Parable of the Tigress

Sri Ramakrishna spoke reassuringly to the devotees.

MASTER (to M.): “Some think: ‘Oh, I am a bound soul. I shall never acquire knowledge and devotion.’ But if one receives the guru’s grace, one has nothing to fear. Once a tigress attacked a flock of goats. As she sprang on her prey, she gave birth to a cub and died.

The cub grew up in the company of the goats. The goats ate grass and the cub followed their example. They bleated; the cub bleated too. Gradually it grew to be a big tiger.

One day another tiger attacked the same flock. It was amazed to see the grass-eating tiger. Running after it, the wild tiger at last seized it, whereupon the grass-eating tiger began to bleat. The wild tiger dragged it to the water and said: ‘Look at your face in the water.

It is just like mine. Here is a little meat. Eat it.’ Saying this, it thrust some meat into its mouth. But the grass-eating tiger would not swallow it and began to bleat again. Gradually, however, it got the taste for blood and came to relish the meat.

Then the wild tiger said: ‘Now you see there is no difference between you and me. Come along and follow me into the forest.’ “So there can be no fear if the guru’s grace descends on one. He will let you know who you are and what your real nature is.

If the devotee practises spiritual discipline a little, the guru explains everything to him.

Then the disciple understands for himself what is real and what is unreal. God alone is real, and the world is illusory.

Parable of the false ascetic

One night a fisherman went into a garden and cast his net into the lake in order to steal some fish. The owner heard him and surrounded him with his servants. They brought lighted torches and began to search for him. In the mean time the fisherman smeared his body with ashes and sat under a tree, pretending to be a holy man.

The owner and his men searched a great deal but could not find the thief. All they saw was a holy man covered with ashes, meditating under a tree. The next day the news spread in the neighbourhood that a great sage was staying in the garden. People gathered there and saluted him with offerings of fruit, flowers, and sweets. Many also offered silver and copper coins. ‘How strange!’ thought the fisherman. ‘I am not a genuine holy man, and still people show such devotion to me. I shall certainly realize God if I become a true sadhu. There is no doubt about it.’

“If a mere pretence of religious life can bring such spiritual awakening, you can imagine the effect of real sadhana. In that state you will surely realize what is real and what is unreal. God alone is real, and the world is illusory.”

The world is a dream

One of the devotees said to himself: “Is the world unreal, then? The fisherman, to be sure, renounced worldly life. What, then, will happen to those who live in the world?

Must they too renounce it?”

Sri Ramakrishna could see into a man’s innermost thought. He said very tenderly: “Suppose an office clerk has been sent to jail.

He undoubtedly leads a prisoner’s life there. But when he is released from jail, does he cut capers in the street? Not at all. He gets a job as a clerk again and goes on working as before. Even after attaining Knowledge through the guru’s grace, one can very well live in the world as a Jivanmukta.” Thus did Sri Ramakrishna reassure those who were living as householders.

MANILAL: “Sir, where shall I meditate on God when I perform my daily worship?”

MASTER: “Why, the heart is a splendid place. Meditate on God there.”

Manilal was a member of the Brahmo Samaj. He believed in a formless God.

Addressing him, the Master said:

“Kabir used to say: ‘God with form is my Mother, the formless God my Father. Whom should I blame? Whom should I adore? The two sides of the scales are even.’

During the day-time Haladhari used to meditate on God with form, and at night on the formless God. Whichever attitude you adopt, you will certainly realize God if you have firm faith. You may believe in God with form or in God without form, but your faith must be sincere and whole-hearted.

Sambhu Mallick used to come on foot from Baghbazar to his garden house at Dakshineswar. One day a friend said to him: ‘It is risky to walk such a long distance.

Why don’t you come in a carriage?’ At that Sambhu’s face turned red and he exclaimed: ‘I set out repeating the name of God! What danger can befall me?’

Through faith alone one attains everything. I used to say, ‘I shall take all this to be true if I meet a certain person or if a certain officer of the temple garden talks to me.’ What I would think of would invariably come to pass.”

M. had studied English logic.

In the chapters on fallacies he had read that only superstitious people believed in the coincidence of morning dreams with actual events.

Therefore he asked the Master, “Was there never any exception?”

MASTER: “No. At that time everything happened that way. I would repeat the name of God and believe that a certain thing would happen, and it would invariably come to pass.

(To Manilal) But you must remember, unless one is guileless and broad-minded, one cannot have such faith. Bony people, the hollow-eyed, the cross-eyed-people with physical traits like those cannot easily acquire faith. What can a man do if there are evil omens on all sides?”

It was dusk. The maidservant entered the room and burnt incense. Manilal and some other devotees left for Calcutta. M. and Rākhāl were in the room. The Master was seated on his small couch absorbed in meditation on the Divine Mother. There was complete silence.

After a time Bhagavati, an old maidservant of the temple proprietor, entered the room and saluted the Master from a distance. Sri Ramakrishna bade her sit down.

The Master had known her for many years. In her younger days she had lived a rather immoral life; but the Master’s compassion was great. Soon he began to converse with her.

MASTER: “Now you are pretty old. Have you been feeding the Vaishnavas and holy men, and thus spending your money in a noble way?”

BHAGAVATI (smiling): “How can I say that?”

MASTER: “Have you been to Vrindavan, Benares, and the other holy places?”

BHAGAVATI (shrinkingly): “How can I say that- I have built a bathing place, and my name is inscribed there on a slab.”

MASTER: “Indeed!”

BHAGAVATI: “Yes, sir. My name, ‘Srimati Bhagavati Dasi’, is written there.”

MASTER (with a smile): “How nice!”

Emboldened by the Master’s words, Bhagavati approached and saluted him, touching his feet. Like a man stung by a scorpion, Sri Ramakrishna stood up and cried out, “Govinda! Govinda!” A big jar of Ganges water stood in a comer of the room. He hurried there, panting, and washed with the holy water the spot the maidservant had touched.

The devotees in the room were amazed to see this incident. Bhagavati sat as if struck dead.

Sri Ramakrishna consoled her and said in a very kindly tone, “You should salute me from a distance.” In order to relieve her mind of all embarrassment, the Master said tenderly, “Listen to a few songs.”

The Master then sang about the Divine Mother:

The black bee of my mind is drawn in sheer delight To the blue lotus flower of Mother Syama’s feet. . . . Then he sang: High in the heaven of the Mother’s feet, my mind was soaring like a kite, When came a gust of sin’s rough wind that drove it swiftly toward the earth. . . . Again: Dwell, O mind, within yourself; Enter no other’s home. If you but seek there, you will find All you are searching for. God, the true Philosopher’s Stone, Who answers every prayer, 259Lies hidden deep within your heart, The richest gem of all. How many pearls and precious stones Are scattered all about The outer court that lies before The chamber of your heart!