Different Classes of Men

All men are by no means on the same level. It is said that there are 4 classes of men:

1. The bound
2. The struggling
3. The liberated
4. The ever-free

It is also not a fact that all men have to practise spiritual discipline.

There are the ever-free and those who achieve perfection through spiritual discipline. Some realize God after much spiritual austerity, and some are perfect from their very birth. Prahlada is an example of the ever-free.

“Eternally perfect sages like Prahlada also practise meditation and prayer. But they have realized the fruit, God-vision, even before their spiritual practice. They are like gourds and pumpkins, which grow fruit first and then flowers.

(Looking at Rākhāl ’s father) “Even though an eternally perfect soul is born in a low family, still he retains his innate perfection. He cannot do anything else. A pea germinating in a heap of cow-dung still grows into a pea-plant.

“God has given to some greater power than to others. In one man you see it as the light of a lamp, in another, as the light of a torch. One word of Vidyasagar’s revealed to me the utmost limit of his intelligence. When I told him of the different manifestations of God’s Power in different beings, he said to me, ‘Sir, has God then given greater power to some than to others?’ At once I said: ‘Yes, certainly He has; If there are not different degrees of manifestation of His Power, then why should your name be known far and wide?

You see, we have come to you after hearing of your knowledge and compassion.

You haven’t grown two horns, have you?’ With all his fame and erudition, Vidyasagar said such a childish thing as ‘Has God given greater power to some than to others?’ The truth is that when the fisherman draws his net, he first catches big fish like trout and carp.

Then he stirs up the mud with his feet, and small fish come out-minnows, mud-fish, and so on. So also, unless a man knows God, ‘minnows’ and the like gradually come out from within him. What can one achieve through mere scholarship?”

Sunday, June 17, 1883

Sri Ramakrishna was resting in his room in the temple garden at Dakshineswar. It was afternoon. Adhar and M. arrived and saluted the Master. A Tantrik devotee also came in.

Rākhāl , Hazra, and Ramlal were staying with Sri Ramakrishna.

MASTER (to the devotees): “Why shouldn’t one be able to attain spirituality, living the life of a householder? But it is extremely difficult. Sages like Janaka entered the world after attaining Knowledge. But still the world is a place of terror. Even a detached householder has to be careful. Once Janaka bent down his head at the sight of a bhairavi.

He shrank from seeing a woman. The bhairavi said to him: ‘Janaka, I see you have not yet attained Knowledge. You still differentiate between man and woman.’

“If you move about in a room filled with soot, you will soil your body, however slightly, no matter how clever you may be. I have seen householder devotees filled with spiritual emotion while performing their daily worship wearing their silk clothes. They maintain that attitude even until they take their refreshments after the worship.

But afterwards they become their old selves again. They display their rajasic and tamasic natures.

“Sattva begets bhakti. Even bhakti has three aspects: sattva, rajas, and tamas. The sattva of bhakti is pure sattva. When a devotee acquires it he doesn’t direct his mind to anything but God. He pays only as much attention to his body as is absolutely necessary for its protection.

“But a paramahamsa is beyond the three gunas. Though they exist in him, yet they are practically non-existent. Like a child, he is not under the control of any of the gunas.

That is why paramahamsas allow small children to come near them- in order to assume their nature. “Paramahamsas may not lay things up; but this rule does not apply to householders.

They must provide for their families.”

TANTRIK DEVOTEE: “Is a paramahamsa aware of virtue and vice?”

MASTER: “Keshab Sen also asked that question. I said to him, ‘If I explain that to you, then you won’t be able to keep your society together.’ ‘In that case we had better stop here’, said Keshab.

Do you know the significance of virtue and vice? A paramahamsa sees that it is God who gives us evil tendencies as well as good tendencies. Haven’t you noticed that there are both sweet and bitter fruits? Some trees give sweet fruit, and some bitter or sour. God has made the mango-tree, which yields sweet fruit, and also the hog plum, which yields sour fruit.”

TANTRIK: “Yes, sir. That is true. On the hill-top one sees extensive rose gardens, reaching as far as the eye can see.”

MASTER: “The paramahamsa realizes that all these-good and bad, virtue and vice, real and unreal-are only the glories of God’s maya. But these are very deep thoughts. One realizing this cannot keep an organization together or anything like that.”

TANTRIK: “But the law of karma exists, doesn’t it?”

MASTER: “That also is true. Good produces good, and bad produces bad. Don’t you get the hot taste if you eat chillies? But these are all God’s lila, His play.”

TANTRIK: “Then what is the way for us? We shall have to reap the result of our past karma, shall we not?”

MASTER: “That may be so. But it is different with the devotees of God. Listen to a song:

O mind, you do not know how to farm! Fallow lies the field of your life. If you had only worked it well, How rich a harvest you might reap! Hedge it about with Kali’s name If you would keep your harvest safe; This is the stoutest hedge of all, For Death himself cannot come near it. Sooner or later will dawn the day When you must forfeit your precious field; Gather, O mind, what fruit you may. Sow for your seed the holy name Of God that your guru has given to you, Faithfully watering it with love; And if you should find the task too hard, Call upon Ramprasad for help. He sang again: I have securely blocked the way by which the King of Death will come; Henceforward all my doubts and fears are set at naught forever. Siva Himself is standing guard at the nine doorways of my house, Which has one Pillar for support, and three ropes to secure it. The Lord has made His dwelling-place the thousand-petalled lotus flower Within the head, and comforts me with never-ceasing care. The Master continued: “Anyone who dies in Benares, whether a brahmin or a prostitute, will become Siva. When a man sheds tears at the name of Hari, Kali, or Rāma, then he has no further need of the sandhya and other rites. All actions drop away of themselves. The fruit of action does not touch him.”

Again the Master sang:

As is a man’s meditation, so is his feeling of love; As is a man’s feeling of love, so is his gain; And faith is the root of all. If in the Nectar Lake of Mother Kali’s feet My mind remains immersed, Of little use are worship, oblations, or sacrifice. He sang another song: Why should I go to Ganga or Gaya, to Kasi, Kanchi, or Prabhas, So long as I can breathe my last with Kali’s name upon my lips?..

Then he said, “When a man merges himself in God, he can no longer retain wicked or sinful tendencies.”

TANTRIK: “You have said rightly that he keeps only the ‘Knowledge ego’.”

MASTER: “Yes, he keeps only the ‘Knowledge ego’, the ‘devotee ego’, the ‘servant ego’, and the ‘good ego’. His ‘wicked ego’ disappears.”

TANTRIK: “Today you have destroyed many of our doubts.”

MASTER: “All doubts disappear when one realizes the Self.

“Assume the tamasic aspect of bhakti. Say with force: ‘What? I have uttered the names of Rāma and Kali. How can I be in bondage any more? How can I be affected by the law of karma?’ "

The Master sang:

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? I may have stolen a drink of wine, or killed a child unborn, Or slain a woman or a cow, Or even caused a brahmin’s death; But, though it all be true, Nothing of this can make me feel the least uneasiness; For through the power of Thy sweet name My wretched soul may still aspire Even to Brahmanhood.

The Master continued: “Faith! Faith! Faith! Once a guru said to his pupil, ‘Rāma alone has become everything.’ When a dog began to eat the pupil’s bread, he said to it: ‘O Rāma, wait a little. I shall butter Your bread.’ Such was his faith in the words of his guru.

“Worthless people do not have any faith. They always doubt. disappear completely till one realizes the Self. But doubts do not

“In genuine love of God there is no desire. Only through such love does one speedily realize God. Attainment of supernatural powers and so on- these are desires. Krishna once said to Arjuna: ‘Friend, you cannot realize God if you acquire even one of the eight supernatural powers. They will only add a little to your power.’ "

TANTRIK: “Sir, why don’t the rituals of Tantra bear fruit nowadays?”

MASTER: “It is because people cannot practise them with absolute correctness and devotion.”

In conclusion the Master said: “Love of God is the one essential thing. A true lover of God has nothing to fear, nothing to worry about. He is aware that the Divine Mother knows everything. The cat handles the mouse one way, but its own kitten a very different way.”