Divine Incarnations

Saturday, December 22, 1883

Rakhal, Harish, M., and Lātu had been staying with Sri Ramakrishna at Dakshineswar. About nine o’clock in the morning the Master was sitting with them on the southeast verandah of his room, when Balarām’s father and Devendra Ghosh of Syampukur arrived.

A DEVOTEE: “Sir, how does one obtain love for God?”

MASTER: “Go forward. The king dwells beyond the seven gates. You can see him only after passing through all the gates.

“At the time of the installation of Annapurna at Chanak, I said to Dwarika Babu: ‘Large fish live in the deep water of a big lake. Throw some spiced bait into the water; then the fish will come, attracted by its smell; now and then they will make the water splash.

Devotion and ecstatic love are like the spiced bait.

Divine Incarnations

“God sports in the world as man. He incarnates Himself as man-as in the case of Krishna, Rāma, and Chaitanya. Once I said to Keshab: ‘The greatest manifestation of God is in man. There are small holes in the balk of a field, where crabs and fish accumulate in the rainy season. If you want to find them you must seek them in the holes. If you seek God, you must seek Him in the Incarnations.’

“The Divine Mother of the Universe manifests Herself through this three-and-a-half cubit man. There is a song that says:

O Mother, what a machine is this that Thou hast made! What pranks Thou playest with this toy Three and a half cubits high!

“One needs spiritual practice in order to know God and recognize Divine Incarnations. Big fish live in the large lake, but to see them one must throw spiced bait in the water. There is butter in milk, but one must churn the milk to get it. There is oil in mustard- seed, but one must press the seed to extract the oil.”

DEVOTEE: “Has God form, or is He formless?”

MASTER:“Wait, wait! First of all you must go to Calcutta; then only will you know where the Maidan, the Asiatic Society, and the Bengal Bank are located. If you want to go to the brahmin quarter of Khardaha, you must first of all go to Khardaha.

“Why should it not be possible to practice the discipline of the formless God? But it is very difficult to follow that path. One cannot follow it without renouncing ‘woman and gold’. There must be complete renunciation, both inner and outer. You cannot succeed in this path if you have the slightest trace of worldliness.

“It is easy to worship God with form.

But it is not easy as all that.

“One should not discuss the discipline of the Impersonal God or the path of knowledge with a bhakta. Through great effort perhaps he is just cultivating a little devotion. You will injure it if you explain away everything as a mere dream.

“Kabir was a worshipper of the Impersonal God. He did not believe in Śiva, Kāli, or Krishna. He used to make fun of them and say that Kāli lived on the offerings of rice and banana, and that Krishna danced like a monkey when the gopis clapped their hands.

(All laugh).

“One who worships God without form perhaps sees at first the deity with ten arms, then the deity with four arms, then the Baby Krishna with two arms. At last he sees the Indivissible Light and merges in It.

“It is said that sages like Dattatreya and Jadabharata did not return to the relative plane after having the visition of Brahman. According to some people Sukadeva tasted only a drop of that Ocean of Brahman-Consciousness. He saw and heard the rumbling of the waves of that Ocean, but did not dive into It.

“A brahmachari once said to me, ‘One who goes beyond Kedār cannot keep his body alive.’ Likewise, a man cannot preserve his body after attaining Brahmajnana.1 The body drops off in twenty-one days.

“There was an infinite field beyond a high wall. Four friends tried to find out what was beyond the wall. Three of them, one after the other, climbed the wall, saw the field, burst into loud laughter, and dropped to the other side. These three could not give any information about the field. Only the fourth man came back and told people about it.

He is like those who retain their bodies, even after attaining Brahmajnana, in order to teach others. Divine Incarnations belong to this class.

“Parvati was born as the daughter of King Himalaya. After Her birth She revealed to the king Her various divine forms. The father said: ‘Well, Daughter, You have shown me all these forms. That is nice. But You have another aspect, which is Brahman. Please show me that.’ ‘Father,’ replied Parvati, ‘if you seek the Knowledge of Brahman, then renounce the world and live in the company of holy men.’ But King Himalaya insisted.

Thereupon Parvati revealed Her Brahman-form, and immediately the king fell down unconscious.

“All that I have just said belongs to the realm of reasoning. Brahman alone is real and the world illusory-that is reasoning. And everything but Brahman is like a dream. But this is an extremely difficult path. To one who follows it even the divine play in the world becomes like a dream and appears unreal; his ‘I’ also vanishes. The followers of this path do not accept the Divine Incarnation. It is a very difficult path. The lovers of God should not hear much of such reasoning.

“That is why God incarnates Himself as man and teaches people the path of devotion. He exhorts people to cultivate self-surrender to God. Following the path of devotion, one realizes everything through His grace both Knowledge and Supreme Wisdom.

God sports in this world. He is under the control of His devotee. ‘Syama, the Divine Mother, is Herself tied by the cord of the love of Her devotee.’

“Sometimes God becomes the magnet and the devotee the needle, and sometimes the devotee becomes the magnet and God the needle. The devotee attracts God to him. God is the Beloved of His devotee and is under his control.

“According to one school, the gopis of Vrindāvan, like Yaśoda, had believed in the formless God in their previous births; but they did not derive any satisfaction from this belief. That is why later on they enjoyed so much bliss in the company of Sri Krishna in the Vrindāvan episode of His life. One day Krishna said to the gopis: ‘Come along. I shall show you the Abode of the Eternal. Let us go to the Jamuna for a bath.’ As they dived into the water of the river, they at once saw Goloka. Next they saw the Indivisible Light. Thereupon Yaśoda exclaimed: ‘O Krishna, we don’t care for these things any more. We would like to see You in Your human form. I want to take You in my arms and feed You.’

God and His devotee

“So the greatest manifestation of God is through His Incarnations. The devotee should worship and serve an Incarnation of God as long as He lives in a human body. ‘At the break of day He disappears into the secret chamber of His House.’ God manifesting Himself as living beings

“Not all, by any means, can recognize an Incarnation of God. Assuming a human body, the Incarnation falls victim to disease, grief, hunger, thirst, and all such things, like ordinary mortals. Rāma wept for Sita. ‘Brahman weeps, entrapped in the snare of the 5 elements.’

“It is said in the Purana that God, in His Incarnation as the Sow, lived happily with His young ones even after the destruction of Hiranyāksha. As the Sow, He nursed them and forgot all about His abode in heaven. At last Śiva killed the sow body with his trident, and God, laughing aloud, went to His own abode.”

In the afternoon Bhavanath arrived.