Surendra

Surendra’s younger brother and his nephews were present. The brother worked in an office and one of the nephews was studying law.

MASTER (to Surendra’s relatives): “My advice to you is not to become attached to the world. You see, Rākhāl now understands what is knowledge and what is ignorance. He can discriminate between the Real and the unreal. So I say to him: ‘Go home. You may come here once in a while and spend a day or two with me.’

“Have a friendly relationship with one another. That will be for your good and make you all happy. In a theatre the performance goes well only if the musicians sing with one voice. And that also gladdens the hearts of the audience.

“Do your worldly duties with a part of your mind and direct most of it to God. A sādhu should think of God with three quarters of his mind and with one quarter should do his other duties. He should be very alert about spiritual things. The snake is very sensitive in its tail. Its whole body reacts when it is hurt there. Similarly, the whole life of a sādhu is affected when his spirituality is touched.”

Sri Ramakrishna was going to the pine-grove and asked Gopal of Sinthi to take his umbrella to his room. Arrangements had been made in the Panchavati for the kirtan.

When the Mister had returned and taken his seat again among the devotees, the musician began her song. Suddenly there came a rain-storm. The Master went back to his room with the devotees, the musician accompanying them to continue her songs there.

MASTER (to Gopal): “Have you brought the umbrella?”

GOPAL: “No, sir. I forgot all about it while listening to the music.”

The umbrella had been left in the Panchavati and Gopal hurried to fetch it.

MASTER: “I am generally careless, but not to that extent. Rākhāl also is very careless. Referring to the date of an invitation, he says ’the eleventh’ instead of ’the 13th'.

Gopal-he belongs in a herd of cows!”

The musician sang a song about the monastic life of Chaitanya. Now and then she improvised lines: “He will not look upon a woman; for that is against the sannyasi’s duty.”

“Eager to take away men’s sorrows, he will not look upon a woman.” “For the Lord’s birth as Sri Chaitanya otherwise would be in vain.”

The Master stood up, as he heard about Chaitanya’s renunciation, and went into samādhi. The devotees put garlands of flowers around his neck. Bhavanath and Rākhāl supported his body lest he should fall on the ground. Vijay, Kedār, Ram, M., Lātu, and the other devotees stood around him in a circle, recalling one of the scenes of Chaitanya’s kirtan.

The Master gradually came down to the sense plane. He was talking to Krishna, now and then uttering the word “Krishna”. He could not say it very distinctly because of the intensity of his spiritual emotion.

He said: “Krishna! Krishna! Krishna! Krishna Satchidananda! Nowadays I do not see Your form. Now I see You both inside me and outside. I see that it is You who have become the universe, all living beings, the 24 four cosmic principles, and everything else. You alone have become mind, intelligence, everything. It is said in the ‘Hymn of Salutation to the Guru’: ‘I bow down to the Guru by whose grace I have realized Him who pervades the indivisible universe of the animate and the inanimate.’

You alone are the Indivisible. Again, it is You who pervade the universe of the animate and the inanimate. You are verily the manifold universe; again, You alone are its basis. O Krishna! You are my life.

O Krishna! You are my mind. O Krishna! You are my intelligence.

O Krishna! You are my soul. O Govinda! You are my life-breath. You are my life itself.”

Vijay was also in an ecstatic mood. The Master asked him, “My dear sir, have you too become unconscious?” “No, sir”, said Vijay humbly.

The music went on. The musician was singing about the blinding love of God. As she improvised the lines:

O Beloved of my soul! Within the chamber of my heart I would have kept You day and night!

The Master again went into samādhi. His injured arm rested on Bhavanath’s shoulder.

Sri Ramakrishna partly regained outer consciousness. The musician improvised:

Why should one who, for Thy sake, has given up everything

Endure so much of suffering?

The Master bowed to the musician and sat down to listen to the music. Now and then he became abstracted. When the musician stopped singing, Sri Ramakrishna began to talk to the devotees.

MASTER (to Vijay and the others): “What is prema? He who feels it, this intense and ecstatic love of God, not only forgets the world but forgets even the body, which is so dear to all. Chaitanya experienced it.”

The Master explained this to the devotees by singing a song describing the ecstatic state of prema: Oh, when will dawn the blessed day When tears of joy will flow from my eyes As I repeat Lord Hari’s name? . . . The Master began to dance, and the devotees joined him. He caught M. by the arm and dragged him into the circle. Thus dancing, Sri Ramakrishna again went into samādhi. Standing transfixed, he looked like a picture on canvas. Kedār repeated the following hymn to bring his mind down from the plane of samādhi: We worship the Brahman-Consciousness in the Lotus of the Heart, The Undifferentiated, who is adored by Hari, Hara, and Brahma;

Who is attained by yogis in the depths of their meditation; The Scatterer of the fear of birth and death, The Essence of Knowledge and Truth, the Primal Seed of the world.

Sri Ramakrishna gradually came back to the plane of normal consciousness. He took his seat and chanted the names of God: “Om Satchidananda! Govinda! Govinda! Govinda! Yogamaya! Bhagavata-Bhakta-Bhagavan!”

The Master took dust from the place where the kirtan had been sung and touched it to his forehead.

A little later Sri Ramakrishna was sitting on the semicircular porch facing the Ganges, the devotees sitting by his side. Now and then the Master would exclaim, “Ah, Krishnachaitanya!”

MASTER (to Vijay and the others): “There has been much chanting of the Lord’s name in the room. That is why the atmosphere has become so intense.”

HAVANATH: “Words of renunciation, too.”

The Master said, “Ah, how thrilling!” Then he sang about Gaurānga and Nityananda : Gora bestows the Nectar of prema; Jar after jar he pours it out, And still there is no end! Sweetest Nitai is summoning all; Beloved Gora bids them come; Shāntipur is almost drowned, And Nadia is flooded with prema! Strict rules for sannyasi’s life

MASTER (to Vijay and the others): “The musician sang rightly: ‘A sannyasi must not look at a woman.’ This is the sannyasi’s dharma. What a lofty ideal!”

VIJAY: “Yes indeed, sir.”

MASTER: “Others learn from the sannyasi’s example. That is why such strict rules are prescribed for him. A sannyasi must not look even at the portrait of a woman. What a strict rule! The slaughtering of a black goat is prescribed for the worship of the Divine Mother; but a goat with even a slight wound cannot be offered. A sannyasi must not only not have intercourse with woman; he must not even talk to her”

VIJAY: “Young Haridas talked with a pious woman. For that reason Chaitanya banished him from his presence.”

MASTER: “A sannyasi associated with ‘woman and gold’ is like a beautiful damsel with a bad odour. The odour makes her beauty useless.

“Once a Mārwāri devotee wanted to give me some money. Mathur wanted to deed me some land. But I couldn’t accept either.

“The rules for the life of a sannyasi are very strict indeed. If a man takes the garb of a sannyasi, he must act exactly like one. Haven’t you noticed in the theatre that the man who takes the part of the king acts like a king, and the man who takes the part of a minister acts like a minister?

“But on attaining the state of the paramahamsa one becomes like a child. A child 5 years old doesn’t know the difference between a man and a woman. But even a paramahamsa must be careful, so as not to set a bad example to others.”

Referring to Keshab’s association with “woman and gold”, which had hindered his work as a spiritual teacher, Sri Ramakrishna said to Vijay, “He-do you understand?”

VIJAY: “Yes, sir.”

MASTER: “He couldn’t achieve very much because he wanted to satisfy both God and the world.”

VIJAY: “Chaitanya said to Nityananda: ‘Nitai, I shall not be able to do the people any good unless I renounce the world. All will imitate me and want to lead the life of a householder. No one will try to direct his whole mind to the Lotus Feet of God, renouncing “woman and gold.”

MASTER: “Yes. Chaitanyadeva renounced the world to set an example to mankind.

The sannyasi must renounce ‘woman and gold’ for his own welfare. Even if he is unattached, and consequently not in danger, still, in order to set an example to others, he must not keep ‘woman and gold’ near him. The sannyasi, the man of renunciation, is a world teacher. It is his example that awakens the spiritual consciousness of men.”

It was nearly dusk. The devotees saluted the Master and took their leave.