin-cloth
on the roof of his hut to dry it and then went to the village to
beg as usual. On his return he found that the rats had torn it
into shreds. He felt much annoyed and thought within himself
"Where shall I go again to beg for a rag? Whom shall I ask for
one?" All the same he saw the villagers the next day and
re-presented to them the mischief done by the rats. Having heard
all he had to say, the villagers said, "Who will keep you supplied
with cloth every day? Just do one thing --- keep a cat; it will
keep away the rats." The sadhu forthwith secured a kitten in the
village and carried it to his hut. From that day the rats ceased
to trouble him and there was no end to his joy. The sadhu now
began to tend the useful little creature with great care and feed
it on the milk begged from the village. After some days, a
villager said to him: "Sadhuji, you require milk every day; you
can supply your want for a few days at most by begging; who will
supply you with milk all the year round? Just do one thing ---
keep a cow. You can satisfy your own creature comforts by drinking
its milk and you can also give some to your cat." In a few days
the sadhu procured a milch cow and had no occasion to beg for milk
any more. By and by, the sadhu found it necessary to beg for straw
for his cow. He had to visit the neighbouring villages for the
purpose, but the villagers said, "There are lots of uncultivated
lands close to your hut; just cultivate the land and you shall not
have to beg for straw for your cow." Guided by their advice, the
sadhu took to tilling the land. Gradually he had to engage some
labourers and later on found it necessary to build barns to store
the crop in. Thus he became, in course of time, a sort of
landlord.
And, at last he had to take a wife to look after his big
household. He now passed his days just like a busy householder.
After some time, his Guru came to see him. Finding himself
surrounded by goods and cattle, the Guru felt puzzled and enquired
of a servant, "An ascetic used to live here in a hut; can you tell
me where he has removed himself?" The servant did not know what to
say in reply. So the Guru ventured to enter into the house, where
he met his disciple. The Guru said to him, "My son, what is all
this?" The disciple, in great shame fell at the feet of his Guru
and said, "My Lord, all for a single piece of loin-cloth!"
The Tiger That Lurks Behind Worldly Joys (16)
GOD is like the wish-yielding tree of the celestial world
(Kalpataru), which gives whatever one asks of it. So, one should
be careful to give up all worldly desires when one's mind has been
purified by religious exercises.
Just listen to a story: A certain traveller came to a large plain
in the course of his travels. As he had been walking in the sun
for many hours, he was thoroughly exhausted and heavily
perspiring; so he sat down in the shade of a tree to rest a
little. Presently he began to think what a comfort it would be if
he could but get a soft bed there to sleep on. He was not aware
that he was sitting under the celestial tree. As soon as the above
thought rose in his mind, he found a nice bed by his side. He felt
much astonished, but all the same stretched himself on it. Now he
thought to himself, how pleasant it would be, were a young damsel
to come there and gently stroke his legs. No sooner did the
thought arise in his mind than he found a young damsel sitting at
his feet and stroking his legs. The traveller felt supremely
happy. Presently he felt hungry and thought: "I have got whatever
I have wished for; could I not then get some food?" Instantly he
found various kinds of delicious food spread before him. He at
once fell to eating, and having helped himself to his heart's
content, stretched himself again on his bed. He now began to
revolve in his mind the events of the day. While thus occupied, he
thought: "If a tiger should attack me all of a sudden!" In an
instant a large tiger jumped on him and broke his neck and began
to drink his blood. In this way the traveller lost his life.
Such is the fate of men in general. If during your meditation you
pray for men or money or worldly honours, your desires will no
doubt be satisfied to some extent; but, mind you, there is the
dread of the tiger behind the gifts you get. Those tigers ---
disease, bereavements, loss of honour and wealth etc., --- are a
thousand times more terrible than the live tiger.
That Oppressing Stench Of Worldliness (17)
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! She was restless and began to fidget
about. 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.
Worldly Goods Are Not Thine For Ever (18)
The steward of a certain rich man was left in charge of his
master's property. When asked by someone as to whose property it
was, he used to say: "Sir, this is all my property; these houses
and these gardens are all mine.'' He would speak in this strain
and go about with an air of vanity. One day he happened to catch
fish in a pond of his master's garden-house in contravention of
his strict prohibition. As ill-luck would have it, the master came
upon the scene just then, and saw what his dishonest steward was
doing. Finding out the faithlessness of his servant, the master at
once drove him away from his estate, disgraced and dishonoured,
and confiscated all his past earnings. The poor fellow could not
take with him even his rickety box of utensils which was his sole
private property.
Such is the punishment that overtakes false pride.
The Jar Of Desire Can Never Be Filled Up (19)
A BARBER who was passing under a haunted tree, heard a voice say,
"Will you accept seven jars full of gold?" The barber looked
around, but could see no one. The offer of seven jars of gold,
however, roused his cupidity, and he cried aloud, "Yes, I shall
accept the seven jars." At once came the reply, "Go home, I have
carried the jars to your house." The barber ran home in hot haste
to verify the truth of this strange announcement. And when he
entered the house, he saw the jars before him. He opened them and
found them all full of gold, except the last one which was only
half-full. A strong desire now arose in the barber's mind to fill
the seventh jar also for without it his happiness was incomplete.
He therefore converted all his ornaments into gold coins and put
them into the jar; but the mysterious vessel was, as before,
unfilled. This exasperated the barber. Starving himself and his
family, he saved some amount more and tried to fill the jar; but
the jar remained as before. So one day he humbly requested the
king to increase his pay, as his income was not sufficient to
maintain himself. Now the barber was a favourite of the king, and
as soon as the request was made the king doubled his pay. All this
pay he saved and put into the jar, but the greedy jar showed no
signs of filling. At last he began to live by begging from door to
door, and his professional income and the income from begging ---
all went into the insatiable cavity of the mysterious jar. Months
passed, and the condition of the miserable and miserly barber grew
worse every day. Seeing his sad plight the king asked him one day:
"Hello! When your pay was half of what you now get, you were
happy, cheerful and contented; but with double that pay, I see you
morose, care-worn and dejected. What is the matter with you? Have
you got 'the seven jars'?" The barber was taken aback by this
question and replied, "Your Majesty, who has informed you of
this?" The king said: "Don't you know that these are the signs of
the person to whom the Yaksha consigns the seven jars. He offered
me also the same jars, but I asked him whether this money might be
spent or was merely to be hoarded. No sooner had I asked this
question than the Yaksha ran away without any reply. Don't you
know that no one can spend that money? It only brings with it the
desire of hoarding. Go at once and return the money." The barber
was brought to his senses by this advice, and he went to the
haunted tree and said, "Take back your gold, O Yaksha." The Yaksha
replied, "All right." When the barber returned home, he found that
the seven jars had vanished as mysteriously as they were brought
in, and with it had vanished, his life-long savings too.
Those who do not understand the difference between what is real
expenditure and what is real income, lose all they have.
Why Yogi Slips Down From His Yoga (20)
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.
Those Worthless Things! (21)
Body and wealth are impermanent. Why go to take so much trouble
for their sake? Just think of the plight of the Hatha yogis. Their
attention is fixed on one ideal only --- longevity. They do not
aim at the realization of God at all. They practice 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 Samadhi. 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 before.
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-samadhi. 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
alright, but he was sent to jail for three years.
IV. Kama-Kanchana (Lust And Gold)
Court Marriage And Court Servitude (22)
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 becomes
the slave of another, and so loses his freedom. Then he cannot act
as he likes.
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 this 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.
The Fall Of The Twelve Hundred (23)
THERE is the story of 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
banks of the Ganges." These disciples had such high spiritual
nature that, while meditating, they would go into Samadhi 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 others. The
remaining twelve hundred disciples went to the teacher after
finishing their morning meditations. 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 women robbed them of their spirituality because it
destroyed their freedom.
* Literally ''Shaven headed", indicative of absolute renunciation of 'lust and gold'
** Vaishnava nuns
Master Of Everything, Slave Of Sex! (24)
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 brahmana. 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 a word." Golap said to
him, "Child, whom should I speak to?" She said to herself: "Ah,
the poor brahmana! 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, from
today." The manager said to his English boss: "This man is very
competent. I have appointed him. He will do credit to the firm."
Bhagavata In The Ear, Brothel In The Mind (25)
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 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.
Greater Even Than The Guru! (26)
A POOR brahmana had a rich cloth merchant as his disciple. The
merchant was very miserly by nature. One day the brahmana was in
need of a small piece of cloth for covering his sacred book. He
went to his disciple and asked for the required piece of cloth;
but the merchant replied: "I am very sorry, sir. Had you told me
of this a few hours earlier, I would have given you the thing
wanted. Unfortunately, now I have no small piece of cloth which
will answer your purpose. However, I shall remember your
requirement, but please remind me of it now and then." The
brahmana had to go away disappointed. This conversation between
the guru and his worthy disciple was overheard by the wife of the
latter from behind a screen. She at once sent a man after the
brahmana, and calling him inside the house, said, "Revered Father,
what is it that you were asking from the master of the house?" The
brahmana related all what had happened. The wife said: "Please go
home sir; you will get the cloth tomorrow morning." When that
merchant returned home at night the wife asked him, "Have you
closed your shop?" The merchant said, "Yes, what is the matter?"
She said, "Go at once and bring two cloths of the best quality in
the shop." He said, "Why this hurry? I shall give you the best
cloth tomorrow morning." The wife, however, insisted, "No, I must
have them just now or not at all." What could the poor merchant
do? The person whom he had now to deal with was not the spiritual
guru whom he could send away with vague and indefinite promises,
but the 'curtain guru' whose behests must be instantaneously
obeyed, or else there would be no peace for him at home. At last
the merchant, willingly enough, opened the shop, at that late hour
of the night, and brought the cloths for her. Early next morning,
the good lady sent the article to the guru with the message, "If
in future you want anything from us, ask me, and you will get it."
Modern Janakas! (27)
A GENTLEMAN of modern education was once discussing with the
Master the nature of householder uncontaminated by worldliness. To
him, the Master said, "I know of what sort is your 'uncontaminated
family-man' of the present day! If a poor brahmana comes to beg of
this master of the house, he (being an uncontaminated family-man
and having no concern with money matters, for it is his wife who
manages all those things!) says to the begging brahmana, 'Sir, I
never touch money, why do you waste your time in begging of me?'
The brahmana, however, proves inexorable. Fired with his
importunate entreaties your uncontaminated family-man thinks
within himself that he must be paid a rupee, and tells him openly:
'Well, sir, come tomorrow, I shall see what I can do for you.'
Then going in, this typical householder tells his wife, 'Look
here, my dear, a poor brahmana is in great distress; let us give
him a rupee.' Hearing the word 'rupee' his wife gets out of temper
and says tauntingly, 'Aha, what a generous fellow you are! Are
rupees like leaves and straws to be thrown away without the least
thought?' 'Well, my dear,' replies the master in an apologetic
tone, 'the brahmana is very poor and we should not give him less.'
'No', says his wife, 'I cannot spare so much. Here is a two Anna
bit; you can give that to him, if you like.' As the Babu is a
family-man quite uncontaminated by worldliness, he takes, of
course, what his wife gives him, and next day the beggar gets only
a two Anna piece.
So you see, your so-called uncontaminated family-men are really
not masters of themselves. Because they do not look after their
family-affairs, they think that they are good and holy men, while,
as a matter of fact, they are hen-pecked husbands guided entirely
by their wives, and so are but very poor specimens even of common
humanity."
How's A Fallen Sannyasi (28)
Do you know how it looks for a Sannyasi to accept money or to be
attached to an object of temptation? It is as if a brahmana 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.
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 land-lord 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
Sannyasi is like that.
If You Would Conquer Lust, Look On Women As Mother (29)
WHEN asked why he did not lead the life of a householder with his
wife, the Master replied: 'Kartikeya (Son of Siva) one day
happened to scratch a cat with his nail. On going home, he saw
that there was the mark of a scratch on the cheek of his Divine
Mother, Parvati. Seeing this he asked her, 'Mother, how did you
get this ugly scratch on your cheek?' The mother of the universe
replied, 'This is the work of your own hand; it is the scratch of
your nail.' Kartikeya asked in wonder: 'How is it, Mother? I do
not remember to have scratched you at any time.' The Mother
replied, 'Darling, have you forgotten the fact of your having
scratched a cat this morning?' Kartikeya said, Yes, I did scratch
a cat, but how did your cheek get the scar?' The Mother replied,
'Dear child, nothing exists in this world but Myself. The whole
creation is Myself; whomsoever you may hurt, you only hurt me.'
Kartikeya was greatly surprised to hear this; and then he
determined never to marry. For, whom could he marry? Every woman
was mother to him. Realizing thus the motherhood of woman, he gave
up marriage. I am like Kartikeya. I consider every woman as my
Divine Mother."
Money Is Also A Great Upadhi (30)
MONEY is also an Upadhi and that too of a very strong nature. As
soon as a man becomes rich he is thoroughly changed.
A brahmana who was very meek and humble used to come here* every
now and then. After sometime he stopped coming and we knew nothing
of what had happened to him. One day, we went over to Konnagore**
in boat. As we were getting down from the boat we saw the brahmana
sitting on the bank of the Ganges, where, in the fashion of big
folks, he was enjoying the pure air of the river. On seeing me he
accosted me in a patronising tone with the words, "Hallo Thakur!
How are you doing now?" At once I noticed a change in his tone and
said to Hriday who was with me, "I tell you, Hriday, this man must
have come by some riches. Can't you see what a great change has
come over him?" And Hriday burst into a loud laughter.The
possession of money makes such a difference in a man!
* Refers to Dakshineswar temple garden, where Sri Ramakrishna
used to live.
** A place not very far from Dakshineswar
Such Is The Pride That Money Begets (31)
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 money begets!
Enmeshed In Maya, Brahman Weeps! (32)
VISHNU incarnated Himself as a sow in order to kill the demon
Hiranyaksha. After killing the demon, 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 Siva to the sow. Siva
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 Siva destroyed the sow's body and
Vishnu went back to heaven.
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.
How Is Maya? (33)
A CERTAIN sadhu lived for some time in the room above the
nahavat-khana (concert-room) of the temple of Dakshineswar. He did
not speak with anybody and spent his whole time in the meditation
of God. One day, all of a sudden, a cloud darkened the sky and
shortly afterwards a high wind blew away the cloud. The holy man
now came out of his room and began to laugh and dance in the
verandah in front of the concert-room. Upon this I asked him, "How
is it that you, who spend your days so quietly in your room, are
dancing in joy and feel so jolly today?" The holy man replied,
"Such is Maya that envelops the life!"
At first there is clear sky, all of a sudden a cloud darkens it
and presently everything is as before once more.
Such Indeed Is Maya! (34)
ONCE Narada besought the Lord of the universe, "Lord, show me that
Maya of Thine which can make the impossible possible." The Lord
nodded assent. Subsequently the Lord one day set out on a travel
with Narada. After going some distance, He felt very thirsty and
fatigued. So He sat down and told Narada, "Narada, I feel much
thirsty; please get me a little water from somewhere." Narada at
once ran in search of water.
Finding no water nearby, he went far from the place and saw a
river at a great distance. When he approached the river, he saw a
most charming young lady sitting there, and was at once captivated
by her beauty. As soon as Narada went near her, she began to
address him in sweet words and both fell in love with each other.
Narada then married her and settled down as a householder. In
course of time he had a number of children by her. And while he
was thus living happily with his wife and children, there came a
pestilence in the country. Death began to collect its toll from
every place. Then Narada proposed to abandon the place and go
somewhere else. His wife acceded to it, and they both came out of
their house leading their children by the hand. But no sooner did
they come to the bridge to cross the river then there came a
terrible flood, and in the rush of water, all their children were
swept away one after another, and at last the wife too was
drowned. Overwhelmed with grief at his bereavement, Narada sat
down on the bank and began to weep piteously. Just then the Lord
appeared before him, saying, "O Narada, where is the water? And
why are you weeping?" The sight of the Lord startled the sage, and
then he understood everything. He exclaimed, "Lord, my obeisance
to Thee, and my obeisance also to Thy wonderful Maya!" (34)
Maya Vanishes The Moment It Is Known (35)
A PRIEST was once going to the village of a disciple of his. He
had no servant with him. Seeing a cobbler on the way, he addressed
him, saying: "Hulloa! Good man, will you accompany me as a
servant? You will be fed well and taken good care of, if you come
with me." The cobbler replied: "Sir, I am of the lowest caste. How
can I come as your servant?" The priest said, "Never mind. Do not
tell anybody what you are. Do not also speak to anyone, or make
anybody's acquaintance. The cobbler agreed. At twilight, while the
priest was sitting at prayers in the house of his disciple,
another brahmana came and said to the priest's servant, "Go and
bring my shoes from there." True to the behest of his master, he
made no response. The brahmana repeated his order a second time,
but even then the servant remained silent. The brahmana repeated
it again and again, but the cobbler did not move an inch. At last,
getting annoyed, the brahmana angrily said: "Sirrah; how dare you
disobey a brahmana's command? What is your name? Are you indeed a
cobbler?" The cobbler, hearing this, began to tremble with fear,
and looking piteously at the priest, said: "O venerable sir, I am
found out. I dare not stay here any longer. Let me flee." So
saying, he took to his heels.
Just so, as soon as Maya is recognised, she flies away.
The Prolonged Dream That We Call Life (36)
THERE was a farmer who lived in the countryside. He was a real
jnani. 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 of 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 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 Hani?"
The farmer was a jnani; therefore he realized that the waking
state is as unreal as the dream state.
There is only one eternal substance, and that is the Atman.
It's Nothing, It's Nothing! (37)
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.'
If All Is Really Unreal! (38)
RAMA 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." Rama 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."
A Siddha Stops The Storm (39)
Once, a great Siddha was sitting on the sea-shore when there came
a great storm. The Siddha, being greatly distressed by it,
exclaimed, "Let the storm cease!" and his words were fulfilled.
Just then a ship was going at a distance with all sails set, and
as the wind suddenly died away, it capsized, drowning all who were
on board the ship.
Now the sin of causing the death of so many persons accrued to the
Siddha, and for this reason he lost all his occult powers and had
to suffer in purgatory.
Occult Powers Are More A Hindrance Than A Help To God-Vision (40)
ONCE upon a time a sadhu 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 sadhu 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 sadhu, "Revered sir, can you kill
this elephant if you like?" The sadhu 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 a while in pain
and then dropped dead. The Lord said: "What power you have! You
have killed the elephant!" The sadhu laughed. Again the Lord
spoke: "Now, can you revive the elephant?" "That too is possible,"
replied the sadhu. He threw another pinch of charmed dust at the
beast. The elephant writhed about a little 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.
The Pandit Who Could Not Swim (41)
Once, several men were crossing the Ganges in a boat. One of them,
a pandit, was making a great display of his erudition, saying that
he had studied various books --- the Vedas, the Vedanta, and the
six systems of philosophy. He asked a fellow passenger, "Do you
know the Vedanta?" "No, revered sir." "The Samkhya and the
Patanjala?" "No, revered sir." "Have you read no philosophy
whatsoever?" "No, revered sir." The pandit 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
pandit, "Sir, can you swim?" "No", replied the pandit. The
passenger said, "1 don't know Samkhya or the Patanjala, but I can
swim."
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 is illusory.
For Man Proposes And God Disposes (42)
THE Master (to Pratab Chandra Mazumdar*): "You are an educated and
intelligent man, and you are a deep thinker too. Keshab and
yourself were like the two brothers, Gour and Nitai. You have had
enough of this world --- enough of lectures, controversies,
schisms, and the rest. Do you still care for them? Now it is high
time for you to collect your scattered mind and turn it towards
God. Plunge into the ocean of Divinity."
Mazumdar: "Yes, revered sir, that I ought to do; there is no doubt
about it. But all this I do simply to preserve Keshab's name and
reputation."
Sri Ramakrishna (smiling): "Let me tell you a story. A man 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 winds:
'O god of the winds, please don't wreck the house! But the god of
the winds paid no heed to his prayers. 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 winds did not abate. Then he
remembered that Hanuman was the devoted servant of Rama, whose
younger brother was Lakshmana. Desperately the man cried, saying
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
Rama's house. Don't break it down, O god of winds!
I beseech you most humbly.' But this proved futile, and the house
began to crash down. Whereupon the man who had to save his own
life, rushed out of it with a curse: 'Let it go! This is devil's
own house!'"
You may now be anxious to preserve Keshab's name: but console
yourself with the thought, it was after all owing to God's Will
that the religious movement connected with his name was set on
foot, and that if the movement has had its day, it is also due to
that same Divine Will. Therefore dive deep into the sea of
Immortality."
* A celebrated Brahmo Samaj leader
As One Thinks, So One Receives (43)
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 samadhi. 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!"
God is the Kalpataru, the wish-fulfilling tree. You will certainly
gel 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 fulfilment of the desire he cherishes while practising
sadhana. As one thinks, so one receives.
'She Is So Well Off!' (44)
PEOPLE with little occult power gain such things as name and fame.
Many of them want to follow the profession of a 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 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 maid-servant in a
gentleman's house; now she is a prostitute. She has ruined herself
for a mere trifle.
Feigning Madness Too Is Risky! (45)
A CERTAIN person, deeply involved in debt, feigned madness to
escape the consequences of his liabilities. Physicians failed to
cure his disease, and the more he was treated for his ailments the
greater became his madness. At last a wise physician found out the
truth, and, taking the feigning mad man aside, rebuked him saying:
"My friend, what are you doing? Beware lest in feigning madness
you become really mad. Already you have developed some genuine
signs of insanity." This sensible advice awoke the man from his
folly, and he left off acting the part of a mad man.
By constantly acting a thing, one actually becomes that.
Welcome Good, And Evil Welcomes You (46)
A BRAHMANA was laying out a garden. He looked after it day and
night. One day a cow strayed into the garden and browsed on a
mango sapling of which the brahmana used to take special care.
When he saw the cow destroying his favourite plant, the brahmana
became wild with rage, and gave such a severe beating to the
animal that it died of the injuries received. The news soon spread
like wild-fire that the brahmana had killed the sacred animal.
When any one attributed the sin of that act to him, the brahmana,
who professed himself to be a Vedantin, denied the charge, saying:
'"No, I have not killed the cow; it is my hand that had done it;
and as god Indra is the presiding deity of the hand, it is he who
has incurred the sin of killing the cow, not I." Indra, in his
heaven, heard of this. He assumed the shape of an old brahmana,
and coming to the owner of the garden, said, "Sir, whose garden is
this?"
Brahmana: Mine.
Indra: It is a beautiful garden. You have got a skilful gardener;
for see how neatly and artistically he has planted the trees.
Brahmana: Well, sir, this is all my work. The trees were planted
under my personal supervision and direction.
Indra: Very nicely done, indeed! Who has laid out this path? It is
very well-planned and neatly executed.
Brahmana: All that has been done by me.
Then Indra said with folded hands, "When all these things are
yours, and when you take credit for all the work done in this
garden, it is not proper that poor Indra should be made
responsible for killing the cow."
What Occult Powers Are Like (47)
HRIDAY asked me --- I was then under his control to pray to the
Divine Mother for (occult) 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.
Horses In Cowshed! (48)
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 cowshed! From that
you understand that there were no horses at all.
(.... Nor cows either!)
* A leader of the Brahmo Samaj
Those Fascinating Obstructions (49)
ADDRESSING a devotee named Mahendra Mukherjee, said Sri
Ramakrishna: "You have no children. You do not serve anybody. And
still you have no leisure! Goodness gracious!"
"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.
Rakhal* and a few other devotees were with me and sat beside me.
After a while Rakhal went out for a few minutes. The deputy
magistrate came over and made his young son take Rakhal's seat. I
said, 'He can't sit there.' At that time I was in such a slate of
mind that I had to do whatever the person next to me would ask me
to do; so I had seated Rakhal 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."
* Later known as Swami Brahmananda, the first president of the
Ramakrishna Order
V. Egoism: Vanity
From 'Hamba' To Tuhu' (50)
'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. 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.
Egotism is the cause of all suffering.
Egotism Is Ruinous (51)
A disciple, who had firm faith in the infinite power of his Guru,
walked over the river by simply uttering his Guru's name. Seeing
this, the Guru thought, "Well, is there such a power in my mere
name? Then how great and powerful must I be!" The next day, the
Guru also tried to walk over the river uttering 'I', 'I', 'I', but
no sooner did he step into the water than he sank down and was
soon drowned; for the poor man did not know how to swim even.
Faith can achieve miracles while vanity or egotism brings about
the destruction of man.
Sankaracharya And His Foolish Disciple (52)
THE great Sankaracharya had a foolish disciple who used to imitate
his Master in all matters. Sankara uttered 'Sivoham' (I am Siva);
the disciple also repeated 'Sivoham'. To correct his disciple's
folly, Sankara one day, while passing by a smithy, took a potful
of molten iron and swallowed it; and he asked that disciple also
to do the same. Of course, the disciple could not imitate this act
of his Master, and thence forward he left saying 'Sivoham'.
When Siva's Bull Bared Its Teeth (53)
GOD alone is the Doer, and we are all His instruments. Therefore
it is impossible even for a Jnani to be egotistic. The writer of a
hymn to Siva felt proud of his achievement; but his pride was
dashed to pieces when Siva'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 beginningless past. The writer had only discovered them.
How Vanity Turns A Person's Head (54)
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 had visited
Delhi brag about that? Does a gentleman go about telling everyone
that he is a gentleman?"
Oh, how vanity turns a person's head! There was a scavenger woman
in the temple garden at Dakshineswar. And her pride! And all for 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?
VI. Previous Tendencies
Powerful Are The Inborn Tendencies (55)
Let me tell you how powerful inborn tendencies are. A prince had,
in a previous birth, been the son of a washer-man. While playing
with his chums in his incarnation as the prince, he said to them:
"Stop those games, I shall show you a new one. I shall lie on my
belly, and you will beat the clothes on my back as the washer-man
does, making swishing sound."
A Hindu Who Was Forced To Embrace Islam (56)
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 to
embrace Islam. They said to him: "You are now a Miissalman. 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".
It is not an easy thing to destroy old tendencies.
Nothing Is Lost In The Economy of God (57)
THERE is a story about a man who practised Sava-sadhana.* 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 by 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 did not 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 smile, "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."
One must admit the existence of tendencies inherited from previous
births.
* A religious practice prescribed by the Tantras, in which the
aspirant uses a Sava, or corpse, as his seat for meditation.
The Inevitables (58)
EVFRYONE must reap the result of his past Karma. One must admit
the influence of tendencies inherited from the past births and the
result of the Prarabdha karma. And one 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 the result
of a boon from the Divine Mother of the Universe. Thus pleasure
and pain are inevitable when one 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-culling, and
earn his livelihood by that arduous work. Again, while Devaki,
Krishna's Mother, was in the prison she had a vision of God
Himself endowed with four hands, holding mace, discus, conch-shell
and lotus. But with all that she could not get out of the prison.
VII. The Way
The Only Way (59)
WHY shouldn't one be able to lead a spiritual life in the world?
But it is extremely difficult.
Once 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.
* In Calcutta
VIII. Faith
This Faith Of A Child (60)
A BOY named Jatila 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 Boy Actually Fed God (61)
A BRAHMANA used to worship his family Deity with food offerings.
One day he had to go away on business. As he was about to leave
the house, he said to his 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 eat
nor talk. 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 his 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.
A Disciple And Her Pot Of Curds (62)
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 myeslf 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 doth not reveal Thyself to Him, then I too shall
die." So God appeared to the Guru --- but only once.
* A Hindu religious ceremony in connection with the first
offering of cooked rice to a baby
The Simple Secret (63)
GOD can be realised through child-like faith and guilelessness.
A certain person, on coming across a sadhu, humbly begged him for
instruction. The sadhu's advice was, "Love God with all your heart
and soul." The enquirer replied, "I have never seen God, nor do I
know anything about Him; how is it possible that I should love
Him?" The holy man enquired whom the other loved most. The answer
was, "I have nobody to care for. I have a sheep and that is the
only creature I love." The sadhu said: "Then tend the creature and
love it with all your heart and soul, and always remember that the
Lord abides in it." Having given this advice the sadhu left the
place. The enquirer now began to tend the sheep with loving care,
fully believing that the Lord abode in the creature. After a long
time the sadhu, during his return journey, sought out the person
he had advised and enquired how he was getting on. The latter
saluted the sadhu and said, "Master, I am all right, thanks to
your kind instructions. Much good has come to me by following the
line of thought prescribed by you. Time and again I see a
beautiful figure with four hands within my sheep and I find
supreme bliss in that."
The Basic Faith (64)
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
under-ground. 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 Kali temple, I have watched the
ascetics preparing their smoke of hemp.
I have seen their face beaming with joy in anticipation of the
smoke.
A True Devotee's Faith (65)
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: Rama, 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 for potatoes, these for egg plants, these for fish." He
counts the money separately, but after the list is completed, he
puts the coins together.
Is there anything impossible for faith? And a true devotee has
faith in everything: the formless Reality, God with form, Rama,
Krishna and the Divine Mother.
Faith Absolute (66)
ONCE, a young sannyasin went to a house to beg his meal. He had
embraced the monastic life from his very boyhood and so had not
much knowledge of the world, A young lady came out from the house
to give him alms.
Seeing her breasts, the young sannyasin questioned her if she was
suffering from boils on her chest. To that her mother replied:
"No, my son, she hasn't got any boil. A child will soon be born to
her, and so God has provided her with two breasts to suckle the
child. The child will suck milk from those breasts after it is
born." No sooner did the young sannyasin hear this than he
exclaimed: "No more will I beg my meals. He, who has created me,
will feed me too."
Faith Unbounded (67)
ONE day, Sri Krishna, while going in a chariot along with Arjuna,
looked up to the sky and said, "Behold! What a nice flight of
pigeons there!" Arjuna at once turned his eyes in that direction
and exclaimed, "Really, friend, very beautiful pigeons indeed!"
But the very next moment Sri Krishna looked again and said, "No,
friend, they are not pigeons, it seems." Arjuna, too, saw again
and said, "True, they are not pigeons."
Now try to understand the meaning of this. A great adherent to
truth that Arjuna was, he did not possibly assent to whatever Sri
Krishna said, simply for flattering him. But he had such an
unflinching faith in Sri Krishna that he perceived at once
actually whatever Sri Krishna said.
Faith Tremendous (68)
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
Haladhari's* father had! Once he was on the way to his daughter's
house when he noticed some beautiful flowers and Bel 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
Rama. When Kaikeyi asked Rama to go into exile in the forest,
Haladhari'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.
* A priest in the temple garden at Dakshineswar and a cousin of
Sri Ramakrishna.
The Power Of Faith (69)
You must have heard about the tremendous power of faith. It is
said in the Purana that Rama, 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.
Hanuman Singh And The Wrestler From Punjab (70)
AT one time two men were engaged to wrestle. One of them was
Hanuman Singh and the other a Mussulman from the Punjab. The
Mussalman was a strong and 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 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 he would surely be
defeated.
But it was he who won, while the man who had feasted for fifteen
days lost the fight.
* Mahavir, or Hanuman, is the patron deity of wrestlers.
Faith Knows No Miracles (71)
ONCE there lived two yogis who were practising austerities with a
view to realize the Lord. One day Narada, the divine sage, was
passing by their hermitage, when one of them asked him, "Are you
coming from Heaven". Narada replied, "Yes, that is so." The yogi
said, "Do tell me what you saw the Lord doing in Heaven." Narada
replied, "I saw the Lord playing by making camels and elephants
pass through the eye of a needle." At this the yogi observed:
"There is nothing in it to marvel at. Nothing is impossible with
God!" But the other man exclaimed: "O nonsense! That is
impossible! It only shows that you have never been to the Lord's
abode."
The first man was a bhakta and had the faith of a child. Nothing
is impossible to the Lord, nor can anyone know His nature fully.
Everything can he predicted of Him.
Faith Works Miracles (72)
ONCE the son of a certain man lay at the point of death, and it
seemed that none could save his life. A sadhu, however, said to
the father of the dying son: "There is but one hope. If you can
get in a human skull the venom of a cobra mixed with a few drops
of rain-water under the constellation of the Svati star, your
son's life, can be saved." The father looked up the almanac and
found that the constellation of the Svati would be in the
ascendant on the morrow. So he prayed, saying, "O Lord, do Thou
make possible all these conditions, and spare the life of my son."
With extreme earnestness and longing in his heart, he set out on
the following evening and diligently searched in a deserted spot
for a human skull. At last he found one under a tree, held it in
the hand, and waited for the rain, praying. Suddenly a shower
came, and a few drops of rain were deposited in the upturned
skull. The man said to himself, "Now I have the water in the skull
under the right constellation." Then he prayed earnestly, "Grant,
O Lord, that the rest may also be obtained." In a short time he
discovered, not far from there, a toad, and a cobra springing to
catch it. In a moment the toad jumped over the skull, followed by
the cobra whose venom fell into the skull. With overwhelming
gratitude the anxious father cried out: "Lord, by Thy grace even
impossible things are made possible. Now, I know that my son's
life will be saved."
Therefore, I say, if you have true faith and earnest longing, you
will get everything by the grace of the Lord.
Faith Is The Mother Of Miracles (73)
A MILK-MAID used to supply milk to a brahmana priest living on the
other side of a river. Owing to the irregularities of the boat
service, she could not supply him milk punctually every day, Once,
being rebuked for her going late, the poor woman said, "What can I
do? I start early from my house, but have to wait for a long time
at the river bank for the boatman and the passengers. The priest
said, "Woman! They cross the ocean of life by uttering the name of
God, and can't you cross this little river?" The simple-hearted
woman became very glad at heart on learning this easy means of
crossing the river. From the next day the milk was being supplied
early in the morning. One day the priest said to the woman, "How
is it that you are no longer late nowadays?" She said, "I cross
the river by uttering the name of the Lord as you told me to do,
and don't stand now in need of a boatman." The priest could not
believe this and said, "Can you show me how you cross the river?"
The woman took him with her and began to walk over the water.
Looking behind, the woman saw the priest in a sad plight and said,
"How, is it, sir, that you are uttering the name of God with your
mouth, but at the same time with your hands you are trying to keep
your cloth untouched by water? You do not fully rely on Him."
Entire resignation and absolute faith in God are at the root of
all miraculous deeds.
Power Of The Holy Name (74)
A KING who was guilty of the heinous sin of killing a brahmana
went to the hermitage of a Rishi to learn what penance he must
perform in order to be purified. The Rishi was absent, but his son
was in the hermitage.
Hearing the case of the king, he said, "Repeat the 'name' of God
(Rama) three times, and your sin will be expiated."
When the Rishi came back and heard of the penance prescribed by
his son, he remarked indignantly, "Sins committed in myriads of
births are purged immediately by uttering the 'name' of the
Almighty but once. How weak must be your faith, O fool, since you
have ordered the holy 'name' to be repeated thrice? For this
weakness of your faith, you shall become an outcaste." And the son
became Guhaka of the Ramayana.
The Doubting Soul Perishes (75)
ONCE a man was about to crass the sea. Vibhishana 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 Rama written
on it. "What is this?" he thought.
"It's just the name of Rama!" As soon as doubt entered his mind he
sank under the water.
IX. Devotion
The Best Offering To God Is Love (76)
ONCE a servant of a rich man came to his master's house, and stood
in a corner with great reverence and humility. He held in his hand
something covered with a cloth, The Master enquired, "What is
there in your hand?" The servant brought out a small custard-apple
from beneath the cloth and kept it humbly before the master,
feeling that he would be much gratified if the master would take
it. The master was much pleased to see the loving devotion of the
servant and accepted the offering, though a trifle. With great
delight he exclaimed: "Ah, what a fine fruit is this! Where did
you get it from?"
In the same way God looks into the heart of the devotee. He is
infinite in His grandeur, yet He is responsive to the influence of
love and devotion.
The Love That Freely Giveth Is The Highest (77)
PRIDE once entered into the heart of Arjuna, the beloved friend of
Sri Krishna. Arjuna thought that none equalled ''him in love and
devotion to his Lord and Friend. The omniscient Lord, Sri Krishna,
reading the heart of His friend, took him one day for a walk. They
had not proceeded far when Arjuna saw a strange brahmana eating
dry grass as food, but nevertheless had a sword dangling at his
side. Arjuna at once knew him to be a holy and pious devotee of
Vishnu, one whose highest religious duty was to injure no being.
As even grass has life, he would not eat it green but sustained
his life by eating it dry and lifeless. Yet he carried a sword.
Arjuna, wondering at the incongruity, turned towards the Lord and
said: "How is this? Here is a man who has renounced all ideas of
injuring any living being - down to the meanest blade of grass;
yet he carries with him a sword, the symbol of death and hatred!"
The Lord said, "You had better ask the man yourself". Arjuna then
went up to the brahmana and said; "Sir, you injure no living
being, and you live upon dry grass. Why then do you carry this
sharp sword?"
The brahmana: It is to punish four persons if I chance to meet
them.
Arjuna: Who are they?
The brahmana: The first is the wretch Narada.
Arjuna: Why, what has he done?
The brahmana: Why, look at the audacity of that fellow; he is
perpetually keeping my Lord awake with his songs and music. He has
no consideration whatsoever for the comfort of the Lord. Day and
night, in and out of season, he disturbs the peace of the Lord by
his prayers and praises.
Arjuna: Who is the second person?
The brahmana: The impudent Draupadi!
Arjuna: What is her fault?
The brahmana: Look at the inconsiderate audacity of the woman! She
was so rash as to call my beloved Lord just at the moment He was
going to dine. He had to give up His dinner and go to the Kamyaka
Yana to save the Pandavas from the curse of Durvasa. And her
presumption went so far that she even caused my beloved Lord to
eat the impure remnant of her own food.
Arjuna: Who is the third?
The brahmana: It is the heartless Prahlada. He was so cruel that
he did not hesitate for a moment to ask my Lord to enter the
boiling cauldron of oil, to be trodden under the heavy feet of the
elephants and to break through an adamantine pillar.
Arjuna: Who is the fourth?
The brahmana: The wretch Arjuna.
Arjuna: Why, what fault has he committed?
The brahmana: Look at his felony, he made my beloved Lord take the
mean office of a charioteer of his car in the great wars of
Kurukshetra.
Arjuna was amazed at the depth of the poor brahmana's devotion and
love, and from that moment his pride vanished, and he gave up
thinking that he was the best devotee of the Lord.
Who Wins The Prize (78)
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.
Everything can be realised simply through love of God. If one is
able to love God, one does not lack anything.
* The two sons of Bhagavati, the Divine Mother
That Great Devotee Of A Crow (79)
RAMA 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 Rama about it. Rama said:
"'Brother, this crow is a great devotee of God. Day and night it
repeats the name of Rama. Its throat is parched with thirst, but
still it won't drink for fear of missing a repetition of Rama's
name."
Three Friends And The Tiger (80)
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
is to keep his Beloved from even being pricked in the foot by a
thorn.
Single-Minded Devotion To One Ideal (81)
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, Vibhishana, the king of Ceylon, said, I
bow down to Narayana and none else." At these words the Lord
Krishna bowed down to Yudhisthira. Only then did, Vibhishana
prostrate himself, crown and all, before him.
Such is unswerving and single-minded devotion to one ideal.
In Weal And Woe, God For Evermore (82)
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 market-place. When a customer asked him the price of
a cloth, the weaver would say: "By the will of Rama the price of
the yarn is one rupee and the labour four annas; by the will of
Rama the profit is two annas. The price of the cloth, by the will
of Rama, is one rupee and six annas." 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 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 the court. They said to the magistrate, "Your Honour, this
man could never commit robbery." Thereupon the magistrate asked
the weaver to make his statement.
The weaver said: "Your Honour, by the will of Rama I finished my
meal at night. Then by the will of Rama I was sitting in the
worship hall. It was quite late at night by the will of Rama. By
the will of Rama I had been thinking of God and chanting His name
and glories, when by the will of Rama a band of robbers passed
that way. By the will of Rama they dragged me with them; by the
will of Rama they committed a robbery in a house; and by the will
of Rama they put a load on my head. Just then, by the will of Rama
the police arrived and by the will of Rama I was arrested. Then by
the will of Rama the police kept me in the lock-up for the night,
and this morning by the will of Rama 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 Rama I have been released."
Whether you live in the world or renounce it, everything depends
upon the will of Rama. Throwing your whole responsibility upon
God, do your work in the world.
Ravana - The Great Devotee Of Rama (83)
MANDODARI told her royal husband Ravana, "If you are so intent
upon having Sita as your queen, why don't you impose on her by
assuming the form of her husband Rama with the help of your
magical powers?" ''Fie on you!" exclaimed Ravana "Can I stoop to
the pleasures of the senses while I am in the holy form of Rama
--- a form the very thought of which fills my heart with such
unspeakable joy and blessedness that even the highest heaven
appears to me worthless?"
Devotion, The Divine Open Sesame (84)
HAVING received no news of her Gopala (Krishna, God incarnate),
Yasoda once came to Radha and asked her if she had any news from
Him. At that time Radha was in a deep trance, and so did not hear
Yasoda. Subsequently, when her trance was over, she saw Yasoda,
the queen of Nanda, sitting before her. Bowing down to her at
once, Radha asked Yasoda the reason of her visit, and when Yasoda
stated the reason, she said:
"Mother, shut your eyes and meditate upon the form of Gopala, and
you will be able to see Him". And as soon as Yasoda shut her eyes,
Radha, who was herself the very essence of spiritual feelings
(Bhava), overwhelmed her with her power, and in that
super-conscious mood, Yasoda saw her Gopala. Then Yasoda asked
this boon of Radha, "Mother, grant me that I may see my beloved
Gopala whenever I close my eyes."
A Devotee Avoids What The World Runs After (85)
AFTER the death of Ravana, his brother Vibhishana refused to be
the King of Ceylon. He said: "O Rama, I have obtained you. What
shall I do with Kingship?"
Rama said: "Vibhishana, 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."
Glory Unto Krishna! (86)
ONCE I went to a certain place with Mathur Babu. Many pundits came
forward to argue with me. And you know that I am a fool. 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.
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 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 then the Divine Mother sends a new supply
from Her inexhaustible storehouse of knowledge.
You know I am a fool. I know nothing. Then who is it that says all
these things? Hers (Divine Mother's) 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."
That Pure Love For God (87)
IN the course of his pilgrimage through the southern parts of
India, Sri Chaitanya Deva came across a certain devotee who was in
tears all the while a pundit was reading from the Gita. Now this
devotee knew not even a single word of the Gita. On being asked
why He shed tears, he replied, "It is indeed true that I do not
know a word of the Gita. But all the while it was being read, I
could not help seeing with my inner eye the beautiful form of my
Lord Sri Krishna seated before Arjuna in a chariot in the field of
Kurukshetra, and giving out all those sublime thoughts embodied in
the Gita. This it was that filled my eyes with tears of joy and
love."
This man who knew not letters, had the highest Knowledge, for he
had pure love for God and could realize Him.
Back To The Divine Mother (88)
A DEVOTEE, who is born with an element of Vishnu, cannot
altogether get rid of bhakti.
Once I fell into the clutches of a Jnani, who made me listen to
Vedanta for eleven months. But he could not 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 to Her, Nangta*
would weep and "say, 'Ah! What is this?' You see, he was such a
great Jnani and still he wept. Remember the popular saying that if
a man drinks the juice of the alekh 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 Master here speaks of Totapuri, the monk who initiated
him into the practice of non-dual Vedanta, Him Sri Ramakrishna
always refers tco as "Nangta", or the "naked one".
Conceit Is To Devotion What Canker Is To Buds (89)
ONCE upon a time conceit entered into the heart of Narada, and he
thought there was no greater devotee than himself. Reading his
heart, the Lord said: "Narada, go to such and such a place. A
great devotee of mine is living there. Cultivate his acquaintance;
for he is truly devoted to Me." Narada went there and found an
agriculturist who rose early in the morning, pronounced the name
of Hari (God) only once and, taking his plough, went out and
tilled the ground all day long. At night he went to bed after
pronouncing the name of Hari once more. Narada said to himself:
"How can this rustic be a lover of God? I see him busily engaged
in wordly duties, and he has no signs of a pious man about him."
Then Narada went back to the Lord and spoke what he thought of his
new acquaintance. Thereupon the Lord said: "Narada, take this cup
of oil and go round this city and come back with it. But take care
that you do not spill even a single drop of it." Narada did as he
was told, and on his return the Lord asked him, "Well, Narada, how
many times did you remember Me in the course of your walk round
the city?" "Not once, my Lord," said Narada, "and how could I,
when I had to watch this cup brimming over with oil?" The Lord
then said: "This one cup of oil did so divert your attention that
even you did forget Me altogether. But look at that rustic, who,
though carrying the heavy burden of a family, still remembers Me
twice every day."
God Alone Is The Giver (90)
WHEN Akbar was the 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 the Emperor 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."
No Beggar, I, For Common Fruit (91)
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*. 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 Rama grows,
Bearing salvation for its fruits
Under the wish-fulfilling Tree Of Rama 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.
* The story referred to here is told in the Ramayana. Ravana
had received a boon as a result of which he could be killed only
by a particular celestial weapon. The weapon was concealed in a
crystal pillar in his palace. One day Hanuman, in the guise of
an ordinary monkey, came to the palace and broke the pillar, As
he was running away with the weapon, he was tempted with fruits
by Mandodari, Ravana's wife, so that he might give back the
weapon. He soon assumed his own form and sang the song given in
the text.
Thorns Denied Prick No Less Keenly (92)
ONCE, finding it difficult to reconcile the contradictory
doctrines of man's free will and God's grace two disciples of the
Master went to him for a solution of the same. The Master said,
"Why do you talk, of free will? Everything is dependent upon the
Lord's will. Our will is tied to the Lord's, like the cow to its
tether. No doubt we have a certain amount of freedom even as the
cow has, within a prescribed circle. So man thinks that his will
is free. But know that his will is dependent on the Lord's."
Disciples: "Is there then no necessity of practising penance,
meditation and the rest? For one can as well sit quiet and say,
"It is all God's will; whatever is done, is done at His will."
Sri Ramakrishna: Oh! To what effect, if you simply say that in so
many words? Any amount of your verbal denial of thorns can never
save you from their painful prick when you place your hand on
them. Had it been entirely with man to do spiritual practices
according to his will, everybody would have done so. But no;
everyone can't do it, and why? But there is one thing: If you
don't utilise properly the amount of strength He has given you, He
never gives more. That is why self-exertion is necessary. And so
everyone has to struggle hard even to become fit for the grace of
God. By such endeavour, and through His grace, the sufferings of
many lives can be worked out in one life. But some self-effort is
absolutely necessary. Let me tell you a story:
Once, Vishnu, the Lord of Goloka, cursed Narada, saying that he
would be thrown into hell. At this Narada was greatly disturbed in
mind; and he prayed to the Lord, singing songs of devotion, and
begging Him to show where hell is and how one can go there. Vishnu
then drew the map of the universe on the ground with a piece of
chalk, representing the exact position of heaven and hell. Then
Narada said, pointing to the part marked 'hell', "Is it like this?
This is hell then!" So saying he rolled himself on the spot and
exclaimed he had undergone all the sufferings of hell. Vishnu
smilingly asked, "How is that?" and Narada replied: "Why, Lord,
are not heaven and hell Thy creation? When Thou didst draw the map
of the universe Thyself and point out to me the hell in the plan,
then that place became a real hell; and as I rolled myself there,
my sufferings were intense. So I do say that I have undergone the
punishments of hell. "Narada said all this sincerely and so Vishnu
was satisfied with the explanation.
Single-Mindedness Is Another Name For Devotion (93)
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 were 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
are 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."
A man 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.
X. Yearning
To Have Genuine Yearning For God Is To Attain Him (94)
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, come to me!
Show Yourself to me! Why don't you come?" God could not resist the
girl's piteous cry and appeared before her.
* A name of Krishna
That Divine Yearning (95)
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 of four or five
years old, used to spend the whole day with me. He played with
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.
If You Are Earnest (96)
A MAN may not know the right path, but if he has bhakti and the
desire to know God, then he attains Hint 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 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, some one will tell you the
way if you are earnest.
How A Guru Taught His Disciple To See God (97)
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 be able to see God."
XI. Self-Help & Self-Surrender
Self-Help And Self-Surrender (98)
A FATHER was once passing through a field with his two little
sons. He was carrying one of them in his arms while the other was
walking along with him holding his hand. They saw a kite flying
and the latter boy giving up his hold on his father's hand, began
to clap his hands with joy, crying, "Behold, papa, there is a
kite!" But immediately he stumbled down and got hurt. The boy who
was carried by the father also clapped the hands with joy, but did
not fall, as his father was holding him. The first boy represents
self-help in spiritual matters, and the second self-surrender.
Lord Narayana And His Self-Defending Devotee (99)
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. So I came back."
Self-Surrender Knows No Complaint (100)
WHEN Rama 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.
Rama said to him:
"Look, brother! Look. Perhaps we have hurt some creature."
Lakshmana dug in the earth and found a big bull frog. It was
dying. Rama 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 Rama,
save me!' This time I found that it was Rama Himself who was
killing me; so I kept still."
XII. Humility
It's Not Easy To Attain True Humility (101)
A MAN went to a sadhu and said with a great show of humility:
"Sir, I am a very low person. Tell me, O Master, how I am to be
saved." The sadhu, reading the heart of the man, told him, "Well,
go and bring me that which is meaner than yourself." The man went
out and looked all round but found nothing whatsoever meaner than
himself. At last he saw his own excrement and said, "Well, here is
something which is certainly worse than myself." He stretched
forth his hand to take it up and carry it to the sadhu when
suddenly he heard a voice say from within the ordure: "Touch me
not, O sinner. I was a sweet and delicious cake, fit to be offered
to the gods and in appearance so pleasing to all the spectators.
But my ill-fortune brought me to you, and by your evil contact I
have been reduced to such a detestable condition that men run away
from me with faces turned and with handkerchiefs covering their
noses. Once only did I come in contact with you and this has been
my fate. What deeper degradation may I not be thrown into if you
touch me again?"
The man was thus taught true humility and became the humblest of
the humble. As a result he attained the highest perfection.
XIII. Tyaga And Vairagya (Renunciation And Dispassion)
The Homa Bird (102)
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
meantime the chick develops eyes. Coming near the earth, it
becomes conscious of the world. It realises it will meet certain
death if it hits the ground. Then it gives a shrill cry and shoots
up towards 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.
Persons who are born with God-consciousness realise the danger of
coming in contact with the world. From their very childhood they
are afraid of the world, and their one thought is how to reach the
mother, how to realise God.
He Went Away, Towel On His Shoulder (103)
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!"
That is called intense renunciation. No sooner did the man
discriminate then 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!"
Dispassion Comes Like A Flood And Never By Drops (104)
How does a man come to have vairagya (dispassion)?
A wife once said to her husband: "Dear, I am very anxious about my
brother. For the past one week he has been thinking of becoming an
ascetic, and has been busy preparing for that life. He is trying
to reduce gradually all his desires and wants." The husband
replied: "Dear, be not anxious about your brother. He will never
become a sannyasin. No one can become a sannyasin in that way."
"How does one become a sannyasin then?" asked the wife. "Thus"
exclaimed the husband; so saying, he tore his flowing dress to
pieces, took a piece and tied it round his loin, and told his wife
that she and all of women were henceforth mothers to him. He left
the house, never more to return.
Not Until The Illusion Breaks (105)
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 brahmana entered the house and said to them,
"What is the matter with you?" "This boy is dead", they replied.
The brahmana felt the pulse and said: "How is that? No, he is not
dead. I have a medicine 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 brahmana, "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."
None Will Follow Thee After Death (106)
A DISCIPLE said to his Guru that his wife loved him very much and
so he could not renounce the world. The disciple used to practise
Hatha Yoga. To convince him of the hollowness of his plea, the
Guru taught him some secrets of this branch of Yoga. One day, all
of a sudden, there was great consternation in the disciple's house
and wailings and sobbing were heard all around. The neighbours
came running to the house, and saw the disciple in a room, quite
motionless, in a peculiar convoluted posture. They all thought
that life was, extinct in the body. The wife of the disciple was
crying: "Alas! Where have you gone, dear? Why have you forsaken
us? Ah! we never knew that such a calamity would befall us!" In
the meantime the relatives brought a cot to take the corpse out
for cremation. Then they found themselves face to face with a very
serious difficulty. As the man was in a contorted posture, his
body would not come out through the door. Seeing that, one of his
neighbours, brought an axe and began to cut the wooden frame of
the door.
Till then the wife was weeping in an uncontrollable fit of sorrow;
but no sooner did she hear the sound of the axe than she ran to
the spot, and, though still weeping, anxiously enquired what they
were about. One of the neighbours told her that they were cutting
the door as her husband's body could not otherwise be taken out
owing to its peculiar posture. "No, no," cried out the wife,
"don't do so now. I have been widowed and there is none to look
after me. I have to bring up my fatherless children. If you now
cut the door, it cannot be repaired again. Whatever was to happen
has happened to my husband. You had better cut his hands and legs
and take him out." Hearing this, the Hatha Yogi at once stood up;
the effect of the drug having gone by this time, and bawled out,
"Woman, you want to cut my hands and legs?" And so saying, he went
away with his Guru renouncing hearth and home.
Today's Imitation Is Tomorrows Inspiration (107)
A THIEF entered the palace of a king in the dead of night and
overheard the king saying to the queen, "I shall give my daughter
in marriage to one of those sadhus (holy men) who are dwelling on
the bank of the river," The thief thought within himself: "Well,
here is good luck for me. I will go and sit among the sadhus
tomorrow in the disguise of a sadhu, and perchance I may succeed
in getting the king's daughter."
The next day he did so. When the king's officers came soliciting
the sadhus to marry the king's daughter, none of them consented to
it. At last they came to the thief in the guise of a sadhu, and
made the same proposal to him. The thief kept quiet. The officers
went back and told the king that there was a young sadhu who might
be influenced to marry the princess and that there was no other
who would consent. The king then came to the sadhu in person and
earnestly entreated him to honour him by accepting the hand of his
daughter.
But the heart of the thief was changed at the king's visit. He
thought within himself: "I have only assumed the garb of a sadhu,
and behold! the king comes to me and is all entreaties. Who can
say what better things may not be in store for me if I become a
real sadhu!" These thoughts so strongly affected him that, instead
of marrying under false pretences, he began to mend his ways from
that very day and exerted himself to become a true sadhu. He did
not marry at all, and ultimately became one of the most pious
ascetics of his day. The counterfeiting of a good thing sometimes
leads to unexpected good results.
Simulation Of Holiness May Become A Stimulation For It (108)
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 fruits, 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."
Equal Vision Is The First And Last Sign Of Renunciation (109)
A HUSBAND and wife renounced the world and together undertook a
pilgrimage to various holy shrines. Once, as they were walking
along a road, the husband, who was a little ahead of the wife, saw
a piece of diamond on the road. Immediately he began to scratch
the ground to hide the diamond in it, thinking that if his wife
saw it perchance she might be moved to avarice, and thus lose the
merit of renunciation. While he was thus scratching the ground,
the wife came up and asked him what he was doing. He gave her, in
an apologetic tone, an evasive reply. She, however, finding out
the diamond and reading his thoughts remarked, "Why did you leave
the world if you still feel the distinction between the diamond
and dust?"
Hard Are The Rules For A Sannyasi (110)
THE Rules for a sannyasin 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 Marwari, 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 gone that far." 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?"
* At the Dakshineswar Temple Garden to visit Sri Ramakrishna
A Bahurupi Impersonating Siva (111)
A Bahurupi* disguised himself as Siva 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 gentle man, and asked for the rupee. "Why didn't
you accept it before?" he was asked. He said: "I was impersonating
Siva, a sannyasi. I couldn't touch money at that time."
* A professional impersonator
Hold Hard Your Spade (112)
AT one time there was a drought in a certain part of the country.
The formers began to cut long channels to bring water to their
fields. One former 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 lunch." 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 backbreaking 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 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 is not necessary to
overdo things." The farmer did not protest much, but put aside his
spade and said to his wife, "Well I will go home since you ask me
to." That man could never succeed in irrigating his field. This is
the case of mild renunciation.
As You Go From Near To Nearer (113)
A MUSSALMAN, 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?"
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 did not even know how he was walking. There was a Yogi seated
on the path, meditating on God with his 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.
The King And The Pandit (114)
THERE was a king who used daily to hear the Bhagavata recited by a
pandit. Every day, after explaining the sacred book, the pandit
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 pandit 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
pandit used to practise spiritual discipline. A few days later he
came to realise 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."
Even If You Wish To Renounce The World (115)
MAN cannot renounce the world even if he wishes, because he is
thwarted by the karmas that are bearing fruit in the present birth
and by the impressions of previous actions left on the mind
(Prarabdha and Samskara).
Once a Yogi asked a king to sit down near him and meditate upon
God. To him the King replied, "No, Sir, it cannot be. I can remain
near you, but still the thirst for worldly enjoyment will be with
me. If I remain in this forest, perhaps there will arise a kingdom
within it, as I am still destined to enjoy."
When Renunciation Becomes The Life-Breath (116)
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 did not 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?
* The tutelary Deity at the ancestral home of Sri Ramakrishna
A Ghost Sought A Companion (117)
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 side 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.
It is very difficult to find a person who has totally renounced
the world.
A Salt Doll Went To Fathom The Ocean (118)
ONCE, a salt doll went to measure the depth of the ocean. 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?
What Brahman is cannot be described. In samadhi one attains the
knowledge of Brahman --- one realises Brahman. In that state
reasoning stops altogether, and man becomes mute. He has no power
to describe the nature of Brahman.
XIV. Brahman
Four Friends Looked Beyond (119)
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!
What Brahman is cannot be described. Even he who knows it cannot
talk about it.
Where Silence Is Eloquent And Speech Doth Falter (120)
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."
Neither 'Yes' Nor 'No'! (121)
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 realising the true nature of Brahman.
The King And The Magician (122)
As you go nearer to God you see less and less of His upadhis, 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 (he Deity, he sees only
Light without any attribute, 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 horse-back
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 armours. 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.
When Face To Face (123)
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 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.
'Behold, O King! Behold' (124)
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 knowledge of
Brahman one does not see the two. Then there is no
differentiation; it is One, without a second --- Advaita ---
non-duality.
An Ant Went To A Sugar Hill (125)
MEN often think they have understood Brahman fully.
Once, an ant went to a sugar hill. 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 at the utmost could carry eight or
ten grains of sugar!
He Eats, Yet Eats Not (126)
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 Vyasa said to
them, "I am very hungry." The milkmaids fed him with milk and
cream. He finished almost all their food. Then Vyasa 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 Vyasa crossed the river.
Vyasa had said, "If I have not eaten anything." That means, the
real man is Pure Atman. Atman 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.
All Pure Spirit (127)
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 Kali Temple. It was suddenly revealed to me that
everything is Pure Spirit. The utensils of worship, the altar, the
door-frame - all Pure Spirit. Then like a mad man I began to
shower flowers in all directions. Whatever I saw I worshipped.
XV. Aspects Of The Divine
The Chameleon (128)
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.
Man With A Tub Of Dye (129)
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?
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." ff 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."
What The Divine Mother Revealed To Me (130)
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 from them are wrong.
But I know God is both with and without form. And he may have many
more aspects. It is possible for Him to be everything.
The Chitsakti, 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.
How A Monk Knew The Truth About God (131)
A certain monk went to the temple of Jagannath at Puri. He had
doubts as to whether God is with form or without form. When he saw
the holy image, he desired to examine it and settle his doubt. He
passed his staff from the left to the right in order to feel if it
touched the image. For a time, he could not see anything or feel
anything with the staff. So he decided that God was without form.
When he was about to pass the staff from the right to the left, it
touched the image.
So the monk decided that God is both with form and without form.
God Alone Has Become All Things (132)
AT one time Rama was overpowered by the spirit of renunciation.
Dasaratha, worried at this, went to the sage Vasistha and begged
him to persuade Rama not to give up the world. The sage came to
Rama and found him in a gloomy mood. The fire of intense
renunciation had been raging in the Prince's mind. Vasistha said:
"Rama, why should you renounce the world? Is the world outside
God? Reason with me." Rama realized that the world had evolved
from the supreme Brahman. So he said nothing.
Strip Name And Form And Look Beyond (133)
ONCE a sadhu placed his disciple in a magnificent garden with the
intention of imparting to him the knowledge of the real Self and
went away. After a few days he came back and asked the disciple,
"Do you feel any want, my boy?" On being answered in the
affirmative, he left with him a fair woman named Shyarna, and
advised him to take fish and meat freely. After a considerable
time he came again and asked the same question as before. This
time the disciple replied, "No, I have no want, thank you". The
sadhu then called both the disciple and Shyama to him and pointing
to Shyama's hands, asked the disciple, "Can you tell me what these
are?" "Why, these are Shyama's hands", replied the disciple. He
put the same question several times, pointing to Shyama's eyes,
nose, and other parts of the body, and the disciple gave
appropriate answers. Presently the idea struck the disciple, "I am
talking of everything as Shyama's 'this' and Shyama's 'that'. What
then is this Shyama?" Bewildered, he asked his Guru the question,
"But who is this Shyama to whom belong these eyes, ears and the
rest?" The sadhu said, ''If you wish to know who this Shyama is,
come with me, and I will enlighten you". So saying, he revealed to
him the secret.
Few, Very Few Are They (134)
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 egg-plant seller." The servant took the diamond to the
egg-plant seller. He examined it, turning it over in the palm of
his hand, and said, "Brother, I can give nine seers of egg-plant,
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 egg-plants 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 egg plants.
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 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 the jeweller. The jeweller glanced at the
diamond and said at once, "I will give you one hundred thousand
rupees for it."
One offers a price for an article according to one's capital. Can
all comprehend the Indivisible Satchidananda? Only twelve rishis
could recognize Ramachandra. All cannot recognise an Incarnation
of God. Some take him for an ordinary man, some for a holy person,
and only a few recognise him as an Incarnation.
She Came And Went Away (135)
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.
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
conch-shell 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 meantime 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
conch-shell 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
By dint of austerity, a man may obtain God as his son. God reveals
Himself in many ways; sometimes as man, sometimes in other divine
forms made of spirit.
Thus Saw Arjuna (136)
ACCORDING to the Jnani 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?"
Nothing Is Impossible For Him (137)
ONE day in course of a conversation about God, Mathur Babu
observed, "God too must abide by his own laws, He has no power to
transcend them." "What an absurd proposition!", I exclaimed, "One
who has made a law can repeal it at pleasure or make a new law in
its place."
'"How can that be?" said Mathur. "A plant that produces only red
flowers cannot produce flowers of any other colour, --- white, for
instance, for such is the law.
"I should like to see God produce white flowers from a plant
bearing only red flowers," "That too He can do," answered I "for
everything depends on His will." Mathur was not convinced. The
next day, while taking a stroll in the temple garden I came across
a china-rose plant with two flowers on the same stalk, one of
which was red and the other snow-white. I broke off the branch to
show it to Mathur, who felt highly surprised at the sight of it
and exclaimed, "Father, I will never more argue a point with
thee!"
To Him These Are Mere Dust And Straw (138)
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: "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?"
Nature Of God (139)
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 does not ask for the gems, and yet the child runs after
him and offers him the gems, begging him to accept them.
God Is Under The Control Of His Devotees (140)
SOME Sikhs said to me in front of the Kali 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?"
Should we not, then, address God as compassionate? Of course we
should, as long as we practise sadhana. 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 sadhana 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 fathom. 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,
gatekeeper, 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
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 was very fond of His
devotee. He ate Vidura's simple rice and greens as if they were
celestial food.
All Else Is Unreal (141)
THE truth is that God alone is real and all else is unreal. Men,
universe, house, 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.
Siva was seated in Kailas. His companion Nandi was near Him.
Suddenly a terrific noise arose. "Revered sir," asked Nandi "what
does that mean?" Siva said: "Ravana is born. That is the meaning!"
A few moments later another terrific noise was heard. "Now what is
this noise?" Nandi asked. Siva said with a smile, "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.
The Lure Of Divine Lila (142)
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."
A Peacock That Tasted Opium (143)
A MAN once fed a peacock with a pill of opium at four o'clock in
the afternoon. The next day, exactly at that lime, the peacock
came back. It had felt the intoxication of the drug and returned
just in time to have another dose.
Similarly, a devotee who had the good fortune to meet the Master
felt an uncontrollable desire to meet him again and again.
Ka! Ka! Ka! (144)
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.
The 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 'Kali'.
Inscrutable Are The Ways Of God (145)
How can we understand the ways of God through our small
intellects?
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, A thought like
this makes me feel that I have understood nothing of the ways of
God, and so I weep."
An Interesting Incident! (146)
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 pandit 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 pandit 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.
Padmalochan told me an interesting incident. Once a meeting was
called to decide which of the two deities, Siva or Brahma, was the
greater, and unable to come to any decision, the pandits 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 Siva or
Brahma!"
Why Not Through A Man? (147)
IT is God Himself who plays about as human beings. If God can be
worshipped through a clay image why not through a man?
Once a merchant was shipwrecked. He floated to the shore of
Ceylon, where Vibhishana was the king of the monsters. Vibhishana
ordered his servants to bring the merchant to him. At the sight of
him Vibhishana was overwhelmed with joy and said: "Ah! He looks
like my Rama. 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.
When God Laughs (148)
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, that side is yours." He laughs and
says to Himself, "The universe belongs to Me, but they say they
own this portion or that portion,"
How Do You Explain That? (149)
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 samadhi, 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.
* A place, on the way to Kamarpukur, Sri Ramakrishna's birth
place, from Calcutta.
Who Can Tell? (150)
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 Rama's power. At the touch of His feet, Ahalya**, 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 Ahalya because of the power of the holy man's
words. The sage Gautama said to her: 'In the Tretayuga, Rama will
pass this hermitage. You will become a human 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 Rama's holiness?
* Rama's two sons
** The beautiful and devoted wife of a great sage named
Gautama. Indra the king of heaven infatuated with her beauty
seduced her, impersonating her husband. The sage, coming to know
of this, cursed her and turned her into a stone; but he said
that the touch of Rama's feet would restore her human form.
Indra, too, received his share of the curse, as a result of
which he had a thousand eruptions on his body. Hence he is known
as the thousand-eyed God."
XVI. Man In Divine State
The Wine Of Heavenly Bliss (151)
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!"
They Wander In Many Disguises (152)
ONCE, a God-intoxicated sadhu came to the Kali temple. One day he
received no food, but, though feeling hungry, he did not ask for
any. Seeing a dog eating the remnants of a feast thrown away in a
corner, he went there and embracing the dog, said, "Brother, how
is it that you eat alone, without giving me a share?" So saying,
he began to eat along with the dog. Having finished his meal in
this strange company, the sadhu entered the temple of Mother Kali
and prayed with such an ecstasy of devotion as to send a thrill
throughout the temple. When, after finishing his prayer he was
going to leave, I asked Hriday to watch and follow the man and to
communicate to me what he might say. Hriday followed him for some
distance, when the sadhu turning round, enquired, "Why do you
follow me?" Hriday said, "Revered sir, give me some teaching!" The
sadhu replied, "When the water of this ditch and yonder Ganges
appear as one and the same in your sight, when the sound of this
flageolet and the noise of that crowd have no distinction to your
ear, then you will reach the state of true knowledge." So saying,
he hastened away.
When I heard this from Hriday I remarked, "That man has reached
the true state of ecstasy, the true state of knowledge."
The Siddhas roam about sometimes like guileless children,
sometimes like ghouls and at other times like mad men. Indeed,
they wander in many disguises.
Vishnu Everywhere (153)
THERE was a holy man who used to live in a state of ecstasy and
would not speak with anyone. He was regarded as a lunatic. One day
having begged some food in the village, he took his seat by the
side of a dog and fell to eating. A strange sight now presented
itself and attracted a crowd of spectators, for the holy man would
put one morsel into his own mouth and the next into that of the
dog, so that the man and the beast went on eating together like a
pair of friends. Some of the spectators began to laugh at the
holyman as being a mad fellow. Thereupon he said, "Why do you
laugh? Vishnu is seated with Vishnu; Vishnu is feeding Vishnu; Why
do you laugh, O Vishnu? Whatever is, is Vishnu."
Where Is The Misery For Him Who Sees The One? (154)
ONCE there came to Dakshineswar two sadhus who were father and
son. The son had attained true knowledge, but the father had not.
Both were sitting in the room where Sri Ramakrishna lived and were
talking with him. In the meantime, a young cobra came out of a
rat-hole and bit the son. Seeing that, the father was terribly
frightened and began to call all the people around.
But the son sat quiet, and that puzzled the father still more.
When he asked the son why he was sitting quiet, the son laughed
and was heard to explain. "Which is the snake and whom has it
bitten?" He had realised the Unity, and hence he could not make
any distinction between a man and a snake.
Both Friend And Foe The Saints Adore (155)
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 recognise 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."
Illusory Alike! (156)
THERE was a wood-cutler who was highly spiritual. One day he was
dreaming a happy dream; but being suddenly awakened by someone, he
exclaimed with annoyance: "Why did you awaken me? I was a king and
the father of seven children. My children were all receiving
education in various sciences. I was seated on the throne and
ruling over my country. Why did you destroy so happy and
delightful a state?" The man replied: "Oh! It was only a dream.
What does it matter?" The wood-cutter said: "Get away, you fool!
You do not understand that my being a king was, as real as my
wood-cutting. If it be true that I am a wood-cutter, then it is
equally true that I was a king."
According to Vedanta the waking state is no more real than the
dream state.
Childlike Should Be The Man Of Highest Wisdom (157)
ONCE, a sannyasini came to the royal court of Janaka. To her the
king bowed, without looking at her face. Seeing this, the
sannyasini said: "How strange it is, O Janaka, that you have still
so much fear of woman!"
When one attains to full jnana, one's nature becomes like that of
a little child. One sees no distinction between male and female.
She Behaved In A Queer Way (158)
A CERTAIN devout lady, who was also a devoted wife, lived in the
household serving her husband and children with a loving heart and
at the same time keeping her mind fixed on the Lord. At her
husband's death, as soon as the cremation was over, she broke her
glass bangles and wore a pair of gold bracelets in their place.
People wondered at her unnatural conduct, but she explained to
them, "Hitherto my husband's body had been fragile like the glass
bangles. That ephemeral body is gone; he is now like one
unchangeable and full in every respect; his body is no longer
fragile. So I have discarded the fragile glass bangles and worn
ornaments of a permanent nature."
On Company Of The Holy (159)
IN THE Puranas we are told that when Uma, the Mother of the
universe, incarnated Herself as the daughter of Himalaya, She
blessed him with the vision of the various manifestations of the
Omnipresent Mother. But when Giriraja (the King of mountains)
asked her to show him the Brahman of the Vedas, Uma said, "O
Father, if you wish to see Brahman, you must live in the company
of holy men - men who have entirely given up the world."
In That Divine State (160)
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 separate from the shell. You feel the kernel rattling
inside when you shake the coconut. Or it's 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.
Once, a long time ago, I was very ill, I was sitting in the Kali
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 further. 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."
The Nature Of A Paramahamsa (161)
AT ONE time I was staying at Kamarpukur when Shivaram* was four or
five years old. One day he was trying to catch grass-hoppers near
the pond. The leaves were moving - To stop their rustling he said
to the leaves: "Hush! Hush! I want to catch a grass-hopper."
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 five years old child. He sees everything
filled with consciousness.
* A nephew of the Master
Sri Sankara And The Butcher (162)
SANKARACHARYA was a Brahmajnani, to be sure! But at the beginning
he too had the feeling of differentiation. He didn't have the
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 or the five elements or the twenty four cosmic principles."
Then Sankara came to his senses.
XVII. Guru (Teacher Of Men)
The Physician With His Jars Of Molasses (163)
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."
Renunciation of the world is needful for those whom God wants to
be teachers of men. One who is an acharya 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."
That Insignia Of Authority (164)
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 the next morning they would find the same thing. The nuisance
didn't stop. 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.
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 realisation of
God one obtains an inner vision. Only then can one diagnose a
person's spiritual malady and give instruction.
One Cannot Teach Others Without Receiving Commission From God (165)
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 scholars seem mere earthworms.
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
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 Haldarpukur
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 is many a Hanumanpuri*** in Calcutta. It is with them
that you will have to wrestle.
* A district in Bengal
** Reference is to the Tale: "That Insignia Of Authority (164)".
*** A noted wrestler of the time
The Avadhuta And His Upa-Gurus (166)
THE Guru is only one, but Upa-gurus (secondary gurus) may be many.
He is an Upa-guru from whom anything whatsoever is learned. It is
mentioned in the Bhagavata that the great Avadhuta (a great yogi)
had twenty four such Upa-Gurus.
(a) One day, as the Avadhuta was walking across a meadow, he saw a
bridal procession coming toward him with loud beating of drums and
great pomp. He saw a hunter deeply absorbed in aiming at his game
and perfectly inattentive to the noise and pomp of the procession,
casting not even a passing look at it. The Avadhuta, saluting the
hunter, said, "Sir, thou art my Guru. When I sit in meditation let
my mind be concentrated upon the object of meditation, as yours
was on your game."
(b) An angler was fishing in a pond. The Avadhuta approaching him
asked, "Brother which way leads to such and such a place?" The
float of the rod at that time was indicating that the fish was
nibbling at the bait; so the man did not give any reply but was
all attention to his fishing rod. Having first hooked the fish, he
turned round and said, "What is it you have been saying sir?" The
Avadhuta saluted him and said, "Sir, thou art my Guru. When I sit
in contemplation of the Deity of my choice (Ishta), let me follow
thy example and before finishing my devotions let me not attend to
anything else."
(c) A kite with a fish in its beak was followed by a host of crows
and other kites, which were pecking at it and trying to snatch the
fish away. In whatever direction it went, its tormentors followed
it cawing, till at last they made it let go the fish in vexation.
Another kite instantly caught the fish and was in its turn
followed by the whole lot. The first kite was left unmolested and
sat calmly on the branch of a tree. Seeing this quiet and tranquil
state of the bird the Avadhuta saluting him, said, "Thou art my
Guru, for thou hast taught me that peace of mind is possible in
this world, only when one has given up one's adjuncts (upadhis);
otherwise there is danger at every step."
(d) A heron was slowly walking on a marsh to catch a fish. Behind,
there was a fowler aiming an arrow at the heron, but the bird was
totally unmindful of this fact. The Avadhuta saluting the heron,
said, "When I sit in meditation, let me follow thy example and
never turn back to see who is behind me."
(e) The Avadhuta found another Guru in a bee. The bee had been
storing up honey with long and great labour. A man came from
somewhere, broke the hive and drank up the honey. The bee was not
destined to enjoy the fruit of its long labour. On seeing this,
the Avadhuta saluted the bee saying, "Lord! Thou art my Guru; from
Thee I learn what the sure fate of accumulated riches is."
The Grass-Eating Tiger (167)
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.
How Sri Chaitanya Attracted The Worldly (168)
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 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.
Like Teacher, Like Disciple (169)
I HAVE seen the acharya of the Adi Brahmo Samaj, I understand that
he has married for the second or third time. He has grownup
children. And such men are teachers! If they say, 'God is real and
all else is illusory', who will believe them? You can very well
understand who will be their disciples.
Like teacher, like disciple. Even if a sannyasin 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 clay.
* Reference is to the parable: "The Physician With His Jars Of
Molasses (163)"
** The Holy Mother, his wife
When All Conceptions Of Difference Vanish (170)
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."
XVIII. Imperatives
Go Forward! (171)
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 woodcutter 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 sandal-wood trees.
He was very happy and returned with cart-loads of sandal-wood. 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 days more 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.
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.
Count Not Leaves, Eat Mangoes (172)
Two friends went into an orchard. One of them possessing much
worldly wisdom, immediately began to count the mango trees there
and the number of leaves and mangoes each tree bore, to estimate
what might be the approximate value of the whole orchard. His
companion however went to the owner, made friendship with him, and
then, quietly going to a tree, began, at his host's desire, to
pluck the fruits and eat them. Whom do you consider to be the
wiser of the two? Eat mangoes! It will satisfy your hunger. What
is the good of counting the trees and leaves and making
calculations?
The vain man of intellect busies himself uselessly with finding
out the 'why' and 'wherefore' of creation, while the humble man of
wisdom makes friends with the Creator and enjoys His gift of
supreme bliss.
Be Drowned! (173)
ONCE 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."
* Afterwards world famous as Swami Vivekananda
Stick To Your Own Religion (174)
ONCE upon a time a man wanted to sink a well and someone advised
him to dig in a certain spot, and he did so. But after sinking
fifteen cubits, when he found no water coming out, he got
disgusted. In the meantime another man came and laughing at his
foolish attempt advised him to dig in another spot which he knew
to be the best, So the man went and resumed his labour there. This
time he went down twenty cubits, but no water was found. A third
man came and asked him to try in another and better place which he
would point out to him. He followed and a certain spot was shown
to him. He went on sinking and sinking till thirty cubits were
reached and in utter disgust he was going to give up the task,
when a fourth man came up to him, smiling sweetly and said, "My
child, you have laboured much indeed, but being misdirected all
these labours have been of no use to you. Very well, kindly follow
me, and I will take you to a spot where if you only touch your
spade to the ground, water will flow out in torrents." The
temptation was too much for him and so he followed this fourth man
and did according to his advice. He went on digging expecting
every moment the gushing out of water, till he patiently sank
twenty cubits, but alas! No water came. Then utterly discouraged
he gave up the task altogether, By this time he had sunk eighty
five cubits. But if he had had the patience and perseverance to
sink half the number of cubits in one place, he would surely have
been successful.
Similarly, men who cannot stick to their religion, and always
hastily court one religion after another, at last turn out to be
atheists in their old age, giving up religion altogether.
Have Both Your Hands Free (175)
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
realised 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!'
Don't press your arm to your side. Have both your hands free. Be
not afraid of anything. Accept both the Nitya and the Lila, both
the Absolute and the Relative.
Let Not The Bell Of Bigotry Deaden Your Hearing (176)
BE not a bigot like Ghantakarna.
There was a man who worshipped Siva but hated all the other
deities. One day Siva appeared to him and said, "I shall never be
pleased with you so long as you hate other gods." But the man was
inexorable. After a few days Siva again appeared to him. This time
He appeared as Hari-Hara --- a form, of which one half was Siva
and the other Vishnu. At this the man was half-pleased and half
displeased. He laid offerings on the side representing Siva, but
nothing on that representing Vishnu. When he offered the burning
incense to Siva, his beloved form of the Deity, he was audacious
enough to press the nostrils of Vishnu lest he should inhale the
fragrance. Then Siva said: "Your bigotry is ineradicable. By
assuming this dual aspect I tried to convince you that all gods
and goddesses are but the various aspects of the One Being. You
have not taken the lesson in good part, and you will have to
suffer for your bigotry. Long must you suffer for this." The man
went away and retired to a village. He soon developed into a great
hater of Vishnu. On coming to know this peculiarity of his, the
children of the village began to tease him by uttering the name of
Vishnu within his hearing. Vexed by this, the man hung two bells
on his ears, and when the boys cried out, "Vishnu, Vishnu", he
would ring the bells violently and make those names inaudible to
his ears. And thus he came to be known by the name of Ghantakarna
or the Bell-eared.
See Advaita Everywhere Or See It Nowhere (177)
A RAJA was once taught by his Guru the sacred doctrine of Advaita,
which declares that the whole universe is Brahman. The king was
very much pleased with this doctrine. Going in, he said to his
queen: "There is no distinction between the queen and the queen's
maid servant. So the maid-servant shall be my queen henceforth."
The queen was thunderstruck at this mad proposal of her lord. She
sent for the Guru and complained to him in a piteous tone, "Sir,
look at the pernicious result of your teachings," and told him
what had occurred. The Guru consoled the queen and said, "When you
serve dinner to the king today, have a potful of cow-dung also
served along with the dish of rice." At dinner time the Guru and
the king sat down together to eat. Who could imagine the rage of
the king when he saw a dish of cow-dung served for his meal. The
Guru, seeing this, calmly interrogated: "Your Highness, you are
well versed in the knowledge of Advaita. Why do you then see any
distinction between the dung and rice?" The king became
exasperated and exclaimed, "You who pride yourself to be such a
great Advaitin, eat this dung if you can." The Guru said, "Very
well," and at once changed himself to a swine and devoured the
cow-dung with great gusto and afterwards again assumed his human
shape. The king became so ashamed that he never made again his mad
proposal to the queen.
Go Beyond Knowledge And Ignorance (178)
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 Jnana, knowledge. To know him intimately is Vijnana, 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 Rama, "Brother, how amazing it is that such
a wise man as Vasishtha wept bitterly at the death of his son!"
Rama 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.
Beware Of The Touch Of The Worldlings (179)
(With regard to the priestly class, Sri Ramakrishna used to tell
an incident from the life of Gauranga.)
WHEN Sri Gauranga, being wholly absorbed in Bhava-Samadhi, fell
into the ocean, he was hauled up in a net by fishermen;' but as
they came into contact with his sacred person through the net they
too were thrown into a trance. Abandoning all their work, they
roamed about like maniacs simply chanting the sacred name of Hari.
Their relatives could not cure the malady by any means, and
finding no other remedy, they came at last to Sri Gauranga and
told him about their sorrow. Sri Gauranga then said to them, "Get
some rice from a priest's house and put it into their mouth and
you will see them cured.'' They did accordingly and the fishermen
lost their blissful ecstasy.
Such is the contaminating influence of worldliness and impurity on
spiritual growth.
Don't Measure Spiritual Values By Secular Standards (180)
ONCE, a sage was lying by the roadside deeply immersed in Samadhi.
A thief while passing by that way, saw him and thought: "This
fellow here must be a thief. He must have broken into some houses
last night, and is now sleeping through exhaustion. The police
will be very soon here to catch him. So let me escape in time."
Thus cogitating he ran away. Soon after, a drunkard came there,
and seeing the sage, said: "Halloa! You have fallen into the ditch
by drinking too much. Eh! I am steadier than yourself and am not
going to tumble down." Last of all there came a sage, and
realising that a great saint was lying in the state of Samadhi,
sat down by his side and began to stroke his holy feet gently.
Thus our worldly tendencies prevent us from recognising true
holiness and piety.
Be Watchful (181)
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 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.
Give The Dog A Good Beating At Times (182)
THERE was a man who had a pet dog. He used to caress it, carry it
about in his arms, play with it and kiss it. A wise man, seeing
this foolish behaviour of his, warned him not to lavish such
affection on a dog. For it was, after all, an irrational brute,
and might bite him one day. The owner took the warning to heart
and putting the dog away from his arms, resolved never again to
fondle it or to caress it. But the animal could not first
understand the change in his master, and would run to him
frequently to be taken up and caressed. Beaten several times, the
dog at last ceased to trouble his master any more.
Such indeed is everybody's condition. The dog you have been
cherishing (i.e., lust) so long in your bosom will not easily
leave you, though you may wish to be rid of it. However, there is
no harm in it. Do not caress the dog any more, but give it a good
beating whenever it approaches you to be fondled, and in course of
time you will be altogether free from its importunities.
Sink Now And Then (183)
THE farther you advance, the more you will see that there are
other things even beyond the sandalwood forest --- mines of
silver, gold and precious gems*. Therefore go forward.
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
worship 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."
* Reference is to the parable 'Go Forward! (171)'
** The celebrated Brahmo leader, Keshab Chandra Sen
*** The master referred to the ladies
Keep A Part Of The Ridge Open (184)
'WOMAN and gold' alone is the world. Many people regard money as
their very life-blood. But however much 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 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 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.
They alone make good use of money who spend it for the worship of
God or the service of holy men and devotees. Their money bears
fruit.
* Kamarpukur, a village in Bengal where Sri Ramakrishna was born
Count Not On The Unknown Future (185)
ONCE in the month of June a kid was playing near its mother. With
a merry frisk it told her that it intended to make a good feast of
Ras-flowers (a species of flowers budding abundantly during the
festival of Rasalila in November.) "Well my darling," replied the
dam, "It is not such an easy thing as you seem to think. You will
have to pass through many a danger before you can hope to feast on
Ras-flowers. The ensuing months of September and October are not
very auspicious to you! For someone may take you to be sacrificed
to the Goddess Durga. Then there is the terrible time of Kali-puja
and if you are fortunate enough to survive that period also, there
is still the Jagaddhatri-puja when almost all that remain of the
male members of our species are sacrificed. If your good luck
carries you safely through all these crises, then you can hope to
make a feast of Ras-fiowers in the beginning of November."
Like the dam in the fable, we should not hastily approve of all
the aspirations which our youthful fancies may entertain,
considering the manifold crises which we may have to pass through
in our lives.
Discriminate Even In Giving In Charity (186)
ONCE, a butcher was taking a cow to a distant slaughter-house.
Being ill-treated by the butcher, the cow got unruly on the way,
and the man found it very difficult to drive her. After several
hours, he reached a village at noon, and being thoroughly
exhausted, he went to an alms-house nearby and partook of the food
freely distributed there. Feeling himself quite refreshed after a
full meal, the butcher was able to lead the cow easily to the
destination. Now, a part of the sin of killing that cow fell to
the donor of the food distributed at the alms-house.
So even in giving food and alms in charity, one should
discriminate and see that the recipient is not a vicious and
sinning person likely to use the gift for evil purposes.
Hiss You May, But Bite You Shall Not (187)
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
meantime the snake moved swiftly towards him with upraised hood.
As soon as it came near, he recited a mantra, and the snake lay at
his feet like an earth worm. 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 also get rid of your violent nature." Saying this,
he taught the snake a holy word and initiated it into spiritual
life. The snake bowed before the teacher and said, "Revered sir,
how I shall 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 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 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 Guru'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
anybody. 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 realise 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
away 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.
If You Must Serve, Serve But One Master (188)
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.
First Cleanse Thee Pure, Then Preach And Cure (189)
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. Aswattha 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 conch-shell 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 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
There is no use in 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.
Either 'I' Ad-Infinitum Or None Of It (190)
SANKARACHARYA had a certain disciple, who served him long without
receiving any teaching. One day, hearing footsteps behind him he
asked, "Who is there?" and was answered by this disciple, "It is
I." Then said the Master, "if this I is so dear to thee, either
stretch it to the infinite or renounce it altogether."
XIX. Counsels
If You Would Enjoy The Fun! (191)
WHEN a man attains the knowledge of Brahman 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 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 Kali or give Her the food offering. Haladhari 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.
A holy man came to a town and went about seeing the sights. He met
another sadhu, an acquaintance. The latter said: "I see you are
gadding about. Where is your baggage? I hope no thief has stolen
it." The first sadhu 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."
Attain Brahmajnana and then roam about enjoying God's Lila.
What To Pray For? (192)
WHILE praying to God, ask only for love for His Lotus Feet.
When Rama redeemed Ahalya* from the curse, He said to her, "Ask a
boon of Me". Ahalya said,
"O Rama, if you deign to grant me a boon, then please fulfil my
desire that I may always meditate on your Lotus Feet, even though
I may be born in a pig's body."
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
pure love for Thee.
Here is Thy holiness and here is Thy unholiness; take them both
and give me pure love for Thee. Here is Thy virtue and here is Thy
sin; here is Thy good and here is Thy evil; take them both and
give me pure love for Thee. Here is Thy dharma and here is Thy
adharma; take them both and give me love for Thee."
* The beautiful and devoted wife of a great sage named Gautama.
Indra, the king of heaven, infatuated with her beauty seduced
her, impersonating her husband. The sage, coming to know of
this, cursed her and turned her into a stone, but he said that
the touch of Rama's feet would restore her human form. Indra,
too, received his share of the curse, as a result of which he
had a thousand eruptions on his body. Hence he is known as the
thousand-eyed God.
How To Escape Prarabdha (193)
QUESTIONER: "Sir, how can one escape Prarabdha? The effect of
action performed in previous births?"
Sri Ramakrishna: "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. He, 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."
Then, What's The Way? (194)
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."
One Who Sees 'Elephant God' Should Heed The Words Of 'Mahut God' (195)
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!
Runaway!" 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."
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! 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?
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 one
shouldn't go even that far. One should keep aloof from such
people.
Damn-Damn-Damn-Da-Damn-Damn (196)
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
'damn'. But if it means something bad, then you are a 'damn', your
father is a 'damn' and all your ancestors are 'damns'. They are
not only 'damns', but 'damn --- damn --- damn --- da --- damn ---
damn'."
In the midst of company, one should be careful not to offend
others by indulging in talks which they cannot understand.
Brood Over Other's Sins, And You Sin Yourself (197)
A SANNYASIN dwelt by the side of a temple. There was the house of
a harlot in front. Seeing the constant concourse of men in the
prostitute's house, the sannyasin one day called her and censured
her, saying: "You are a great sinner. You sin day and night. Oh,
how miserable will be your lot hereafter." The poor prostitute
became extremely sorry for her misdeeds, and with genuine inward
repentance she prayed to God beseeching forgiveness. But as
prostitution was her profession, she could not easily adopt any
other means of earning her livelihood. And so, whenever her flesh
sinned, she always reproached herself with greater contrition of
heart and prayed to God more and more for forgiveness. The
sannyasin saw that his advice had apparently produced no effect
upon her, and thought, "Let me see how many persons will visit
this woman in the course of her life." And from that day forward,
whenever any person entered the house of the prostitute, the
sannyasin counted him by putting a pebble aside, and in course of
time there arose a big heap of pebbles. One day the sannyasin said
to the prostitute, pointing to the heap: "Woman, don't you see
this heap? Each pebble in it stands for every commission of the
deadly sin you have been indulging in since. I advised you last to
desist from the evil course. Even now I tell you: Beware of your
evil deeds!" The poor wretch began to tremble at the sight of the
accumulation of her sins, and she prayed to God shedding tears of
utter helplessness, inwardly repeating, "Lord, wilt Thou not free
me from the miserable life that I am leading?" The prayer was
heard, and on that very day the angel of death passed by her
house, and she ceased to exist in this world. By the strange will
of God, the sannyasin also died on the same day. The messengers of
Vishnu came down from Heaven and carried the spirit-body of the
contrite prostitute to the heavenly regions, while the messengers
of Yama bound the spirit of the sannyasin and carried him down to
the nether world.
The sannyasin, seeing the good luck of the prostitute, cried
aloud: "Is this the subtle justice of God? I passed all my life in
asceticism and poverty, and I am carried to hell, while that
prostitute, whose life was a whole record of sin, is going to
Heaven!" Hearing this, the messengers of Vishnu said: "The decrees
of God are always just; as you think, so you reap. You passed your
life in external show and vanity, trying to get honour and fame;
and God has given you this. Your heart never sincerely yearned
after Him. This prostitute earnestly prayed to God day and night,
though her body sinned all the while. Look at the treatment which
your body and her body are receiving from those below. As you
never sinned with your body, they have decorated it with flowers
and garlands, and are carrying it with music in a procession to
consign it to the sacred river. But this prostitute's body, which
had sinned is being torn to pieces at this moment by vultures and
jackals. Nevertheless, she was pure in heart and is therefore
going to the regions of the pure. Your heart was always absorbed
in contemplating her sins and thus became impure. You are
therefore going to the regions of the impure. You were the real
prostitute, and not she."
Not 'There' But 'Here' (198)
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 a while it flew south. There too it found no limit to the
water. Panting for breath the bird returned to the mast. Again,
after resting a while, 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.
What a man seeks is very near him. Still he wanders about from
place to place. As long as a man feels that God is 'there', he is
ignorant. But he attains knowledge when he feels that God is
'here'.
What You Are After, Is Within Yourself (199)
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!"
What a man seeks is very near him. Still he wanders about from
place to place.
How One Can Enter The Mansion Of God (200)
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 stamp of Ego. One
cannot enter the mansion without jumping over the stamp.
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 to 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.
Then Comes The Time For Action (201)
Do you know my attitude? Books 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. 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 realise God. But after
getting all the information about the path, you must begin to
work. Only then can you attain your goal.
Partial Knowledge Breeds Narrowness (202)
FOUR blind men went out to see an elephant. One touched the leg of
the elephant and said, "The elephant is like a pillar." The second
touched the trunk and said, "The elephant is like a thick club."
The third touched the belly and said, "The elephant is like a big
jar." The fourth touched the ears and said, "The elephant is like
a big winnowing basket." Thus they began to dispute hotly amongst
themselves as to the shape of the elephant. A passer-by, seeing
them thus quarrelling, said, "What is it you are disputing about?"
They told him everything and asked him to arbitrate. The man said:
"None of you has seen the elephant. The elephant is not like a
pillar, its legs are like pillars. It is not like a winnowing
basket, its ears are like winnowing baskets. It is not like a
stout club, its trunk is like a club. The elephant is the
combination of all these --- legs, ears, belly, trunk and so on."
In the same manner, those who quarrel (about the nature of God)
have each seen only some one aspect of the Deity.
Fanaticism Is Another Name For Ignorance (203)
A FROG lived in a well. It had lived there for a long time. It was
born and brought up there. And it was a small little frog. One day
another frog that had lived in the sea came and fell into that
well. The frog of the well asked the new-comer, "Whence are you?"
The frog of the sea replied, "I am from the sea." The frog of the
well questioned: "The sea! How big is that?" The frog of the sea
said, "It is very big." The frog of the well stretched its legs
and questioned, "Ah! Is your sea so big?" The frog of the sea
said, "It is much bigger." The frog of the well then took a leap
from one side of the well to the other, and asked, "Is it as big
as this, my well?" "My friend", said the frog of the sea, "how can
you compare the sea with your well?" The frog of the well
asserted: "No, there can never be anything bigger than my well.
Indeed, nothing can be bigger than this! This fellow is a liar, he
must be turned out."
Such is the case with every narrow-minded man.
Sitting in his own little well, he thinks that the whole world is
no bigger than his well.
No Scripturist Ever Vaunts Of His Learning (204)
A LEARNED brahmana once went to a wise king and said, "I am
well-versed, O king, in the holy scriptures. I intend to teach you
the Bhagavata. The king, who was the wiser of the two, knew well
that a man who had really studied the Bhagavata would seek to know
his own Self rather than go to a king's court for wealth and
honour. So the king replied: "I see, O brahmana, that you yourself
have not mastered that book thoroughly. I promise to make you my
tutor, but first learn the scripture well." The brahmana went on
his way thinking "How foolish it is of the king to say that I have
not mastered the Bhagavata, seeing that I have been reading the
book over and over all these years." However, he went through the
book carefully once more and appeared again before the king. The
king told him the same thing again and sent him away. The brahmana
was sorely vexed, but thought that there must be some meaning in
the behaviour of the king. He went home, shut himself up in his
room, and applied himself more than ever to the study of the book.
By and by, hidden meanings began to flash into his mind and the
vanity of running after the bubbles of riches and honour, kings
and courts, wealth and fame appeared to his unclouded vision. From
that day forward he gave himself up entirely to attaining
perfection by the worship of God, and never thought of returning
to the king. A few years after, the king thought of the brahmana
and went to his house to see what he was doing. Seeing him, now
radiant with Divine light and love, he fell upon his knees and
said: "I see that you have now realised the true meaning of the
scriptures. I am ready to be your disciple if you will kindly
condescend to make me one."
Unfortunate It Is To Be Seized By A Water-Snake (205)
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 sometime, 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 does not attain liberation.
* One of the temple garden at Dakshineswar