Superphysics
God and Worldly Duties
10 minutes • 2058 words
Table of contents
(to M.): “The mind of the yogi is always fixed on God, always absorbed in the Self. You can recognize such a man by merely looking at him. His eyes are wide open, with an aimless look, like the eyes of the mother bird hatching her eggs. Her entire mind is fixed on the eggs, and there is a vacant look in her eyes. Can you show me such a picture?
M: “I shall try to get one.”
As evening came on, the temples were lighted up. Sri Ramakrishna was seated on his small couch, meditating on the Divine Mother. Then he chanted the names of God. Incense was burnt in the room, where an oil lamp had been lighted. Sounds of conch-shells and gongs came floating on the air as the evening worship began in the temple of Kāli. The light of the moon flooded all the quarters. The Master again spoke to M.
God and worldly duties
Perform your duties in an unselfish spirit. The work that Vidyasagar is engaged in is very good. Always try to perform your duties without desiring any result.
M: “Yes, sir. But may I know if one can realize God while performing one’s duties? Can ‘Rama’ and ‘desire’ coexist? The other day I read in a Hindi couplet: ‘Where Rama is, there desire cannot be; where desire is, there Rama cannot be.’ "
MASTER: “All, without exception, perform work. Even to chant the name and glories of God is work, as is the meditation of the non-dualist on ‘I am He’. Breathing is also an activity. There is no way of renouncing work altogether. So do your work, but surrender the result to God.”
M: “Sir, may I make an effort to earn more money?”
MASTER: “It is permissible to do so to maintain a religious family. You may try to increase your income, but in an honest way. The goal of life is not the earning of money, but the service of God. Money is not harmful if it is devoted to the service of God.”
M: “How long should a man feel obliged to do his duty toward his wife and children?”
MASTER: “As long as they feel pinched for food and clothing. But one need not take the responsibility of a son when he is able to support himself. When the young fledgling learns to pick its own food, its mother pecks it if it comes to her for food.”
M: “How long must one do one’s duty?”
The blossom drops off when the fruit appears. One doesn’t have to do one’s duty after the attainment of God, nor does one feel like doing it then.
“If a drunkard takes too much liquor he cannot retain consciousness. If he takes only 2 glasses, he can go on with his work. As you advance nearer and nearer to God, He will reduce your activities little by little. Have no fear.
Finish the few duties you have at hand, and then you will have peace. When the mistress of the house goes to bathe after finishing her cooking and other household duties, she won’t come back, however you may shout after her.”
Different groups of devotees
M: “Sir, what is the meaning of the realization of God? What do you mean by God-vision? How does one attain it?”
According to the Vaishnavas the aspirants and the seers of God may be divided into different groups. These are the pravartaka, the sadhaka, the siddha, and the siddha of the siddha.
He who has just set foot on the path may be called a pravartaka. He may be called a sadhaka who has for some time been practising spiritual disciplines, such as worship, japa, meditation, and the chanting of God’s name and glories.
He may be called a siddha who has known from his inner experience that God exists. An analogy is given in the Vedanta to explain this. The master of the house is asleep in a dark room. Someone is groping in the darkness to find him. He touches the couch and says, ‘No, it is not he.’
He touches the window and says, ‘No, it is not he.’ He touches the door and says, ‘No, it is not he.’ This is known in the Vedanta as the process of ‘Neti, neti’, ‘Not this, not this’. At last his hand touches the master’s body and he exclaims, ‘Here he is!’ In other words, he is now conscious of the ’existence’ of the master. He has found him, but he doesn’t yet know him intimately.
There is another type, known as the siddha of the siddha, the ‘supremely perfect’. It is quite a different thing when one talks to the master intimately, when one knows God very intimately through love and devotion. A siddha has undoubtedly attained God, but the ‘supremely perfect’ has known God very intimately.
Different moods of aspirants
But in order to realize God, one must assume one of these attitudes: Śānta, Dāsya, sakhya, Vātsalya, or Madhur. “Śānta, the serene attitude. The rishis of olden times had this attitude toward God.
They did not desire any worldly enjoyment. It is like the single-minded devotion of a wife to her husband. She knows that her husband is the embodiment of beauty and love, a veritable Madan.
Dāsya, the attitude of a servant toward his master. Hanuman had this attitude toward Rama. He felt the strength of a lion when he worked for Rama. A wife feels this mood also. She serves her husband with all her heart and soul. A mother also has a little of this attitude, as Yaśoda had toward Krishna.
Sakhya, the attitude of friendship. Friends say to one another, ‘Come here and sit near me.’ Sridāmā and other friends sometimes fed Krishna with fruit, part of which they had already eaten, and sometimes climbed on His shoulders.
Vātsalya, the attitude of a mother toward her child.
This was Yaśoda’s attitude toward Krishna. The wife, too, has a little of this. She feeds her husband with her very life- blood, as it were. The mother feels happy only when the child has eaten to his heart’s content. Yaśoda would roam about with butter in her hand, in order to feed Krishna. “Madhur, the attitude of a woman toward her paramour. Radha had this attitude toward Krishna. The wife also feels it for her husband. This attitude includes all the other four.”
M: “When one sees God does one see Him with these eyes?”
God cannot be seen with these physical eyes. In the course of spiritual discipline one gets a ’love body’, endowed with ’love eyes’, ’love ears’, and so on. One sees God with those ’love eyes’. One hears the voice of God with those ’love ears’. One even gets a sexual organ made of love."
At these words M. burst out laughing. The Master continued, unannoyed, “With this ’love body’ the soul communes with God.”
M. again became serious.
Seeing God everywhere
But this is not possible without intense love of God. One sees nothing but God everywhere when one loves Him with great intensity. It is like a person with jaundice, who sees everything yellow. Then one feels, ‘I am verily He’. “A drunkard, deeply intoxicated, says, ‘Verily I am Kāli!’ The gopis, intoxicated with love, exclaimed, ‘Verily I am Krishna!’
“One who thinks of God, day and night, beholds Him everywhere. It is like a man’s seeing flames on all sides after he has gazed fixedly at one flame for some time.”
“But that isn’t the real flame”, flashed through M.’s mind. Sri Ramakrishna, who could read a man’s inmost thought, said: “One doesn’t lose consciousness by thinking of Him who is all Spirit, all Consciousness. Shivanath once remarked that too much thinking about God confounds the brain. Thereupon I said to him, ‘How can one become unconscious by thinking of Consciousness?’ "
M: “Yes, sir, I realize that. It isn’t like thinking of an unreal object. How can a man lose his intelligence if he always fixes his mind on Him whose very nature is eternal Intelligence?”
(with pleasure): “It is through God’s grace that you understand that. The doubts of the mind will not disappear without His grace. Doubts do not disappear without Self-realization.
“But one need not fear anything if one has received the grace of God. It is rather easy for a child to stumble if he holds his father’s hand; but there can be no such fear if the father holds the child’s hand. A man does not have to suffer any more if God, in His grace, removes his doubts and reveals Himself to him.
But this grace descends upon him only after he has prayed to God with intense yearning of heart and practised spiritual discipline. The mother feels compassion for her child when she sees him running about breathlessly. She has been hiding herself; now she appears before the child.”
“But why should God make us run about?” thought M
Immediately Sri Ramakrishna said: “It is His will that we should run about a little. Then it is great fun. God has created the world in play, as it were. This is called Mahamaya, the Great Illusion. Therefore one must take refuge in the Divine Mother, the Cosmic Power Itself.
It is She who has bound us with the shackles of illusion. The realization of God is possible only when those shackles are severed.”
Worship of the Divine Mother
One must propitiate the Divine Mother, the Primal Energy, in order to obtain God’s grace. God Himself is Mahamaya, who deludes the world with Her illusion and conjures up the magic of creation, preservation, and destruction.
She has spread this veil of ignorance before our eyes. We can go into the inner chamber only when She lets us pass through the door. Living outside, we see only outer objects, but not that Eternal Being, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute. Therefore it is stated in the purna that deities like Brahma praised Mahamaya for the destruction of the demons Madhu and Kaitabha.
Śakti alone is the root of the universe. That Primal Energy has two aspects: vidyā and avidyā. Avidyā deludes. Avidyā conjures up ‘woman and gold’, which casts the spell.
Vidyā begets devotion, kindness, wisdom, and love, which lead one to God. This avidyā must be propitiated, and that is the purpose of the rites of Śakti worship.
“The devotee assumes various attitudes toward Śakti in order to propitiate Her: the attitude of a handmaid, a ‘hero’, or a child. A hero’s attitude is to please Her even as a man pleases a woman through intercourse. “The worship of Śakti is extremely difficult. It is no joke.
I passed two years as the handmaid and companion of the Divine Mother. But my natural attitude has always been that of a child toward its mother. I regard the breasts of any woman as those of my own mother.
Master’s attitude toward women
“Women are, all of them, the veritable images of Śakti. In northwest India the bride holds a knife in her hand at the time of marriage; in Bengal, a nut-cutter. The meaning is that the bridegroom, with the help of the bride, who is the embodiment of the Divine Power, will sever the bondage of illusion. This is the ‘heroic’ attitude. I never worshipped the Divine Mother that way. My attitude toward Her is that of a child toward its mother.
“The bride is the very embodiment of Śakti. Haven’t you noticed, at the marriage ceremony, how the groom sits behind like an idiot? But the bride - she is so bold!
His love for Narendra
After attaining God one forgets His external splendour; the glories of His creation. One doesn’t think of God’s glories after one has seen Him. The devotee, once immersed in God’s Bliss, doesn’t calculate any more about outer things. When I see Narendra, I don’t need to ask him: ‘What’s your name? Where do you live?’ Where is the time for such questions? Once a man asked Hanuman which day of the fortnight it was.
‘Brother,’ said Hanuman, ‘I don’t know anything of the day of the week, or the fortnight, or the position of the stars. I think of Rama alone.’ "
