Gospel Of Sri Ramakrishna

Continuing, the Master said: “When Krishna suddenly disappeared in the act of dancing and playing with the gopis, they were beside themselves with grief. Looking at a tree, they said: “O tree, you must be a great hermit. You must have seen Krishna. Otherwise, why do you stand there motionless, as if absorbed in samadhi?’ Looking at the earth covered with green grass, they said: ‘O earth, you must have seen Krishna. Otherwise, why does your hair stand on end? You must have enjoyed the thrill of His touch.’ Looking at the madhavi creeper, they said, ‘O madhavi, give us back our Madhava!’ The gopis were intoxicated with ecstatic love for Krishna. Akrura came to Vrindavan to take Krishna and Balarama to Mathura. When they mounted the chariot, the gopis clung to the wheels. They would not let the chariot move.”

Saying this, Sri Ramakrishna sang, assuming the attitude of Akrura:

Hold not, hold not the chariot’s wheels!
Is it the wheels that make it move?
The Mover of its wheels is Krishna,
By whose will the worlds are moved. . . .

MASTER: “‘Is it the wheels that make it move?’ ‘By whose will the worlds are moved.’ The driver moves the chariot at his Master’s bidding.’ I feel deeply touched by these lines.”

Sunday, December 23, 1883

At nine o’clock in the morning Sri Ramakrishna was seated on the southwest porch of his room, with Rakhal, Latu, M., Harish, and. some other devotees. M. had now been nine days with the Master at Dakshineswar. Earlier in the morning Manomohan had arrived from Konnagar on his way to Calcutta. Hazra, too, was present.

A Vaishnava was singing. Referring to one of the songs, Sri Ramakrishna said: “I didn’t enjoy that song very much. The songs of the earlier writers seem to me to have more of the right spirit. Once I sang for Nangta at the Panchavati: To arms! To arms, O man! Death storms your house in battle array.’ I sang another: ‘O Mother, I have no one else to blame: Alas! I sink in the well these very hands have dug.’

“Nangta, the Vedantist, was a man of profound knowledge. The song moved him to tears though he didn’t understand its meaning. Padmalochan also wept when I sang the songs of Ramprasad about the Divine Mother. And he was truly a great pundit.”

After the midday meal Sri Ramakrishna rested a few minutes in his room. M. was sitting on the door. The Master was delighted to hear the music that was being played in the nahabat. He then explained to M. that Brahman alone has become the universe and all living beings.

MASTER: “Referring to a certain place, someone once said to me: ‘Nobody sings the name of God there. It has no holy atmosphere.’ No sooner did he say this than I perceived that it was God alone who had become all living beings. They appeared as countless bubbles or reflections in the Ocean of Satchidananda.

“Again, I find sometimes that living beings are like so many pills made of Indivisible Consciousness. Once I was on my way to Burdwan from Kamarpukur. At one place I ran to the meadow to see how living beings are sustained. I saw ants crawling there. It appeared to me that every place was filled with Consciousness.”

Hazra entered the room and sat on the floor.

MASTER: “Again, I perceive that living beings are like different flowers with various layers of petals. They are also revealed to me as bubbles, some big, some small.”

While describing in this way the vision of different divine forms, the Master went into an ecstatic state and said, “I have become! I am here!” Uttering these words he went into samadhi. His body was motionless. He remained in that state a long time and then gradually regained partial consciousness of the world. He began to laugh like a boy and pace the room. His eyes radiated bliss as if he had seen a wondrous vision. His gaze was not fixed on any particular object, and his face beamed with joy. Still pacing the room, the Master said: “I saw the paramahamsa who stayed under the banyan tree walking thus with just such a smile. Am I too in that state of mind?”

He sat on the small couch and engaged in conversation with the Divine Mother.

MASTER: “I don’t even care to know. Mother, may I have pure love for Thy Lotus Feet!

(To M.) “One attains this state immediately after freeing oneself of all grief and desire.

(To the Divine Mother) “Mother, Thou hast done away with my worship. Please see, Mother, that I don’t give up all desire. Mother, the paramahamsa is but a child. Doesn’t a child need a mother? Therefore Thou art the Mother and I am the child. How can the child live without the Mother?”

Sri Ramakrishna was talking to the Divine Mother in a voice that would have melted even a stone. Again he addressed Her, saying: “Mere knowledge of Advaita! I spit on it! Thou dost exist as long as Thou dost keep the ego in me. The paramahamsa is but a child. Doesn’t a child need a mother?”

M. sat there speechless and looked at the divine manifestation in the Master. He said to himself: “The Master is an ocean of mercy that knows no motive. He has kept himself in the state of a paramahamsa that he might, as teacher, awaken the spiritual consciousness of myself and other earnest souls.”

M. further thought: “The Master says, ‘Advaita — Chaitanya — Nityananda’; that is to say, through the knowledge of the Non-dual Brahman one attains Consciousness and enjoys Eternal Bliss. The Master has not only attained the knowledge of non-duality but is in a state of Eternal Bliss. He is always drunk with ecstatic love for the Mother of the Universe.”

With folded hands Hazra looked at the Master and said every now and then: “How blessed you are! How blessed you are!”

MASTER (to Hazra): “But you have hardly any faith; you simply live here to add to the play, like Jatila and Kutila.”

In the afternoon M. paced the temple garden alone. He was deeply absorbed in the thought of the Master and was pondering the Master’s words concerning the attainment of the exalted state of the paramahamsa, after the elimination of grief and desire. M. said to himself: “Who is this Sri Ramakrishna, acting as my teacher? Has God embodied Himself for our welfare? The Master himself says that no one but an Incarnation can come down to the phenomenal plane from the state of nirvikalpa samadhi.”

Monday, December 24, 1883

At eight o’clock in the morning Sri Ramakrishna and M. were talking together in the pine-grove at the northern end of the temple garden. This was the eleventh day of M.’s stay with the Master.

It was winter. The sun had just risen. The river was flowing north with the tide. Not far off could be seen the bel-tree where the Master had practised great spiritual austerities. Sri Ramakrishna faced the east as he talked to his disciple and told him about the Knowledge of Brahman.

MASTER: “The formless God is real, and equally real is God with form. Nangta used to instruct me about the nature of Satchidananda Brahman. He would say that It is like an infinite ocean — water everywhere, to the right, left, above, and below. Water enveloped in water. It is the Water of the Great Cause, motionless. Waves spring up when It becomes active. Its activities are creation, preservation, and destruction.

“Again, he used to say that Brahman is where reason comes to a stop. There is the instance of camphor. Nothing remains after it is burnt — not even a trace of ash.

“Brahman is beyond mind and speech. A salt doll entered the ocean to measure its depth; but it did not return to tell others how deep the ocean was. It melted in the ocean itself.

“The rishis once said to Rama: ‘O Rama, sages like Bharadvaja may very well call you an Incarnation of God, but we cannot do that. We adore the Word-Brahman. (Om, the symbol of Brahman.) We do not want the human form of God.’ Rama smiled and went away, pleased with their adoration.

“But the Nitya and the Lila are the two aspects of the same Reality. As I have said before, it is like the roof and the steps leading to it. The Absolute plays in many ways: as Isvara, as the gods, as man, and as the universe. The Incarnation is the play of the Absolute as man. Do you know how the Absolute plays as man? It is like the rushing down of water from a big roof through a pipe; the power of Satchidananda — nay, Satchidananda Itself — descends through the conduit of a human form as water descends through the pipe. Only twelve sages, Bharadvaja and the others, recognized Rama as an Incarnation of God. Not everyone can recognize an Incarnation.

“It is God alone who incarnated Himself as man to teach people the ways of love and knowledge. Well, what do you think of me?

“Once my; father went to Gaya. There Raghuvir said to him in a dream, ‘I shall be born as your son.’ Thereupon my father said to Him: ‘O Lord, I am a poor brahmin. How shall I be able to serve You?’ ‘Don’t worry about it’, Raghuvir replied. ‘It will be taken care of.’

“My sister, Hriday’s mother, used to worship my feet with flowers and sandal-paste. One day I placed my foot on her head and said to her, ‘You will die in Benares.’

“Once Mathur Babu said to me: ‘Father, there is nothing inside you but God. Your body is like an empty shell. It may look from outside like a pumpkin, but inside there is nothing — neither flesh nor seed. Once I saw you as someone moving with a veil on.’

(To M.) “I am shown everything beforehand. Once I saw Gauranga and his devotees singing kirtan in the Panchavati. I think I saw Balaram there and you too.

“I wanted to know the experiences of Gauranga and was shown them at Syambazar in our native district. A crowd gathered; they even climbed the trees and the walls; they stayed with me day and night. For seven days I had no privacy whatever. Thereupon I said to the Divine Mother, ‘Mother, I have had enough of it.’

“I am at peace now. I shall have to be born once more. Therefore I am not giving all knowledge to my companions. (With a smile) Suppose I give you all knowledge; will you then come to me again so willingly?

“I recognized you on hearing you read the Chaitanya Bhagavat. (A life of Chaitanya.) You are my own. The same substance, like father and son. All of you are coming here again. When you pull one part of the kalmi creeper, all the branches come toward you. You are all relatives — like brothers. Suppose Rakhal, Harish, and the others had gone to Puri, and you were there too. Would you live separately?

“Before you came here, you didn’t know who you were. Now you will know. It is God who, as the guru, makes one know.

“Nangta told the story of the tigress and the herd of goats. Once a tigress attacked a herd of goats. A hunter saw her from a distance and killed her. The tigress was pregnant and gave birth to a cub as she expired. The cub began to grow in the company of the goats. At first it was nursed by the she-goats, and later on, as it grew bigger, it began to eat grass and bleat like the goats. Gradually the cub became a big tiger; but still it ate grass and bleated. When attacked by other animals, it would run away, like the goats. One day a fierce-looking tiger attacked the herd. It was amazed to see a tiger in the herd eating grass and running away with the goats at its approach. It left the goats and caught hold of the grass-eating tiger, which began to bleat and tried to run away. But the fierce tiger dragged it to the water and said: ‘Now look at your face in the water. You see, you have the pot-face of a tiger; it is exactly like mine.’ Next it pressed a piece of meat into its mouth. At first the grass-eating tiger refused to eat the meat. Then it got the taste of the meat and relished it. At last the fierce tiger said to the grass-eater: ‘What a disgrace! You lived with the goats and ate grass like them!’ And the other was really ashamed of itself.

“Eating grass is like enjoying ‘woman and gold’. To bleat and run away like a goat is to behave like an ordinary man. Going away with the new tiger is like taking shelter with the guru, who awakens one’s spiritual consciousness, and recognizing him alone as one’s relative. To see one’s face rightly is to know one’s real Self.”

Sri. Ramakrishna stood up. There was silence all around, disturbed only by the gentle rustling of the pine-needles and the murmuring of the Ganges. The Master went to the Panchavati and then to his room, talking all the while with M. The disciple followed him, fascinated. At the Panchavati Sri Ramakrishna touched with his forehead the raised platform around the banyan-tree. This was the place of his intense spiritual discipline, where he had wept bitterly for the vision of the Divine Mother, where he had held intimate communion with Her, and where he had seen many divine forms.

The Master and M. passed the cluster of bakul-trees and came to the nahabat. Hazra was there. The Master said to him: “Don’t eat too much, and give up this craze for outer cleanliness. People with a craze do not attain Knowledge. Follow conventions only as much as necessary. Don’t go to excess.” The Master entered his room and sat on the couch.

Sri Ramakrishna was resting after his middav meal when Surendra, Ram, and other devotees arrived from Calcutta. It was about one o’clock. While M. was strolling alone under the pine-trees, Harish came there and told him that the Master wanted him in his room. Someone was going to read from tlie Siva Samhita, a book containing instructions about yoga and the six centres.

M. entered the room and saluted the Master. The devotees were seated on the floor, but no one was reading the book. Sri Ramakrishna was talking to the devotees.

MASTER: “The gopis cherished ecstatic love for Krishna. There are two elements in such love: ‘I-ness’ and ‘my-ness’. ‘I-ness’ is the feeling that Krishna will be ill if ‘I’ do not serve Him. In this attitude the devotee does not look upon his Ideal as God.

“‘My-ness’ is to feel that the Beloved is ‘my’ own. The gopis had such a feeling of ‘my-ness’ toward Krishna that they would place their subtle bodies under His feet lest His soles should get hurt.

“Yasoda remarked: ‘I don’t understand your Chintamani Krishna. To me He is simply Gopala.’ The gopis also said: ‘Oh, where is Krishna, our Beloved? Where is Krishna, our Sweetheart?’ They were not conscious of His being God.

“It is like a small child saying ‘my daddy’. If someone says to the child, ‘No, he is not your daddy’, the child says, ‘Yes, he is my daddy.’

“God, incarnating Himself as man, behaves exactly like a man. That is why it is difficult to recognize an Incarnation. When God becomes man, He is exactly like man. He has the same hunger, thirst, disease, grief, and sometimes even fear. Rama was stricken with grief for Sita. Krishna carried on His head the shoes and wooden stool of His father Nanda.

“In the theatre, when an actor comes on the stage in the role of a holy man, he behaves like one, and not like the actor who is taking the part of the king. He plays his own role.

“Once an impersonator dressed himself as a world-renouncing monk. Pleased with the correctness of his disguise, some rich people offered him a rupee. He did not accept the money but went away shaking his head. Afterwards he removed his disguise and appeared in his usual dress. Then he said to the rich people, ‘Please give me the rupee.’ They replied: ‘Why, you went away refusing our present. Why do you ask for it now?’ The man said: ‘But then I was in the role of a holy man. I could not accept money.’ Likewise, when God becomes man He behaves exactly like a man.

“At Vrindavan one sees many places associated with Krishna’s life.”

SURENDRA: “We were there during the holidays. Visitors were continually pestered for money. The priests and others asked for it continually. We told them that we were going to leave for Calcutta the next day, but we fled from Vrindavan that very night.”

MASTER: “What is that? Shame! You said you would leave the place the next day and ran away that very day. What a shame!”

SURENDRA (embarrassed): “Here and there we saw the babajis in the woods practising spiritual discipline in solitude.”

MASTER: “Did you give them anything?”

SURENDRA: “No, sir.”

MASTER: “That was not proper of you. One should give something to monks and devotees. Those who have the means should help such persons when they meet them.

“I went to Vrindavan with Mathur Babu. The moment I came to the Dhruva Ghat3 at Mathura, in a flash I saw Vasudeva crossing the Jamuna with Krishna in his arms.

“One evening I was taking a stroll on the beach of the river. There were small thatched huts on the beach and big plum-trees. It was the ‘cow-dust’ hour. The cows were returning from the pasture, raising dust with their hoofs. I saw them fording the river. Then came some cowherd boys crossing the river with their cows. No sooner did I behold this scene than I cried out, ‘O Krishna, where are You?’ and became unconscious.

“I wanted to visit Syamakunda and Radhakunda; so Mathur Babu sent me there in a palanquin. We had a long way to go. Food was put in the palanquin. While going over the meadow I was overpowered with emotion and wept: ‘O Krishna, I find everything the same; only You are not here. This is the very meadow where You tended the cows.’ Hriday followed me on foot. I was bathed in tears. I couldn’t ask the bearers to stop the palanquin.

“At Syamakunda and Radhakunda I saw the holy men living in small mud huts. Facing away from the road lest their eyes should fall on men, they were engaged in spiritual discipline. One should visit the ‘Twelve Grove’.

“I went into samadhi at the sight of the image of Bankuvihari. In that state I wanted to touch it. I did not want to visit Govindaji twice. At Mathura I dreamt of Krishna as the cowherd boy. Hriday and Mathur Babu had the same dream.

(To Surendra) “You have both — yoga and bhoga. There are different classes of sages: the brahmarshi, the devarshi, and the rajarshi. Sukadeva is an example of the brahmarshi. He didn’t keep even one book with him. An example of the devarshi is Narada. Janaka was a rajarshi, devoted to selfless work.

“The devotee of the Divine Mother attains dharma and moksha. He enjoys artha and kama as well. Once I saw you in a vision as the child of the Divine Mother. You have both — yoga and bhoga; otherwise your countenance would look dry.

“The man who renounces all looks dry. Once I saw a devotee of the Divine Mother at the bathing-ghat on the Ganges. He was eating his meal and at the same time worshipping the Mother. He looked on himself as the Mother’s child.

“But it isn’t good to have much money. I find that Jadu Mallick is drowned in worldliness. It is because he has too much money. Nabin Niyogi, too, has both yoga and bhoga. I saw him and his son waving the fan before the image of the Divine Mother at the time of the Durga Puja.”

SURENDRA: “Sir, why can’t I meditate?”

MASTER: “You remember God and think of Him, don’t you?”

SURENDRA: “Yes, sir. I go to sleep repeating the word ‘Mother’.”

MASTER: “That is very good. It will be enough if you remember God and think of Him.”

Sri Ramakrishna had taken Surendra’s responsibilities on himself. Why should Surendra worry about anything?

It was evening. The Master was sitting on the floor of his room with the devotees. He was talking to them about yoga and the six centres. These are described in the Siva Samhita.

MASTER: “Ida, Pingala, and Sushumna are the three principal nerves. All the lotuses are located in the Sushumna. They are formed of Consciousness, like a tree made of wax — the branches, twigs, fruits, and so forth all of wax. The Kundalini lies in the lotus of the Muladhara. That lotus has fourteen petals. The Primordial Energy resides in all bodies as the Kundalini. She is like a sleeping snake coiled up — ‘of the form of a sleeping snake, having the Muladhara for Her abode’. (To M.) The Kundalini is speedily awakened if one follows the path of bhakti. God cannot be seen unless She is awakened. Sing earnestly and secretly in solitude:Waken, O Mother! O Kundalini, whose nature is Bliss Eternal!
Thou art the serpent coiled in sleep, in the lotus of the Muladhara.

“Ramprasad achieved perfection through singing. One obtains the vision of God if one sings with yearning heart.”

M: “Grief and distress of mind disappear if one has these experiences but once.”

MASTER: “That is true. Distress of mind disappears for ever. I shall tell you a few things about yoga. But you see, the mother bird doesn’t break the shell until the chick inside the egg is matured. The egg is hatched in the fullness of time. It is necessary to practise some spiritual discipline. The guru no doubt does everything for the disciple; but at the end he makes the disciple work a little himself. When cutting down a big tree, a man cuts almost through the trunk; then he stands aside for a moment, and the tree falls down with a crash.

“The farmer brings water to his field through a canal from the river. He stands aside when only a little digging remains to be done to connect the field with the water. Then the earth becomes soaked and falls of itself, and the water of the river pours into the canal in torrents.

“A man is able to see God as soon as he gets rid of ego and other limitations. He sees God as soon as he is free from such feelings as ‘I am a scholar’, ‘I am the son of such and such a person’, ‘I am wealthy’, ‘I am honourable’, and so forth.

“‘God alone is real and all else unreal; the world is illusory’ — that is discrimination. One cannot assimilate spiritual instruction without discrimination.

“Through the practice of spiritual discipline one attains perfection, by the grace of God. But one must also labour a little. Then one sees God and enjoys bliss. If a man hears that a jar filled with gold is buried at a certain place, he rushes there and begins to dig. He sweats as he goes on digging. After much digging he feels the spade strike something. Then he throws away the spade and looks for the jar. At the sight of the jar he dances for joy. Then he takes up the jar and pours out the gold coins. He takes them into his hand, counts them, and feels the ecstasy of joy. Vision — touch — enjoyment. Isn’t it so?”

M: “Yes, sir.”

The Master was silent a moment and then went on.

MASTER: “Those who are my own will come here even if I scold them. Look at Narendra’s nature! At first he used to abuse my Mother Kali very much. One day I said to him sharply, ‘Rascal! Don’t come here any more.’ He slowly left the room and prepared a smoke. He who is one’s own will not be angry even if scolded. What do you say?”

M: “That is true, sir.”

MASTER: “Narendra is perfect from his very birth. He is devoted to the ideal of the formless God.”

M. (smiling): “Whenever he comes here he brings along great excitement.”

Sri Ramakrishna smiled and said, “Yes, excitement indeed.”

The following day was Tuesday; the ekadasi day of the lunar fortnight. It was eleven o’clock in the morning and the Master had not yet taken his meal. M., Rakhal, and other devotees were sitting in the Master’s room.

MASTER (to M.): “One should fast on the eleventh day of the lunar fortnight. That purifies the mind and helps one to develop love of God. Isn’t that so?”

M: “Yes, sir.”

MASTER: “But you may take milk and puffed rice. Don’t you think so?”