THE MASTER IN VARIOUS MOODS

Thursday, October 2, 1884

SRI RAMAKRISHNA was sitting in his room at Dakshineswar. Lātu, Ramlal, Harish, and Hazra were living with him at the temple garden. Baburam spent a day or two with him now and then.

Manilal Mallick, Priya Mukherji and his relative Hari, a bearded Brahmo devotee from Shibpur, and several Mārwāri devotees from Calcutta were in the Master’s room. Manilal was an old member of the Brahmo Samaj.

MASTER (to Manilal and the others): “It is wise to salute a person mentally. What need is there of touching his feet? Mental salutation doesn’t embarrass anybody. “The attitude that my religion alone is right and all other religions are false is not good.

I see that God Himself has become all these: men; images, and salagram. I see one alone in all these; I do not see two. I see only one. “Many people think that their opinion alone is right and others’ opinions are wrong; that they alone have won and others have lost. But a person who has gone forward may be detained by some slight obstacle, and someone who has been lagging behind may then steal a march on him. In the game of golokdham one may advance a great deal, but still somehow one’s piece may fail to reach the goal.

Triumph or defeat is in the hands of God. We cannot understand His ways. You must have noticed that the green coconut remains high in the tree and is exposed to the sun, but still its milk is cool. On the other hand the paniphal remains in the water, but when eaten it heats the body.

Look at the body of man. The head is the root, and it is at the top.”

Two ways of Yoga

MANILAL: “What then is our duty?”

MASTER: “To remain somehow united with God. There are two ways: karmayoga and manoyoga. Householders practise yoga through karma, the performance of duty. There are four stages of life: brahmacharya, garhasthya, vanaprastha, and sannyās.

Sannyāsis must renounce those karmas which are performed with special ends in view; but they should perform the daily obligatory karmas, giving up all desire for results.

Sannyāsis are united with God by such karmas as the acceptance of the staff, the receiving of alms, going on pilgrimage, and the performance of worship and japa.

It doesn’t matter what kind of action you are engaged in. You can be united with God through any action provided that, performing it, you give up all desire for its result. “There is the other path: manoyoga. A yogi practising this discipline doesn’t show any outward sign.

He is inwardly united with God. Take Jadabharata and Sukadeva, for instance. There are many other yogis of this class, but these two are well known. They shave neither hair nor beard.

All actions drop away when a man reaches the stage of the paramahamsa. He always remembers the ideal and meditates on it. He is always united with God in his mind. If he ever performs an action it is to teach men.

A man may be united with God either through action or through inwardness of thought, but he can know everything through bhakti. Through bhakti one spontaneously experiences kumbhaka. The nerve currents and breathing calm down when the mind is concentrated. Again, the mind is concentrated when the nerve currents and breathing calm down. Then the buddhi, the discriminating power, becomes steady. The man who achieves this state is not himself aware of it.

Efficacy of bhakti-yoga

“One can attain everything through bhakti yoga. I wept before the Mother and prayed, ‘O Mother, please tell me, please reveal to me, what the yogis have realized through yoga and the jnanis through discrimination.’ And the Mother has revealed everything to me. She reveals everything if the devotee cries to Her with a yearning heart. She has shown me everything that is in the Vedas, the Vedānta, the Puranas, and the Tantra.”

MANILAL: “And what about hathayoga?”

MASTER: “The hathayogis identify themselves with their bodies. They practise internal washing and similar disciplines, and devote themselves only to the care of the body. Their ideal is to increase longevity. They serve the body day and night. That is not good.

What is your duty? You should renounce ‘woman and gold’ mentally. You cannot look on the world as crow-droppings. “The goswamis are householders. Therefore I said to them: ‘You have your duties in the temple; how can you renounce the world? You cannot explain away the world as māyā.’

“Chaitanyadeva said that the duties of householders were kindness to living beings, service to the Vaishnavas, and the chanting of God’s holy name. “Keshab Sen once said about me: ‘Now he asks us to hold to both-God and the world.

But one day he will sting us.’ No, that is not true. Why should I sting?”

MANI MALLICK: “But, sir, you do.”

MASTER (smiling): “How so? You are a householder. Why should you renounce?

But the renunciation of the world is needful for those whom God wants to be teachers of men. One who is an Āchārya should give up ‘woman and gold’; otherwise people will not take his advice.

It is not enough for him to renounce only mentally; he should also renounce outwardly. Only then will his teaching bear fruit. Otherwise people will think, ‘Though he asks us to give up “woman and gold,” he enjoys them himself in secret.’

A physician prescribed medicine for a patient. and said to him, ‘Come another day and I’ll give you directions about diet.’ The physician had several jars of molasses in his room that day. The patient lived very far away. He visited the physician later and the physician said to him: ‘Be careful about your food. It is not good for you to eat molasses.’

After the patient left, another person who was there said to the physician: ‘Why did you give him all the trouble of coming here again? You could very well have given him the instructions the first day.’ The physician replied with a smile: There is a reason. I had several jars of molasses in my room that day.

If I had asked the patient then to give up molasses, he would not have had faith in my words. He would have thought: “He has so many jars of molasses in his room, he must eat some of it. Then molasses can’t be so bad.” Today I have hidden the jars. Now he will have faith in my words.

“I have seen the Āchārya of the Adi Brahmo Samaj. I understand that he has married for the second or third time. He has grown-up children. And such men are teachers! If they say, ‘God is real and all else illusory’, who will believe them? You can very well understand who will be their disciples.

Hard rules for a sannyāsi

Like teacher, like disciple. Even if a sannyāsi renounces ‘woman and gold’ mentally, but lives with them outwardly, he cannot be a teacher of men. People will say that he enjoys ‘molasses’ secretly.

“Once Mahendra Kaviraj of Sinthi gave five rupees to Ramlal. I didn’t know about it.

When Ramlal told me about the money, I asked him, ‘For whom was the money given?’

He said it was for me. At first I thought that I should use it to pay what I owed for my milk, But will you believe me? I had slept only a little while when I suddenly woke up writhing with pain, as if a cat were scratching my chest. I went to Ramlal and asked him again, ‘Was the money given for your aunt?’ ‘No’, Ramlal answered. Thereupon I said to him, ‘Go at once and return the money.’ Ramlal gave it back the next day.

Do you know how it looks for a sannyāsi to accept money or to be attached to an object of temptation? It is as if a brahmin widow who had practised continence and lived on simple boiled rice and vegetables and milk for many years, were suddenly to accept an untouchable as her paramour. (All look stunned.)

There was a low-caste woman named Bhagi Teli in our part of the country. She had many disciples and devotees. Finding that she, a sudra, was being saluted by people, the landlord became jealous and engaged a wicked man to tempt her. He succeeded in corrupting her and all her spiritual practice came to nothing. A fallen sannyāsi is like that.

You are leading householders’ lives. It is necessary for you to live in the company of holy men. First of all, the company of holy men; then sraddha, faith in God. “How can people have reverence and faith in God if the holy men do not sing His name and glories? People respect a man if they know that in his family there have been royal ministers for three generations.

(To M.) “Even if one has attained Knowledge, one must still constantly practise God-Consciousness. Nangta used to say: ‘What is the use of polishing the outside of a metal pot one day only?

If you don’t polish it regularly it will get tarnished again.’ I shall have to go to your house some time. If I know your house I can meet other devotees there. Please go to see Ishan some time.

(To Manilal) “Keshab Sen’s mother came here the other day. The young boys of her family sang the name of Hari. She went around them clapping her hands. I noticed she was not very much stricken with grief over Keshab’s death. She observed the fast of ekadasi here and counted her beads. I was pleased to see her devotion to God.”

MANILAL: “Ramkamal Sen, Keshab Babu’s grandfather, was a devotee of God. He used to sit in a tulsi-grove and repeat God’s holy name. Pyarimohan, Keshab’s father, was also a Vaishnava devotee.”

MASTER: “The son could not have been so devoted to God if the father had not been like that. Look at Vijay. His father would become unconscious of the world in divine ecstasy while reading the Bhagavata. Vijay can hardly control his emotion: while uttering Hari’s name, he sometimes stands up from his seat. The forms of God that Vijay sees nowadays are all real. Speaking about the different aspects of God, formless and with form, Vijay said that God sometimes appears with attributes and sometimes without attributes.

He gave the example of the chameleon, which sometimes turns red, sometimes blue, sometimes green, and sometimes remains colourless. Praise of guilelessness and purity “Vijay is really guileless. One cannot realize God without being guileless and liberal- minded. Yesterday Vijay was at Adhar Sen’s house. He behaved as if it were his own place and those who lived there his own people. One cannot be guileless and liberal- minded unless one is free from worldliness.”

Then the Master sang:

You will attain that priceless Treasure when your mind is free from stain. . . .

He continued: “You cannot make a pot without first carefully preparing the clay. The pot will crack if the clay contains particles of sand or stone. That is why the potter first prepares the clay by removing the sand and stones.

If a mirror is covered with dirt, it won’t reflect one’s face. A man cannot realize his true Self unless his heart is pure. You will find guilelessness wherever God incarnates Himself as man. Nandaghosh, Daśaratha, Vasudeva -all of them were guileless. “The Vedānta says that a man does not even desire to know God unless he has a pure mind. One cannot be guileless and liberal-minded without much tapasya or unless it is one’s last birth.”

Sri Ramakrishna was worrying, like a child, because he thought his legs were slightly swollen. Mahendra Kaviraj of Sinthi entered the room and. saluted the Master. MASTER (to the devotees): “Yesterday I said to Naran, ‘Just press your leg and see if there is any dimple.’ He pressed it and there was one. Then I gave a sigh of relief. (To Mukherji) Will you please press your leg? Is there any dimple?”

MUKHERJI: “Yes, sir.”

MASTER: “Ah, what a relief!”

MANI MALLICK: “Why should you worry about it, sir? Please take your bath in the river.

Why should you take medicine?”

MASTER: “No, sir. You have strong blood. Your case is different. The Divine Mother has placed me in the state of a child. One day I was bitten by something in the jungle. I had heard people say that, in case of snakebite, the poison would come out if the snake bit again.

So I put my hand in a hole and waited. A man passing by said to me: ‘What are you doing? You will get rid of the poison only if the snake bites again in the same place. You will not be cured if the snake bites another part of your body.’

I was told that the autumn dew was good. One day, while coming from Calcutta, I stuck my head out of the carriage and exposed it to the damp air. (All laugh.) (To Mahendra of Sinthi) “That pundit from Sinthi is very good. He holds a title for this scholarship. He respects me. I said to him, ‘You have read a great deal; but give up the vanity that you are a scholar.’ That made him very happy. I discussed Vedānta with him.