Different manifestations of the Absolute

Monday, December 24, 1883

At 8am Sri Ramakrishna and M. were talking together in the pine-grove at the northern end of the temple garden. This was the eleventh day of M.’s stay with the Master.

It was winter.

The sun had just risen. The river was flowing north with the tide.

Not far off could be seen the bel-tree where the Master had practised great spiritual austerities. Sri Ramakrishna faced the east as he talked to his disciple and told him about the Knowledge of Brahman.

MASTER: “The formless God is real, and equally real is God with form. Nangta used to instruct me about the nature of Satchidananda Brahman. He would say that It is like an infinite ocean- water everywhere, to the right, left, above, and below. Water enveloped in water. It is the Water of the Great Cause, motionless. Waves spring up when It becomes active. Its activities are creation, preservation and destruction.

“Again, he ued to say that Brahman is where reason comes to stop. There is the instance of camphor. Nothing remains after it is burnt-not even a trace of ash. “Brahman is beyond mind and speech. A salt doll entered the ocean to measure its depth; but it did not return to tell others how deep the ocean was. It melted in the ocean itself.

“The rishis once said to Rāma: ‘O Rāma, sages like Bharadvaja may very well call you an Incarnation of God, but we cannot do that. We adore the Word-Brahman. 3 We do not want the human form of God.’ Rāma smiled and went away, pleased with their adoration.

Different manifestations of the Absolute

“But the Nitya and the Lila are the two aspects of the same Reality. As I have said before, it is like the roof and the steps leading to it. The Absolute plays in many ways: as Isvara, as the gods, as man, and as the universe. The Incarnation is the play of the Absolute as man.

Do you know how the Absolute plays as man? It is like the rushing down of water from a big roof through a pipe; the power of Satchidananda-nay, Satchidananda Itself-descends through the conduit of a human form as water descends through the pipe. Only twelve sages, Bharadvaja and the others, recognized Rāma as an Incarnation of God. Not everyone can recognize an Incarnation.

“It is God alone who incarnates Himself as man to teach people the ways of love and knowledge. Well, what do you think of me?

“Once my father went to Gaya. There Raghuvir said to him in a dream, ‘I shall be born as your son.’ Thereupon my father said to Him: ‘O Lord, I am a poor brahmin. How shall I be able to serve You?’ ‘Don’t worry about it’, Raghuvir replied. ‘It will be taken care of.’

“My sister, Hriday’s mother, used to worship my feet with flowers and sandal-paste. One day I placed my foot on her head and said to her, ‘You will die in Benares.’ “Once Mathur Babu said to me: ‘Father, there is nothing inside you but God. Your body is like an empty shell. It may look from outside like a pumpkin, but inside there is nothing-neither flesh nor seed. Once I saw you as someone moving with a veil on.’

Master’s vision of Gaurānga

(To M.) “I am shown everything beforehand. Once I saw Gaurānga and his devotees singing kirtan in the Panchavati. I think I saw Balarām there and you too.

“I wanted to know the experiences of Gaurānga and was shown them at Syambazar in our native district. A crowd gathered; they even climbed the trees and the walls; they stayed with me day and night. For seven days I had no privacy whatever. Thereupon I said to the Divine Mother, ‘Mother, I have had enough of it.’

“I am at peace now. I shall have to be born once more. Therefore I am not giving all knowledge to my companions. (With a smile) Suppose I give you all knowledge; will you then come to me again so willingly?

“I recognized you on hearing you read the Chaitanya Bhagavat. You are my own. The same substance, like father and son. All of you are coming here again. When you pull one part of the kalmi creeper, all the branches come toward you. You are all relatives-like brothers. Suppose Rakhal, Harish, and the others had gone to Puri, and you were there too. Would you live separately?

Parable of the grass-eating tiger

“Before you came here, you didn’t know who you were. Now you will know. It is God who, as the guru, makes one know.

“Nangta told the story of the tigress and the herd of goats. Once a tigress attacked a herd of goats. A hunter saw her from a distance and killed her. The tigress was pregnant and gave birth to a cub as she expired. The cub began to grow in the company of the goats. At first it was nursed by the she-goats, and later on, as it grew bigger, it began to eat grass and bleat like the goats.

Gradually the cub became a big tiger; but still it ate grass and bleated. When atached by other animals, it would run away, like the goats. One day a fierce-looking tiger attacked the herd. It was amazed to see a tiger in the herd eating grass and running away with the goats at its approach. It lef the goats and caught hold of the grass-eating tiger, which began to bleat and tried to run away. But the fierce tiger dragged it to the water and said: ‘Now look at your face in the water. You see, you have the pot-face of a tiger; it is exactly like mine.’

Next it pressed a piece of meat into its mouth. At first the grass-eating tiger refused to eat the meat. Then it got the taste of the meat and relished it. At last the fierce tiger said to the grass-eater: ‘What a disgrace! You lived with goats and ate grass like them!’ And the other was really ashamed of itself.

“Eating grass is like enjoying ‘woman and gold’. To bleat and run away like a goat is to behave like an ordinary man. Going away with the new tiger is like taking shelter with the guru, who awakens one’s spiritual consciousness, and recognizing him alone as one’s relative. To see one’s face rightly is to know one’s real Self.”

Sri Ramakrishna stood up. There was silence all around, distrubed only the by the gentle rustling of the pine-needless and the murmuring of the Ganges. The Master went to the Panchavati and then to his room, talking all the while with M. The disciple followed him, fascinated. At the Panchavati Sri Ramakrishan touched with his forehead the raised platform around the banyan-tree. This was the place of his intense spiritual discipline, where he had wept bitterly for the vision of the Divine Mother, where he had held intimate communion with Her, and where he had seen many divine forms. The maser and M. passed the cluster of bakul-tress and came to the nahabat. Hazara awas there. The master said to him:” Don’t eat too much, and give up this craze for outer cleanliness. People with a craze do not attain Knowledge. Follow conventions only as much as necessary. Don’t go to excess.” The Master entered his room and sat on the couch.

Sri Ramakrishna was resting after his midday meal when Surendra, Ram, and other devotees arrived from Calcutta. It was about one o’clock. While M. was strolling alone under the pine-tress, Harish came there and told him that the Master wanted him in his room.

Someone was going to read from the ‘Śiva Samhita, a book containing instructions about yoga and six centres.

M. entered the room and saluted the Master. The devotees were seated on the floor, but no one was reading the book. Sri Ramakrishna was talking to the devotees.

MASTER:“The gopis cherished escstatic love for Krishna. There are two elements in such love: ‘I-ness’ and ‘my-ness’. ‘I-ness’ is the feeling that Krishna will be ill if ‘I’ do not serve Him. In this attitude the devotee does not look upon his Ideal as God. “‘My-ness’ is to feel that the Beloved is ‘my’ own. The gopis had such a feeling of ‘my-ness’ toward Krishna that they would place their subtle bodies under His feet lest His soles should get hurt.

“Yaśoda remarked: ‘I don’t understand your Chintamani Krishna. To me He is simply Gopala.’ The gopis also said: ‘Oh, where is Krishna, our Beloved? Where is Krishna, our Sweetheart?’ They were not conscious of His being God.

“It is like a small child saying ‘my daddy’. If someone says to the child, ‘No, he is not your daddy’, the child says, ‘Yes, he is my daddy.’