Master exhorts Ishan

“You cannot achieve anything by moving at such a slow pace. You need stern renunciation. Can you achieve anything by counting fifteen months as a year? You seem to have no strength, no grit. You are as mushy as flattened rice soaked in milk. Be up and doing! Gird your loins!

“I don’t like that song: Brother, joyfully cling to God; Thus striving, some day you may attain Him. I don’t care for the line, ‘Thus striving, some day you may attain Him.’ You need stern renunciation. I say the same thing to Hazra.

“You ask me why you don’t feel stern renunciation. There is a reason for it. You have desires and tendencies within you. The same is true of Hazra. In our part of the country I have seen peasants bringing water into their paddy-fields. The fields have low ridges on all sides to prevent the water from leaking out; but these are made of mud and often have holes here and there. The peasants work themselves to death to bring the water, which, however, leaks out through the holes. Desires are the holes. You practise japa and austerities, no doubt, but they all leak out through the holes of your desires.

“They catch fish with a bamboo trap. The bamboo is naturally straight. But why is it bent in the trap? In order to catch the fish. Desires are the fish. Therefore the mind is bent down toward the world. If there are no desires, the mind naturally looks up toward God. “Do you know what it is like? It is like the needles of a balance. On account of the weight of ‘woman and gold’ the two needles are not in line. It is ‘woman and gold’ that makes a man stray from the path of yoga. Haven’t you noticed the flame of a candle? The slightest wind makes it waver. The state of yoga is like the candle-flame in a windless place.

669"The mind is dispersed. Part of it has gone to Dāccā, part to Delhi, and another part to Coochbehar. That mind is to be gathered in; it must be concentrated on one object. If you want sixteen ānnā’s worth of cloth, then you have to pay the merchant the full sixteen ānnās . Yoga is not possible if there is the slightest obstacle. If there is a tiny break in the telegraph-wire, then the news cannot be transmitted.

“You are no doubt in the world. What if you are? You must urrender the fruit of your action to God. You must not seek any result for yourself. But mark one thing. The desire for bhakti cannot be called a desire. You may desire bhakti and pray for it. Practise the tamas of bhakti and force your demand upon the Divine Mother.

This bitterly contested suit between the Mother and Her son- What sport it is! says Ramprasad. I shall not cease tormenting Thee Till Thou Thyself shalt yield the fight and take me in Thine arms at last.

“Trailokya once remarked, ‘As I was born into the family, I have a share in the estate.’ “God is your own Mother. Is She a stepmother? Is it an artificial relationship? If you cannot force your demand on Her, then on whom can you force it? Say to Her: Mother, am I Thine eight-months child? Thy red eyes cannot frighten me!.

A deed of gift I hold in my heart, attested by Thy Husband Śiva; I shall sue Thee, if I must, and with a single point shall win. “God is your own Mother. Enforce your demand. If you are part of a thing, you feel its attraction. Because of the element of the Divine Mother in me I feel attracted to Her. A true Saiva has some of the characteristics of Śiva; he has in him some of the elements of Śiva. He who is a true Vaishnava is endowed with some of the elements of Narayana. “Nowadays you don’t have to attend to worldly duties. Spend a few days thinking of God. You have seen that there is nothing to the world.”

The Master sang:

Remember 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. Only a day or two men honour you on earth As lord and master; all too soon That form, so honoured now, must needs be cast away, When Death, the Master, seizes you. 670Even your beloved wife, for whom, while yet you live, You fret yourself almost to death, Will not go with you then; she too will say farewell, And shun your corpse as an evil thing.

Continuing, the Master said: “What are these things you busy yourself with-this arbitration and leadership? I hear that you settle people’s quarrels and that they make you the arbiter. You have been doing this kind of work a long time. Let those who care for such things do them. Now devote your mind more and more to the Lotus Feet of God. The saying goes: ‘Ravana died in Lanka and Behula wept bitterly for him!’ “Sambhu, too, said, ‘I shall build hospitals and dispensaries.’ He was a devotee of God; so I said to him, ‘Will you ask God for hospitals and dispensaries when you see Him?’ “Keshab Sen asked me, ‘Why do I not see God?’ I said, ‘You do not see God because you busy yourself with such things as name and fame and scholarship.’ The mother does not come to the child as long as it sucks its toy-a red toy. But when, after a few minutes, it throws the toy away and cries, then the mother takes down the rice-pot from the hearth and comes running to the child.

“You are engaged in arbitration. The Divine Mother says to Herself:‘My child over there is now busy arbitrating and is very happy. Let him be.’ " In the mean time Ishan had been holding Sri Ramakrishna’s feet. He said humbly, “It is not my will that I should do those things.”

MASTER: “I know it. This is the Divine Mother’s play-Her lila. It is the will of the Great Enchantress that many should remain entangled in the world. Do you know what it is like?

How many are the boats, O mind, That float on the ocean of this world! How many are those that sink!

Again,

Out of a hundred thousand kites, at best but one or two break free; And Thou dost laugh and clap Thy hands, O Mother, watching them!

Only one or two in a hundred thousand get liberation. The rest are entangled through the will of the Divine Mother. “Haven’t you seen the game of hide-and-seek? It is the ‘granny’s’ will that the game should continue. If all touch her and are released, then the playing comes to a stop. Therefore it is not her will that all should touch her.

You see, in big grain stores the merchants keep rice in great heaps that touch the ceiling. Beside them there are heaps of lentils. To protect the grain from the mice, the merchants leave trays of puffed rice and sweetened rice near it. The mice like the smell and the sweet taste of these and so stayaround the trays. They don’t find the big heaps of grain. Similarly, men are deluded by ‘woman and gold’; they do not know where God is.”

“Rāma said to Nārada, ‘Ask a boon of Me.’ Nārada said: ‘O Rāma, is there anything I lack? What shall I ask of Thee? But if Thou must give me a boon, grant that I may have selfless love for Thy Lotus Feet and that I may not be deluded by Thy world-bewitching māyā.’ Rāma said, ‘Nārada, ask something else.’ Nārada again replied: O Rāma, I don’t want anything else Be gracious to me and see that I have pure love for Thy Lotus Feet.’” “I prayed to the Divine Mother: ‘O Mother, I don’t want name and fame I don’t want the eight occult powers. I don’t want a hundred occult powers O Mother, I have no desire for creature comforts. Please, Mother, grant me the boon that I may have pure love for Thy Lotus Feet.’”

The Adhyātma Rāmāyana writes that Lakshmana asked Rāma ‘Rāma, in how many forms and moods do You exist? How shall I be able to recognize You?’ Rāma said: ‘Brother, remember this. You may be certain that I exist wherever you find the manifestation of ecstatic love.’ That love makes one laugh and weep and dance and sing; if anyone has developed such love, you may know for certain that God Himself is manifest there. Chaitanyadeva reached that state.”

The devotees listened spellbound to Sri Ramakrishna. His burning words entered their souls, spurring them along the path of renunciation. Now he spoke to Ishan in a serious voice.

MASTER: “Don’t forget yourself because of what you hear from your flatterers. Flatterers gather around a worldly man. Vultures gather around the carcass of a cow. “Worldly people have no stuff in them. They are like a heap of cow-dung. Flatterers come to them and say: ‘You are so charitable and wise! You are so pious!’ These are not mere words but pointed bamboos thrust at them. How foolish it is! To be surrounded day and night by a bunch of worldly brahmin pundits and hear their flattery! “Worldly men are slaves of three things: they are slaves of their wives, slaves of their money, slaves of their masters. Can they have any inner stuff? There is a certain person whom I shall not name; he earns eight hundred rupees a month but is the slave of his wife. He stands up or sits down at her bidding.

“Arbitration and leadership? How trifling these are! Charity and doing good to others? You have had enough of these. Those who are to devote themselves to such things belong to a different class. Now the time is ripe for you to devote your mind to the Lotus Feet of God. If you realize God, you will get everything else. First God, then charity, doing good to others, doing good to the world, and redeeming people. Why need you worry about these things. ‘Ravana died in Lanka and Behula wept for him bitterly!’

“That’s the trouble with you. It will be very good if a world-renouncing sannyāsi gives you some spiritual instruction. The advice of the worldly man will not be right, be he a brahmin pundit or anyone else.

“Be mad! Be mad with love of God! Let people know that Ishan has gone mad and cannot perform worldly duties any more. Then people will no longer come to you for leadership and arbitration. Throw aside the kosakusi and justify your name of Ishan.”

Ishan quoted:

O Mother, make me mad with Thy love! What need have I of knowledge or reason?

MASTER: “Mad! That’s the thing! Shivanath once said that one ’loses one’s head’ by thinking too much of God. ‘What?’ said I. ‘Can anyone ever become unconscious by thinking of Consciousness? God is of the nature of Eternity, Purity, and Consciousness. Through His Consciousness one becomes conscious of everything; through His Intelligence the whole world appears intelligent.’ Shivanath said that some Europeans had gone insane, that they had ’lost their heads’, by thinking too much about God. In their case it may be true; for they think of worldly things. There is a line in a song: ‘Divine fervour fills my body and robs me of consciousness.’ The consciousness referred to here is the consciousness of the outer world.”

Ishan was seated touching Sri Ramakrishna’s feet and listening to his words. Now and then he cast a glance at the basalt image of Kāli in the shrine. In the light of the lamp She appeared to be smiling. It was as if the living Deity, manifesting Herself through the image, was delighted to hear the Master’s words, holy as the words of the Vedas. ISHAN (pointing to the image); “Those words from your sacred lips have really come from there.”

MASTER: “I am the machine and She is the Operator. I am the house and She is the Indweller. I am the chariot and She is the Charioteer. I move as She moves me; I speak as She speaks through me. In the Kaliyuga one does not hear the voice of God, it is said, except through the mouth of a child or a madman or some such person. “A man cannot be a guru. Everything happens by the will of God. Heinous sins-the sins of many births-and accumulated ignorance all disappear in the twinkling of an eye, through the grace of God. When light enters a room that has been kept dark a thousand years, does it remove the thousand years’ darkness little by little, or instantly? Of course, at the mere touch of light all the darkness disappears. “What can a man do? He may speak many words, but after all is said and done everything rests with God. The lawyer says: ‘I have said all that can be said. Now the verdict rests with the judge.’

Brahman is actionless. When It is engaged in creation, preservation, and dissolution, It is called the Primal Power, Ādyāśakti . This Power must be propitiated. Don’t you know that it is so written in the Chandi? The gods first sang a hymn to the Ādyāśakti in order to propitiate Her. Only then did Hari wake up from His yoga sleep.”

ISHAN: “Yes, sir. Brahma and the other gods sang this hymn at the timeof the death of the demons Madhu and Kaitabha: Svaha, Vashat, and Svadha art Thou; Thou the inner Self of the mantra; Thou the Nectar of Immortality, O Everlasting One!

Eternal and unutterable art Thou, and yet Thou art manifest In the three matras and the half matra: O Goddess, Thou art Savitri; Thou art the Ultimate Mother; All things have their support in Thee, by whom this universe was made. O Goddess, Thou sustainest all, and all by Thee is devoured! Thou it is that we call the Creator, when Thou createst the world, O Embodiment of creation! Thou it is that we call the Preserver, when Thou preservest it; Thou it is that we call the Destroyer, when Thou destroyest it.”

MASTER: “Yes, but you must assimilate that.” The Master rose. He mounted the platform in front of the shrine and saluted the Mother, touching the ground with his forehead. The devotees quickly gathered around him and fell at his feet. They all begged his grace. He descended from the platform and started toward his room, conversing with M. First he sang: I bow my head, says Prasad, before desire and liberation; Knowing the secret that Kāli is one with the highest Brahman, I have discarded, once for all, both dharma and adharma. The Master continued: “Do you know the meaning of dharma and adharma? Here dharma means religious acts enjoined by the scriptures, suchas charity, sraddha, feeding the poor, and the like.

“The performance of this dharma is called the path of karma. It is an extremely difficult path: it is very hard to act without motive. Therefore one is asked to pursue the path of devotion.

“A man was performing the sraddha ceremony at his house. He was feeding many people. Just then a butcher passed, leading a cow to slaughter. He could not control the 674animal and became exhausted. He said to himself: ‘Let me go into that house and enjoy the feast of the sraddha ceremony and strengthen my body. Then I shall be able to drag the cow along.’ So he carried out his intention. But when he killed the cow, the sin of the slaughter fell also on the performer of the sraddha. That is why I say the path of devotion is better than the path of action.”

The Master entered his room accompanied by M. He was humming a song. The forceful words of renunciation that he had just spoken to Ishan found expression through its words. He sang the lines:

Mother, take everything else away from me, But leave me my necklace of bones and my pot of hemp! Sri Ramakrishna sat down on the small couch, and Adhar, Kishori, and the other devotees sat on the foor.

MASTER (to tile devotees): “I was noticing Ishan, Why, he hasn’t achieved anything! What can be the reason? He practised the purascharana for five months. That would have caused a revolution in any other person.’ ADHAR: “It wasn’t wise of you to say those things to him in front of us.” MASTER: “How is that? He is so much given to japa! How can words affect him?” After a while Sri Ramakrishna said to Adhar, “Ishan is very charitable, and he practises japa and austerity a great deal.” The Master remained quiet a few moments. The eyes of the devotees were fixed on him. Suddenly Sri Ramakrishna said to Adhar, “You have both-yoga and bhoga.”