Master's Prayer

Then he said:

To my Divine Mother I prayed only for pure love. I offered flowers at Her Lotus Feet and prayed to Her: ‘Mother, here is Thy virtue, here is Thy vice. Take them both and grant me only pure love for Thee. Here is Thy knowledge, here is Thy ignorance. Take them both and grant me only pure love for Thee. Here is Thy purity, here is Thy impurity. Take them both, Mother, and grant me only pure love for Thee. Here is Thy dharma, here is Thy adharma. Take them both, Mother, and grant me only pure love for Thee.’

(To the Brahmo devotees) “Now listen to a song by Ramprasad: Come, let us go for a walk, O mind, to Kāli, the Wish-fulfilling Tree,

And there beneath It gather the four fruits of life.

Of your two wives, Dispassion and Worldliness,

Bring alone Dispassion only, on your way to the Tree,

And ask her son Discrimination about the Truth.

When will you learn to lie, O mind, in the abode of Blessedness, With Cleanliness and Defilement on either side of you? Only when you have found the way To keep these wives contentedly under a single roof, Will you behold the matchless form of Mother Syama. Ego and Ignorance, your parents, instantly banish from your sight;

And should Delusion seek to drag you to its hole, Manfully cling to the pillar of Patience. Tie to the post of Unconcern the goats of Vice and Virtue, Killing them with the sword of Knowledge if they rebel. With the children of Worldliness, your first wife, plead from a goodly distance,

And, if they will not listen, drown them in Wisdom’s sea.

Says Ramprasad: If you do as I say, You can submit a good account, O mind, to the King of Death, And I shall be well pleased with you and call you my darling. “Why shouldn’t one be able to realize God in this world? King Janaka had such realization. Ramprasad described the world as a mere ‘framework of illusion’. But if one loves God’s hallowed feet, then- This very world is a mansion of mirth; Here I can eat, here drink and make merry. Janaka’s might was unsurpassed; What did he lack of the world or the Spirit? Holding to one as well as the other, He drank his milk from a brimming cup!

(All laugh.)

“But one cannot be a King Janaka all of a sudden. Janaka at first practised much austerity in solitude.

Solitude for householders

Even if one lives in the world, one must go into solitude now and then.

It will be of great help to a man if he goes away from his family, lives alone, and weeps for God even for 3 days.

Even if he thinks of God for one day in solitude, when he has the leisure, that too will do him good. People shed a whole jug of tears for wife and children.

But who cries for the Lord?

Now and then one must go into solitude and practise spiritual discipline to realize God. Living in the world and entangled in many of its duties, the aspirant, during the first stage of spiritual life, finds many obstacles in the path of concentration.

While the trees on the foot-path are young, they must he fenced around. Otherwise they will be destroyed by cattle. The fence is necessary when the tree is young, but it can be taken away when the trunk is thick and strong. Then the tree won’t be hurt even if an elephant is tied to it.

Malady of worldly people and its cure

“The disease of worldliness is like typhoid. And there are a huge jug of water and a jar of savoury pickles in the typhoid patient’s room. If you want to cure him of his illness, you must remove him from that room. The worldly man is like the typhoid patient.

The various objects of enjoyment are the huge jug of water, and the craving for their enjoyment is his thirst. The very thought of pickles makes the mouth water; you don’t have to bring them near. And he is surrounded with them. The companionship of woman is the pickles.

Hence treatment in solitude is necessary.

“One may enter the world after attaining discrimination and dispassion. In the ocean of the world there are six alligators: lust, anger, and so forth. But you need not fear the alligators if you smear your body with turmeric before you go into the water. 154Discrimination and dispassion are the turmeric. Discrimination is the knowledge of what is real and what is unreal. It is the realization that God alone is the real and eternal Substance and that all else is unreal, transitory, impermanent. And you must cultivate intense zeal for God. You must feel love for Him and be attracted to Him. The gopis of Vrindāvan felt the attraction of Krishna. Let me sing you a song: Listen! The flute has sounded in yonder wood. There I must fly, for Krishna waits on the path. Tell me, friends, will you come along or no? To you my Krishna is merely an empty name; To me He is the anguish of my heart. You hear His flute-notes onlv with your ears, But, oh, I hear them in my deepest soul. I hear His flute calling: ‘Radha come out! Without you the grove is shorn of its loveliness.’ " The Master sang the song with tears in his eyes, and said to Keshab and the other Brahmo devotees: “Whether you accept Radha and Krishna, or not, please do accept their attraction for each other. Try to create that same yearning in your heart for God. Yearning is all you need in order to realize Him.”

Gradually the ebb-tide set in. The steamboat was speeding toward Calcutta. It passed under the Howrah Bridge and came within sight of the Botanical Garden. The captain was asked to go a little farther down the river. The passengers were enchanted with the Master’s words, and most of them had no idea of time or of how far they had come.

Keshab began to serve some puffed rice and grated coconut. The guests held these in the folds of their wearing-cloths and presently started to eat. Everyone was joyful. The Master noticed, however, that Keshab and Vijay rather shrank from each other, and he was anxious to reconcile them.

Disagreements necessary for enriching life

MASTER (to Keshab): “Look here. There is Vijay. Your quarrel seems like the fight between Śiva and Rama. Śiva was Rama’s s guru. Though they fought with each other, yet they soon came to terms. But the grimaces of the ghosts, the followers of Śiva, and the gibberish of the monkeys, the followers of Rama, would not come to an end!

(Loud laughter.)

Such quarrels take place even among one’s own kith and kin. Didn’t Rama fight with His own sons, Lava and Kusa? Again, you must have noticed how a mother and daughter, living together and having the same spiritual end in view, observe their religious fast separately on Tuesdays, each on her own account-as if the welfare of the mother were different from the welfare of the daughter. But what benefits the one benefits the other.

In like manner, you have a religious society, and Vijay thinks he must have one too. (Laughter.) But I think all these are necessary. While Sri Krishna, Himself God Incarnate, played with the gopis at Vrindāvan, trouble-makers like Jatila and Kutila appeared on the scene.

You may ask why. The answer is that the play does not develop without trouble-makers. (All laugh.) There is no fun without Jatila and Kutila.

(Loud laughter.)

Ramanuja upheld the doctrine of Qualified Non-dualism. But his guru was a pure non-dualist. They disagreed with each other and refuted each other’s arguments. That always happens. Still, to the teacher the disciple is his own.” All rejoiced in the Mastcr’s company and his words.

MASTER (to Keshab): “You don’t look into people’s natures, before you make them your disciples, and so they break away from you.

“All men look alike, to be sure, but they have different natures. Some have an excess of sattva, others an excess of rajas, and still others an excess of tamas. You must have noticed that the cakes known as puli all look alike. But their contents are very different.

Some contain condensed milk, some coconut kernel, and others mere boiled kalai pulse.

(All laugh)

Master’s humility

“Do you know my attitude? As for myself, I eat, drink, and live happily. The rest the Divine Mother knows. Indeed, there are three words that prick my flesh: ‘guru’, ‘master’, and ‘father’.

“There is only one Guru, and that is Satchidananda. He alone is the Teacher. My attitude toward God is that of a child toward its mother. One can get human gurus by the million. All want to be teachers. But who cares to be a disciple?