The Goddess Kali

About 4PM, the door of the Kāli temple opened. The Master walked to the temple with the monk. M accompanied them.

MASTER: “What do you think of Kāli?”

MONK (with devotion): “Kāli is supreme.”

MASTER: “Kāli and Brahman are identical. Is that not so?”

MONK: “As long as one’s mind is turned to the outer world, one must accept Kāli. As long as a man sees the outer world, and discriminates between good and evil, he must accept good and reject evil. To be sure, all names and forms are illusory; but as long as the mind sees the outer world, the aspirant must give up woman. The ideas of good and evil are applied to one who is still a student on the path; otherwise he will stray from the path of righteousness.

Thus conversing, the Master and the monk returned from the temple.

MASTER (to M.): “Did you notice that the sādhu bowed before Kāli?”

M: “Yes, sir.”

Monday, December 31, 1883

At 4PM. the Master was sitting in his room with M., Rākhāl, Lātu, Harish, and other devotees.

Addressing M. and Balarām, the Master said: “Haladhāri followed the path of knowledge.

Day and night he used to study the Upanishads, the Adhyātma Rāmāyana, and similar books on Vedānta. He would turn up his nose at the mention of the forms of God. Once I ate from the leaf-plates of the beggars. At this Haladhāri said to me, ‘How will you be able to marry your children?’ I said: ‘You rascal! Shall I ever have children? May your mouth that repeats words from the Gitā and the Vedānta be blighted!’ Just fancy! He declared that the world was illusory and, again, would meditate in the temple of Vishnu with turned-up nose.”

In the evening Balarām and the other devotees returned to Calcutta. The Master remained in his room, absorbed in contemplation of the Divine Mother: After a while the sweet music of the evening worship in the temples was heard.A little later the Master began to talk to the Mother in a tender voice that touched the heart of M., who was seated on the floor. After repeating, “Hari Om! Hari Om! Om!”, the Master said: “Mother, don’t make me unconscious with the Knowledge of Brahman.

Mother, I don’t want Brahmajnana. I want to be merry. I want to play.” Again he said:

“Mother, I don’t know the Vedānta; and Mother, I don’t even care to know. The Vedas and the Vedānta remain so far below when Thou art realized, O Divine Mother!” Then he said: “O Krishna, I shall say to Thee, ‘Eat, my Child! Take this, my Child!’ O Krishna, I shall say to Thee, ‘My Child, Thou hast assumed this body for my sake.’ "

Wednesday, January 2, 1884

Rākhāl , Lātu, Harish, Ramlal, and M. had been staying with Sri Ramakrishna at the temple garden. About three o’clock in the afternoon M. found the Master on the west porch of his room engaged in conversation with a Tantrik devotee. The Tantrik was wearing an ochre cloth. Sri Ramakrishna asked M. to sit by his side. Perhaps the Master intended to instruct him through his talk with the Tantrik devotee. Mahima Chakravarty had sent the latter to the Master.

MASTER (to the Tantrik): “It is a part of the Tantrik discipline to drink wine from a human skull. This wine is called ‘karana’. Isn’t that so?”

TANTRIK: “Yes, sir.”

MASTER: “But I cannot touch wine at all.”

TANTRlK: “You have spontaneous Divine Bliss. One who enjoys that Bliss wants nothing else.”

MASTER: “I don’t care for japa and austerity. But I have constant remembrance and consciousness of God. “Tell me, when they speak of the six centres, what do they mean?”

TAN’TRIK: “These are like different holy places. In each of the centres dwell Śiva and Śakti. One cannot see them with the physical eyes. One cannot take them out by cutting open the body.”

M. listened silently to the conversation. Looking at him, the Master asked the Tantrik devotee, “Can a man attain perfection without the help of a vija mantra, a sacred word from the guru?”

TANTRIK: “Yes, he can if he has faith-faith in the words of the guru.”

The Master turned to M. and said, drawing his attention, “Faith!”

After the Tantrik devotee had taken his leave, Jaygopal Sen, a member of the Brahmo Samaj, arrived. The Master talked with him.MASTER (to Jaygopal): “One should not harbour malice toward any person or any opinion. The believers in the formless God and the worshippers of God with form are all, without exception, going toward God alone.

The Jnāni, the yogi, the bhakta-all, without exception, are seeking Him alone. The follower of the path of knowledge calls Him ‘Brahman’. The yogi calls Him ‘Ātman’ or ‘Paramatman’. The bhakta calls Him ‘Bhagavan’.

Further, it is said that there is the Eternal Lord and His Eternal Servant.”

JAYGOPAL: “How can we know that all paths are true?”

MASTER: “A man can reach God if he follows one path rjghtly. Then he can learn about all the other paths. It is like reaching the roof by some means or other. Then one is able to climb down by the wooden or stone stairs, by a bamboo pole, or even by a rope.

“A devotee can know everything when God’s grace descends on him. If you but realize Him, you will be able to know all about Him. You should somehow meet the master of a house and become acquainted with him; then he himself will tell you how many houses he owns and all about his gardens and government seurities.” How to receive God’s grace

JAYGOPAL: “How does one receive the grace of God?”

MASTER: “Constantly you have to chant the name and glories of God and give up worldly thoughts as much as you can. With the greatest effort you may try to bring water into your field for your crops, but it may all leak out through holes in the ridges. Then all your efforts to bring the water by digging a canal will be futile. “You will feel restless for God when your heart becomes pure and your mind free from attachment to the things of the world. Then alone will your prayer reach God. telegraph wire cannot carry messages if it has a break or some other defect.

“I used to cry for God all alone, with a longing heart. I used to weep, ‘O God, where art Thou?’ Weeping thus, I would lose all consciousness of the world. My mind would merge in the Mahāvāyu.

“How can one attain yoga? By completely renouncing attachment to worldly things. The mind must be pure and without blemish, like the telegraph wire that has no defect. Unselfish love of God “One must not cherish any desire whatever. The devotion of a man who has any desire is selfish. But desireless devotion is love for its own sake. You may love me or not, but I love you: this is love for its own sake.

The thing is that one must love God. Through intense love one attains the vision of Him. The attraction of the husband for the chaste wife, the attraction of the child for its mother, the attraction of worldly possessions for the worldly man-when a man can blend these 3 into 1, and direct it all to God, then he gets the vision of God.“Jaygopal was a man of the world. Was this why the Master gave instruction suited to him?

At 8PM, the Master was sitting in his room with Rākhāl and M. It was the 21st day of M.’s stay with Sri Ramakrishna. The Master had forbidden him to indulge in reasoning.

MASTER (to Rākhāl): “It is not good to reason too much. First comes God, and then the world. Realize God first; then you will know all about His world. (To M. and Rākhāl ) If first one is introduced to Jadu Mallick, then one can know everything about him-the number of his houses, gardens, government securities, and so on. For this reason the rishi Nārada advised Valmiki1 to repeat the word ‘mara’. ‘Ma’ means God, and ‘ra’ the world.

First comes God, and then the world. Krishnakishore said that the word ‘mara’ is a holy mantra because it was given to Valmiki by the rishi. ‘Ma’ means God, and ‘rā’ the world.

“Therefore, like Valmiki, one should at first renounce everything and cry to God in solitude with a longing heart. The first thing necessary is the vision of God; then comes reasoning-about the scriptures and the world.

(To M.) “That is why I have been telling you not to reason any more. I came from the pine-grove to say that to you. Through too much reasoning your spiritual life will be injured; you will at last become like Hazra. I used to roam at night in the streets, all alone, and cry to the Divine Mother, ‘O Mother, blight with Thy thunderbolt my desire to reason!’ Tell me that you won’t reason any more.”

M: “Yes, sir. I won’t reason any more.”

MASTER: “Everything can be achieved through bhakti alone. Those who want the Knowledge of Brahman will certainly achieve that also by following the trail of bhakti.

“Can a man blessed with the grace of God ever lack Knowledge? At Kamarpukur I have seen grain-dealers measuring paddy. As one heap is measured away another heap is pushed forward to be measured. The Mother supplies the devotees with the ‘heap’ of Knowledge. .

“After attaining God, one looks on a pundit as mere straw and dust. Padmalochan said to me: ‘What does it matter if I accompany you to a meeting at the house of a fisherman? With you I can dine even at the house of a pariah.’ “Everything can be realized simply through love of God. If one is able to love God, one does not lack anything. Kartika and Ganesa were seated near Bhagavati, who had a necklace of gems around Her neck. The Divine Mother said to them, ‘I will present this necklace to him who is the first to go around the universe.’ Thereupon Kartika, without losing a moment, set out on the peacock, his carrier. Ganesa, on the other hand, in aleisurely fashion went around the Divine Mother and prostrated himself before Her. He knew that She contained within Herself the entire universe. The Divine Mother was pleased with him and put the necklace around his neck. After a long while Kartika returned and found his brother seated there with the necklace on.

The Master’s visions

“Weeping, I prayed to the Mother: ‘O Mother, reveal to me what is contained in the Vedas and the Vedānta. Reveal to me what is in the Purana and the Tantra.’ One by one She has revealed all these to me. “Yes, She has taught me everything. Oh, how many things she has shown me! One day She showed me Śiva and Śakti everywhere. Everywhere I saw the comunion of Śiva and Śakti. Śiva and Śakti existing in all living things-men, animals, trees, plants. I saw them in the communion of all male and female elements. “Another day I was shown heaps of human heads, mountain high. Nothing else existed, and I was seated alone in their midst. “Still another day She showed me an ocean. Taking the form of a salt doll, I was going to measure its depth. While doing this, through the grace of the guru I was turned to stone. Then I saw a ship and at once got into it. The helmsman was the guru. I hope you pray every day to Satchidananda, who is the Guru. Do you?” M: “Yes, sir.” MASTER: “The guru was the helmsman in that boat. I saw that ‘I’ and ‘you’ were two different things. Again I jumped into the ocean, and was changed into a fish. I found myself swimming joyfully in the Ocean of Satchidananda. “These are all deep mysteries. What can you understand through reasoning? You will realize everything when God Himself teaches you. Then you will not lack any knowledge.”