The Monkey and Kitten

There are 2 kinds of aspirants.

1. One is like a young monkey

It clings to its mother. Likewise, there are some aspirants who think that in order to realize God they must:

• repeat His name a certain number of times
• meditate on Him for a certain period
• practise a certain amount of austerity.

An aspirant of this kind makes his own efforts to catch hold of God.

2. One is like a kitten

It cannot cling to its mother. It lies on the ground and cries, ‘Mew, mew!’ It leaves everything to its mother. The mother cat sometimes puts it on a bed, sometimes on the roof behind a pile of wood. She carries the kitten in her mouth hither and thither. The kitten doesn’t know how to cling to the mother.

Likewise, there are aspirants who cannot practise spiritual discipline by calculating about japa or the period of meditation. All that they do is cry to God with yearning hearts. God hears their cry and cannot keep Himself away. He reveals Himself to them.

At noon the host wished to feed the Master and the devotees. Sri Ramakrishna was smilingly pacing the room. Now and then he exchanged a few words with the musician.

MUSICIAN: “It is God alone who is both the ‘instrument’ and the ‘cause’. Duryodhana said to Krishna: ‘O Lord, Thou art seated in my heart. I act as Thou makest me act.’”

MASTER (with a smile): “Yes, that is true. It is God alone who acts through us.

He is the Doer, undoubtedly, and man is His instrument. But it is also true that an action cannot fail to produce its result. Your stomach will certainly burn if you eat hot chilli. It is God who has ordained that chilli will burn your stomach. If you commit a sin, you must bear its fruit. But one who has attained perfection, realized God, cannot commit sin.

An expert singer cannot sing a false note. A man with a trained voice sings the notes correctly: sa, re, ga, ma, pa, dha, ni.” The meal was ready. The Master and the devotees went to the inner court, where they were treated to a generous feast. About. three o’clock in the afternoon the Master was seated again in Ishan’s drawing-room with M. and Shrish. He resumed his conversation with Shrish.

MASTER: “What is your attitude toward God? ‘I am He’, or ‘Master and servant’? For the householder it is very good to look on God as the Master. The householder is conscious of doing the duties of life himself. Under such conditions how can he say, ‘I am He’? To him who says, ‘I am He’ the world appears to be a dream. His mind, his body, even his ego, are dreams to him. Therefore he cannot perform worldly duties. So it is very good for the householder to look on himself as the servant and on God as the Master. “Hanuman had the attitude of a servant. He said to Rāma: ‘O Rāma, sometimes I meditate on You as the whole and on myself as the part. Sometimes I feel that You are the Master and I am the servant. But when I have the Knowledge of Reality, I see that I am You and You are I.’

“In the state of Perfect Knowledge one may feel, ‘I am He’; but that is far beyond the ordinary man’s experience.”

SHRISH: “That is true, sir. The attitude of a servant relieves a man of all his worries.

The servant depends entirely upon his master. A dog is devoted to its master. It depends upon him and is at peace.”

MASTER: “Well, what suits your taste-God with form or the formless Reality? But to tell you the truth, He who is formless is also endowed with form. To His bhaktas He reveals Himself as having a form. It is like a great ocean, an infinite expanse of water, without any trace of shore. Here and there some of the water has been frozen.

Intense cold has turned it into ice. Just so, under the cooling influence, so to speak, of the bhakta’s love, the Infinite appears to take a form. Again, the ice melts when the sun rises; it becomes water as before. Just so, one who follows the path of knowledge -the path of discrimination-does not see the form of God any more. To him everything is formless.The ice melts into formless water with the rise of the Sun of Knowledge. But mark this: form and formlessness belong to one and the same Reality.”

At dusk the Master was ready to start for Dakshineswar. He stood on the south porch of the drawing-room, talking to Ishan. Someone remarked that the chanting of God’s holy name did not always produce results. Ishan said: “How can you say that? The seeds of an Aśwattha tree are no doubt tiny, but in them lie the germs of big trees. It may take a very long time for them to grow.”

Yes, Yes!” said the Master. “It takes a long time to see the effect.”

Next to Ishan’s was his father-in-law’s house. Sri Ramakrishna stood at the door of this house, ready to get into the carriage. Ishan and his friends stood around to bid him adieu.

Sri Ramakrishna said to Ishan: “You are living in the world as a mudfish lives in the mud. It lives in the mud but its body is not stained.

There are both vidyā and avidyā in this world of maya. Who may be called a paramahamsa? He who, like a swan, can take the milk from a mixture of milk and water, leaving aside the water. He who, like an ant, can take the sugar from a mixture of sugar and sand, leaving aside the sand.”

It was evening. The Master stopped at Ram’s house on his way to Dakshineswar. He was taken to the drawing-room and there he engaged in conversation with Mahendra Goswami. Mahendra belonged to the Vaishnava sect and was Ram’s neighbour. Sri Ramakrishna was fond of him.

MASTER: “The worshippers of Vishnu and the worshippers of Śakti will all ultimately reach one and the same goal; the ways may be different. The true Vaishnavas do not criticize the Saktas.

GOSWAMI (smiling): “Śiva and Parvati are our Father and Mother.” Sri Ramakrishna, out of his stock of a dozen English words, said sweetly, “Thank you!” Then he added, “Yes, Father and Mother!”

GOSWAMI: “Besides, it is a sin to criticize anyone, especially a devotee of God. All sins may be forgiven, but not the sin of criticizing a devotee.”

MASTER: “But this idea of sin does not by any means affect all. For instance, the Isvarakotis, such as Incarnations of God, are above sin. Sri Chaitanya is an example. “A child, walking on a narrow ridge and holding to his father, may slip into the ditch. But that can never happens if the father holds the child by the hand.

“Listen. I prayed to the Divine Mother for pure love. I said to Her: ‘Here is Thy righteousness, here is Thy unrighteousness. Take them both and give me pure love for Thee. Here is Thy purity, here is Thy impurity. Take them both and give me pure lovefor Thee. O Mother, here is Thy virtue, here is Thy vice. Take them both and give me pure love for Thee.’ "

GOSWAMI: “Yes, sir. That is right.”

MASTER: “You should undoubtedly bow before all views. But there is a thing called unswerving devotion to one ideal. True, you should salute everyone. But you must love one ideal with your whole soul. That is unswerving devotion.

Hanuman could not take delight in any other form than that of Rāma. The gopis had such single-minded love for the cowherd Krishna of Vrindāvan that they did not care to see the turbaned Krishna of Dwaraka.

A wife may serve her husband’s brothers by fetching water, or in other ways, but she cannot serve them in the way she does her husband. With him she has a special relationship.”

Ram treated the Master to sweets. Sri Ramakrishna was ready to start for Dakshineswar. He put on his woolen shawl and cap, and got into the carriage with M. and the other devotees. Ram and his friends saluted the Master.

Saturday, December 29, 1883

It was the day of the new moon, auspicious for the worship of the Divine Mother. At one o’clock in the afternoon Sri Ramakrishna got into a carriage to visit the temple of Kāli at Kalighat. He intended to stop at Adhar’s house on the way, since Adhar was to accompany him to the temple. While the carriage was waiting near the north porch of the Master’s room, M. went to the Master and said, “Sir, may I also go with you?”

MASTER: “Why?”

M: “I should like to visit my home in Calcutta.” Sri Ramakrishna reflected a moment and said: “Must you go home? Why? You are quite all right here.” M. wanted to see his people a few hours, but evidently the Master did not approve.

Sunday, December 30, 1883

At 3PM, while M. was walking up and down under a tree, a devotee came to him and said that the Master had sent for him. M. went to Sri Ramakrishna’s room and found a number of devotees there.

Ram, Kedār, and others had arrived from Calcutta. Ram had brought with him the Vedantist monk whom the Master had visited near his garden a few days earlier. On that occasion Sri Ramakrishna had asked him to bring the sādhu to Dakshineswar.

The monk was sitting on the small couch with the Master. They were talking happily in Hindusthani.

MASTER: “What do you feel about all this?”

MONK: “It is all like a dream.”

MASTER: “Brahman alone is real and the world illusory. Well sir, what is Brahman?”

MONK: “Brahman is the Sound. It is Om.”

MASTER: “But there must be something indicated by the sound. Isn’t that so?”

MONK: “That Itself is the thing indicated as well as the indicator.”

At these words Sri Ramakrishna went into samādhi and sat motionless. The monk and the devotees looked wonderingly at him in his ecstatic condition. Kedār said to the monk: “Look at him, sir. This is samādhi.”

The monk had read of samādhi but had never seen it before. After a few minutes the Master began gradually to come down to the normal plane of consciousness. He said to the Divine Mother: “Mother, I want to be normal. Please don’t make me unconscious. I should like to talk to the sādhu about Satchidananda. Mother, I want to be merry talking about Satchidananda.”

The monk was amazed to see the Master’s condition and to hear these words. Sri Ramakrishna said to him: “Please do away with your ‘I am He’. Let us now keep ‘I’ and ‘Thou’ to enjoy the fun.”

A little later the Master was walking in the Panchavati with Ram, Kedār, M., and the other devotees.

MASTER (to Kedār, with a smile): “What did you think of the sādhu?”

KEDĀR: “It is all dry knowledge. The pot has just been put on the fire, but as yet there is no rice in it.”

MASTER: “That may be true. But he has renounced everything. He who has renounced the world has already made great progress. The sādhu belongs to the stage of the beginner. Nothing can be achieved without the realization of God. When a man is intoxicated with ecstatic love of God, he dosn’t take delight in anything else. Then- Cherish my precious Mother Syama Tenderly within, O mind;

May you and I alone behold Her, Letting no one else intrude.”

Kedār repeated the words of a song in keeping with the Master’s feeling:How shall I open my heart, O friend?

It is forbidden me to speak.

I am about to die, for lack of a kindred soul To understand my misery. . . .