Does God listen to our prayers?

PUNDIT: “Does God listen to our prayers?”

MASTER: “God is the Kalpataru, the Wish-fulfilling Tree. You will certainly get whatever you ask of Him. But you must pray standing near the Kalpataru. Only then will your prayer be fulfilled. But you must remember another thing. God knows our inner feeling.

A man gets the fulfillment of the desire he cherishes while practising sadhana. As one thinks, so one receives. A magician was showing his tricks before a king. Now and then he exclaimed: ‘Come confusion! Come delusion! O King, give me money! Give me clothes!’

Suddenly his tongue turned upward and clove to the roof of his mouth. He experienced kumbhaka. He could utter neither word nor sound, and became motionless. People thought he was dead. They built a vault of bricks and buried him there in that posture. After a thousand years someone dug into the vault. Inside it people found a man seated in samādhi.

They took him for a holy man and worshipped him. When they shook him his tongue was loosened and regained its normal position. The magician became conscious of the outer world and cried, as he had a thousand years before:

‘Come confusion! Come delusion! O King, give me money! Give me clothes!’

“I used to weep, praying to the Divine Mother, ‘O Mother, destroy with Thy thunderbolt my inclination to reason.’ "

PUNDIT: “Then you too had an inclination to reason?”

MASTER :“Yes, once.”

PUNDIT: “Then please assure us that we shall get rid of that inclination too. How did you get rid of yours?”

MASTER: “Oh, somehow or other.”

Sri Ramakrishna was silent awhile. Then he went on with his conversation.

MASTER: “God is the Kalpataru. One should pray standing near It. Then one will get whatever one desires.

“How many things God has created! Infinite is His universe. But what need have I to know about His infinite splendours? If I must know these, let me first realize Him. Then

God Himself will tell me all about them. What need have I to know how many houses and how many government securities Jadu Mallick possesses? All that I need is somehow to converse with Jadu Mallick. I may succeed in seeing him by jumping over a ditch or through a petition or after being pushed about by his gate-keeper. Once I get a chance to talk to him, then he himself will tell me all about his possessions if I ask him. If one becomes acquainted with the master, then one is respected by his officers too. (All laugh.)

“There are some who do not care to know the splendours of God. What do I care about knowing how many gallons of wine there are in the tavern? One bottle is enough for me.

Why should I desire the knowledge of God’s splendours? I am intoxicated with the little wine I have swallowed.

Both bhaktiyoga and jnanayoga are paths by which you can realize God. Whatever path you may follow, you will certainly realize Him. The path of bhakti is an easy one. The path of knowledge and discrimination is very difficult. Why should one reason so much to know which path is the best?

I talked about this with Vijay for many days. Once I told him about a man who used to pray, ‘O God, reveal to me who and what You are.’ “The path of knowledge and discrimination is difficult indeed. Parvati, the Divine Mother, revealed Her various forms to Her father and said, ‘Father, if you want Brahmajnana, then live in the company of holy men.’

“Brahman cannot be described in words. It is said in the Rāma Gitā that Brahman has only been indirectly hinted at by the scriptures. When one speaks about the ‘cowherd village on the Ganges’, one indirectly states that the village is situated on the bank of the Ganges.

“Why shouldn’t a man be able to realize the formless Brahman? But it is extremely difficult. He cannot if he has even the slightest trace of worldliness. He can be directly aware of Brahman in his inmost consciousness only when he renounces all sense-objects―form, taste, smell, touch, and sound and only when his mind completely stops functioning.

He knows only this much of Brahman―that It exists.”

Quoting from an Upanishad, the pundit said, “It is to be experienced only as Existence.”

MASTER: “In order to realize God a devotee should make use of a particular attitude-the attitude of a ‘hero’ or a friend or a handmaid or a child.”

MANI MALLICK: “Only then can one feel attached to God.”

MASTER: “For many days I cherished the feeling that I was a companion of the Divine Mother. I used to say: ‘I am the handmaid of Brahmamayi, the Blissful Mother. O companions of the Divine Mother, make me the Mother’s handmaid! I shall go about proudly, saying, “I am Brahmamayi’s handmaid!”

Different classes of perfect souls

Some souls realize God without practising any spiritual discipline. They are called nityasiddha, eternally perfect. Those who have realized God through austerity, japa, and the like, are called sadhanasiddha, perfect through spiritual discipline. Again, there are those called kripasiddha, perfect through divine grace. These last may be compared to a room kept dark a thousand years, which becomes light the moment a lamp is brought in.

There is also a class of devotees, the hathatsiddha, that is to say, those who have suddenly attained God-vision. Their case is like that of a poor boy who has suddenly found favour with a rich man. The rich man marries his daughter to the boy and along with her gives him land, house, carriage, servants, and so forth.

There is still another class of devotees, the svapnasiddha, who have had the vision of God in a dream.

SURENDRA (smiling): “Let us go to sleep then. We shall wake and find ourselves babus, aristocrats.

MASTER (tenderly): “You are already a babu. When the letter ‘a’ is joined to the letter ‘ka’, ‘ka’ becomes ‘kaa’. It is futile to add another ‘a’. If you add it, you will still have the same ‘kaa’. (All laugh.)

The Nitya-siddha

The nityasiddha is in a class apart. He is like arani wood. A little rubbing produces fire.

You can get fire from it even without rubbing. The nityasiddha realizes God by practising slight spiritual discipline and sometimes without practising any at all. But he does practise spiritual discipline after realizing God. He is like the gourd or pumpkin vine―first fruit, then flower.”

The pundit smiled at this illustration.

MASTER: “There is the instance of Prahlada. He was a nityasiddha. While writing the letter ‘ka’ he shed a stream of tears.” The Master was pleased with the pundit’s humility. He praised him to the devotees.

MASTER: “He has such a nice nature. You find no difficulty in driving a nail into a mud wall. But its point breaks if you try to drive it against a stone; and still it will not pierce it.

There are people whose spiritual consciousness is not at all awakened even though they hear about God a thousand times. They are like a crocodile, on whose hide you cannot make any impression with a sword "

PUNDIT: “But one can hurt a crocodile by throwing a spear into its belly.” (All laugh.)

MASTER (smiling): “What good is there in reading a whole lot of scriptures? What good is there in the study of philosophy? What is the use of talking big? In order to learn archery one should first aim at a banana tree, then at a reed, then at a wick, and last at a flying bird. At the beginning one should concentrate on God with form.

“Then there are devotees who are beyond the three gunas. They are eternally devoted to God, like Nārada. These devotees behold Krishna as Chinmaya, all Spirit, His Abode as Chinmaya, His devotee as Chinmaya. To them God is eternal, His Abode is eternal, His devotee is eternal.

“Those who reason and speculate following the process of ‘Neti, neti’ do not accept the Incarnation of God. Hazra says well that Divine Incarnation is only for the bhakta, and not for the Jnāni, because the Jnāni is quite contented with his ideal, ‘I am He’.”

Sri Ramakrishna and the devotees remained silent awhile. The pundit resumed the conversation.

PUNDIT: “Sir, how does one get rid of callousness? Laughter makes me think of muscles and nerves. Grief makes me think of the nervous system.”

MASTER (smiling): “That is why Narayan Shastri used to say, The harmful effect of the study of the scriptures is that it encourages reasoning and arguing.’”

PUNDIT: “Is there no way for us then?”

MASTER: “Yes, there is the path of discrimination. In a song occurs the line: ‘Ask her son Discrimination about the Truth.’

“The way lies through discrimination, renunciation, and passionate yearning for God.

Unless a man practises discrimination, he cannot utter the right words. One time, after expounding religion at great length, Pundit Samadhyayi said, ‘God is dry.’ He reminded me of the man who once said, ‘My uncle’s cow-shed is full of horses.’ Now, does anyone keep horses in a cowshed? (With a smile) You have become like a chānābarā fried in butter.

Now it will be good for you and for others as well, if you are soaked in syrup a few days. Just a few days.”

PUNDIT (smiling): “The sweetmeat is over-fried. It has become charred.”

MASTER (with a laugh): “No! No! It is brown as a cockroach. Just the right colour.”

HAZRA: “The sweetmeat is well cooked. It has become spongy. Now it will soak up the syrup nicely.”

MASTER: “You see, there is no need to read too much of the scriptures. If you read too much you will be inclined to reason and argue. Nangta used to teach me thus: What you get by repeating the word ‘Gitā’ tell times is the essence of the book. In other words, if you repeat ‘Gitā’ ten times it is reversed into ’tagi’, which indicates renunciation.

Yes, the way to realize God is through discrimination, renunciation, and yearning for Him. What kind of yearning? One should yearn for God as the cow, with yearning heart, runs after its calf.”

PUNDIT: “The same thing is said in the Vedas: ‘O God, we call on Thee as the cow lows for the calf.’”

MASTER: “Add your tears to your yearning. And if you can renounce everything through discrimination and dispassion, then you will be able to see God. That yearning brings about God-intoxication, whether you follow the path of knowledge or the path of devotion. The sage Durvasa was mad with the Knowledge of God.

“There is a great deal of difference between the knowledge of a householder and that of an all-renouncing sannyasi. The householder’s knowledge is like the light of a lamp, which illumines only the inside of a room. He cannot see anything, with the help of such knowledge, except his own body and his immediate family. But the knowledge of the all-renouncing monk is like the light of the sun. Through that light he can see both, inside and outside the room. Chaitanyadeva’s knowledge had the brilliance of the sun-the sun of Knowledge. Further, he radiated the soothing light of the moon of Devotion. He was endowed with both-the Knowledge of Brahman and ecstatic love of God.

(To the pundit) “One can attain spiritual consciousness through both affirmation and negation. There is the positive path of love and devotion, and there is the negative path of knowledge and discrimination. You are preaching the path of knowledge. But that creates a very difficult situation: there the guru and the disciple do not see each other.

Sukadeva went to Janaka for instruction about the Knowledge of Brahman. Janaka said to him: ‘You must pay me the guru’s fee beforehand. When you attain the knowledge of Brahman you won’t pay me the fee, because the knower of Brahman sees no difference between the guru and the disciple.’

Both negation and affirmation are ways to realize one and the same goal. Infinite are the opinions and infinite are the ways. But you must remember one thing. The injunction is that the path of devotion described by Nārada is best suited to the Kaliyuga.

According to this path, first comes bhakti; then bhava, when bhakti is mature. Higher than bhava are mahabhava and prema. An ordinary mortal does not attain mahabhava and prema.

He who has achieved these has realized the goal, that is to say, has attained God.”

PUNDIT: “In expounding religion one has to use a great many words.”

MASTER: “While preaching, eliminate the ‘head and tail’, that is to say, emphasize only the essentials.

The pundit and Mani Mallick became engaged in conversation. Mani was a member of the Brahmo Samaj. The pundit argued vehemently about the good and bad sides of the Samaj.

Sri Ramakrishna was seated on the small couch and looked on, smiling. Presently he remarked: “This is the tamasic aspect of sattva, the attitude of a hero. This is necessary. One should not hold one’s tongue at the sight of injustice and untruth.

Suppose a bad woman wants to drag you from the path of righteousness. You must then assume the heroic attitude and say: ‘What? You witch! You dare injure my spiritual life? I shall cut your body in two right now.’ "

With a smile Sri Ramakrishna said to the pundit: “Mani Mallick has been following the tenets of the Brahmo Samaj a long time. You can’t convert him to your views. Is it an easy thing to destroy old tendencies? Once there lived a very pious Hindu who always worshipped the Divine Mother and chanted Her name. When the Muslims conquered the country, they forced him embrace Islam.

They said to him: ‘You are now a Muslim.

Say “Allah”. From now on you must repeat only the name of Allah.’ With great difficulty he repeated the word ‘Allah’, but every now and then blurted out ‘Jagadamba’. At that the Muslims were about to beat him. Thereupon he said to them: ‘I beseech you! Please do not kill me. I have been trying my utmost to repeat the name of Allah, but our Jagadamba has filled me up to the throat. She pushes out your Allah.’ (All laugh.)