Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

IT WAS THE DAY of the Rathayatra, the Car Festival of the Hindus. At Ishan’s invitation Sri Ramakrishna went to his house in Calcutta. For some time the Master had had a desire to meet Pundit Shashadhar Tarkachudamani, who had been staying with one of Ishan’s neighbours. So it was decided that he would visit the pundit in the afternoon.

A few devotees, including Hazra, accompanied the Master to Ishan’s house. Ishan had invited one or two brahmin scholars and a devotee who followed the Tantrik method of worship. Shrish and Ishan’s other sons were also present.

The Master noticed that the Tantrik worshipper had a vermilion mark on his forehead, and smilingly said, “I see he is branded.”

After a while M. and Narendra arrived and bowed before Sri Ramakrishna. The Master had previously informed M. that he would be at Ishan’s house.

The Master joked about the delay in serving their meal. One of the scholars quoted a Sanskrit verse about the anxiety created in people’s minds by the pangs of hunger. Proceeding to explain the verse he said: “The study of philosophy is indeed edifying, but poetry is more fascinating than philosophy. People listening to good poems think of the study of philosophy — Vedanta, Nyaya, Samkhya, and so forth — as dry and insipid. Again, music is more attractive than poetry. Music melts even a heart of stone. But a beautiful woman has an even greater attraction for a man’s heart than music. Such a woman, passing by, diverts a man’s attention from both poetry and music. But when a man feels the pangs of hunger, everything else — poetry, music, and woman — appears as of no consequence. Thus hunger is the most arresting thing.”

The Master remarked with a smile, “The pundit is witty.”

Soon Narendra began to sing. A few moments later the Master went upstairs for a little rest. M. and Shrish accompanied him. M. introduced Shrish to the Master, saying: “He is a scholar and a man of peaceful nature. We were fellow students in our boyhood. Now he is a lawyer.”

MASTER: “It is a pity that such a man should practise law.”

M: “Yes, sir. It was a mistake on his part.”

MASTER: “I know a few lawyers. One of them shows me great respect. He is a straightforward man. (To Shrish) What is your idea about the most essential thing in life?”

SHRISH: “God exists and He alone does everything. But the attributes we ascribe to Him are not the right ones. How can a man conceive of Him? His nature is infinite.”

MASTER: “What need is there of your counting the number of trees and branches in an orchard? You have come to the orchard to eat mangoes. Do that and be happy. The aim of human birth is to love God. Realize that love and be at peace.

“Suppose you have entered a tavern for a drink. Is it necessary for you to know how many gallons of wine there are in the tavern? One glass is enough for you. What need is there of your knowing the infinite qualities of God? You may discriminate for millions of years about God’s attributes and still you will not know them.”

The Master remained silent a few minutes. A brahmin pundit came into the room.

MASTER (to M.): “There is no substance whatsoever in the worldly life. The members of Ishan’s family are good; so he has some peace here. Suppose his sons had been lewd, disobedient, and addicted to drink and other vices. Then there would have been no end to his troubles. One very seldom comes across such a religious family, in which all the members are devoted to God. I have seen only two or three such families. Generally one finds quarrels, misunderstanding, jealousy, and friction. Besides, there are disease, grief, and poverty in the world. Seeing this condition, I prayed to the Divine Mother, ‘O Mother, turn my mind at once from the world to God.’

“Look at Narendra’s troubles. His father is dead and the members of his family are starving. He has been trying his utmost to secure a position, but he has not yet found one. Just see how unsettled his mind is!

(To M.) “You used to come to Dakshineswar very frequently. But why have you become such a rare visitor? Perhaps you have become particularly friendly with your wife. Is it true? Why should I blame you? The influence of ‘woman and gold’ is everywhere. Therefore I pray, ‘O Divine Mother, please don’t make me a worldly man if I am to be born again in a human body.'”

BRAHMIN SCHOLAR: “Why should you say that, sir? The scriptures extol the life of a householder.”

MASTER: “Yes, that is true. But it is very difficult to lead the true life of a householder. (To M.) How wrong of us! They are singing, especially Narendra, and we have left the room.”

About four o’clock in the afternoon the Master left in a carriage for the house where Pundit Shashadhar was staying. As soon as Sri Ramakrishna got into the carriage he went into samadhi. His physical frame was very tender as a result of the austerities he had undergone during the long years of his spiritual discipline and his constant absorption in God-Consciousness. The Master would suffer from the slightest physical discomfort and even from the vibration of worldly thoughts around him. Once Keshab Chandra Sen had said that Sri Ramakrishna, Christ, and Sri Chaitanya belonged to a delicate species of humanity that should be kept in a glass case and protected from the vulgar contact of the world.

It was the rainy season, and a fine drizzle of rain had made the road muddy. The sky was overcast. The devotees followed the carriage on foot. As the carriage stopped in front of the house, the host and his relatives welcomed the Master and took him upstairs to the drawing-room. There the Master met the pundit.

Pundit Shashadhar, a man of fair complexion and no longer young, had a string of rudraksha beads around his neck. He was one of the renowned Sanskrit scholars of his time — a pillar of orthodox Hinduism, which had reasserted itself after the first wave of Christianity and Western culture had passed over Hindu society. His clear exposition of the Hindu scriptures, his ringing sincerity, and his stirring eloquence had brought back a large number of the educated young Hindus of Bengal to the religion of their forefathers.

The pundit saluted the Master with reverence. Narendra, Rakhal, Ram, Hazra, and M., who had come with the Master, seated themselves in the room as near the Master as they could, anxious not to miss one of his words.

At the sight of the pundit the Master again went into samadhi. After a while, still remaining in that state, he looked at the pundit and said with a smile, “Very well, very well.” Then, addressing the pundit, the Master said, “Tell me how you give lectures.”

PUNDIT: “Sir, I try to explain the teachings of the Hindu scriptures.”

MASTER: “For the Kaliyuga the path of devotion described by Narada is best. Where can people find time now to perform their duties according to the scriptural injunctions? Nowadays the decoctions of roots and herbs of the orthodox Hindu physicians cannot be given to a fever patient. By the time that kind of medicine begins its slow process of curing, the patient is done for. Therefore only a drastic medicine like the allopathic ‘fever mixture’ is effective now. You may ask people to practise scriptural rites and rituals; but, when prescribing the rituals, remove the ‘head and tail’.1 I tell people not to bother about the elaborate rituals of the sandhya as enjoined in the scriptures. I say that it will be enough for them to repeat the Gayatri alone. If you must give instruction about scriptural ceremonies, do so only to a very few, like Ishan.

“You may deliver thousands of lectures, but they won’t make the slightest impression on worldly people. Can one drive a nail into a stone wall? The point of the nail will sooner break than make a dent in the stone. What will you gain by striking the tough skin of the crocodile with a sword? The sadhu’s water-bowl, made from the shell of a bitter gourd, may visit the four principal holy places of India with its owner, but it will still remain as bitter as ever. Your lectures are not helping worldly people very much; and you will realize this by and by. The calf cannot stand on its legs all at once. Now it drops to the ground and now it stands up. So it learns to stand firmly on its legs and walk.

“You cannot distinguish a lover of God from a worldly person. It isn’t your fault, of course. When the first onrush of the gale shakes the trees, it is impossible to distinguish one tree from another — the mango from the tamarind, for instance.

“Without having realized God one cannot give up rituals altogether. How long should one practise the sandhya and other forms of ritualistic worship? As long as one does not shed tears of joy at the name of God and feel a thrill in one’s body. You will know that your ritualistic worship has come to an end when your eyes become filled with tears as you repeat ‘Om Rama’. Then you do not have to continue your sandhya or other rituals.

“When the fruit appears the blossom drops off. Love of God is the fruit, and rituals are the blossom. When the daughter-in-law of the house becomes pregnant, she cannot do much work. Her mother-in-law gradually lessens her duties in the house. When her time arrives she does practically nothing. And after the child is born her only work is to play with it. She doesn’t do any household duties at all. The sandhya merges in the Gayatri, the Gayatri in Om, and Om in samadhi. It is like the sound of a bell: t — a — m. The yogi, by following in the trail of the sound Om, gradually merges himself in the Supreme Brahman. His sandhya and other ritualistic duties disappear in samadhi. Thus the duties of the jnani come to an end.”

As the Master talked of samadhi, he himself went into that state. His face radiated a heavenly light. Bereft of outer consciousness, he could not utter another word. His gaze was indrawn and transfixed in communion with the Self. After a long time the Master began to recognize the world around him and said, like a child, “I shall have a drink of water.” Whenever after samadhi the Master asked for a drink of water, his devotees knew that he was gradually becoming conscious of the outer world.

Still lingering in the state of ecstasy, he said to the Divine Mother: “O Mother, the other day You showed me Pundit Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar. Then I told You that I should like to see another pundit, and so You have brought me here.”

Looking at the pundit, he said: “My child, add a little more to your strength. Practise spiritual discipline a few days more. You have hardly set your foot on the tree, yet you expect to lay hold of a big cluster of fruit. But, of course, you are doing all this for the welfare of others.” With these words he bowed his head before the pundit.

The Master continued: “When I first heard about you, I inquired whether you were merely erudite or whether you had discrimination and renunciation. A pundit who doesn’t know how to discriminate between the Real and the unreal is no pundit at all.

“There is no harm in teaching others if the preacher has a commission from the Lord. Nobody can confound a preacher who teaches people after having received the command of God. Getting a ray of light from the goddess of learning, a man becomes so powerful that before him big scholars seem mere earthworms.

“When the lamp is lighted the moths come in swarms. They don’t have to he invited. In the same way, the preacher who has a commission from God need not invite people to hear him. He doesn’t have to announce the time of his lectures. He possesses such irresistible attraction that people come to him of their own accord. People of all classes, even kings and aristocrats, gather around him. They say to him: ‘Revered sir, what can we offer you? Here are mangoes, sweets, money, shawls, and other things. What will you be pleased to accept?’ In that case I say to them: ‘Go away. I don’t care for these. I don’t want anything.’

“Does the magnet say to the iron, ‘Come near me?’ That is not necessary. Because of the attraction of the magnet, the iron rushes to it.

“Such a preacher may not be a scholarly person, but don’t conclude from that that he has any lack of wisdom. Does book-learning make one wise? He who has a commission from God never runs short of wisdom. That wisdom comes from God; it is inexhaustible. At Kamarpukur I have seen people measuring grain. It lies in a heap. One man keeps pushing grain from the heap toward another man, who weighs it on a scales. So the man who weighs doesn’t run short of grain. It is the same with the preacher who has received a commission from God. As he teaches people, the Divine Mother Herself supplies him with fresh knowledge from behind. That knowledge never comes to an end.

“Can a preacher ever lack knowledge if but once he is favoured with a benign glance from the Divine Mother? Therefore I ask you whether you have received any commission from God.”

HAZRA: “Oh yes, he must have it. (To the pundit) Isn’t it true, sir?”

PUNDIT: “Commission? No, sir, I am afraid I haven’t received any such thing.”

HOST: “He may not have received the commission, but he preaches from a sense of duty.”

MASTER: “What will a man accomplish by mere lectures without the commission from God? Once a Brahmo preacher said in the course of his sermon, ‘Friends, how much I used to drink!’ and so on. Hearing this the people began to whisper among themselves: ‘What is this fool saying? He used to drink!’ Now these words produced a very unfavourable effect. This shows that preaching cannot bring a good result unless it comes from a good man.

“A high government official from Barisal once said to me, ‘Sir, if you begin the work of preaching, I too shall gird my loins.’ I told him the story of people’s dirtying the bank of the 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’s many a Hanumanpuri (a noted wrestler of the time) in Calcutta. It is with them that you will have to wrestle. (Pointing to the people assembled there) These are mere sheep!

“Chaitanyadeva was an Incarnation of God. How little is left of what he accomplished — not to speak of a lecturer who preaches without authority from God! What good will a lecturer do?

“Therefore I say to you, dive deep in God-Consciousness.”