Passions should be directed to God

Saturday, May 24, 1884

SRI RAMAKRISHNA was sitting on the small couch in his room. Rākhāl , M., and, several other devotees were present.

A special worship of Kāli had been performed in the temple the previous night. In connection with the worship a theatrical performance of the Vidyasundar had been staged in the Natmandir.

The Master had watched a part of it that morning.

The actors came to his room to pay him their respects. The Master, in a happy mood, became engaged in conversation with a fair complexioned young man who had taken the part of Vidyā and played his part very well.

MASTER (to the actor): “Your acting was very good. If a person excels in singing, music, dancing, or any other art, he can also quickly realize God provided he strives sincerely.

“Just as you practise much in order to sing, dance, and play on instruments, so one should practise the art of fixing the mind on God. One should practise regularly such disciplines as worship, japa, and meditation.

“Are you married? Any children?”

MASTER: “Ah! A death and a birth, and all so quickly! You are so young! There is a saying: ‘My husband died just after our marriage. There are so many nights for me to weep!’ You are no doubt realizing the nature of worldly happiness.

The world is like a hog plum. The hog plum has only pit and skin, and after eating it you suffer from colic. “You are an actor in the theatre.

That’s fine. But it is a very painful profession. You are young now; so you have a full, round face. Afterwards there will be hollows in your cheeks. Almost all actors become like that; they get hollow cheeks and big bellies.

(Laughter.)

“Why did I stay to watch your performance? I found the rhythm, the music, and the melody all correct. Then the Divine Mother showed me that it was God alone who acted in the performance in the roles of the players.”

MASTER: “Lust is like the root of the tree, and desires are branches and twigs.

Passions should be directed to God

One cannot completely get rid of the 6 passions: lust, anger, greed, and the like.

Therefore one should direct them to God. If you must have desire and greed, then you 459should desire love of God and be greedy to attain Him. If you must be conceited and egotistic, then feel conceited and egotistic thinking that you are the servant of God, the child of God.

A man cannot see God unless he gives his whole mind to Him. The mind is wasted on ‘woman and gold’. Take your own case. You have children and are occupied with the theatre. The mind cannot be united with God on account of these different activities.

“As long as there is bhoga, there will be less of yoga. Furthermore, bhoga begets suffering. It is said in the Bhagavata that the Avadhuta chose a kite as one of his 24 gurus. The kite had a fish in its beak; so it was surrounded by a thousand crows. Whichever way it flew with the fish, the crows pursued it crying, ‘Caw! Caw!’

When all of a sudden the fish dropped from its beak, the crows flew after the fish, leaving the kite alone.

“The ‘fish’ is the object of enjoyment. The ‘crows’ are worries and anxiety. Worries and anxiety are inevitable with enjoyment. No sooner does one give up enjoyment than one finds peace.

Money is the source of trouble

Money itself becomes a source of trouble.

Brothers may live happily, but they get into trouble when the property is divided. Dogs lick one another’s bodies; they are perfectly friendly. But when the house-holder throws them a little food, they get into a scrap.

“Come here now and then. (Pointing to M. and the others) They come here on Sundays and other holidays.

ACTOR: “We have holidays for three months, during the rainy and harvest seasons. It is our good fortune to be able to visit you. On our way to Dakshineswar we heard of 2 persons- yourself and Jnanarnava.”

Actor: “Yes, sir. Many birds are trapped in a net; if they all fly together and drag the net in one direction, then many of them may be saved. But that doesn’t happen if they try to fly in different directions.

One also sees in a theatrical performance a person keeping a pitcher of water on his head and at the same time dancing about.

Do your duties and remember God

Live in the world but keep the pitcher steady on your head; that is to say, keep the mind firmly on God.

I once said to the sephoys from the barracks: ‘Do your duty in the world but remember that the “pestle of death” will some time smash your hand. Be alert about it.’

“In Kamarpukur I have seen the women of carpenter families making flattened rice with a husking-machine. One woman kicks the end of the wooden beam, and another woman, while nursing her baby, turns the paddy in the mortar dug in the earth.

The second woman is always alert lest the pestle of the machine should fall on her hand. With the other hand she fries the soaked paddy in a pan. Besides, she is talking with customers;

She says: ‘You owe us so much money. Please pay it before you go.’ Likewise, do your different duties in the world, fixing your mind on God. But practice is necessary, and one should also be alert. Only in this way can one safeguard both―God and the world.”

MASTER: “Proof? God can be seen. By practising spiritual discipline one sees God, through His grace. The rishis directly realized the Self. One cannot know the truth about God through science. Science gives us information only about things perceived by the senses, as for instance: this material mixed with that material gives such and such a result, and that material mixed with this material gives such and such a result.

For this reason a man cannot comprehend spiritual things with his ordinary intelligence.

To understand them he must live in the company of holy persons. You learn to feel the pulse by living with a physician.

ACTOR: “Yes, sir. Now I understand.”

ACTOR: “How does One realize the Ātman?”

Just then Rākhāl was about to take his meal in the Master’s room. He hesitated at the sight of so many people. During those days the Master looked on Rākhāl as Gopala and on himself as Mother Yaśoda.

Rākhāl sat down to his meal. Sri Ramakrishna again spoke to the actor.

MASTER: “Why didn’t all of you take your meal from the kitchen of the Kāli temple? That would have been nice.”

ACTOR: “All of us don’t have the same opinion about food; so our food is cooked separately. All don’t like to eat in the guest-house.”

While Rākhāl was taking his meal, the Master and the devotees sat on the porch and continued their conversation.

Means of Self-realization

MASTER (to the actor): “You asked me about Self-realization. Longing is the means of realizing Ātman. A man must strive to attain God with all his body, with all his mind, and with all his speech. Because of an excess of bile one gets jaundice.

Then one sees everything as yellow; one perceives no colour but yellow. Among you actors, those who take only the roles of women acquire the nature of a woman; by thinking of woman your ways and thoughts become womanly. Just so, by thinking day and night of God one acquires the nature of God.

“The mind is like white linen just returned from the laundry. It takes on the colour you dip it in.”

ACTOR: “But it must first be sent to the laundry.”

MASTER: “Yes. First is the purification of the mind. Afterwards, if you direct the mind to the contemplation of God, it will be coloured by God-Consciousness. Again, if you direct the mind to worldly duties, such as the acting of a play, it will be coloured by worldliness.”

Sri Ramakrishna had rested on his bed only a few minutes when Hari, Narayan, Narendra Bannerji, and other devotees arrived from Calcutta and saluted him. Narendra Bannerji was the son of the professor of Sanskrit at the Presidency College of Calcutta.

Because of friction with other members of the family, he had rented a separate house where he lived with his wife and children. Narendra was a very simple and guileless man.

He practised spiritual discipline and, at the time of meditation, heard various sounds-the sound of a gong, and so on. He had travelled in different parts of India and he visited the Master now and then.

Narayan was a school boy 16 years old. He often visited the Master, who was very fond of him.

Hari lived with his brothers at their Baghbazar house. He had studied up to the matriculation class in the General Assembly Institution. Then he had given up his studies and devoted his time at home to the contemplation of God, the reading of the scriptures, and the practice of yoga.

He also visited the Master now and then.

Sri Ramakrishna often sent for Hari when he went to Balarām’s house in Baghbazar.

A DEVOTEE: “What is the vision of God like?”

MASTER: “Haven’t you seen a theatrical performance? The people are engaged in conversation, when suddenly the curtain goes up. Then the entire mind of the audience is directed to the play. The people don’t look at other things any longer.

Samādhi is to go within oneself like that. When the curtain is rung down, people look around again. Just so, when the, curtain of māyā falls, the mind becomes externalized.

(To Narendra Bannerji) “You have travelled a great deal. Tell us some thing about the sādhus.”

Narendra told the story of two yogis in Bhutan who used to drink daily a pound of the bitter juice of neem-leaves. He had also visited the hermitage of a holy man on the bank of the Narmada. At the sight of the Bengali Babu dressed in European clothes, the sādhu had remarked, “He has a knife hidden under his clothes, next to his belly.” Keeping the pictures of holy persons

MASTER: “One should keep pictures of holy men in one’s room. That constantly quickens divine ideas.

BANNERJI: “I have your picture in my room; also the picture of a sādhu living in the mountains, blowing on a piece of lighted charcoal, in a bowl of hemp.” MASTER: “It is true that one’s spiritual feelings are awakened by looking at the picture of a sādhu. It is like being reminded of the custard-apple by looking at an imitation one, or like stimulating the desire for enjoyment by looking at a young woman. Therefore I tell you that you should constantly live in the company of holy men. (To Bannerji) “You know very well the suffering of the world. You suffer whenever you accept enjoyment. As long as the kite kept the fish in its beak, it was tormented by the flock of crows.

One finds peace of mind in the company of holy men. The alligator remains under water a long time. But every now and then it rises to the surface and breathes with a deep wheezing noise. Then it gives a sigh of relief.”

ACTOR: “Revered sir, what you have just said about enjoyment is very true. One ultimately courts disaster if one prays to God for enjoyment. Various desires come to the mind and by no means all of them are good. God is the Kalpataru, the Wish-fulfilling Tree.

A man gets whatever he asks of God. Suppose it comes to his mind: ‘God is the Kalpataru. Well, let me see if a tiger will appear before me.’ Because he thinks of the tiger, it really appears and devours him.”

MASTER: “Yes, you must remember that the tiger comes. What more shall I tell you? Keep your mind on God. Don’t forget Him. God will certainly reveal Himself to you if you pray to Him with sincerity. Another thing. Sing the name of God at the end of each performance. Then the actors, the singers, and the audience will go home with the thought of God in their minds.”

The actors saluted the Master and took their leave.

Two ladies, devotees of Sri Ramakrishna, entered the room and saluted the Master. They had been fasting in preparation for this visit. They were sisters-in-law, the wives of 2 brothers, and were twenty-two or twenty-three years old. They were mothers of children. Both of them had their faces covered with veils.

MASTER (to the ladies): “Worship Śiva. This worship is described in a book called the Nityakarma.

Learn the rituals from it. In order to perform the worship of God you will be preoccupied for a longtime with such religious duties as plucking flowers, making sandal- paste, polishing the utensils of worship, and arranging offerings. As you perform these duties your mind will naturally be directed to God. You will get rid of meanness, anger, jealousy, and so forth. When you two sisters talk to each other, always talk about spiritual matters.

“The thing is somehow to unite the mind with God. You must not forget Him, not even once. Your thought of Him should be like the flow of oil, without any interruption. If you worship with love even a brick or stone as God, then through His grace you can see Him.

“Remember what I have just said to you. One should perform such worship as the Śiva Puja. Once the mind has become mature, one doesn’t have to continue formal worship for long. The mind then always remains united with God; meditation and contemplation become a constant habit of mind.” ELDER SISTER-IN-LAW: “Will you please give us some instruction?”

MASTER (affectionately): “I don’t give initiation. If a guru assume responsibility for the disciple’s sin and suffering. The me in the state of a child. Perform the Śiva Puja as I told you.

We shall see what happens later on through the will of God. name of Hari at home. Are you doing that?” ELDER SISTER-IN-LAW: “Yes.”

gives initiation he must Divine Mother has placed Come here now and then.

I asked you to chant the

MASTER: “Why have you fasted? You should take your meal before you come here. Women are but so many forms of my Divine Mother. I cannot bear to see them suffer; You are all images of the Mother of the Universe. Come here after you have eaten, and you will feel happy.”

Saying this, Sri Ramakrishna asked Ramlal to give the ladies some food. They were given fruit, sweets, drinks, and other offerings from the temple. The Master said: “You have eaten something. Now my mind is at peace. I cannot bear to see women fast.”

It was about five o’clock in the afternoon. Sri Ramakrishna was sitting on the steps of the Śiva temples. Adhar, Dr. Nitai, M., and several other devotees were with him.

MASTER (to the devotees): “I want to tell you something. A change has been coming over my nature.” The Master came down a step and sat near the devotees. It seemed that he intended to communicate some of his deeper experiences to them.

MASTER: “You are devotees. I have no hesitation in telling you this. Nowadays I don’t see the Spirit-form of God. He is revealed to me in human form. It is my nature to see the form of God, to touch and embrace Him. God is saying to me, ‘You have assumed a body; therefore enjoy God through His human forms.’ “God no doubt dwells in all, but He manifests Himself more through man than through other beings. Is man an insignificant thing? He can think of God, he can think of the Infinite, while other living beings cannot. God exists in other living beings-animals, plants, nay, in all beings-, but He manifests Himself more through man than through these others. Fire exists in all beings, in all things; but its presence is felt more in wood. Rāma said to Lakshmana: ‘Look at the elephant, brother. He is such a big animal, but he cannot think of God.’