The story of the wood-cutter

“Once upon a time a wood-cutter went into a forest to chop wood. There suddenly he met a brahmachari. The holy man said to him, ‘My good man, go forward.’ On returning home the wood-cutter asked himself, ‘Why did the brahmachari tell me to go forward?’

Some time passed. One day he remembered the brahmachari’s words.

He said to himself, ‘Today I shall go deeper into the forest.’ Going deep into the forest, he discovered innumerable sandal-wood trees. He was very happy and returned with cartloads of sandal-wood. He sold them in the market and became very rich.

“A few days later he again remembered the words of the holy man to go forward. He went deeper into the forest and discovered a silver-mine near a river. This was even beyond his dreams. He dug out silver from the mine and sold it in the market. He got so much money that he didn’t even know how much he had.

“A few more days passed. One day he thought: ‘The brahmachari didn’t ask me to stop at the silver-mine; he told me to go forward.’ This time he went to the other side of the river and found a gold-mine. Then he exclaimed: ‘Ah, just see! This is why he asked me to go forward.’

Again, a few days afterwards, he went still deeper into the forest and found heaps of diamonds and other precious gems. He took these also and became as rich as the god of wealth himself.

“Therefore I say that, whatever you may do, you will find better and better things if only you go forward. You may feel a little ecstasy as the result of japa, but don’t conclude from this that you have achieved everything in spiritual life. Work is by no means the goal of life. Go forward, and then you will be able to perform unselfish work.

But again I say that it is most difficult to perform unselfish work. Therefore with love and longing in your heart pray to God: ‘O God, grant me devotion at Thy Lotus Feet and reduce my worldly duties. Please grant me the boon that the few duties I must do may be done in a detached spirit.’ If you go still farther you will realize God.

You will see Him. In time you will converse with Him.”

Next the conversation turned to the quarrels among the members of the Brahmo Samaj.

They had had a misunderstanding about the right to preach in the temple after Keshab’s death.

MASTER (to Pratap): “I hear that some members of the Samaj have quarrelled with you about the altar. But they are most insignificant persons-mere nobodies. (To the devotees): “People like Pratap and Amrita are like good conchshells, which give out a loud sound. And the rest, about whom you hear so much, don’t give out any sound at all.” (All laugh.)

PRATAP: “Speaking of sounds, even such a worthless thing as a mangostone makes a sound!”

MASTER (to Pratap): “One can very well understand the inner feeling of a teacher of your Brahmo Samaj by hearing his preaching. Once I went to a meeting of a Hari Sabha.

The preacher of the day was a pundit named Samadhyayi. And can you imagine what he said? He said in the course of his sermon: ‘God is dry. We must make Him sweet and fresh with our love and devotion.’ I was stunned to hear these words.

Then I was reminded of a story. A boy once said: ‘At my uncle’s house there are many horses. Oh, yes! His whole cow-shed is full of them.’ Now if it was really a cow-shed, then horses could not be kept there. Possibly he had only cows. What did people think on hearing such an incoherent statement? They believed that there were surely no such animals as horses in the shed.” (Laughter.)

A DEVOTEE: “True, sir, there were not only no horses, but possibly there were also no cows!”

(Laughter.)

MASTER: “Just fancy, to describe God, who is of the very nature of Love and Bliss, as dry! It only proves that the man has never experienced what God is like. Master’s advice to Pratap

(To Pratap) “Let me tell you something. You are a learned and intelligent and serious-minded soul. Keshab and you were like the two brothers, Gaur and Nitai. You have had enough of lectures, arguments, quarrels,discussions, and dissensions. Can such things interest you any more? Now gather your whole mind and direct it to God. Plunge deep into God.”

PRATAP: “Yes, sir, you are right. That is surely my only duty now. But I am doing all these things only to perpetuate Keshab’s name.”

MASTER (with a smile): “No doubt you say now that you are doing all this to keep his name alive; but in a few days you won’t feel that way. Listen to a story. A man had built a house on a hill.

It was only a mud hut, but he had built it with great labour. A few days after, there came a violent storm and the hut began to rock. The man became very anxious to save it and prayed to the god of the winds,‘O god of the winds, please don’t wreck the house!’

But the god of the winds paid no heed to his prayer. The house was about to crash. Then he thought of a trick. He remembered that Hanuman was the son of the god of the winds.

At once he cried out with great earnestness: ‘O revered sir, please don’t pull down the house. It belongs to Hanuman. I beseech you to protect it.’ But still the house continued to shake violently. Nobody seemed to listen to his prayer. He repeated many times, ‘Oh, this house belongs to Hanuman!’ But the fury of the wind did not abate.

Then he remembered that Hanuman was the devoted servant of Rāma, whose younger brother was Lakshmana. Desperately the man prayed, crying aloud, ‘Oh, this house belongs to Lakshmana!’ But that also failed to help matters. So the man cried out as a last resort: ‘This is Rāma’s house. Don’t break it down, O god of the winds! I beseech you most humbly.’ But this too proved futile, and the house began to crash down.

Whereupon the man, who now had to save his own life, rushed out of it with the curse:

‘Let it go! This is the devil’s own hut!’

(To Pratap): “You don’t have to perpetuate Keshab’s name. Remember that he achieved all his success through the will of God. Through the divine will his work was established, and through the divine will it is disintegrating. What can you do about it? Now it is your bounden duty to give your entire mind to God, to plunge deep into the Ocean of His Love.”

Saying these words the Master sang in his sweet voice: Dive deep, O mind, dive deep in the Ocean of God’s Beauty; If you descend to the uttermost depths, There you will find the gem of Love.

Go seek, O mind, go seek Vrindāvan in your heart, Where with His loving devotees Sri Krishna sports eternally.

Light up, O mind, light up true wisdom’s shining lamp, And let it burn with steady flame Unceasingly within your heart.

Who is it that steers your boat across the solid earth? It is your guru, says Kubir;

The Master continued, addressing Pratap: “Did you listen to the song? You have had enough of lectures and quarrels. Now dive deep into the Ocean of God. There is no fear of death from plunging into this Ocean, for this is the Ocean of Immortality. Don’t think that this will make you lose your head. Never for a moment harbour the idea that by thinking too much of God one becomes insane. Once I said to Narendra”

PRATAP: “Who is Narendra, sir?”

MASTER: “Oh, never mind. There is a young man of that name. I said to Narendra: ‘Look here, my boy. God is the Ocean of Bliss; Don’t you want to plunge into this Ocean?

Suppose there is a cup of syrup and you are a fly. Where will you sit to sip the syrup?’

Narendra said, ‘I will sit on the edge of the cup and stick my head out to drink it.’

‘Why?’ said I. ‘Why should you sit on the edge?’ He replied, ‘If I go far into the syrup, I shall be drowned and lose my life.’ Then I said to him: ‘But, my child, there is no such fear in the Ocean of Satchidananda. It is the Ocean of Immortality. By plunging into it a man does not die; he becomes immortal. Man does not lose his consciousness by being mad about God.

(To the devotees) “The feeling of ‘I ’ and ‘mine’ is ignorance. People say that Rani Rasmani built the Kāli temple; but nobody says it was the work of God. They say that such and such a person established the Brahmo Samaj; but nobody says it was founded through the will of God. This feeling, ‘I am the doer’, is ignorance. On the contrary, the 491idea, ‘O God, Thou art the Doer and I am only an instrument; Thou art the Operator and I am the machine’, is Knowledge. After attaining Knowledge a man says: ‘O God, nothing belongs to me-neither this house of worship nor this Kāli temple nor this Brahmo Samaj.

These are all Thine. Wife, son, and family do not belong to me. They are all Thine.’

“To love these objects, regarding them as one’s own, is māyā.

But to love all things is daya, compassion. To love only the members of the Brahmo Samaj or of one’s own family is māyā; to love one’s own countrymen is māyā. But to love the people of all countries, to love the members of all religions, is daya. Such love comes from love of God, from daya.

“Māyā entangles a man and turns him away from God. But through daya one realizes God. Sages like Sukadeva and Nārada always cherished daya in their hearts.” PRATAP: “Revered sir, are those who live with you making progress in spiritual life?”

MASTER: “I tell people that there is nothing wrong in the life of the world. But they must live in the world as a maidservant lives in her master’s house.’ Referring to her master’s house, she says, ‘That is our house.’ But her real home is perhaps in a far-away village. Pointing out her master’s house to others, she says, no doubt, ‘This is our house’, but in her heart she knows very well that it doesn’t belong to her and that her own house is in a faraway village. She brings up her master’s son and says, ‘My Hari has grown very naughty’, or ‘My Hari doesn’t like sweets.’

Though she repeats, ‘My Hari’ with her lips, yet she knows in her heart that Hari doesn’t belong to her, that he is her master’s son. “Thus I say to those who visit me: ‘Why don’t you live in the world? There is no harm in that.

But always keep your mind, on God. Know for certain that house, family and property are not yours. They are God’s. Your real home is in God.’ Also I ask them to pray always with a longing heart for love of God’s Lotus Feet.”

A devotee said, “The pundits of England do not believe in the existence of God.”

PRATAP: “However they may talk, I don’t believe that any of them is a real atheist. Many of them have had to admit that there is a great power behind the activities of the universe.”

MASTER: “Well, that is enough. They believe in Śakti, don’t they? Then why should they be atheists?”

PRATAP: “They also believe in the moral government of the universe.”

Pratap was now about to take leave of the Master.

MASTER (to Pratap): “What more shall I say to you? My only request is that you do not involve yourself in quarrels and dissensions any more. Another thing. It is ‘woman and gold’ that keeps men away from God. That is the barrier. Don’t you find that everyone has nothing but praise for his own wife? (All laugh.) A wife may be good or bad; but if you ask her husband about her he will always say, ‘Oh, she is very good-’”

At this point Pratap bade the Master good-bye. He did not wait to hear the end of Sri Ramakrishna’s words about the renunciation of “woman and gold”. Those burning words touched the hearts of the devotees and were carried away on the wind through the gently rustling leaves in the garden.

A few minutes later Mani Mallick said to Sri Ramakrishna: “Sir, it is time for you to leave for Dakshineswar. Today Keshab’s mother and the other ladies of his family are going to the temple garden to visit you. They will be hurt if they do not find you there.”

Keshab had passed away only a few months before. His old mother and his other relatives wanted to visit the Master.

MASTER (to Mani Mallick): “Don’t hurry me, please. I didn’t sleep well. I can’t rush. They are going to Dakshineswar. What am I to do about it? They will stroll in the garden and enjoy it thoroughly.

After resting a little the Master was ready to leave for Dakshineswar. He was thinking of Surendra’s welfare. He visited the different rooms, softly chanting the holy name of God.

Suddenly he stood still and said: “I didn’t eat any luchi at meal time. Bring me a little now.”

He ate only a crumb and said: “There is much meaning in my asking for the luchi. If I should remember that I hadn’t eaten any at Surendra’s house, then I should want to come back for it.”

(All laugh.)

MANI MALLICK: “That would have been nice. Then we too should have come with you.”

The devotees laughed.