The Ideal of the Gitā

Monday, June 25, 1883

Sri Ramakrishna was at Balarām Bose’s house in Calcutta. Rākhāl and M. were seated near him. The Master was in ecstasy. He conversed with the devotees in an abstracted mood.

M: “Yes, sir. You always ask us to plunge into God.”

M: “That is true, sir. But God is the Doer. He works through different beings in different ways, according to their capacity to manifest the Divine. God gives to some full spiritual consciousness, and others He keeps in ignorance.”

A DEVOTEE: “Yes, sir. There is this ‘I-consciousness’ in us; therefore we must pray.”

Nitya and Lila

MASTER (to M.): “A man should reach the Nitya, the Absolute, by following the trail of the Lila, the Relative. It is like reaching the roof by the stairs. After realizing the Absolute, he should climb down to the Relative and live on that plane in the company of devotees, charging his mind with the love of God. This is my final and most mature opinion.

“God has different forms, and He sports in different ways. He sports as Isvara, deva, man, and the universe. In every age He descends to earth in human form, as an Incarnation, to teach people love and devotion. There is the instance of Chaitanya. One can taste devotion and love of God only through His Incarnations. Infinite are the ways of God’s play, but what I need is love and devotion. I want only the milk. The milk comes through the udder of the cow. The Incarnation is the udder.” Was Sri Ramakrislma hinting that he was an Incarnation of God? Did he suggest that those who saw him saw God? Did he thus speak about himself when speaking of Chaitanya?

It was a hot day in June 1883. Sri Ramakrishna was sitting on the steps of the Śiva temples in the temple garden. M. arrived with ice and other offerings and sat down on the steps after saluting the Master.

MASTER (to M.): “The husband of Mani Mallick’s granddaughter was here. He read in a book that God could not be said to be quite wise and omniscient; otherwise, why should there be so much misery in the world? As regards death, it would be much better to kill a man all at once, instead of putting him through slow torture. Further, the author writes that if he himself were the Creator, he would have created a better world.” M. listened to these words in surprise and made no comment.

MASTER (to M.): “Can a man ever understand God’s ways? I too think of God sometimes as good and sometimes as bad. He has kept us deluded by His great illusion.

Sometimes He wakes us up and sometimes He keeps us unconscious. One moment the ignorance disappears, and the next moment it covers our mind. If you throw a brick-bat into a pond covered with moss, you get a glimpse of the water. But a few moments later the moss comes dancing back and covers the water.

Body-consciousness produces duality

“One is aware of pleasure and pain, birth and death, disease and grief, as long as one is identified with the body. All these belong to the body alone, and not to the Soul. After the death of the body, perhaps God carries one to a better place. It is like the birth of the child after the pain of delivery. Attaining Self-Knowledge, one looks on pleasure and pain, birth and death, as a dream. “How little we know! Can a one-seer pot hold ten seers of milk? If ever a salt doll ventures into the ocean to measure its depth, it cannot come back and give us the information. It melts into the water and disappears.” At dusk the evening service began in the different temples. The Master was sitting on the small couch in his room, absorbed in contemplation of the Divine Mother. Several devotees also were there. M. was going to spend the night with the Master. A little later Sri Ramakrishna began to talk to a devotee privately, on the verandah north of his room. He said: “It is good to meditate in the small hours of the morning and at dawn. One should also meditate daily after dusk.” He instructed the devotee about meditation on the Personal God and on the Impersonal Reality. After a time he sat on the semicircular porch west of his room. It was about nine o’clock.

MASTER: “Those who come here will certainly have all their doubts removed. What do you say?”

M: “That is true, sir.”

A boat was moving in the Ganges, far away from the bank. The boatman began to sing. The sound of his voice floating over the river reached the Master’s ears, and he went into a spiritual mood. The hair on his body stood on end. He said to M., “Just feel my body.” M. was greatly amazed. He thought: “The Upanishads describe Brahman as permeating the universe and the ether. Has that Brahman, as sound, touched the Master’s body?” After a time Sri Ramakrishna began to converse again. MASTER: “Those who come here must have been born with good tendencies. Isn’t that true?”

M: “It is true, sir.”

MASTER: “Adhar must have good tendencies.”

M: “That goes without saying.”

MASTER: “A guileless man easily realizes God.

There are two paths: the path of righteousness and the path of wickedness.

One should follow the path of righteousness.”

M: “That is true, sir. If a thread has a single fibre sticking out, it cannot pass through the eye of a needle.”

MASTER: “If a man finds a hair in the food he is chewing, he spits out the entire morsel.”

M: “But you say that the man who has realized God cannot be injured by evil company.

A blazing fire burns up even a plantain-tree.”