Different paths to suit different tastes

(To the pundit) “Please don’t say anything to Mani Mallick. There are different tastes. There are also different powers of digestion. God has made different religions and creeds to suit different aspirants. By no means all are fit for the Knowledge of Brahman.

Therefore the worship of God with form has been provided.

The mother brings home a fish for her children. She curries part of the fish, part she fries, and with another part she makes pilau. By no means all can digest the pilau.

So she makes fish soup for those who have weak stomachs. Further, some want pickled or fried fish. There are different temperaments. There are differences in the capacity to comprehend.”

All sat in silence. Sri Ramakrishna said to the pundit, “Go and visit the temples and take a stroll in the garden.” It was about half past five in the afternoon. The pundit left the room with his friends and several of the devotees.

After a while the Master went with M. toward the bathing-ghat on the Ganges. He said to M., “Baburam now says, ‘What shall I gain by study?’ “On the bank of the river he met the pundit and said to him, “Aren’t you going to the Kāli temple?” The pundit said: “Yes, sir.

Let us go together.” With a smiling face Sri Ramakrishna proceeded to the temple through the courtyard. He said to the pundit, “Listen to a song.”

He sang:

Is Kāli, my Mother, really black? The Naked One, of blackest hue, Lights the Lotus of the Heart. . . .

As he was going through the courtyard, he quoted to the pundit from a song:

Lighting the lamp of Knowledge in the chamber of your heart, Behold the face of the Mother, Brahman’s Embodiment. They came to the temple. Sri Ramakrishna saluted the Divine Mother, touching the ground with his forehead.

Red hibiscus flowers and vilwa-leaves adorned the Mother’s feet. Her three eyes radiated love for Her devotees. Two of Her hands were raised as if to give them boons and reassurance.

The other two hands held symbols of death. She was clothed in a sari of

Benares silk and was decked with ornaments.

Referring to the image, one of the party remarked, “I heard it was made by the sculptor Nabin.” The Master answered: “Yes, I know. But to me She is the Embodiment of Spirit.” As Sri Ramakrishna was coming back to his room with the devotees, he said to Baburam, “Come with us.” M. also joined them.

It was dusk. The Master was sitting on the semicircular porch west of his room. Baburam and M. sat near him. He was in a mood of partial ecstasy. Rākhāl was not then living with Sri Ramakrishna, and therefore the Master was having difficulties about his personal service. Several devotees lived with him, but he could not bear the touch of everyone during his spiritual moods. He hinted to Baburam: “Do stay with me. It will be very nice. In this mood I cannot allow others to touch me.” The pundit entered the Master’s room after visiting the temples. The Master said to him from the porch, “Take some refreshments.” The pundit said that he had not yet performed his evening devotions. At once Sri Ramakrishna stood up and sang in an exalted mood:

Why should I go to Ganga or Gaya, to Kasi, Kanchi, or Prabhas, So long as I can breathe my last with Kāli’s name upon my lips? What need of rituals has a man, what need of devotions any more, If he repeats the Mother’s name at the three holy hours? . . . Intoxicated With ecstatic love, the Master said: “How long should one perform devotions? So long as one’s mind does not merge in God while repeating Om.” PUNDIT: “Then let me eat the refreshments. I shall perform the devotions later on.” MASTER: “No, I don’t want to obstruct the current of your life. It is not good to renounce anything before the proper time arrives. When the fruit ripens, the flower drops off of 526itself. One shouldn’t forcibly tear off the green branch of a coconut tree. That injures the tree.” Surendra was about to leave. He invited his friends into his carriage. The Master, still in an ecstatic mood, said, “Don’t take more people than your horse can draw.” Suredra took leave of Sri Ramakrishna. The pundit left the room to perform his worship. M. and Baburam saluted the Master. They were about to leave for Calcutta. Sri Ramakrishna was still in an ecstatic mood. MASTER (to M.): “I cannot utter a word now. Stay a few minutes.” M. again took his seat and waited for the Master’s command. Sri Ramakrishna motioned to Baburam to take a seat and asked him to fan him a little. M. also took part in rendering this personal service to the Master. MASTER (to M., tenderly): “Why don’t you come here so frequently now?” M: “Not for any special reason. I have been rather busy at home.” MASTER: “Yesterday I came to know Baburam’s inner nature. That is why I have been trying so hard to persuade him to live with me. The mother bird hatches the egg in proper time. Boys like Baburam are pure in heart. They have not yet fallen into the clutches of ‘woman and gold’. Isn’t that so?” M: “It is true, sir. They are still stainless.” MASTER: “They are like a new pot. Milk kept in it will not turn sour.” M: “Yes, sir.” MASTER: “I need Baburam here. I pass through certain spiritual states when I need someone like him. He says he must not, all at once, live with me permanently, for it will create difficulties. His relatives will make trouble. I am asking him to come here Saturdays and Sundays.” Master’s advice to householders The pundit entered the room with his friends. He had finished his devotions and was ready to eat the refreshments. One of his companions asked the Master: “Shall we succeed in spiritual life? Please tell us what our way is.” MASTER: “You all have the yearning for liberation. If an aspirant has yearning, that is enough for him to realize God. Don’t eat any food of the sraaddha ceremony. Live in the world like an unchaste woman. She performs her household duties with great attention, but her mind dwells day and night on her paramour. Perform your duties in the world but keep your mind always fixed on God. The pundit finished eating his refreshments. 527MASTER (to the pundit): “You have read the Gitā, no doubt. It says that there is a special power of God in the man who is honoured and respected by all.” The pundit quoted the verse from the Gitā. MASTER: “You surely possess divine power.” PUNDIT: “Shall I labour with perseverance to finish the task that I have accepted?” Sri Ramakrishna forced himself, as it were, to say, “Yes.” He soon changed the conversation. MASTER: “One cannot but admit the manifestation of power. Vidyasagar once asked me, ‘Has God given more power to some than to others?’ I said to him: ‘Certainly. Otherwise, how can one man kill a hundred? If there is no special manifestation of power, then why is Queen Victoria so much honoured and respected? Don’t you admit it?’ He agreed with me.” The pundit and his friends saluted the Master and were about to take their leave. Sri Ramakrishna said to the pundit: “Come again. One hemp-smoker rejoices in the company of another hemp-smoker. They even embrace each other. But they hide at the sight of people not of their own kind. A cow licks the body of her calf; but she threatens a strange cow with her horns.” (All laugh.) The pundit left the room. With a smile the Master said: “He has become ‘diluted’ even in one day. Did you notice how modest he was? And he accepted everything I said.” Moonlight flooded the semicircular porch. Sri Ramakrishna was still seated there. M. was about to leave. MASTER (tenderly): “Must you go now?” M.: “Yes, sir. Let me say good-bye.” MASTER: “I have been thinking of visiting the houses of the devotees. I want to visit yours also. What do you say?” M.: “That will be very fine.” Thursday, July 3, 1884 Sri Ramakrishna was sitting in Balarām Bose’s house in Calcutta. It was the day of the “Return Car Festival”. The Lord of the Universe was worshipped in Balarām’s house as Jagannath. There was a small car in the house for use during the Car Festival. Balarām’s father Balarām’s father was a pious Vaishnava who devoted most of his time to prayer and meditation in his garden house at Vrindāvan. He also studied devotional books and 528enjoyed the company of devotees. Balarām had brought his father to Calcutta to meet the Master. Sri Ramakrishna was in a very happy mood. Seated near him were Ram, Balarām, Balarām’s father, M., Manomohan, and several young devotees. He was conversing with them.

Dogmatism in religion

MASTER (to Balarām’s father and the others): “The Bhaktamala is one of the Vaishnava books. It is a fine book. It describes the lives of the various Vaishnava devotees. But it is one-sided. At one place the author found peace of mind only after compelling Bhagavati, the Divine Mother, to take Her initiation according to the Vaishnava discipline. “Once I spoke highly of Vaishnavcharan to Mathur and persuaded him to invite Vaishnavcharan to his house.

Mathur welcomed him with great courtesy. He fed his guest from silver plates. Then do you know what happened? Vaishnav said in front of Mathur, ‘You will achieve nothing whatsoever in spiritual life unless you accept Krishna as your Ideal.’ Mathur was a follower of the Sakta cult and a worshipper of the Divine Mother. At once his face became crimson. I nudged Vaishnavcharan.

I understand that the Bhagavata also contains some statements like that. I hear that it is said there that trying to cross the ocean of the world without accepting Krishna as the Ideal Deity is like trying to cross a great sea by holding the tail of a dog. Each sect magnifies its own view.

The Saktas, too, try to belittle the Vaishnavas. The Vaishnavas say that Krishna alone is the Helmsman to take one across the ocean of the world. The Saktas retort: ‘Oh, yes! We agree to that. Our Divine Mother is the Empress of the Universe. Why should She bother about a ferry-boat? Therefore She has engaged that fellow Krishna for the purpose.’ (All laugh.)

Besides, how vain people are about their own sects! There are weavers in the villages near Kamarpukur. Many of them are Vaishnavas and like to talk big. They say: ‘Which Vishnu does he worship? The Preserver?

Oh, we wouldn’t touch him!’ Or: ‘Which Śiva are you talking about? We accept the Atmaramasiva.’ Or again, ‘Please explain to us which Hari you worship’. They spin their yarn and indulge in talk like that.

“Rati’s mother, Rani Katyayani’s favourite confidante, is a follower of Vaishnavcharan. She is a bigoted Vaishnava. She used to visit me very frequently, and none could outdo her in devotion. One day she noticed me eating the prasad from the Kāli temple. Since then I haven’t seen even her shadow.

He is indeed a real man who has harmonized everything. Most people are one-sided. But I find that all opinions point to the One. All views-the Sakta, the Vaishnava, the Vedānta-have that One for their centre. He who is formless is, again, endowed with 529form. It is He who appears in different forms: The attributeless Brahman is my Father. God with attributes is my Mother. Whom shall I blame? Whom shall I praise? The two pans of the scales are equally heavy.’

“He who is described in the Vedas is also described in the Tantras and the Puranas. All of them speak about the one Satchidananda. The Nitya and the Lila are the two aspects of the one Reality. It is described in the Vedas as ‘Om Satchidananda Brahman’, in the Tantras as ‘Om Satchidananda Śiva’, the ever-pure Śiva, and in the Puranas as ‘Om Satchidananda Krishna’. All the scriptures, the Vedas, the Puranas, and the Tantras, speak only of one Satchidananda. It is stated in the Vaishnava scripture that it is Krishna Himself who has become Kāli.”

Sri Ramakrishna went to the porch for a few minutes and then returned. As he was going out, Vishvamvhar’s daughter, six or seven years old, saluted him. On returning to the room, the Master began talking to the little girl and her companions, who were of the same age.

THE CHILD (to the Master): “I saluted you and you didn’t even notice it.”

MASTER (smiling): “Did you? I really didn’t notice.”

CHILD: “Then wait. I want to salute you again-the other foot too.”

Sri Ramakrishna laughed and sat down. He returned the salute and bowed to the child, touching the ground with his forehead. He asked her to sing. The child said, “I swear I don’t sing.” When the Master pressed her again, she said, “Should you press me when I said ‘I swear’?”

The Master was very happy with the children and sang light and frivolous songs to entertain them. He sang: Come, let me braid your hair, Lest your husband should scold you When he beholds you! The children and the devotees laughed.

MASTER (to the devotees): “The paramahamsa is like a five-year-old child. He sees everything filled with Consciousness. At one time I was staying at Kamarpukur when Shivaram was four or five years old. One day he was trying to catch grasshoppers near the pond. The leaves were moving. To stop their rustling he said to the leaves: ‘Hush! Hush! I want to catch a grasshopper.’ Another day it was stormy. It rained hard.

Shivaram was with me inside the house. There were flashes of lightning. He wanted to open the door and go out. I scolded him and stopped him, but still he peeped out now and then. When he saw the lightning he exclaimed, ‘There, uncle! They are striking matches again!’

The paramahamsa is like a child. He cannot distinguish between a stranger and a relative. He isn’t particular about worldly relationships. One day Shivaram said to me, ‘Uncle, are you my father’s brother or his brother-in-law?’

“The paramahamsa is like a child. He doesn’t keep any track of his whereabouts. He sees everything as Brahman. He is indifferent to his own movements. Shivaram went to Hriday’s house to see the Durga Puja. He slipped out of the house and wandered away. A passer-by saw the child, who was then only four years old, and asked, ‘Where do you come from?’

He couldn’t say much. He only said the word ‘hut’. He was speaking of the big hut in which the image of the Divine Mother was being worshipped. The stranger asked him further, ‘Whom are you living with?’ He only said the word ‘brother’.

“Sometimes the paramahamsa behaves like a madman. When I experienced that divine madness I used to worship my own sexual organ as the Śiva-phallus. But I can’t do that now. A few days after the dedication of the temple at Dakshineswar, a madman came there who was really a sage endowed with the Knowledge of Brahman. He had a bamboo twig in one hand and a potted mango-plant in the other, and was wearing torn shoes.

He didn’t follow any social conventions. After bathing in the Ganges he didn’t perform any religious rites. He ate something that he carried in a corner of his wearing-cloth. Then he entered the Kāli temple and chanted hymns to the Deity. The temple trembled. Haladhāri was then in the shrine. The madman wasn’t allowed to eat at the guest-house, but he paid no attention to this slight. He searched for food in the rubbish heap where the dogs were eating crumbs from the discarded leaf-plates.

Now and then he pushed the dogs aside to get his crumbs. The dogs didn’t mind either. Haladhāri followed him and asked: ‘Who are you? Are you a purnajnani?’ The madman whispered, ‘Sh! Yes, I am a purnajnani.’ My heart began to palpitate as Haladhāri told me about it. I clung to Hriday.

I said to the Divine Mother, ‘Mother, shall I too have to pass through such a state?’ We all went to see the man. He spoke words of great wisdom to us but behaved like a madman before others. Haladhāri followed him a great way when he left the garden.

After passing the gate he said to Haladhāri: ‘What else shall I say to you? When you no longer make any distinction between the water of this pool and the water of the Ganges, then you will know that you have Perfect Knowledge.’ Saying this he walked rapidly away.”

Sri Ramakrishna began to talk with M. Other devotees, too, were present.

MASTER (to M.): “How do you feel about Shashadhar?”

M: “He is very nice.”

MASTER: “He is very intelligent, isn’t he?”

M: “Yes, sir. He is very erudite.”

MASTER: “According to the Gitā there is a power of God in one who is respected and honoured by many. But Shashadhar has still a few things to do.

What will he accomplish with mere scholarship? He needs to practise some austerity. It is necessary to practise some spiritual discipline.

“Gauri Pundit practised austerity. When he chanted a hymn to the Divine Mother, the other pundits would seem no more than earthworms.

“Narayan Shastri was not merely a scholar, either. He practised sadhana as well. He studied for twenty-five years without a break. Nyaya alone, he studied for seven years.

Still he would go into ecstasy while repeating the name of Śiva. The King of Jaipur wanted to make him his court pundit, but Narayan refused. He used to spend much time here. He had a great desire to go to the Vasishtha Āśrama to practise tapasya. He often spoke to me about it, but I forbade him to go there. At that he said: ‘Who knows when I shall die? When shall I practise sadhana? Any day I may crack.’ After much insistence on his part I let him go. Some say that he is dead, that he died while practising austerity.

Others say that he is still alive and that they saw him off on a railway train.

“Before meeting Keshab, I asked Narayan Shastri to visit him and tell me what he thought of him. Narayan reported that Keshab was an adept in japa. He knew astrology and remarked that Keshab had been born under a good star. Then I went to visit Keshab in the garden house at Belgharia. Hriday was with me. The moment I saw Keshab, I said: ‘Of all the people I see here, he alone has dropped his tail. He can now live on land as well as in water, like a frog.’

“Keshab sent three members of the Brahmo Samaj to the temple garden at Dakshineswar to test me. Prasanna was one of them. They were commissioned to watch me day and night, and to report to Keshab. They were in my room and intended to spend the night there. They constantly uttered the word ‘Dayamaya’ and said to me: ‘Follow Keshab Babu. That will do you good.’ I said, ‘I believe in God with form.’ Still they went on with their exclamations of ‘Dayamaya!’ Then a strange mood came over me. I said to them, ‘Get out of here!’ I didn’t allow them to spend the night in my room.

So they slept on the verandah. Captain also spent the night in the temple garden the first time he visited me.

“Michael visited the temple garden when Narayan Shastri was living with me. Dwarika Babu, Mathur’s eldest son, brought him here. The owners of the temple garden were about to get into a lawsuit with the English proprietors of the neighbouring powder magazine; so they wanted Michael’s advice. I met him in the big room next to the manager’s office. Narayan Shastri was with me. I asked Narayan to talk to him.

Michael couldn’t talk very well in Sanskrit. He made mistakes. Then they talked in the popular dialect. Narayan Shastri asked him his reason for giving up the Hindu religion. Pointing to his stomach, Michael said, ‘It was for this.’ Narayan said, ‘What shall I say to a man who gives up his religion for his belly’s sake?’ Thereupon Michael asked me to say something.

I said: ‘I don’t know why, but I don’t feel like saying anything. Someone seems to be pressing my tongue.’

MANOMOHAN: “Mr. Choudhury will not come. He said: ‘That fellow Shashadhar from Faridpur will be there. I shall not go.’ " Mr. Choudhury had obtained his Master’s degree from Calcutta University. He drew a salary of three or four hundred rupees. After the death of his first wife he had felt intense dispassion for the world, but after some time he had married again. He frequently visited the Master at the temple garden.

MASTER: “How mean of him! He is vain of his scholarship. Besides, he has married a second time. He looks on the world as a mere mud-puddle. (To the devotees) “This attachment to ‘woman and gold’ makes a man small-minded.

When I first saw Haramohan he had many good traits. I longed to see him. He was then 18 years old.

I used to send for him every now and then, but he wouldn’t come. He is now living away from the family with his wife. He had been living with his uncle before. That was very good. He had no worldly troubles. Now he has a separate home and does the marketing for his wife daily. The other day he came to Dakshineswar. I said to him: ‘Go away. Leave this place. I don’t even feel like touching you.’ "

Sri Ramakrishna went to the inner apartments to see the Deity. He offered some flowers.

The ladies of Balarām’s family were pleased to see him.

The Master came back to the drawing-room and said: “The worldly minded practise devotions, japa, and austerity only by fits and starts. But those who know nothing else but God repeat His name with every breath. Some always repeat mentally, ‘Om Rāma’.

Even the followers of the path of knowledge repeat, ‘Soham’, ‘I am He’. There are others whose tongues are always moving, repeating the name of God. One should remember and think of God constantly.”

Pundit Shashadhar entered the room with one or two friends and saluted the Master.

MASTER (smiling): “We are like the bridesmaids waiting near the bed for the arrival of the groom.” The pundit laughed. The room was filled with devotees, among them Dr.Pratap and Balarām’s father. The Master continued his talk.

MASTER (to Shashadhar): “The first sign of knowledge is a peaceful nature, and the second is absence of egotism. You have both. There are other indications of a Jnāni.

He shows intense dispassion in the presence of a sādhu, is a lion when at work, for instance, when he lectures, and is full of wit before his wife. (All laugh.) “But the nature of the vijnāni is quite different, as was the case with Chaitanyadeva. He acts like a child or a madman or an inert thing or a ghoul. While in the mood of a child, he sometimes shows childlike guilelessness, sometimes the frivolity of adolescence, and sometimes, while instructing others, the strength of a young man.”

Three kinds of bhakti

PUNDIT: “By what kind of bhakti does one realize God?”

MASTER: “Three kinds of bhakti are found, according to the nature of the man: sattvic bhakti, rajasic bhakti, and tamasic bhakti. “Sattvic bhakti is known to God alone. It makes no outward display. A man with such devotion loves privacy. Perhaps he meditates inside the mosquito net, where nobody sees him. When this kind of devotion is awakened, one hasn’t long to wait for the vision of God. The appearance of the dawn in the east shows that the sun will rise before long.

“A man with rajasic bhakti feels like making a display of his devotion before others. He worships the Deity with ‘sixteen ingredients’, enters the temple wearing a silk cloth, and puts around his neck a string of rudrāksha beads interspersed here and there with beads of gold and ruby.

“A man with tamasic bhakti shows the courage and boisterousness of a highway robber. A highway robber goes on his expedition openly, shouting, ‘Kill! Plunder!’ He isn’t afraid even of eight police inspectors. The devotee with tamasic bhakti also shouts like a madman:‘Hara! Hara! Vyom! Vyom! Victory to Kāli!’ He has great strength of mind and burning faith.

“A Sakta has such faith. He says: ‘What? I have uttered once the name of Kāli and of Durga! I have uttered once the name of Rāma! Can there be any sin in me?’ “The Vaishnavas have a very humble and lowly attitude. (Looking at Balarām’s father)

They tell their rosary and whine and whimper: ‘O Krishna, be gracious to us! We are wretched! We are sinners!’

“A man should have such fiery faith as to be able to say, ‘I have uttered the name of God; how can I be a sinner?’ Imagine a man repeating the name of Hari day and night and at the same time saying that he is a sinner!” So saying, Sri Ramakrishna became overwhelmed with divine ecstasy and sang: If only I can pass away repeating Durga’s name, How canst Thou then, O Blessed One, Withhold from me deliverance, Wretched though I may be? I may have stolen a drink of wine, or killed a child unborn, Or slain a woman or a cow, Or even caused a brahmin’s death; But, though it all be true, Nothing of this can make me feel the least uneasiness; For through the power of Thy sweet name 534My wretched soul may still aspire Even to Brahmanhood. He sang again: Behold my Mother playing with Śiva, lost in an ecstasy of joy! Drunk with a draught of celestial wine, She reels, and yet She does not fall. Erect She stands on Śiva’s bosom, and the earth trembles under Her tread; She and Her Lord are mad with frenzy, casting aside all fear and shame! Pundit Shashadhar was weeping. Vaishnavcharan, the musician, sang: O tongue, always repeat the name of Mother Durga! Who but your Mother Durga will save you in distress? Thou art the heavens and the earth, and Thou the nether world; From Thee have the twelve Gopalas and Hari and Śiva sprung. The ten Embodiments of Divine Śakti art Thou, And Thou the ten Avatars: this time, save me Thou must! The moving and the unmoving, the gross and the subtle, art Thou; Creation and preservation art Thou, and the last dissolution. Thou art the Primal Root of this manifold universe; The Mother of the three worlds, their only Saviour, art Thou; Thou art the Śakti of all, and Thou Thine own Śakti, too. As the Master listened to the last few lines, he went into an ecstatic mood. The Master himself sang: O Mother, for Yaśoda Thou wouldst dance, when she called Thee her precious “Blue Jewel”; Where hast Thou hidden that lovely form, O terrible Syama? Dance that way once for me, O Mother! Throw down Thy sword and take the flute; Cast off Thy garland of heads, and wear Thy wild-flower garland. If without Śiva Thou canst not dance, then let Balarama be Thy Śiva.

Dance, O Syama, as Thou didst dance when Thou wert Krishna!

Mother, play on Thy flute again, once so full of delight for the gopis;

Play again on Thy magic flute, which called the cattle in from the pasture,

Stopping the Jamuna’s murmuring flow and turning it backward.

Hot in the sky the sun would burn, when Yaśoda, restless for her Krishna,

Fondly would call: “Here, my Gopala! Cream and butter-eat them, my Darling!” And she would comb His long black hair and carefully braid it.

Bending Thy supple body, Mother, both at the neck, the waist, and the knee, Thou didst dance with Thy friend Sridāmā, while Thy 2 anklets played the music.

Hearing their captivating sound, the gopis would rush there. Again Pundit Shashadhar shed tears of love. Sri Ramakrishna came down to consciousness of the world. Pointing to Shashadhar, he said to M., “Why don’t you prod him?” He wanted M. or some other devotee to ask Shashadhar a question. RAMDAYAL (to Shashadhar): “The scriptures speak of Brahman’s form as a projection of mind. Who is it that projects?” SHASHADHAR: “It is Brahman Itself that does so. It is no projection of a man’s mind.” PRATAP: “Why does Brahman project the form?” MASTER: “You ask why? Brahman doesn’t act in consultation with others. It is Brahman’s pleasure. Brahman is self-willed. Why should we try to know the reason for Brahman’s acting this way or that? You have come to the orchard to eat mangoes. Eat the mangoes. What is the good of calculating how many trees there are in the orchard, how many thousands of branches, and how many millions of leaves? One cannot realize Truth by futile arguments and reasoning.”

PRATAP: “Shouldn’t we reason any more then?”

MASTER: “I am asking you not to indulge in futile reasoning. But reason, by all means, about the Real and the unreal, about what is permanent and what is transitory. You must reason when you are overcome by lust, anger, or grief.”

SHASHADHAR: “That is different. It is called reasoning based on discrimination.”

MASTER: “Yes, discrimination between the Real and the unreal.”

All sat in silence. Again the Master spoke, addressing the pundit.

MASTER: “Formerly many great men used to come here.”

SHASHADHAR: “You mean rich people?”

MASTER: “No. Great scholars.”

In the mean time the small car of Jagannath had been brought to the verandah. Inside the car were the images of Krishna, Balarama, and Subhadra. They were adorned with flowers, garlands, jewelry, and yellow apparel. Balarām was a sattvic worshipper: there was no outward grandeur in his worship. Outsiders did not even know of this Car Festival at his house. The Master and the devotees went to the verandah. Sri Ramakrishna pulled the car by the rope. Then he began to sing: See how all Nadia is shaking Under the waves of Gaurānga’s love. . . . He sang again: Behold, the two brothers have come, who weep while chanting Hari’s name, The brothers who, in return for blows, offer to sinners Hari’s love. . . .

Sri Ramakrishna danced with the devotees. The musician and his party joined the Master in the music and dancing. Soon the whole verandah was filled with people. The ladies witnessed this scene of joy from an adjoining room. It appeared as if Chaitanya himself were dancing with his devotees, intoxicated with divine love.

It was not yet dusk. Sri Ramakrishna returned to the drawing-room with the devotees.

MASTER (to Shashadhar): “This is called bhajanananda, the bliss of devotees in the worship of God. Worldly people keep themselves engrossed in the joy of sensuous objects, of ‘woman and gold’. Through worship devotees receive the grace of God, and then His vision. Then they enjoy Brahmananda, the Bliss of Brahman.”

Shashadhar and the devotees listened to these words with rapt attention.

SHASHADHAR (humbly): “Sir, please tell us what kind of yearning gives one this blissful state of mind.”

MASTER: “One feels restless for God when one’s soul longs for His vision. The guru said to the disciple: ‘Come with me. I shall show you what kind of longing will enable you to see God.’ Saying this, he took the disciple to a pond and pressed his head under the water. After a few moments he released the disciple and asked, ‘How did you feel?’ The disciple answered: ‘Oh, I felt as if I were dying! I was longing for a breath of air.’ "

SHASHADHAR: “Yes! Yes! That’s it. I understand it now.”

MASTER: “To love God is the essence of the whole thing. Bhakti alone is the essence.

Nārada said to Rāma, ‘May I always have pure love for Your Lotus Feet; and may I not 537be deluded by Your world-bewitching māyā!’ Rāma said to him, ‘Ask for some other boon.’ ‘No,’ said Nārada, ‘I don’t want anything else. May I have love for Your Lotus Feet. This is my only prayer.’ "

Pundit Shashadhar was ready to leave. Sri Ramakrishna asked a devotee to bring a carriage for the pundit.

SHASHADHAR: “Don’t trouble yourself. I shall walk.”

MASTER (smiling): “Oh, how can that be? ‘You are beyond the reach of even Brahma’s meditation.’ "

SHASHADHAR: “There is no particular need of my going just now. The only thing is that I shall have to perform my sandhya.” MASTER: “The Divine Mother has taken away my sandhya and other devotions. The purpose of the sandhya is to purify body and mind. I am no longer in that state.”

The Master sang the following lines of a song:

When will you learn to lie, O mind, in the abode of Blessedness,

With Cleanliness and Defilement on either side of you?

Only when you have found the way To keep these wives contentedly under a single roof, Will you behold the matchless form of Mother Syama.

Pundit Shashadhar saluted the Master and went away.

RAM: “I visited Shashadhar yesterday. You asked me to.”

MASTER: “Did I? I don’t remember. But it is nice that you went.”

RAM: “The editor of a newspaper was abusing you.”

MASTER: “Suppose he was. What does it matter?”

RAM: “Please listen. Then I began to talk to the editor about you. He wanted to hear more and wouldn’t let me go.”

It was dusk. Sri Ramakrishna began to chant the names of the Divine Mother, Krishna, Rāma, and Hari. The devotees sat in silence. The Master chanted the names in such sweet tones that the hearts of the devotees were deeply touched. That day Balarām’s house was like Navadvip when Chaitanya lived there. On the verandah it was like Navadvip, and in the parlour it was like Vrindāvan.

That same night Sri Ramakrishna was to go to Dakshineswar. Balarām took him into the inner apartments and served him with refreshments. The ladies of the family saluted the Master.

The devotees were singing kirtan in the drawing-room, awaiting the Master’s coming. Presently Sri Ramakrishna came and joined the singers. The kirtan went on: Behold, my Gora is dancing! With the devotees He dances in Srivas’s courtyard, singing the kirtan. Gora says to all, “Repeat the name of Hari!” He looks at Gadadhar, and from his red eyes Are flowing tears of love over his golden body. The Master improvised the lines: Gora is dancing in the kirtan: There he dances, Sachi’s darling!

There he dances, my Gaurānga! There he dances, my soul’s beloved!