Niranjan's Guilelessness

Friday, June 20, 1884

It was dusk. Sri Ramakrishna was sitting in his room, absorbed in contemplation of the Divine Mother. Now and then he was chanting Her name. Rākhāl , Adhar, M., and several other devotees were with him.

After a while the evening worship began in the temples. Adhar left the room to see the worship.

Sri Ramakrishna and M. conversed.

MASTER: “Tell me, does Baburam intend to continue his studies? I said to him, ‘Continue your studies to set an example to others.’ After Sita had been set free, Bibhishana refused to become king of Ceylon. Rāma said to him: ‘You should become king to open the eyes of the ignorant.

Otherwise they will ask you what you have gained as a result of serving Me. They will be pleased to see you acquire the kingdom.’

I noticed the other day that Baburam, Bhavanath, and Harish have a feminine nature.

In a vision I saw Baburam as a goddess with a necklace around her neck and with woman companions about her.

He has received something in a dream. His body is pure. Only a very little effort will awaken his spiritual consciousness.

“You see, I am having some difficulty about my physical needs. It will be nice if Baburam lives with me. The nature of these attendants of mine is undergoing a change. Lātu is always tense with spiritual emotion. He is about to merge himself in God. Rākhāl is getting into such a spiritual mood that he can’t do anything even for himself. I have to get water for him. He isn’t of much service to me.

“Among the youngsters Baburam and Niranjan are rather exceptional. If other boys come in the future, they will, it seems to me, receive instruction and then go away.

“But I don’t want Baburam to tear himself away from his family. It may make trouble at home.

(Smiling) When I ask him, ‘Why don’t you come?’ he says, ‘Why not make me come?’ He looks at Rākhāl and weeps. He says, ‘Rākhāl is very happy here.’

“Rākhāl now lives here as one of the family. I know that he will never again be attached to the world. He says that worldly enjoyments have become tasteless to him. His wife came here on her way to Konnagar. She is fourteen. He too was asked to go to Konnagar, but he didn’t go. He said, ‘I don’t like merriment and gaiety.’

What do you think of Niranjan?” M: “He is very handsome.”

MASTER: “No, I am not asking about his looks. He is guileless. One can easily realize God if one is free from guile. Spiritual instruction produces quick results in a guileless heart. Such a heart is like well cultivated land from which all the stones have been removed.

No sooner is the seed sown than it germinates. The fruit also appears quickly. “Niranjan will not marry. It is ‘woman and gold’ that causes entanglement. Isn’t that so?”

M: “Yes, sir.”

MASTER: “What will one gain by renouncing betel-leaf and tobacco? The real renunciation is the renunciation of ‘woman and gold.’ “I came to know in an ecstatic mood that, though Niranjan had accepted a job in an office, he would not be stained by it. He is earning money for his mother. There is no harm in that.

The work you are doing won’t injure you either. What you are doing is good. Suppose a clerk is sent to jail; he is shut up there and chained, and at last he is released. Does he cut capers after his release? Of course not. He works again as a clerk.

It is not your intention to accumulate money. You only want to support your family. Otherwise, where will they go?”

M: “I shall be relieved if someone takes charge of them.”

MASTER: “That is true. But now do ’this’ as well as ’that’ "

M: “It is great luck to be able to renounce everything.”

MASTER: “That is true. But people act according to their inherent tendencies. You have a few more duties to perform. After these are over you will have peace. Then you will be released. A man cannot easily get out of the hospital once his name is registered there.

He is discharged only when he is completely cured.

Two classes of Master’s devotees

“The devotees who come here may be divided into two groups. One group says, ‘O God, give me liberation.’ Another group, belonging to the inner circle, doesn’t talk that way.

They are satisfied if they can know two things: first, who I6 am; second, who they are and what their relationship to me is. You belong to this second group; otherwise. . .

“Bhavanath, Baburam, and a few others have a feminine nature. Harish sleeps in a woman’s cloth.

Baburam says that he too likes the womanly attitude. So I am right. Bhavanath also is like that.

But Narendra, Rākhāl, and Niranjan have a masculine nature.

Significance of the Master’s injuring his arm

“Please tell me one thing. What is the significance of my having hurt my arm? Once my teeth were broken while I was in a state of ecstasy. It is the arm this time.”

Seeing M. silent, the Master himself continued the conversation.

MASTER: “My arm was broken in order to destroy my ego to its very root. Now I cannot find my ego within myself any more. When I search for it I see God alone. One can never attain God without completely getting rid of the ego. You must have noticed that the chatak bird has its nest on the ground but soars up very high.

“Captain says I haven’t acquired any occult powers because I eat fish. I tremble with fear lest I should acquire those powers. If I should have them, then this place would be turned into a hospital or a dispensary. People would flock here and ask me to cure their illness. Is it good to have occult powers?”

M: “No, sir. You have said to us that a man cannot realize God if he possesses even one of the 8 occult powers.”

MASTER: “Right you are. Only the small-minded seek them. If one asks something of a rich man, one no longer receives any favour from him. The rich man doesn’t allow such a person to ride in the same carriage with him. Even if he does, he doesn’t allow the man to sit near him. Therefore love without any selfish motive is best.

“God with form and the formless God are both equally true. What do you say? One cannot keep one’s mind on the formless God a long time. That is why God assumes form for His devotees.

Captain makes a nice remark in this connexion. He says that when a bird gets tired of soaring very high it perches on a tree and rests. First is the formless God, and then comes God with form.

I shall have to go to your house once. I saw in a vision that the houses of Adhar, Balarām, and Surendra were so many places for our forgathering. But it makes no difference to me whether they come here or not.”

M: “That’s right. Why shouldn’t it be so? One must feel misery if one feels happiness. But you are beyond both.”

MASTER: “Yes. Further, I think of the magician and his magic. The magician alone is real. His magic is illusory, like a dream. I realized this when I heard the Chandi recited. Sumbha and Nisumbha were scarcely born when I learnt that they both were dead.”

M: “Yes, sir. Once I was going to Kalna with Gangadhar in a steamer. A country boat struck our ship and sank with twenty or twenty-five passengers. They all disappeared in the water, like foam churned up by the steamer.

Does a man watching magic really feel compassion when he sees suffering in the performance? Does he feel, at that time, any sense of responsibility? One thinks of compassion only when one feels responsibility.

How a Jnāni looks on the illusory world

MASTER: “A Jnāni sees everything at once-God, māyā, the universe, and living beings.

He sees that Vidyā-māyā, Avidyā-māyā, the universe, and all living beings exist and at the same time do not exist. As long as he is conscious of ‘I’, he is conscious of ‘others’ too. Nothing whatsoever exists after he cuts through the whole thing with the sword of jnāna. Then even his ‘I’ becomes as unreal as the magic of the magician.”

M. was reflecting on these words, when the Master said: “Do you know what it is like? It is as if there were a flower with twenty-five layers of petals, and you cut them all with one stroke.

“The idea of responsibility! Goodness gracious! Men like Sankaracharya and Sukadeva kept the ’ego of Knowledge’. It is not for man to show compassion, but for God. One feels compassion as long as one has the ’ego of Knowledge’. And it is God Himself who has become the ’ego of Knowledge’.

Supreme power of Ādyāśakti in the relative world

“You may feel a thousand times that it is all magic; but you are still under the control of the Divine Mother. You cannot escape Her. You are not free. You must do what She makes you do. A man attains Brahmajnana only when it is given to him by the Ādyāśakti , the Divine Mother. Then alone does he see the whole thing as magic; otherwise not.

“As long as the slightest trace of ego remains, one lives within the jurisdiction of the Ādyāśakti . One is under Her sway. One cannot go beyond Her.

“With the help of the Ādyāśakti , God sports as an Incarnation. God, through His Śakti, incarnates Himself as man. Then alone does it become possible for the Incarnation to carry on His work.

“When anyone asked the former manager of the temple garden a great favour, the manager would say, ‘Come after two or three days.’ He must ask the proprietor’s permission.

“God will incarnate Himself as Kalki at the end of the Kaliyuga. He will be born as the son of a brahmin. Suddenly and unexpectedly a sword and horse will come to him. . . .”

Adhar returned to the Master’s room after watching the evening worship in the temples.

MASTER (to Adhar and the others): “Bhuvan was here and brought me 25 Bombay mangoes and some sweets. She said to me, ‘Will you eat a mango?’ I said, ‘My stomach is heavy today.’ And to tell you the truth, I am feeling uncomfortable after eating a few of the sweets.”

Bhuvanmohini was a nurse who used to visit Sri Ramakrishna now and then.

The Master could not eat the food offerings of everyone, especially of physicians and nurses. It was because they accepted money from the sick in spite of the suffering of these people.

MASTER: “Keshab Sen’s mother, sisters, and other relatives came here; so I had to dance a little.

I had to entertain them. What else could I do? They were so grief-stricken!”