Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

Sunday, May 25, 1884

Sri Ramakrishna was sitting on the cement platform that encircled the trunk of the old banyan-tree in the Panchavati. Vijay, Surendra, Bhavanath, Rakhal, and other devotees were present, a few of them sitting with the Master on the platform, the rest on the ground below. The devotees had thought of celebrating the Master’s birthday, which had had to be put off because of his illness. Since Sri Ramakrishna now felt much better, the devotees wanted to have the celebration that day. A woman musician, a famous singer of kirtan, was going to entertain them with devotional songs.

It was one o’clock in the afternoon. M. had been looking for Sri Ramakrishna in the Master’s room. When he did not find him there, he went to the Panchavati and eagerly asked the devotees, “Where is he?” He was standing right in front of the Master but in his excitement did not notice him. The devotees laughed loudly. A moment later M. saw Sri Ramakrishna and felt very much embarrassed. He prostrated himself before the Master, who sat there facing the south and smiling happily. Kedar and Vijay were sitting at his left. These two devotees had had a misunderstanding recently when Kedar had cut off his connexion with the Brahmo Samaj.

MASTER (to M., with a smile): “You see how I have united them?”

The Master had brought a madhavi creeper from Vrindavan in the year 1868 and had planted it in the Panchavati. The creeper had grown big and strong. Some children were jumping and swinging from it. The Master observed them and laughed. He said: “They are like young monkeys. They will not give up swinging even though they sometimes fall to the ground.” Noticing that Surendra was standing before him, the Master said to him affectionately: “Come up and sit with us on the platform. Then you can dangle your feet comfortably.” Surendra went up and took his seat. Bhavanath had his coat on. Surendra said to him, “Are you going to England?”

MASTER (smiling): “God is our England. Now and then I used to leave off my clothes and joyfully roam about naked. Once Sambhu said to me: ‘It is very comfortable to walk about naked. That is why you do it. Once I did it myself.'”

SURENDRA: “On returning from the office, as I put away my coat and trousers, I say to the Divine Mother, ‘O Mother, how tightly You have bound me to the world!'”

MASTER: “There are eight fetters with which man is bound: shame, hatred, fear, pride of caste, hesitation, the desire to conceal, and so forth.”

Sri Ramakrishna sang:

Mother, this is the grief that sorely grieves my heart,
That even with Thee for Mother, and though I am wide awake,
There should be robbery in my house. . . .

He continued:

In the world’s busy market-place, O Syama, Thou art flying kites;
High up they soar on the wind of hope, held fast by maya’s string.
Their frames are human skeletons, their sails of the three gunas made;
But all their curious workmanship is merely for ornament.

Upon the kite-strings Thou hast rubbed the manja-paste of worldliness,
So as to make each straining strand all the more sharp and strong.
Out of a hundred thousand kites, at best but one or two break free;
And Thou dost laugh and clap Thy hands, O Mother, watching them!

On favouring winds, says Ramprasad, the kites set loose will speedily
Be borne away to the Infinite, across the sea of the world.

MASTER: “‘Maya’s string’ means wife and children.

Upon the kite-strings Thou hast rubbed the manja-paste of worldliness.

“The three gunas — sattva, rajas, and tamas — have men under their control. They are like three brothers. As long as sattva exists, it calls on rajas for help; and rajas can get help from tamas. The three gunas are so many robbers. Tamas kills and rajas hinds. Sattva no doubt releases man from his bondage, but it cannot take him to God.”

VIJAY (smiling): “It is because sattva, too, is a robber.”

MASTER (smiling): “True. Sattva cannot take man to God, but it shows him the way.”

BHAVANATH: “These are wonderful words indeed.”

MASTER: “Yes, this is a lofty thought.”

Listening to these words of the Master, the devotees felt very happy.

MASTER: “‘Woman and gold’ is the cause of bondage. ‘Woman and gold’ alone constitutes samsara, the world. It is ‘woman and gold’ that keeps one from seeing God. (Holding the towel in front or his face) Do you see my face any more? Of course not. The towel hides it. No sooner is the covering of ‘woman and gold’ removed than one attains Chidananda, Consciousness and Bliss.

“Let me tell you something. He who has renounced the pleasure of a wife has verily renounced the pleasure of the world. God is very near to such a person.”

The devotees listened to these words in silence.

MASTER (to Kedar, Vijay, and the other devotees): “He who has renounced the pleasure of a wife has verily renounced the pleasure of the world. It is ‘woman and gold’ that hides God. You people have such imposing moustaches, and yet you too are involved in ‘woman and gold’. Tell me it isn’t true. Search your heart and answer me.”

VIJAY: “Yes, it is true.”

Kedar remained silent.

MASTER: “I see that all are under the control of woman. One day I went to Captain’s house. From there I was to go to Ram’s house. So I said to Captain, ‘Please give me my carriage hire.’ He asked his wife about it. She too held back and said: ‘What’s the matter? What’s the matter?’ At last Captain said, ‘Ram will take care of it.’ You see, the Gita, the Bhagavata, and the Vedanta all bow before a woman! (All laugh.)

“A man leaves his money, his property, and everything in the hands of his wife. But he says with affected simplicity, ‘I have such a nature that I cannot keep even two rupees with me.’

“A man went to an office in search of a job. There were many vacancies, but the manager did not grant his request. A friend said to the applicant, ‘Appeal to Golapi, and you will get the job.’ Golapi was the manager’s mistress.

“Men do not realize how far they are dragged down by women. Once I went to the Fort in a carriage, feeling all the while that I was going along a level road. At last I found that I had gone four storeys down. It was a sloping road.

“A man possessed by a ghost does not know he is under the ghost’s control. He thinks he is quite normal.”

VIJAY (smiling): “But he can be cured by an exorcist if he finds one.”

In answer to Vijay Sri Ramakrishna only said, “That depends on the will of God.” Then he went on with his talk about women.

MASTER: “Everyone I talk to says, ‘Yes, sir, my wife is good.’ Nobody says that his wife is bad. (All laugh.) Those who constantly live with ‘woman and gold’ are so infatuated with it that they don’t see things properly. Chess-players oftentimes cannot see the right move for their pieces on the board. But those who watch the game from a distance can understand the moves more accurately.

“Woman is the embodiment of maya. In the course of his hymn to Rama, Narada said: ‘O Rama, all men are parts of Thee. All women are parts of Sita, the personification of Thy maya. Please deign to grant that I may have pure love for Thy Lotus Feet and that I may not be deluded by Thy world-bewitching maya. I do not want any other favour than that.'”

Surendra’s younger brother and his nephews were present. The brother worked in an office and one of the nephews was studying law.

MASTER (to Surendra’s relatives): “My advice to you is not to become attached to the world. You see, Rakhal now understands what is knowledge and what is ignorance. He can discriminate between the Real and the unreal. So I say to him: ‘Go home. You may come here once in a while and spend a day or two with me.’

“Have a friendly relationship with one another. That will be for your good and make you all happy. In a theatre the performance goes well only if the musicians sing with one voice. And that also gladdens the hearts of the audience.

“Do your worldly duties with a part of your mind and direct most of it to God. A sadhu should think of God with three quarters of his mind and with one quarter should do his other duties. He should be very alert about spiritual things. The snake is very sensitive in its tail. Its whole body reacts when it is hurt there. Similarly, the whole life of a sadhu is affected when his spirituality is touched.”

Sri Ramakrishna was going to the pine-grove and asked Gopal of Sinthi to take his umbrella to his room. Arrangements had been made in the Panchavati for the kirtan. When the Master had returned and taken his seat again among the devotees, the musician began her song. Suddenly there came a rain-storm. The Master went back to his room with the devotees, the musician accompanying them to continue her songs there.

MASTER (to Gopal): “Have you brought the umbrella?”

GOPAL: “No, sir. I forgot all about it while listening to the music.”

The umbrella had been left in the Panchavati and Gopal hurried to fetch it.

MASTER: “I am generally careless, but not to that extent. Rakhal also is very careless. Referring to the date of an invitation, he says ‘the eleventh’ instead of ‘the thirteenth’. And Gopal — he belongs in a heard of cows!”6

The musician sang a song about the monastic life of Chaitanya. Now and then she improvised lines: “He will not look upon a woman; for that is against the sannyasi’s duty.” “Eager to take away men’s sorrows, he will not look upon a woman.” “For the Lord’s birth as Sri Chaitanya otherwise would be in vain.”

The Master stood up, as he heard about Chaitanya’s renunciation, and went into samadhi. The devotees put garlands of flowers around his neck. Bhavanath and Rakhal supported his body lest he should fall on the ground. Vijay, Kedar, Ram, M., Latu, and the other devotees stood around him in a circle, recalling one of the scenes of Chaitanya’s kirtan.

The Master gradually came down to the sense plane. He was talking to Krishna, now and then uttering the word “Krishna”. He could not say it very distinctly because of the intensity of his spiritual emotion. He said: “Krishna! Krishna! Krishna! Krishna Satchidananda! Nowadays I do not see Your form. Now I see You both inside me and outside. I see that it is You who have become the universe, all living beings, the twenty-four cosmic principles, and everything else. You alone have become mind, intelligence, everything. It is said in the “Hymn of Salutation to the Guru’: ‘I bow down to the Guru by whose grace I have realized Him who pervades the indivisible universe of the animate and the inanimate.’

“You alone are the Indivisible. Again, it is You who pervade the universe of the animate and the inanimate. You are verily the manifold universe; again, You alone are its basis. O Krishna! You are my life. O Krishna! You are my mind. O Krishna! You are my intelligence. O Krishna! You are my soul. O Govinda! You are my life-breath. You are my life itself.”

Vijay was also in an ecstatic mood. The Master asked him, “My dear sir, have you too become unconscious?” “No, sir”, said Vijay humbly.

The music went on. The musician was singing about the blinding love of God. As she improvised the lines:

O Beloved of my soul! Within the chamber of my heart
I would have kept You day and night!

the Master again went into samadhi. His injured arm rested on Bhavanath’s shoulder.

Sri Ramakrishna partly regained outer consciousness. The musician improvised:

Why should one who, for Thy sake, has given up everything
Endure so much of suffering?

The Master bowed to the musician and sat down to listen to the music. Now and then he became abstracted. When the musician stopped singing, Sri Ramakrishna began to talk to the devotees.

MASTER (to Vijay and the others): “What is prema? He who feels it, this intense and ecstatic love of God, not only forgets the world but forgets even the body, which is so dear to all. Chaitanya experienced it.”

The Master explained this to the devotees by singing a song describing the ecstatic state of prema:

Oh, when will dawn the blessed day
When tears of joy will flow from my eyes
As I repeat Lord Hari’s name? . . .

The Master began to dance, and the devotees joined him. He caught M. by the arm and dragged him into the circle. Thus dancing, Sri Ramakrishna again went into samadhi. Standing transfixed, he looked like a picture on canvas. Kedar repeated the following hymn to bring his mind down from the plane of samadhi:

We worship the Brahman-Consciousness in the Lotus of the Heart,
The Undifrerentiated, who is adored by Hari, Hara, and Brahma;
Who is attained by yogis in the depths of their meditation;
The Scatterer of the fear of birth and death,
The Essence of Knowledge and Truth, the Primal Seed of the world.

Sri Ramakrishna gradually came back to the plane of normal consciousness. He took his seat and chanted the names of God: “Om Satchidananda! Govinda! Govinda! Govinda! Yogamaya! Bhagavata — Bhakta — Bhagavan!”

The Master took dust from the place where the kirtan had been sung and touched it to his forehead.

A little later Sri Ramakrishna was sitting on the semicircular porch facing the Ganges, the devotees sitting by his side. Now and then the Master would exclaim, “Ah, Krishnachaitanya!” (One of the names of Gauranga)

MASTER (to Vijay and the others): “There has been much chanting of the Lord’s name in the room. That is why the atmosphere has become so intense.”

BHAVANATH: “Words of renunciation, too.”

The Master said, “Ah, how thrilling!” Then he sang about Gauranga and Nityananda:

Gora bestows the Nectar of prema;
Jar after jar he pours it out,
And still there is no end!
Sweetest Nitai is summoning all;
Beloved Gora bids them come;
Shantipur is almost drowned,
And Nadia7 is flooded with prema!

MASTER (to Vijay and the others): “The musician sang rightly: ‘A sannyasi must not look at a woman.’ This is the sannyasi’s dharma. What a lofty ideal!”

VIJAY: “Yes indeed, sir.”

MASTER: “Others learn from the sannyasi’s example. That is why such strict rules are prescribed for him. A sannyasi must not look even at the portrait of a woman. What a strict rule! The slaughtering of a black goat is prescribed for the worship of the Divine Mother; but a goat with even a slight wound cannot be offered. A sannyasi must not only not have intercourse with woman; he must not even talk to her.”

VIJAY: “Young Haridas talked with a pious woman. For that reason Chaitanya banished him from his presence.”

MASTER: “A sannyasi associated with ‘woman and gold’ is like a beautiful damsel with a bad odour. The odour makes her beauty useless.

“Once a Marwari devotee wanted to give me some money. Mathur wanted to deed me some land. But I couldn’t accept either.

“The rules for the life of a sannyasi are very strict indeed. If a man takes the garb of a sannyasi, he must act exactly like one. Haven’t you noticed in the theatre that the man who takes the part of the king acts like a king, and the man who takes the part of a minister acts like a minister?

“But on attaining the state of the paramahamsa one becomes like a child. A child five years old doesn’t know the difference between a man and a woman. But even a paramahamsa must be careful, so as not to set a bad example to others.”

Referring to Keshab’s association with “woman and gold”, which had hindered his work as a spiritual teacher, Sri Ramakrishna said to Vijay, “He — do you understand?”

VIJAY: “Yes, sir.”

MASTER: “He couldn’t achieve very much because he wanted to satisfy both God and the world.”

VIJAY: “Chaitanya said to Nityananda: ‘Nitai, I shall not be able to do the people any good unless I renounce the world. All will imitate me and want to lead the life of a householder. No one will try to direct his whole mind to the Lotus Feet of God, renouncing “woman and gold”.'”

MASTER: “Yes. Chaitanyadeva renounced the world to set an example to mankind.

“The sannyasi must renounce ‘woman and gold’ for his own welfare. Even if he is unattached, and consequently not in danger, still, in order to set an example to others, he must not keep ‘woman and gold’ near him. The sannyasi, the man of renunciation, is a world teacher. It is his example that awakens the spiritual consciousness of men.”

It was nearly dusk. The devotees saluted the Master and took their leave.