AT THE STAR THEATRE

Friday, September 19, 1884

IT WAS MAHALAYA, a sacred day of the Hindus, and the day of the new moon. At 2PM, Sri Ramakrishna was sitting in his room with Mahendra Mukherji, Priya Mukherji, M., Baburam, Harish, Kishori, and Lātu. Some were sitting on the floor, some standing, and others moving about. Hazra was sitting on the porch. Rākhāl was still at Vrindāvan with Balarām.

MASTER (to the devotees): “I was at Captain’s house in Calcutta. It was very late when I returned. What a sweet nature Captain has! What devotion! He performs the Ārati before the image.

First he waves a lamp with three lights, then a lamp with one light, and last of all he waves burning camphor. When performing the worship he does not speak. Once he motioned to me to take my seat. During the worship his eyes become swollen from spiritual emotion. They look as if they have been stung by wasps. He cannot sing, but he chants hymns beautifully. In his mother’s presence he sits on a lower level; she sits on a high stool. “His father was a havildar in the English army. He would hold a gun with one hand and with the other worship Śiva. His servant made a clay image of Śiva for him. He wouldn’t even touch water before performing the worship. He earned six thousand rupees a year.

“Captain sends his mother to Benares now and then. Twelve or thirteen servants attend her there; it is very expensive. Captain knows the Vedānta, the Gitā, and the Bhagavata by heart. He says that the educated gentlemen of Calcutta follow the ways of the mlechchhas.

“In his earlier years he practised hathayoga. That is why he strokes my head gently when I am in samādhi. His wife worships the Deity in another form-that of Gopala. This time I didn’t find her so miserly. She too knows the Gitā and other scriptures. What devotion they have!

They cooked a goat curry. Captain said they could eat it for fifteen days, but she said, ‘No, no! Only seven days.’ But I liked the taste of it. They serve a very small quantity of each dish, but nowadays they give me good portions since I eat more than they do. After the meal either Captain or his wife fans me.

“They are very pious souls and show great respect to holy men. The people of upper India are greatly devoted to sādhus. The sons and nephews of the Jung Bahadur of Nepal once visited the temple garden; before me they showed great respect and humility. Once a young girl of Nepal came to see me with Captain. She was a great 580devotee, and unmarried; she knew the whole of the Gitagovinda by heart.

Dwarika Babu and the others wanted to hear her music. When she sang the Gitagovinda, Dwarika Babu was profoundly moved and wiped the tears from his eyes with his handkerchief. She was asked why she was not married. She said: ‘I am the handmaid of God. Whom else shall I serve?’ Her people respect her as a goddess, as the scriptures enjoin. (To Mahendra Mukherji and the others) “I shall feel very happy to know that you are being benefited by your visits here. (To M.) Why do people come here? I don’t know much of reading and writing.” M.: “God’s power is in you. That is why there is such power of attraction. It is the Divine Spirit that attracts.” MASTER: “Yes, this is the attraction of Yogamaya, the Divine Śakti. She casts the spell. God performs all His lila through the help of Yogamaya. Nature of gopis’ love for Krishna “The love of the gopis was like the attachment of a woman to her paramour. They were intoxicated with ecstatic love for Sri Krishna. A woman cherishing illicit love is not very keen about her own husband. If she is told that her husband has come, she will say: ‘What if he has? There is food in the kitchen. He can help himself.’ But if she is told of the arrival of a stranger-jovial, handsome, and witty-she will run to see him and peep at him from behind a screen.

“You may raise an objection and say: ‘We have not seen God. How can we feel attracted to Him as the gopis felt attracted to Krishna?’ But it is possible. ‘I do not know Him. I have only heard His name, and that has fixed my mind upon Him.’ "

A DEVOTEE: “Sir, what is the significance of Sri Krishna’s stealing the gopis’ clothes?”

MASTER: “There are eight fetters that bind a person to the world. The gopis were free from all but one: shame. Therefore Krishna freed them from that one, too, by taking away their clothes. On attaining God one gets rid of all fetters. (To Mahendra Mukherji and the others) By no means all people feel attracted to God. There are special souls who feel so.

To love God one must be born with good tendencies. Otherwise, why should you alone of all the people of Baghbazar come here? You can’t expect anything good in a dunghill. The touch of the Malaya breeze turns all trees into sandal-wood, no doubt.

But there are a few exceptions-the banyan, the cotton-tree, and the Aśwattha, for example.

(To the Mukherji brothers) “You are well off. If a man slips from the path of yoga, then he is reborn in a prosperous family and starts again his spiritual practice for the realization of God.”

Unfulfilled desires make one deviate from yoga

MAHENDRA: “Why does one slip from the path of yoga?”

MASTER: “While thinking of God the aspirant may feel a craving for material enjoyment.

It is this craving that makes him slip from the path. In his next life he will be born with the spiritual tendencies that he failed to translate into action in his present life.”

MAHENDRA: “Then what is the way?”

MASTER: “No salvation is possible for a man as long as he has desire, as long as he hankers for worldly things. Therefore fulfil all your desires regarding food, clothes, and sex. (Smiling) What do you say about the last one? Legitimate or illegitimate? (M. and Mahendra laugh.)

It is not good to cherish desires and hankerings. For that reason I used to fulfill whatever desires came to my mind. Once I saw some coloured sweetmeats at Burrabazar and wanted to eat them. They brought me the sweets and I ate a greatmany.

The result was that I fell ill.

In my boyhood days, while bathing in the Ganges, I saw a boy with a gold ornament around his waist. During my state of divine intoxication I felt a desire to have a similar ornament myself. I was given one, but I couldn’t keep it on very long. When I put it on, I felt within my body the painful uprush of a current of air. It was because I had touched gold to my skin. I wore the ornament a few moments and then had to put it aside. Otherwise I should have had to tear it off.

I once felt a desire to eat the famous sweetmeats of different cities. (All laugh.) I had a desire to hear Sambhu’s musical recital of the Chandi. After fulfilling that desire I wanted to hear the same thing by Rajnarayan. That desire also was satisfied.

At that time many holy men used to visit the temple garden. A desire arose in my mind that there should be a separate store-room to supply them with their provisions. Mathur Babu arranged for one. The sādhus were given food-stuffs, fuel, and the like from that store-room.

Once the idea came to me to put on a very expensive robe embroidered with gold and to smoke a silver hubble-bubble. Mathur Babu sent me the new robe and the hubble- bubble. I put on the robe. I also smoked the hubble-bubble in various fashions.

Sometimes I smoked it reclining this way, and sometimes that way, sometimes with head up, and sometimes with head down. Then I said to myself, ‘O mind, this is what they call smoking a silver hubble-bubble.’ Immediately I renounced it. I kept the robe on my body a few minutes longer and then took it off. I began to trample it underfoot and spit on it, saying: ‘So this is an expensive robe! But it only increases man’s rajas.’” About Rākhāl Rākhāl had been staying at Vrindāvan with Balarām. At first he had written excited letters praising the holy place. He had written to M.: “It is the best of all places. Please come here. The peacocks dance around, and one always hears and sees religious music and dancing. There is an unending flow of divine bliss.” But then Rākhāl had been laid up 582with an attack of fever. Sri Ramakrishna was very much worried about him and vowed to worship the Divine Mother for his recovery. So he began to talk about Rākhāl. MASTER: “Rākhāl had his first religious ecstasy while sitting here massaging my feet. A Bhagavata scholar had been expounding the sacred book in the room. As Rākhāl listened to his words, he shuddered every now and then. Then he became altogether still. “His second ecstasy was at Balarām Bose’s house. In that state he could not keep himself sitting upright; he lay flat on the floor. Rākhāl belongs to the realm of the Personal God. He leaves the place if one talks about the Impersonal. “I have taken a vow to worship the Divine Mother when he recovers. You see, he has renounced his home and relatives and completely surrendered himself to me. It was I who sent him to his wife now and then. He still had a little desire for enjoyment. (Pointing to M,) “Rākhāl has written him from Vrindāvan that it is a grand place-the peacocks dance around. Now let the peacock’s take care of him. He has really put me in a fix.