A Devotee's Dream

When the song was over, the Master walked up and down the northeast verandah, where Hazra was seated with M. The Master sat down there. He asked a devotee, “Do you ever have dreams?”

Shortly before midnight Narendra and the other devotees lay down on a bed made on the floor of the Master’s room.

At dawn some of the devotees were up. They saw the Master, naked as a child, pacingup and down the room, repeating the names of the various gods and goddesses. His voice was sweet as nectar. Now he would look at the Ganges, now stop in front of the pictures hanging on the wall and bow down before them, chanting all the while the holy names in his sweet voice. He chanted: “Veda, Purana, Tantra; Gita, Gayatri; Bhagavata, Bhakta, Bhagavan.” Referring to the Gita, he repeated many times, “Tagi, tagi, tagi.”

Now and then he would say: “O Mother, Thou art verily Brahman, and Thou art verily Śakti. Thou art Purusha and Thou art Prakriti. Thou art Virat. Thou art the Absolute, and Thou dost manifest Thyself as the Relative. Thou art verily the twenty-four cosmic principles.”

In the mean time the morning service had begun in the temples of Kāli and Radhakanta.

Sounds of conch-shells and cymbals were carried on the air. The devotees came outside the room and saw the priests and servants gathering flowers in the garden for the divine service in the temples. From the nahabat floated the sweet melody of musical instruments, befitting the morning hours.

Narendra and the other devotees finished their morning duties and came to the Master.

With a sweet smile on his lips Sri Ramakrishna was standing on the northeast verandah, close to his own room.

NARENDRA: “We noticed several sannyasis belonging to the sect of Nanak in the Panchavati.”

As they sat there the Master looked at them with evident delight. He then began to talk with them. Narendra asked about spiritual discipline.

Disciplines of Tantra

NARENDRA: “Isn’t it true that the Tantra prescribes spiritual discipline in the company of woman?”

The sannyasis belonging to the sect of Nanak entered the room and greeted the Master, saying, “Namo Narayanaya.” Sri Ramakrishna asked them to sit down.

All is possible with God

At 9am, while the Master was still sitting in his room, Manomohan arrived from Konnagar with some members of his family. In answer to Sri Ramakrishna’s kind inquiries, Manomohan explained that he was taking them to Calcutta. The Master said: “Today is the first day of the Bengali month, an inauspicious day for undertaking a journey. I hope everything will be well with you.” With a smile he began to talk of other matters.

When Narendra and his friends had finished bathing in the Ganges, the Master said to them earnestly: “Go to the Panchavati and meditate there under the banyan-tree. Shall

I give you something to sit on?”

Discrimination and dispassion

About half past ten Narendra and his Brahmo friends were meditating in the Panchavati. After a while Sri Ramakrishna came to them. M., too, was present.

The Master said to the Brahmo devotees: “In meditation one must be absorbed in God. By merely floating on the surface of the water, can you reach the gems lying at the bottom of the sea?”

Then he sang:

Taking the name of Kāli, dive deep down, O mind, Into the heart’s fathomless depths, Where many a precious gem lies hid. But never believe the bed of the ocean bare of gems If in the first few dives you fail; With firm resolve and self-control Dive deep and make your way to Mother Kāli’s realm. Down in the ocean depths of heavenly Wisdom lie The wondrous pearls of Peace, O mind; And you yourself can gather them, If you but have pure love and follow the scriptures’ rule. Within those ocean depths, as well, Six alligators, lurk - lust, anger, and the rest - Swimming about in search of prey. Smear yourself with the turmeric of discrimination; The very smell of it will shield you from their jaws. Upon the ocean bed lie strewn Unnumbered pearls and precious gems;

Plunge in, says Ramprasad, and gather up handfuls there!

Narendra and his friends came down from their seats on the raised platform of the Panchavati and stood near the Master. He returned to his room with them. The Master continued:

“When you plunge in the water of the ocean, you may be attacked by alligators. But they won’t touch you if your body is smeared with turmeric. The 6 alligators - lust, anger, avarice, and so on - within you, in the ‘heart’s fathomless depths’. But protect yourself with the turmeric of discrimination and renunciation, and they won’t touch you.

Futility of mere lecturing

What can you achieve by mere lecturing and scholarship without discrimination and dispassion? God alone is real, and all else is unreal. God alone is substance, and all else is nonentity. That is discrimination.

First of all set up God in the shrine of your heart, and then deliver lectures as much as you like. How will the mere repetition of ‘Brahma’ profit you if you are not imbued with discrimination and dispassion? It is the empty sound of a conch-shell.

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. Aśwattha 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.

Filth and dirt lay everywhere. Then he shouted to Podo:

You have set up 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.

Purification of mind

There is no use in merely 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. But nobody wants to plunge. People are without spiritual discipline and prayer, without renunciation and dispassion. They learn a few words and immediately start to deliver lectures. It is difficult to teach others. Only if a man gets a command from God, after realizing Him, is he entitled to teach.”

Thus conversing, the Master came to the west end of the verandah. M stood by his side. Sri Ramakrishna had repeated again and again that God cannot be realized without discrimination and renunciation. This made M. extremely worried. He had married and was then a young man of 28, educated in college in the Western way.

Having a sense of duty, he asked himself, “Do discrimination and dispassion mean giving up ‘woman and gold’?” He was really at a loss to know what to do.

M. (to the Master): “What should one do if one’s wife says: ‘You are neglecting me. I shall commit suicide?’ "

Immersed in deep thought, M. stood leaning against the wall.

Narendra and the other devotees remained silent a few minutes. The Master exchanged several words with them; then, suddenly going to M., he whispered in his ear: “But if a man has sincere love for God, then all come under his control - the king, wicked persons, and his wife.

Sincere love of God on the husband’s part may eventually help the wife to lead a spiritual life. If the husband is good, then through the grace of God the wife may also follow his example.”

This had a most soothing effect on M.’s worried mind. thinking: “Let her commit suicide. What can I do?” All the while he had been M. (to the Master): “This world is a terrible place.”

On another occasion the Master had said to M. privately: “Yes, there is no hope for a worldly man if he is not sincerely devoted to God. But he has nothing to fear if he remains in the world after realizing God. Nor need a man have any fear whatever of the world if he attains sincere devotion by practising spiritual discipline now and then in solitude. Chaitanya had several householders among his devotees, but they were householders in name only, for they lived unattached to the world.”

It was noon. The worship was over, and food offerings had been made in the temple. The doors of the temple were shut. Sri Ramakrishna sat down for his meal, and Narendra and the other devotees partook of the food offerings from the temple.

Sunday, October 22, 1882

It was the day of Vijaya, the last day of the celebration of the worship of Durga, when the clay image is immersed in the water of a lake or river.

About nine o’clock in the morning M. was seated on the floor of the Master’s room at Dakshineswar, near Sri Ramakrishna, who was reclining on the small couch. Rakhal was then living with the Master, and Narendra and Bhavanath visited him frequently. Baburam had seen him only once or twice.

MASTER: “Did you have any holiday during the Durga Puja?”

M: “Yes, sir. I went to Keshab’s house every day for the first three days of the worship.”

MASTER: “Is that so?”

M: “I heard there a very interesting interpretation of the Durga Puja.”

MASTER: “Please tell me all about it.”

M: “Keshab Sen held daily morning prayers in his house, lasting till 11.

During these prayers he gave the inner meaning of the Durga Puja. He said that if anyone could realize the Divine Mother, that is to say, could install Mother Durga in the shrine of his heart, then Lakshmi, Sarasvati, Kartika, and Ganesa would come there of themselves. Lakshmi means wealth, Sarasvati knowledge, Kartika strength, and Ganesa success. By realizing the Divine Mother within one’s heart, one gets all these without any effort whatever.”

Sri Ramakrishna listened to the description, questioning M. now and then about the prayers conducted by Keshab. At last he said to M.: “Don’t go hither and thither. Come here alone. Those who belong to the inner circle of my devotees will come only here. Boys like Narendra, Bhavanath, and Rakhal are my very intimate disciples. They are not to be thought lightly of. Feed them one day. What do you think of Narendra?”

M: “I think very highly of him, sir.”

MASTER: “Haven’t you observed his many virtues? He is not only well versed in music, vocal and instrumental, but he is also very learned. Besides, he has controlled his passions and declares he will lead a celibate life. He has been devoted to God since his very boyhood.