Balarām's devotion

Rākhāl has been staying with Balarām at Vrindāvan. Ah, what a nice nature Balarām has! It is only for my sake that he doesn’t go to Orissa, where his family owns an estate.

His brother stopped his monthly allowance and wrote to him: ‘Come and stay with us here. Why should you waste so much money in Calcutta?’ But he didn’t listen. He has been living in Calcutta because he wants to see me.

What devotion to God! He is busy day and night with his worship. His gardener is always making garlands of flowers for the Deity, He has decided to spend four months a year at Vrindāvan to reduce his expenses. He gets a monthly allowance of two hundred rupees. “Why am I so fond of the youngsters? They are still untouched by ‘woman arid gold’. I find that they belong to the class of the nityasiddhas, the everperfect.”

Narendra’s first visit

When Narendra first came here he was dressed in dirty clothes; but his eyes and face betokened some inner stuff. At that time he did not know many songs. He sang one or two: ‘Let us go back once more, O mind, to our own abode!’ and ‘O Lord, must all my days pass by so utterly in vain?’

Whenever he came here, I would talk only with him, though the room was filled with people. He would say to me, ‘Please talk to them’, and then I would talk with the others.

I became mad for the sight of him and wept for him in Jadu Mallick’s garden house: ‘I wept here, too, holding Bholanath’s hand.’ Bholanath said, ‘Sir, you shouldn’t behave that way for a mere kayastha boy.’ One day the ‘fat brahmin’ said to me about Narendra, with folded hands, ‘Sir, he has very little education; why should you be so restless for him?’

Bhavanath and Narendra are a pair. They are like man and woman. So I asked Bhavanath to rent a house near Narendra’s. Both of them belong to the realm of the formless Reality.

Master warns the devotees about women

I forbid the youngsters to spend a long time with women or visit them too frequently.

Haripada has fallen into the clutches of a woman of the Ghoshpara sect. She shows maternal feeling for him; but Haripada is a child and doesn’t understand its real meaning. The women of that sect act that way when they see young boys. I understand that Haripada lies on her lap and that she feeds him with her own hands. I shall tell him that this is not good. This very maternal feeling leads to a downfall. The women of that sect practise spiritual discipline in the company of men; they regard men as Krishna. A teacher of that sect asks a woman devotee, ‘Have you found your Krishna?’ and she says, ‘Yes, I have found my Krishna.’

The other day that woman came here. I watched the way she looked around and I didn’t approve of it. I said to her, ‘You may treat Haripada any way you like, but don’t have any wrong feeling for him.’

The youngsters are now in the stage of sadhana. They are aspirants. For them the only thing now is renunciation. A sannyasi must not look even at the portrait of a woman. I say to them: ‘Don’t sit beside a woman and talk to her, even if she is a devotee. You may say a word or two to her, standing.’ Even a perfect soul must follow this precept for his own protection and also to set an example to others. When women, come to me, I too say to them after a few minutes, ‘Go and visit the temples.’ If they don’t get up, I myself leave the room. Others will learn from my example.

Can you tell me why all these youngsters, and you people, too, visit me? There must be something in me; or why should you all feel such a pull, such attraction?

Once I visited Hriday’s house at Sihore. From there I was taken to Syambazar. I had a vision of Cauranga before I entered the village, and I realized that I should meet Cauranga’s devotees there. For seven days and nights I was surrounded by a huge crowd of people.

Such attraction! Nothing but kirtan and dancing day and night. People stood in rows on the walls and even were in the trees. “I stayed at Natavar Goswami’s house. It was crowded day and night.

In the morning I would run away to the house of a weaver for a little rest. There too I found that people would gather after a few minutes. They carried drums and cymbals with them, and the drum constantly played:‘Takuti! Takuti!’ We would have our meal at three in the afternoon.

The rumour spread everywhere that a man had arrived who died seven times and came back to life again. Hriday would drag me away from the crowd to a paddy-field for fear I might have an attack of heat apoplexy. The crowd would follow us there like a line of ants. Again the cymbals and the never-ending Takuti! Takuti!’ of the drums.

Hriday scolded them and said: ‘Why do you bother us like this? Have we never heard kirtan?’

The Vaishnava priests of the village came and almost started a quarrel. They thought I would take their share of the fees from the devotees. But soon they discovered that I didn’t touch a piece of cloth or even a thread. Someone remarked that I was a Brahmajnani.

So the Vaishnava pundits wanted to test me. One said, ‘Why hasn’t he beads, and a mark on his forehead?’ Another of them replied, They have dropped from him, as the dry branch from a coconut tree. It was there that I learnt this illustration of the dry branch of a coconut tree. The upadhis, limitations, drop when one attains Knowledge.

“People came thronging from distant villages. They even spent the night there. At Syambazar I learnt the meaning of divine attraction. When God incarnates Himself on earth He attracts people through the help of Yogamaya, His Divine Power. People become spellbound.

It was about three o’clock in the afternoon. The Master had been conversing with the Mukherji brothers and the other devotees, when Radhika Goswami, a Vaishnava scholar, arrived and bowed before him. This was his first visit to the Master. Radhika Goswami took a seat.

MASTER: “Are you a descendant of Advaita?”

GOSWAMI: “Yes, sir.”

At this the Master saluted him with folded hands.

MASTER: “You are descended from Advaita Goswami. You must have inherited some of his traits. A sweet-mango tree produces only sweet mangoes arid not sour ones. Of course, it happens that some trees produce large mangoes and some small; that depends on the soil. Isn’t that true?” GOSWAMI (humbly): “Sir, what do I know?”

MASTER: “Whatever you may say, others will not let you off so easily. Brahmans, however imperfect they-may be, are worshipped by all on account of their having been born in the lines of great sages. (To M.) Tell us the story of the samkhachila.”

M. sat in silence.

MASTER: “If one of your ancestors was a great soul, he will certainly pull you up, however unworthy you may be. When King Duryodhana and his brothers were taken captive by the gandharvas, Yudhisthira released them in spite of the fact that King Duryodhana was his enemy and had banished him to the forest. 585"Besides, one must show respect to the religious garb. Even the mere garb recalls to mind the real object. Chaitanya once dressed an ass in a religious garb and then prostrated himself before it.

Why do people bow before a samkhachila? When Kamsa was about to kill the Divine Mother, She Hew away taking the form of a samkhachila. So even now people salute the bird.

“An Englishman arrived at the cantonment of Chanak. The sepoys saluted him. Koar Singh explained to me: ‘India is under the rule of the English. Therefore one should salute an Englishman.

“The Saktas follow the Tantra, and the Vaishnavas the Purana. There is no harm for the Vaishnavas in speaking publicly of their spiritual practices. But the Saktas maintain secrecy about theirs. For this reason it is difficult to understand a Sakta. (To Goswami) “You are all good people. How much japa you practise! How much you chant the name of Hari!”

GOSWAMI (humbly): “Oh, no! We do very little. I am a great sinner.”

MASTER (smiling): “You have humility. That is good. But there is also another way: ‘I chant the name of Hari. How can I be a sinner?’ He who constantly repeats: ‘I am a sinner! I am a wretch!’ verily becomes a sinner. What lack of faith! A man chants the name of God so much, and still he talks of sin!” Radhika Goswami listened to these words in amazement.

Master’s following of different paths

MASTER: “At Vrindāvan I myself put on the garb of the Vaishnavas and wore it for fifteen days. (To the devotees) I have practised the disciplines of all the paths, each for a few days.

Otherwise I should have found no peace of mind. (Smiling) I have practised all the disciplines; I accept all paths. I respect the Saktas, the Vaishnavas, and also the Vedantists. Therefore people of all sects come here. And everyone of them thinks that I belong to his school. I also respect the modern Brahmajnanis.

“A man had a tub of dye. Such was its wonderful property that people could dye their clothes any colour they wanted by merely dipping them in it. A clever man said to the owner of the tub, ‘Dye my cloth the colour of your dye-stuff.’ (All laugh.)

“Why should I be one-sided? The idea that the people of a particular sect will not come to me does not frighten me. I don’t care a bit whether people come to me or not.

The thought of keeping anyone under my control never crosses my mind. Adhar Sen asked me to ask the Divine Mother for a big position for him, but he didn’t get it. If that makes him think differently about me, what do I care?

“Once at Keshab’s house I found myself in a new mood. The Brahmos always speak of the Impersonal; therefore I said to the Divine Mother in an ecstatic mood: ‘Mother, please don’t come here. They don’t believe in Your forms.’”

Radhika Goswami listened to these words of the Master against sectarianism and remained silent.

Master’s praise of Vijay Goswami

ASTER (smiling): “Vijay is in a wonderful state of mind nowadays. He falls to the ground while chanting the name of Hari. He devotes himself to kirtan, meditation, and other spiritual practices till four in the morning. He now puts on an ochre robe and prostrates himself before the images of God. Once he accompanied me to Gadadhar’s schoolhouse.

I pointed out the place where Gadadhar used to meditate. At once Vijay prostrated himself there. Again he fell prostrate before the picture of Chaitanyadeva.”

GOSWAMI: “What about the image of Radha-Krishna?”

MASTER: “He prostrated himself there too. Vijay also follows all the conventions of religious life.”

GOSWAMI: “He can now be accepted in Vaishnava society.”

MASTER: “People’s opinions don’t count for much with him.”

GOSWAMI: “I don’t mean that. By accepting him Vaishnava society will honour itself.”

MASTER: “He respects me very much. But it is difficult to reach him. One day he is called to Dāccā, the next day to some other place. He is always busy. His presence has created great trouble in the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj.”

GOSWAMI: “Why so, sir?”

MASTER: The Brahmos tell him: ‘You mix with people who worship God with form. You are an idolater.’ Vijay is liberal and straightforward. Unless a man is guileless, he doesn’t receive the grace of God. Sri Ramakrishna talked to the Mukherji brothers.

Mahendra, the elder, had his own business. Priyanath, the younger, had been an engineer. After making some provision for himself, he had given up his job. Mahendra was thirty-five or thirty-six years old. The brothers had homes both in the country and in Calcutta.

MASTER (smiling): “Don’t sit idle simply because your spiritual consciousness has been awakened a little. Go forward. Beyond the forest of sandalwood there are other and more valuable things-silver-mines, gold-mines, and so on.”