Nature of Brahman

(To M.): “Pure Ātman is unattached. Māyā, or avidyā, is in It. In māyā there are three Gunās :

1. Sattva
2. Rajas
3. Tamas

These 3 Gunās also exist in the Pure Ātman.

But Ātman Itself is unattached. If you throw a blue pill into the fire, you will see a blue flame. If you throw a red pill, you will see a red flame. But fire itself has no colour of its own.

If you put a blue pill in water, the water will turn blue. Again, if you put alum in that water, it will regain its natural colour.

“A butcher was carrying a load of meat when he touched Sankara. Sankara exclaimed:

‘What! You have touched me!’ The butcher replied: ‘Venerable sir, neither have you touched me nor have I touched you. You are pure Ātman, unattached.’

Jadabharata said the same thing to King Rahugana.

“The Pure Ātman is unattached, and one cannot see It. If salt is mixed with water, one cannot see the salt with the eyes. “That which is the Pure Ātman is the Great Cause, the Cause of the cause. The gross, the subtle, the causal, and the Great Cause. The five elements are gross. Mind, buddhi, and ego are subtle.

Prakriti, the Primal Energy, is the cause of all these. Brahman, Pure Ātman, is the Cause of the cause. This Pure Ātman alone is our real nature. What is jnāna? It is to know one’s own Self and keep the mind in It. It is to know the Pure Ātman.

“How long should a man perform his duties? As long as he identifies himself with the body, in other words, as long as he thinks he is the body. That is what the Gitā says. To think of the body as the Ātman is ajnāna, ignorance. (To the bearded Brahmo devotee from Shibpur) “Are you a Brahmo?”

DEVOTEE: “Yes, sir.”

The Mārwāri devotees from Burrabazar entered the room and saluted the Master. He began to praise them.

MĀRWĀRI DEVOTEE: “Who is this ‘I’ that says, ‘O Lord, I am Thy servant?’ "

DEVOTEE: “Who is the embodied soul?”

What happens after death?

DEVOTEE: “Revered sir, what happens after death?”

DEVOTEE: “Why don’t we feel dispassion toward worldly objects?”

MASTER: “Because of māyā. Through māyā one feels the Real to be the unreal and the unreal to be the Real. The Real means That which is eternal, the Supreme Brahman; and the unreal means that which is non- eternal, that is to say, the world.”

DEVOTEE: “We read the scriptures. Why is it that we can’t assimilate them?”

As long as you live inside the house of māyā, as long as there exists the cloud of you do not see the effect of the Sun of Knowledge. Come outside the house of give up ‘woman and gold’, and then the Sun of Knowledge will destroy ignorance.

cannot burn paper inside the house. If you stand outside, then the rays of the sun the lens and the paper burns. Again, the lens cannot burn the paper if there is a The paper burns when the cloud disappears.

“The darkness of the mind is destroyed only when a man stands little apart from.

‘woman and gold’ and, thus standing apart, practises a little austerity and spiritual discipline. Then only does the cloud of his ego and ignorance vanish. Then only does he attain the Knowledge of God. This ‘woman and gold’ is the only cloud that hides the Sun of Knowledge.

Master’s renunciation

(To the Mārwāri devotee) “The rules for a sannyāsi are extremely hard. He cannot have the slightest contact with ‘woman and gold’. He must not accept money with his own hands, and he must not even allow it to be left near him.

Lakshminarayan Mārwāri, a Vedantist, used to come here very often. One day he saw a dirty sheet on my bed and said: ‘I shall invest ten thousand rupees in your name.

The interest will enable you to pay your expenses.’ The moment he uttered these words, I fell unconscious, as if struck by a stick. Regaining consciousness I said to him: ‘If you utter such words again, you had better not come here. It is impossible for me to touch money.

It is also impossible for me to keep it near me.’ He was a very clever fellow. He said: ‘Then you too have the idea of acceptance and rejection. In that case you haven’t attained Perfect Knowledge.’ ‘My dear sir, I said, ‘I haven’t yet gone that far.’ (All laugh.)

Lakshminarayan then wanted to leave the money with Hriday. I said to him: ‘That will not do. If you leave it with Hriday, then I shall instruct him to spend it as I wish. If he does not comply, I shall be angry. The very contact of money is bad. No, you can’t leave it with Hriday.’ Won’t an object kept near a mirror be reflected in it?”

Liberation

DEVOTEE: “Revered sir, is a man liberated only when he dies on the bank of the Ganges?”

MASTER: “It is the Knowledge of God alone that gives liberation. The Jnāni will certainly attain liberation wherever he may die, whether in the charnel-pit or on the bank of the Ganges.

But the bank of the Ganges is prescribed for a bound soul.”

DEVOTEE: “Revered sir, why does a man dying in Benares become liberated?”

MASTER: “A person dying in Benares sees the vision of Śiva. Śiva says to him: ‘This is My aspect with form, My embodiment in māyā. I assume this form for the sake of the devotees.

Now look. I am merging in the indivisible Satchidananda!’ Uttering these words, Śiva withdraws His form and enables the dying person to see Brahman. “The Puranas say that even a chandala endowed with love of God achieves liberation.

According to this school the name of God is enough to liberate a soul. There is no need of such things as worship, sacrifice, the discipline of Tantra, and the recitation of mantras.

Path of devotion for Kaliyuga

But the teachings of the Vedas are different. According to the Vedas none but a brahmin can be liberated. Further, the worship is not accepted by the gods unless the mantras are recited correctly. One must perform sacrifice, worship, and so on, according to scriptural injunction. But where is the time in the Kaliyuga to perform the Vedic rituals?

Therefore in the Kaliyuga the path of devotion prescribed by Nārada is best. The path of karma is very difficult. Karma becomes a cause of bondage unless it is performed in a spirit of detachment. Further, the life of man nowadays depends on food. He has no time to observe the rituals enjoined by the scriptures.

The patient dies if he tries to cure his fever by taking the decoction of herbs prescribed by the orthodox native physicians. Therefore he should take a modern ‘fever mixture’.

According to Nārada the devotee should sing the name and glories of God. The path of karma is not the right one for the Kaliyuga. Bhaktiyoga is the right path. Do your duties in the world as long as you need them to reap the fruit of the actions of your past lives.

But you must develop love for God and be passionately attached to Him. The singing of the name and glories of God destroys the effect of past action. “You don’t have to perform duties all your life. As you develop unalloyed love and longing for God, your duties become fewer and fewer. After the realization of God they completely drop away. When the young daughter-in-law is pregnant, her mother-in-law lessens her duties. After the birth of the child she doesn’t have to do any household work.

Several young men from the village of Dakshineswar entered the room and saluted Sri Ramakrishna. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. They sat down and began to talk with the Master.

YOUNG MAN: “Sir, what is Knowledge?”

MASTER: “It is to know that God is the only Reality and that all else is unreal. That which is the Real is also called Brahman. It has another name: Kala, Time. There is a saying,

‘O brother, how many things come into being in Time and disappear in Time!’ “That whieh sports with Kala is called Kāli. She is the Primal Energy. Kala and Kāli, Brahman and Śakti, are indivisible.

“That Brahman, of the nature of Reality, is eternal. It exists in past, present, and future. It is without beginning or end. It cannot be described in words. The utmost that can be said of Brahman is that It is of the very nature of Intelligence and Bliss.

The world is illusory; Brahman alone is real. The world is of the nature of magic. The magician is real but his magic is unreal”

Power of inborn tendencies

YOUNG MAN: “If the world is of the nature of illusion-magic-then why doesn’t one get rid of it?” MASTER: “It is due to the samskaras, inborn tendencies. Repeated births in this world of māyā make one believe that māyā is real. “Let me tell you how powerful inborn tendencies are. A prince had, in a previous birth, been the son of a washerman. While playing with his chums in his incarnation as the prince, he said to them: ‘Stop those games. I will show you a new one. I shall lie on my belly, and you will beat the clothes on my back as the washerman does, making a swishing sound.’

Many youngsters come here. But only a few long for God. These few are born with a spiritual tendency. They shudder at the talk of marriage. Niranjan has said from boyhood that he will not marry.

More than 20 years ago two young men used to come here from Baranagore. One was named Govinda Pal and the other Gopal Sen. They had been devoted to God since boyhood. The very mention of marriage would frighten them. Gopal used to have bhava samādhi. He would shrink from worldly people, as a mouse from a cat. One day he saw the boys of the Tagore family strolling in the garden. He shut himself in the kuthi lest he should have to talk with them.

“Gopal went into samādhi in the Panchavati. In that state he said to me, touching my feet: ‘Let me go. I cannot live in this world any more. You have a long time to wait. Let me go.’ I said to him, in an ecstatic mood, ‘You must come again.’ ‘Very well, I will’, he said. A few days later Govinda came to me. ‘Where is Gopal?’ I asked him. He said, ‘He has passed away.’

“What are the other youngsters about? Money, house, carriage, clothes, and finally marriage. These are the things that keep them busy. If they want to marry, at the outset they make inquiries about the girl. They want to find out for themselves whether she is beautiful.

“There is a person who speaks much ill of me. He is always criticizing me for loving the youngsters. I love only those who are born with good tendencies, pure souls with longing for God, who do not pay any attention to money, creature comforts, and such things. “If married people develop love for God, they will not be attached to the world. Hirananda is married. What if he is? He will not be much attached to the world.” Hirananda, a member of the Brahmo Samaj, was a native of Sindh. He had met the Master in Calcutta and become devoted to him.

Manilal, the Mārwāri devotees, the Brahmo devotees from Shibpur, and the young men from Dakshineswar saluted Sri Ramakrishna and took their leave.

It was evening. Lamps were lighted on the south and west verandahs. A lamp was lighted in the Master’s room also, and incense was burnt. He was repeating the name of the Divine Mother, absorbed in contemplation of Her. After a while he talked again to the devotees. There was still some time before the evening worship in the temples. MASTER (to M.): “What need of the sandhya has a man who thinks of God day and night?

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?

Rituals may pursue him close, but never can they overtake him.

Charity, vows, and giving of gifts do not appeal to Madan’s mind; The Blissful Mother’s Lotus Feet are his whole prayer and sacrifice.

The sandhya merges in the Gayatri, the Gayatri in Om. A man is firmly established in spiritual life when he goes into samādhi on uttering ‘Om’ only once. “There is a sādhu in Hrishikesh who gets up early in the morning and stands near a great waterfall. He looks at it the whole day and says to God: ‘Ah, You have done well! Well done!

How amazing! He doesn’t practise any other form of japa or austerity. At night he returns to his hut. “What need is there even to bother one’s head about whether God is formless or has a form? It is enough for a man to pray to Him, alone in solitude, weeping, ‘O God, reveal Yourself to me as You are.’

God is both inside and outside. It is He who dwells inside us. Therefore the Vedas say, Tattvamasi-That thou art.’ God is also outside us. He appears manifold through māyā;

but in reality He alone exists. Therefore before describing the various names and forms of God, one should say, ‘Om Tat Sat.’ “It is one thing to learn about God from the scriptures, and quite another to see Him. The scriptures only give hints. Therefore to read a great many scriptures is not necessary. It is much better to pray to God in solitude. “It isn’t necessary to read all of the Gitā. One can get the essence of the Gitā by repeating the word ten times. It becomes reversed and is then ’tagi’. The essence of the book is: ‘O man, renounce everything and worship God.’”

The Master went into an ecstatic mood while watching the evening worship of Kāli in the company of the devotees. He was in no condition even to salute the image. Very carefully he returned to his room with the devotees and sat down; he was still in an ecstatic mood. He spoke to them while in that state.

In the room was Hari, a young man about twenty years of age, who was a relative of the Mukherjis and very much devoted to the Master. He was married. At that time he was living with the Mukherjis and looking for a job.

MASTER (to Hari, in an ecstatic mood): “Take your initiation after getting your mother’s permission. (To Priya, referring to Hari) I couldn’t give him the mantra though I said I would initiate him. I don’t initiate people. Continue with your own meditation and japa as you have been doing.”

PRIYA: “Yes, sir.”

MASTER: “And I am saying this to you in this state of my mind. Believe my words. You see, there is no show or deceit here. I just said to the Divine Mother in my ecstatic mood, ‘O Mother, may those who come here [referring to himself] through sincere attraction obtain perfection!’ " Mahendra Kaviraj of Sinthi was seated on the verandah conversing with Ramlal, Hazra, and others. The Master called to him from his room. M. went out quickly and brought Mahendra in. MASTER (to Mahendra): “Sit down and listen to my words.” Mahendra was a little embarrassed. He sat down. Various forms of divine love MASTER (to the devotees): “God can be served in different ways. An ecstatic lover of God enjoys Him in different ways. Sometimes he says, ‘O God, You are the lotus and I am the bee’, and sometimes, ‘You are the Ocean of Satchidananda and I am the fish.’ Sometimes, again, the lover of God says, ‘I am Your dancing-girl.’ He dances and sings before Him. He thinks of himself sometimes as the friend of God and sometimes as His handmaid. He looks on God sometimes as a child, as did Yaśoda, and sometimes as husband or sweetheart, as did the gopis. “Sometimes Balarama looked on Krishna as a friend; sometimes he would think he was Krishna’s umbrella or carpet. He served Krishna in all possible ways.” Was Sri Ramakrishna hinting at his own state of mind while thus describing the different attitudes of a lover of God? Chaitanya’s spiritual moods Next he described Chaitanya’s three spiritual moods. MASTER: “Chaitanyadeva used to experience three moods. In the inmost mood he would be absorbed in samādhi, unconscious of the outer world. In the semi-conscious mood he would dance in ecstasy but could not talk. In the conscious mood he would sing the glories of God. (To the devotees) “You are listening to my words. Try to assimilate them. When worldly people sit before a sādhu, for the time being they completely hide all worldly thoughts and ideas. But once away from the holy man they let them out again. You have seen a pigeon eating dried peas. You think he has digested them, but he keeps them in his crop. You can feel them there. “At dusk put aside all duties and pray to God. One is reminded of Him by darkness. At the approach of darkness one thinks: ‘I could see everything a moment ago. Who has brought about this change?’ The Muslims put aside all activities and say their prayers at the appointed times.”

Practice of japa

MUKHERJI: “Revered sir, is it good to practise japa?”

MASTER: “Yes. One attains God through japa. By repeating the name of God secretly and in solitude one receives divine grace. Then comes His vision. Suppose there is a big piece of timber lying under water and fastened to the land with a chain; by proceeding along the chain, link by link, you will at last touch the timber. “Higher than worship is japa, higher than japa is meditation, higher than meditation is bhava, and higher than bhava are mahabhava and prema. Chaitanyadeva had prema,

When one attains prema one has the rope to tie God.”

Hazra entered the room. MASTER (to Hazra): “Love of God, when it is intense and spontaneous, is called raga- bhakti. Vaidhi-bhakti, formal devotion, depends on scriptural injunctions. It comes and it goes. But raga-bhakti is like a stone emblem of Śiva that has sprung up out of the bowels of the earth. One cannot find its root; they say the root goes as far as Benares. Only an Incarnation of God and His companions attain raga-bhakti.” HAZRA: “Ah me!” MASTER: “One day I was returning from the Pine-grove, when I saw you telling your beads. I said to the Divine Mother: ‘Mother, what a small minded fellow he is! He lives here and still he pratises japa with a rosary! Whoever comes he [referring to himself] will have his spiritual consciousness awakened all a once; he won’t have to bother much, about japa. Go to Calcutta and you will find thousands telling their beads-even the prostitutes.’ (To M.) “Please bring Naran here in a carriage. I am making the same request to Mukherji. I shall give Naran something to eat when he comes. There is great significance in feeding boys like him.” Saturday, October 4, 1884 It was the day of the first full moon after the Durga Puja. Sri Ramakrishna arrived at the Calcutta house of Nabin Sen, the elder brother of Keshab Chandra Sen. On the previous Thursday Keshab’s mother had begged the Master to pay her a visit in Calcutta. The Master seated himself in a room on the upper floor of the house. With him were Baburam, Kishori, and a few other devotees. Nandalal and Keshab’s other nephews, Keshab’s mother, and other relatives of his, waited on the Master. It had been arranged to have devotional music performed in the room. M. was sitting in a room downstairs, listening to the kirtan. Master with Brahmo devotees Sri Ramakrishna said to the Brahmo devotees: “The world is impermanent. One should constantly remember death.” Then he sang: 642Remember this, O mind! Nobody is your own: Vain is your wandering in this world. Trapped in the subtle snare of māyā as you are, Do not forget the Mother’s name. . . . The Master said to the devotees: “Dive deep. What will you gain by merely floating on the surface? Renounce everything for a few days, retire into solitude, and call on God with all your soul” The Master sang: Dive deep, O mind, dive deep in. the Ocean of God’s Beauty; If you descend to the uttermost depths, There you will find the gem of Love. . . . At Sri Ramakrishna’s request the Brahmo devotees sang: Thou art my All in All, O Lord!- the Life of my life, the Essence of essence; In the three worlds I have none else but Thee to call my own. Thou art my peace, my joy, my hope; Thou my support, my wealth, my glory; Thou my wisdom and my strength. . . . The Master sang again: 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? . . . The Brahmo devotees also sang to theaccompaniment of cymbals and drums: O Mother, how deep is Thy love for men! Mindful of it, I weep for joy. Almost from the day of my birth I have transgressed Thine every law, And still Thou lookest on me with love, Comforting me with sweetest words. Mindful of it, I weep for joy. O Mother, the burden of Thy love Is far too great for me to bear; My soul gives a heart-piercing cry At Thy love’s touch. To Thee I come, Seeking a refuge at Thy feet. 643They again sang of the Divine Mother: O Mother, Thou my Inner Guide, ever awake within my heart! Day and night Thou holdest me in Thy lap. Why dost Thou show such tenderness to this unworthy child of Thine’? Ah! It seems Thou art mad with love: now caressing, now with strong grasp Holding me firm, Thou givest me to drink Thy nectar, pouring in my ears Thy words of loving tenderness. Unceasing is Thy love for me, a love that cannot see my faults ; Whenever I am in danger, Thou dost save me. Saviour of sinners! I know the truth: I am my Mother’s and She is mine. Now I shall listen to Her alone, and follow the path of righteousness; Drinking the milk that flows from my Mother’s breasts, I shall be strong and sing with joy: “Hail, O Mother! Brahman Eternal!” The Master and the Brahmo devotees sang several songs about Hari and Gaurānga. Sunday, October 5, 1884 Sri Ramakrishna was sitting in his room after the midday meal, with M., Hazra, the elder Kāli, Baburam, Ramlal, Hari, and others. Some of them sat on the floor and some stood about. On the previous day the Master had visited Keshab’s mother at her Calcutta house and had made her happy with his devotional songs. Hazra’s eccentricities Hazra had been living with the Master at Dakshineswar a long time. He was a little conceited about his knowledge and even criticized the Master now and then before others. Again, he would sit on the verandah of the Master’s room and tell his beads with apparent concentration. He spoke slightingly of Chaitanya as a “modern Incarnation”. He would say: “God gives not only pure devotion but also wealth. He has no lack of it. By attaining God one obtains the eight occult powers as well.” Hazra had a small debt to clear up, about one thousand rupees. He had incurred it for the building of his house and was worried about paying it. The elder Kāli had a position in an office, from which he received a small salary. He had a large family to maintain. He was devoted to the Master and visited him now and then, even absenting himself from the office. 644KALl (to Hazra): “You go about criticizing people; you are like a touchstone, testing what is pure gold and what is impure. Why do you speak so much ill of others?” HAZRA: “Whatever I say, I say to him [meaning Sri Ramakrishna] alone.” MASTER: “That is so.” Hazra began to explain Tattvajnana. HAZRA: “The meaning of Tattvajnana is the knowledge of the existence of the twenty- four tattvas, or cosmic principles.” He was wrong about the meaning of the word. A DEVOTEE: “What are they?” HAZRA: “The five elements, the six passions, the five organs of perception, the five organs of action, and so forth.” M. (to the Master, smiling): “He says that the six passions are included in the twenty- four cosmic principles.” MASTER (smiling): “Listen to him! Notice how he explains Tattvajnana! The word really means ‘knowledge of Self’. The word ‘Tat’ means the Supreme Self, and the word ’tvam’, the embodied soul. One attains Supreme Knowledge, Tattvajnana, by realizing the identity of the embodied soul and the Supreme Self.” After a few minutes Hazra left the room and sat on the porch. MASTER (to M. and the others): “He [meaning Hazra] only argues. This moment perhaps he understands, but the next moment he is his old self again. “When the angler hooks a big fish and finds it pulling hard, he releases the line; otherwise it will snap and the angler himself will be thrown into the water. Therefore I do not say much to him. (To M.) “Hazra said that a man could not be liberated unless he was born in a brahmin body. ‘How is that?’ I said. ‘One attains liberation through bhakti alone. Savari was the daughter of a hunter. She, Ruhidas, and others belonged to the sudra caste. They were liberated through bhakti alone.’ ‘But still-Hazra insisted. “He recognized Dhruva’s spiritual greatness, but not as much as he recognized Prahlada’s. When Lātu said, ‘Dhruva had great yearning for God from his boyhood’, he kept still. “I said that there was nothing greater than the bhakti that sought no end and had no selfish motive. Hazra contradicted me. I said to him, ‘A wealthy man is annoyed when a petitioner comes to him. “There he comes”, he says angrily. “Sit down”, he says to him 645in an indifferent voice, and shows that he is much annoyed. He doesn’t allow such a beggar to ride with him in his carriage.’ “But Hazra said that God was not like such wealthy people of the world; did He lack wealth, that He should feel pinched to give it away? Hazra said further: ‘When rain falls from the sky, the Ganges and all the big rivers and lakes overflow with water. Small tanks, too, are filled. Likewise, God out of His grace grants wealth and riches as well as knowledge and devotion.’ (To the devotees) “But I call this impure devotion to God. Pure devotion has no desire behind it. You don’t want anything from me, but you love to see me and hear my words. My mind also dwells on you. I wonder how you are and why you don’t come. “You don’t want anything of God but still you love Him. That is pure bhakti, love of God with no motive behind it. Prahlada had it. He sought neither kingdom nor riches; he sought Hari alone.” M: “Hazra is a chatterbox. He won’t achieve anything unless he becomes silent.” MASTER: “Now and then he comes to me and becomes mellowed. But he is a pest; again he argues. It is very hard to get rid of egotism. You may cut down an Aśwattha tree, but the next day a sprout will spring up. As long as the roots remain, the tree will grow again. “I said to Hazra, ‘Don’t speak ill of anyone.’ It is Narayana Himself who has assumed all these forms. One can worship even a wicked person. Haven’t you observed the Kumari Puja? Why should you worship a girl who has all the physical limitations of a human being? It is because she is a form of the Divine Mother. But God dwells in a special way in His devotee. The devotee is His parlour. If the gourd has a large body then it makes a good Tānpura. It gives a nice sound.” Two monks had arrived at the temple garden in the morning. They were devoted to the study of the Bhagavad Gitā, the Vedānta, and other scriptures. They entered the Master’s room, saluted him, and sat on the mat on the floor. Sri Ramakrishna was seated on the small couch. The Master spoke to the sādhus in Hindusthani. MASTER: “Have you had your meal?” SĀDHU: “Yes, sir.” MASTER: “What did you eat?” SĀDHU: “Dal and bread. Will you take some?” MASTER: “No, I take only a few morsels of rice. Well, your japa and meditation must be without any desire for results. Isn’t that so?” 646SĀDHU: “Yes, Sir.” MASTER: “That is good. One must surrender the result to God. What do you say? That is the view of the Gitā.” One sādhu said to the other, quoting from the Gitā: “O Arjuna, whatever action you perform, whatever you eat, whatever you offer in sacrifice, whatever you give in charity, and whatever austerities you practise, offer everything to Me.” MASTER: “If you give God something, you receive it back a thousand times over. That is why after doing meritorious deeds one offers a handful of water to God. It is the symbol of offering the fruit to God. When Yudhisthira was about to offer all his sins to Krishna, Bhima warned him: ‘Never do such a thing. Whatever you offer to Krishna you will receive back a thousandfold.’ (To one of the sādhus) “Well, sir, one should be de- sireless; one should renounce all desires. Isn’t that so?” SĀDHU: “Yes, sir.” MASTER: “But I have the desire for bhakti. That is not bad. Rather, it is good. Sweets are bad, for they produce acidity. But sugar candy is an exception. Isn’t that so?” SĀDHU: “Yes, sir.” MASTER: “Well, sir, what do you think of the Vedānta?” SĀDHU: “It includes all the six systems of philosophy.” MASTER: “But the essence of Vedānta is: ‘Brahman alone is real, and the world illusory; I have no separate existence; I am that Brahman alone.’ Isn’t that so?” SĀDHU: “That is true, sir.” MASTER: “But for those who lead a householder’s life, and those who identify themselves with the body, this attitude of ‘I am He’ is not good. It is not good for householders to read Vedānta or the Yoga-vāsishta. It is very harmful for them to read these books. Householders should look on God as their Master and on themselves as His servants. They should think, ‘O God, You are the Master and the Lord, and I am Your servant.’ People who identify themselves with the body should not have the attitude of ‘I am He’.” The devotees in the room remained silent. Sri Ramakrishna was smiling a little, a picture of self-contentment. He appeared happy in his own Self. One of the sādhus whispered in the other’s ear: “Look! This is the state of the paramahamsa.” 647MASTER (to M.): “I feel like laughing.” Sri Ramakrishna smiled like a child. The monks left the room. The devotees were moving about in the room and on the porch. Master ( to M.) :“Did you go to Nabin Sen’s house?” M:“Yes, sir. I listened to the songs from down stairs.” MASTER: “That was well done. Your wife was there. She is a cousin of Keshab Sen, isn’t she?” M: “A distant cousin.” Sri Ramakrishna strolled up and down with M. No one else was with them. MASTER: “A man visits his father-in-law’s house. I, too, often used to think that I should marry, go to my father-in-law’s house, and have great fun. But see what has come of it!” M: “Sir, you say, ‘If the boy holds his father’s hand, he may slip; but he doesn’t if the father holds his hand.’ That is exactly your condition. The Mother has taken hold of your hand.”

MASTER: “I met Bamandas at the Viswases’ house. I said to him, ‘I have come to see you.’ As I was leaving the place I heard him say: ‘Goodness gracious! The Divine Mother has caught hold of him, like a tiger seizing a man.’ At that time I was a young man, very stout, and always in ecstasy.