Master and Nilkantha

Baburam and M. talked about Nilkantha’s theatrical performance. Baburam had spent the previous night at the temple garden after his return from Nabin Sen’s house. In the morning he had attended Nilkantha’s performance with the Master.

MASTER (to M. and Baburam): “What are you talking about?”

M. AND BABURAM: “About Nilkantha’s performance.”

While pacing the verandah Sri Ramakrishna suddenly took M. aside and said, “The less people know about your thoughts of God, the better for You,” Saying these words the Master abruptly went away. A short time afterwards he began to talk with Hazra.

HAZRA: “Nilkantha told you he would pay you a visit. It would be good send for him.”

MASTER: “No, he didn’t sleep at all last night. It will be different if he comes here through the will of God.”

Sri Ramakrishna asked Baburam to visit Narayan at his house. He looked on Narayan as God Himself, and so he longed to see him. The Master said to Baburam, “You may go to him with one of your English text-books.”

About 3PM, Sri Ramakrishna was sitting in his room. Nilkantha arrived with five or six of his companions. The Master went toward the east door as if to welcome him. The musicians bowed before the Master, touching the ground with their foreheads.

Sri Ramakrishna went into samādhi. Baburam stood behind him. M., Nilkantha, and the musicians were in front of him, watching him in great amazement. Dinanath, an officer of the temple, looked on from the north side of the bed. Soon the room was filled with officers of the temple garden. Sri Ramakrishna’s ecstasy abated a little. He seated himself on a mat on the floor, surrounded by Nilkantha and other devotees.

MASTER (still in an ecstatic mood): “I am all right.”

NILKANTHA (with folded hands): “Make me all right too.”

MASTER (smiling): “Why, you are already all right. Adding the letter to ‘a’, one gets ‘ka’.

By adding another ‘a’ to ‘ka’, one still gets the same ‘ka’.” (All laugh.)

NILKANTHA: “Revered sir, I am entangled in worldliness.”

MASTER (smiling): “God has kept you in the world for the sake of others. There are 8 fetters. One cannot get rid of them all. God keeps one or two so that a man may live in the world and teach others. You have organized this theatrical company. How many people are being benefited by seeing your bhakti! If you give up everything, then where will these musicians go?

God is now doing all these works through you. When they are finish, you will not return to them. The housewife finishes her household duties feeds everyone, including the menservants and maidservants, and then goes to take her bath. She doesn’t come back then even if people shout for her.”

NILKANTHA: “Please bless me.”

MASTER: “Yaśoda went mad with grief because she was separated from Krishna. She went to Radhika, who was meditating. Radhika said to her an ecstatic state: ‘I am the Ultimate Prakriti, the Primal Power. Ask a boon of Me.’ Yaśoda said to her: ‘What shall I ask of You? Please bless me, that with all my body, mind, and speech I may think of God and serve Him; that with my ears I may hear the singing of God’s name and glories; that with my hands I may serve Hari and His devotees; that with my eyes I may behold His form and His devotees.’

“Your eyes fill with tears when you utter the name of God. Why then should you worry about anything? Divine love has grown in you.

“To know many things is ajnāna, ignorance. To know only one thing is jnāna, Knowledge-the realization that God alone is real and that He dwells in all. And to talk to Him is vijnāna, a fuller Knowledge. To love God in different ways, after realizing Him, is vijnāna.

It is also said that God is beyond one and two. He is beyond speech and mind. To go up from the Lila to the Nitya and come down again from the Nitya to the Lila is mature bhakti.

“I love that song of yours about aspiring to reach the Lotus Feet of the Divine Mother. It is enough to know that everything depends on the grace of God. But one must pray to God; it will not do to remain inactive. The lawyer gives all the arguments and finishes his pleading by saying to the judge: ‘I have said all I have to say. Now the decision rests with Your Honour.’ "

After a few minutes Sri Ramakrishna said to Nilkantha: “You sang so much in the morning, and now you have taken the trouble to come here. But here everything is ‘honorary’.”

NILKANTHA: “Why so?”

MASTER (smiling): “I know what you will say.”

NILKANTHA: “I shall get a precious gem from here.”

MASTER: “You already have that precious gem. What will you gain by adding again the letter ‘a’ to ‘ka’? If you didn’t have the gem, should I like your songs so much? Ramprasad had attained divine realization; that is why his songs appeal so much.

“I had already planned to hear your music. Later on Niyogi, too, came here to invite me.”

The Master was sitting on the small couch. He told Nilkantha that he would like to hear a song or two about the Divine Mother.

Nilkantha sang two songs with his companions. When the Master heard the second song he stood up and went into samādhi. Presently he began to dance in an ecstasy of divine love. Nilkantha and the devotees sang and danced around him. Then Nilkantha sang a song about Śiva, and the Master danced with the devotees.

When the singing was over, Sri Ramakrishna said to Nilkantha, “I should like to hear that song of yours I heard in Calcutta.”

M: “About Sri Gaurānga?”

MASTER: “Yes, yes!”

Nilkantha sang the song, “The beautiful Gaurānga, the youthful dancer, fair as molten gold.”

Sri Ramakrishna sang again and again the line, “Everything is swept away by the onrush of love”, and danced with Nilkantha and the other devotees. Those who saw that indescribable dancing were never to forget it. The room was filled with people, all intoxicated with divine joy. It seemed as if Chaitanya himself were dancing with his companions.

Manomohan was in an ecstatic mood. He was a devotee of Sri Ramakrishna and a brother-in-law of Rakhal. Several ladies of his family had come with him. They were witnessing this divine music and dancing from the north verandah.

Sri Ramakrishna sang again, this time about Gaurānga and Nityananda: Behold, the two brothers have came, who weep while chanting Hari’s name. . . .

He danced with Nilkantha and the other devotees, improvising the line: Behold, the two brothers have come, they who are mad with love of Radha. Hearing the loud music, many people gathered about the room. The verandahs to the south and north, and the semicircular porch to the west of the room, were crowded with people. Even passengers in the boats going along the Gauges were attracted by the kirtan.

The music was over Sri Ramakrishna bowed to the Divine Mother and said, “Bhagavata- Bhakta-Bhagavan. My salutations to the jnanis, my salutations to the yogis, my salutations to the bhaktas.”

The Master was seated on the semicircular porch with Nilkantha and the other devotees . The autumn moon flooded all the quarters with light. Sri Ramakrishna and Nilkantha talked.

NILKANTHA: “You are none other than Gaurānga.”

MASTER: “Why should you say such a thing? I am the servant of .the servant of all. The waves belong to the Ganges; but does the Ganges belong to the waves?”

NILKANTHA: “You may say whatever you like, but we regard you as Gaurānga himself.”

MASTER (tenderly, in an ecstatic mood): “My dear sir, I try to seek my ‘I’, but I do not find it. Hanuman said: ‘O Rāma, sometimes I think that You are the whole and I am a part, and sometimes that You are the Master and I am Your servant. But when I have the Knowledge of Reality, I see that You are I and I am You.’”

NILKANTHA: “What shall I say, sir? Please be gracious to us.”

MASTER (smiling): “You are ferrying many people across the ocean or the world. How many hearts are illumined by hearing your music!”

NILKANTHA: “You talk of ferrying. But bless me that I may not be drowned in the ocean myself.”

MASTER (smiling): “If you get drowned, it will be in the Sea of Immortality.”

Sri Ramakrishna was delighted with Nilkantha’s company. He said to the musician: “For you to have come here! You whom people see as a result of many austerities and prayers! Listen to a song.”

The Master sang a song, two lines of which ran: When the Blissful Mother comes to my house, how much of the Chandi I shall hear!

How many monks will come here, and how many yogis with matted locks!

He said, continuing, “As long as the Divine Mother has come here, many yogis with matted locks will come too.”

Sri Ramakrishna laughed. To M., Baburam, and the other devotees he said: “I feel very much like laughing. Just fancy, I am singing for these musicians!”

NILKANTHA: “We go about singing; but today we have had our true reward.”

MASTER (smiling): ‘when a shopkeeper sells an article, he sometimes gives a little extra something to the buyer. You sang at Nabin’s house and have given the extra something here.”

All laughed.