How to conquer passion

Sri Ramakrishna was walking up and down, now in his room, now on the south verandah. Occasionally pausing on the semicircular porch west of his room, he would look at the Ganges.

After a little while he returned to his room and sat on the small couch. It was past three in the afternoon. The devotees took their seats on the floor. The Master sat in silence before them, now and then casting a glance at the walls, where many pictures were hanging.

To Sri Ramakrishna’s left was a picture of Sarasvati, and beyond it, a picture of Gaur and Nitai singing kirtan with their devotees. In front of the Master hung pictures of Dhruva, Prahlada, and Mother Kāli.

On the wall to his right was another picture of the Divine Mother, Rajarajesvari. Behind him was a picture of Jesus Christ raising the drowning Peter.

Suddenly Sri Ramakrishna turned to M. and said: “You see, it is good to 662keep pictures of sannyāsis and holy men in one’s room. When you get up in the morning you should see the faces of holy persons rather than the faces of other men. People with rajasic qualities keep ‘English’ pictures on their walls-pictures of rich men, the King, the Queen, the Prince of Wales, and white men and women walking together. That shows their rajasic temperament.

“You acquire the nature of the people whose company you keep. Therefore even pictures may prove harmful. Again, a man seeks the company that agrees with his own nature. The paramahamsas keep near them a few young boys five or six years old.

They allow such boys to be near them. Attaining the state of a paramahamsa, a man loves the company of boys. Like the paramahamsas, the boys are not under the control of the Gunās -sattva, rajas, or tamas.

“By looking at trees a man awakens in his heart the picture of a hermitage in which a rishi is practising austerity.”

A brahmin from Sinthi entered the room and saluted Sri Ramakrishna. He had studied Vedānta in Benares. He was stout and had a smiling face.

MASTER: “Hello! How are you? You haven’t been here in a long time.”

PUNDIT (smiling): “Worldly duties, sir. You know I have very little leisure. The pundit sat down, and the Master began to talk with him.

MASTER: “You spent a long time in Benares. Tell us what you saw there. Tell us something about Dayananda.”

PUNDIT: “Yes, I met him. You also met him, didn’t you?”

MASTER: “Yes, I visited him. He was ’living then in a garden house on the other side of the Ganges. Keshab was expected there that day. He longed for Keshab as the chatak bird longs for rain. He was a great scholar and made fun of the Bengali language. He admitted the existence of the deities, but Keshab did not. Dayananda used to say: ‘God has created so many things. Couldn’t He have created the deities?’ Dayananda believed the Ultimate Reality to be without form. Captain was repeating the name of Rāma. Dayananda said to him sarcastically, ‘Better repeat “sandesh”!’ "

PUNDIT: “In Benares the pundits had great discussions with Dayananda. Finally he was left alone with all the others against him. They made it so hot for him that he thought the only way to save himself was by running away. All the pundits shouted with one voice, ‘Whatever Dayananda has said is to be despised!’

Theosophy

“I saw Colonel Olcott too. The Theosophists believe in the existence of mahatmas. They also speak of the ’lunar’, ‘solar’, ‘stellar’, and other planes.

A Theosophist can go in his ‘astral body’ to all these planes. Oh, Olcott said many such things. Well, sir, what do you think of Theosophy?”

MASTER: “The one essential thing is bhakti, loving devotion to God. Do the Theosophists seek bhakti? They are good if they do. If Theosophy makes the realization of God the goal of life, then it is good. One cannot seek God if one constantly busies oneself with the mahatmas and the lunar, solar, and stellar planes. A man should practise sādhanā and pray to God with a longing heart for love of His Lotus Feet. He should direct his mind to God alone, withdrawing it from the various objects of the world.”

The Master sang:

How are you trying, O my mind, to know the nature of God? You are groping like a madman locked in a dark room. He is grasped through ecstatic love; how can you fathom Him Without it? . . .

And, for that love, the mighty yogis practise yoga from age to age;

When love awakes, the Lord, like a magnet, draws to Him the soul.

Continuing, the Master said: “You may speak of the scriptures, of philosophy, of Vedānta; but you will not find God in any of these. You will never succeed in realizing God unless your soul becomes restless for Him. Only through affirmation, never negation, can you know Him, Neither through Veda nor through Tantra nor the six darsanas. It is in love’s elixir only that He delights, O mind; He dwells in the body’s inmost depths, in Everlasting Joy. “One must be very earnest about God. Listen to another song: Can everyone have the vision of Radha? Can everyone taste her love?

This, the rarest treasure of all, no earthly wealth can buy; Without devotions and sādhanā none can ever obtain it. The raindrop falling upon the deep when Svati shines on high Is formed within the oyster’s shell into a priceless pearl. Can such a pearl be formed from rain that falls at other times? Mothers with their babes in arms may beckon to the moon To leave the sky and come to them; but only the babes are fooled.

Does the moon ever leave the sky and dwell upon the earth?

Preparation for God vision

“One must practise intense spiritual discipline. Can one obtain the vision of God all of a sudden, without any preparation?

“A man asked, ‘Why don’t I see God?’ I said to him, as the idea came to my mind: ‘You want to catch a big fish. First make arrangements for it. Throw spiced bait into the water. Get a line and a rod. At the smell of the bait the fish will come from the deep water.

By the movement of the water you will know that a big fish has come.’ “You want to eat butter. But what will you achieve by simply repeating that there is butter in milk? You have to work hard for it. Only thus can you separate butter from milk. Can one see God by merely repeating, ‘God exists’? One needs sādhanā . “The Divine Mother Herself practised austere sādhanā to set an example for mankind. Sri Krishna, who is none other than the Ultimate Brahman, also practised sādhanā to set an example to others.

Purusha and Prakriti

“Sri Krishna is the Purusha and Radha the Prakriti, the ChitŚakti, the Ādyāśakti . Radha is the Prakriti, the embodiment of the three Gunās . Sattva, rajas, and tamas are in her. As you remove the layers of an onion, you will first see tints of both black and red, then only red, and last of all only white.

The Vaishnava scriptures speak of ‘Kam-Radha’, ‘Prem-Radha’, and ‘Nitya-Radha’. Chandravali is Kam-Radha, and Srimati is Prem-Radha; Nanda saw Nitya-Radha holding Gopala in Her arms.

“The Brahman of Vedānta and the ChitŚakti are identical, like water and its wetness. The moment you think of water you must also think of its wetness, and the moment you think of water’s wetness you must also think of water.

Or it is like the snake and its wriggling motion. The moment you think of the snake you must a1so think of its wriggling motion, and the moment you think of the snake’s wriggling motion you must also think of the snake. When do I call the Ultimate Reality by the name of Brahman? When It is actionless or unattached to action. When a man puts on a cloth he remains the same man as when he was naked. He was naked; now he is clothed. He may be naked again. There is poison in the snake, but it doesn’t harm the snake. It is poison to him who is bitten by the snake.