Superphysics
The Master With The Brahmo Devotees
7 minutes • 1373 words
Table of contents
October 28, 1882
IT WAS SATURDAY. The semi-annual Brahmo festival, celebrated each autumn and spring, was being held in Benimadhav Pal’s beautiful garden house at Sinthi, about three miles north of Calcutta. The house stood in a secluded place suited for contemplation.
Trees laden with flowers, artificial lakes with grassy banks, and green arbours enhanced the beauty of the grounds. Just as the fleecy clouds were turning gold in the light of the setting sun, the Master arrived.
Many devotees had attended the morning devotions, and in the afternoon people from Calcutta and the neighbouring villages joined them. Shivanath, the great Brahmo devotee whom the Master loved dearly, was one of the large gathering of members of the Brahmo Samaj who had been eagerly awaiting Sri Ramakrishna’s arrival.
When the carriage bringing the Master and a few devotees reached the garden house, the assembly stood up respectfully to receive him. There was a sudden silence, like that which comes when the curtain in a theatre is about to be rung up. People who had been conversing with one another now fixed their attention on the Master’s serene face, eager not to lose one word that might fall from his lips.
Master’s joy on seeing Shivanāth
At the sight of Shivanath the Master cried out joyously: “Ah! Here is Shivanath! You see, you are a devotee of God. The very sight of you gladdens my heart. One hemp-smoker feels very happy to meet another. Very often they embrace each other in an exuberance of joy.”
The devotees burst out laughing.
Worldly people’s indifference to spiritual life
Many people visit the temple garden at Dakshineswar. If I see some among the visitors indifferent to God, I say to them, ‘You had better sit over there.’ Or sometimes I say, ‘Go and see the beautiful buildings.’ (Laughter.)
“Sometimes I find that the devotees of God are accompanied by worthless people. Their companions are immersed in gross worldliness and don’t enjoy spiritual talk at all.
Since the devotees keep on, for a long time, talking with me about God, the others become restless. Finding it impossible to sit there any longer, they whisper to their devotee friends: ‘When shall we be going? How long will you stay here?’ The devotees say: ‘Wait a bit.
We shall go after a little while.’ Then the worldly people say in a disgusted tone: ‘Well, then, you can talk. We shall wait for you in the boat.’
(All laugh.)
Power of God’s name
“Worldly people will never listen to you if you ask them to renounce everything and devote themselves whole-heartedly to God.
Therefore Chaitanya and Nitai, after some deliberation, made an arrangement to attract the worldly. They would say to such persons, ‘Come, repeat the name of Hari, and you shall have a delicious soup of magur fish and the embrace of a young woman.’
Many people, attracted by the fish and the woman, would chant the name of God. After tasting a little of the nectar of God’s hallowed name, they would soon realize that the ‘fish soup’ really meant the tears they shed for love of God, while the ‘young woman’ signified the earth. The embrace of the woman meant rolling on the ground in the rapture of divine love.
“Nitai would employ any means to make people repeat Hari’s name. Chaitanya said:
‘The name of God has very great sanctity. It may not produce an immediate result, but one day it must bear fruit. It is like a seed that has been left on the cornice of a building. After many days the house crumbles, and the seed falls on the earth, germinates, and at last bears fruit.’
Three classes of devotees
Worldly people are endowed with sattva, rajas, and tamas. Bakti is also characterized by the 3 gunas.
A worldly person endowed with sattva is like one with a dilapidated house He doesn’t care to repair it.
The furniture of the house may be old; he doesn’t think of polishing it and making it look neat. He doesn’t care for dress at all; anything is good enough for him.
But the man himself is very gentle, quiet, kind, and humble; he doesn’t injure anyone.
Among the worldly, there are people with the traits of rajas. Such a man has a watch and chain, and 2-3 rings on his fingers. The furniture of his house is all spick and span.
On the walls hang portraits of the Queen, the Prince of Wales, and other prominent people; the building is whitewashed and spotlessly clean. His wardrobe is filled with a large assortment of clothes; even the servants have their livery, and all that.
“The traits of a worldly man endowed with tamas are sleep, lust, anger, egotism, and the like.
Three kinds of bhakti
Similarly, bhakti, devotion, has its sattva. A devotee who possesses it meditates on God in absolute secret, perhaps inside his mosquito net. Others think he is asleep.
Since he is late in getting up, they think perhaps he has not slept well during the night.
His love for the body goes only as far as appeasing his hunger, and that only by means of rice and simple greens. There is no elaborate arrangement about his meals, no luxury in clothes, and no display of furniture. Besides, such a devotee never flatters anybody for money.
“An aspirant possessed of rajasic bhakti puts a tilak on his forehead and a necklace of holy rudraksha beads, interspersed with gold ones, around his neck. (All laugh.)
At worship he wears a silk cloth.
“A man endowed with tamasic bhakti has burning faith. Such a devotee literally extorts boons from God, even as a robber falls upon a man and plunders his money. ‘Bind! Beat! Kill!’-that is his way, the way of the dacoits.”
Utilizing Tamas for spiritual welfare
The Master began to sing in a voice sweet with rapturous love, his eyes turned upward:
Why should I go to Ganga or Gaya, to Kasi, Kanchi, or Prabhas, So long as I can breathe my last with Kāli’s name upon my lips?
What need of rituals has a man, what need of devotions any more, If he repeats the Mother’s name at the three holy hours?
Rituals may pursue him close, but never can they overtake him.
Charity, vows, and giving of gifts do not appeal to Madan’s mind;
The Blissful Mother’s Lotus Feet are his whole prayer and sacrifice. Who could ever have conceived the power Her name possesses? Śiva Himself, the God of Gods, sings Her praise with His five mouths!
The Master was beside himself with love for the Divine Mother. He sang with fiery enthusiasm:
If only I can pass away repeating Durga’s name, How canst Thou then, O Blessed One, Withhold from me deliverance, Wretched though I may be? . . .
Then he said, “One must take the firm attitude: ‘What? I have chanted the Mother’s name. How can I be a sinner any more? I am Her child, heir to Her powers and glories.’
“If you can give a spiritual turn to your tamas, you can realize God with its help. Force your demands on God. He is by no means a stranger to you. He is indeed your very own.
Illustration of physicians
The quality of tamas can be used for the welfare of others. There are 3 classes of physicians: superior, mediocre, and inferior.
The physician who feels the patient’s pulse and just says to him, ‘Take the medicine regularly’ belongs to the inferior class.
He doesn’t care to inquire whether or not the patient has actually taken the medicine. The mediocre physician is he who in various ways persuades the patient to take the medicine, and says to him sweetly:
‘My good man, how will you be cured unless you use the medicine? Take this medicine. I have made it for you myself.’
But he who, finding the patient stubbornly refusing to take the medicine, forces it down his throat, going so far as to put his knee on the patient’s chest, is the best physician. This is the manifestation of the tamas of the physician. It doesn’t injure the patient; on the contrary, it does him good.
