Qualified Advaita

Toward evening Sri Ramakrishna was pacing the room. M. was sitting alone, thinking. Suddenly the Master said to him tenderly: “Please give me a couple of linen shirts. As you know, I cannot use everybody’s things. I thought of asking Captain for the shirts, but you had better give them to me.” M. felt highly gratified and said, “As you please, sir.”

At dusk incense was burnt in Sri Ramakrishna’s room, and, as usual, he bowed before the pictures of gods and goddesses on the walls and chanted their names softly. From outside one could hear the murmuring of the Ganges and the music of the evening worship in the temples of Kāli, Vishnu, and Śiva. Through the door one could see the priest at a distance moving from one temple to another, a bell in his left hand and a light in his right, an attendant carrying the gong. The evening melody was in harmony with the spirit of the hour and place and with the innermost thoughts of the worshippers. For the time being the sordid things of daily life were forgotten. Later Sri Ramakrishna was seated in his room in his usual blissful mood. Ishan had come from Calcutta. He had burning faith in God. He used to say, “If a man leaves the house with the hallowed name of Durga on his lips, then Śiva Himself protects him with His celestial weapons.” MASTER (to Ishan): “You have great faith. But I haven’t so much. (All laugh.) God can be realized only through faith.” ISHAN; “Yes, sir.” MASTER: “You practise religious rites-japa, fasting, and the like. That is very good. If a man feels sincerely drawn to God, then God makes him practise all these disciplines. The devotee will certainly realize God if he practises them without desiring their results. A devotee observes many rites because of the injunctions of the scriptures. Such devotion is called vaidhibhakti. But there is a higher form of devotion known as raga-bhakti, which springs from yearning and love for God. Prahlada had such devotion. When the devotee develops that love, he no longer needs to perform prescribed rites. November 9, 1884 Sri Ramakrishna was in his room, seated on the small couch and facing the east. The devotees were sitting on the floor. It was about midday when M. arrived and took a seat after saluting the Master. Gradually other devotees began to gather. Vijaykrishna 714Goswami was there with several Brahmo devotees. The priest Ram Chakravarty was present also. Mahimacharan, Narayan, and Kishori arrived a few minutes later. It was the beginning of winter. Sri Ramakrishna had felt the need of some shirts and had asked M. to bring them. Besides two broad cloth shirts, M. had brought another of a heavy material, for which Sri Ramakrishna had not asked. MASTER (to M.): “You had better take that one back with you. You can use it yourself. There is nothing wrong in that. Tell me, what kind of shirt did I ask you to bring?” M: “Sir, you told me to get you plain ones. You didn’t ask me to buy the heavier one.” MASTER: “Then please take that one back. (To Vijay and the others) You see, Dwarika Babu gave me a shawl. The Mārwāri devotees also brought one for me. I couldn’t accept.” Vijay interrupted the Master, saying: “That is right, sir. If a man needs a thing, he must accept it. And there must be a man to give it. Who but a man will give?” God supplies the needs of devotees MASTER: ‘The giver is the Lord Himself. The mother-in-law said to her daughter-in-law: ‘My child, I see that everybody has someone to render him a little personal service. It would be so nice if you could find someone to massage your feet.’ The daughter-in-law said: ‘Mother, God Himself will massage my feet. I don’t need anyone else.’ She spoke thus because she was a sincere lover of God. “Once a fakir went to the Emperor Akbar to ask for money. The Emperor was saying his prayers. He prayed, ‘O Lord, give me money; give me wealth.’ The fakir started to leave the palace, but the Emperor motioned to him to wait. After finishing his prayers, Akbar came to the holy man and said, ‘Why were you going away?’ The fakir replied, ‘You yourself were begging for money and wealth; so I thought that if I must beg, I would beg of God and not of a beggar.’” VIJAY: “I saw a sādhu at Gaya. He did not take the initiative in anything. One day he wanted to feed some devotees. Suddenly we found that butter, flour, fruits, and other food-stuff had arrived from no one knew where.” Three classes of sādhus MASTER (to Vijay and the others): ‘There are three classes of sādhus: good, mediocre, and bad. The good sādhu makes no effort to get his food. The dandis, among others, belong to the mediocre and bad classes. To get food the mediocre sādhu will knock at the door of a house and say, ‘Namo Narayana’. The bad sādhu starts a quarrel if he doesn’t get his alms. “The good sādhu behaves like a python. He sits in one place and the food comes to him. The python doesn’t move from where it is. A young sādhu, who had been a am Brahmachari from his boyhood, went out to beg. A young girl offered him alms. The 715sādhu saw her breasts and thought she had abscesses. He asked about them. The elderly women of the family explained that she would some day be a mother and that God had given her breasts to give milk to her children; God had provided for all this beforehand. At these words the sādhu was struck with wonder. He said: Then 1 don’t need to beg. God must have provided for me too.” Some of the devotees thought that in that case they should not take any initiative either. MASTER: “But those who think that an effort is needed must make the effort.” VIJAY: ‘There is a nice story about that in the Bhaktamala.” MASTER: “Tell it to us.” VIJAY: “Please tell us yourself.” MASTER: “No, you tell it. 1 don’t remember it very well. “One should hear these things at the beginning. That is why I listened to them years ago. But now I am no longer in that mood. Hanuman said: ‘I don’t know the position of the stars or the phase of the moon. I only think of Rāma.’ ‘The chatak bird craves only rain-water. Even when it is dying of thirst, it turns its beak upward and wants only water from the sky. The Ganges, the Jamuna, and the seven oceans are filled to the brim, but still it will not touch the water of the earth. ‘Rāma and Lakshmana visited Pampa Lake. Lakshmana saw a crow very eager for water. Again and again it went to the edge of the water but would not drink. Lakshmana asked Rāma about it. Rāma said: ‘Brother, this crow is a great devotee of God. Day and night it repeats the name of Rāma. Its throat is parched with thirst, but still it won’t drink for fear of missing a repetition of Rāma’s name.’ “On a full-moon night I said to Haladhāri, ‘Brother, is it the night of the new moon?’ (All laugh.) (Smiling) “Yes, it is true. Once I was told that a characteristic of a man of Perfect Knowledge is that he cannot distinguish between the full moon and the new moon. But how could one convince Haladhāri of that? He said: This is certainly the dark Kaliyuga. He cannot distinguish the full moon from the new moon! And people respect him!” Mahimacharan entered the room. MASTER (respectfully): “Come in. Come in, sir. Please take a seat. (To Vijay and the other devotees) “In the ecstatic state of mind I cannot remember a date. The other day there was a religious festival at Beni Pāl’s garden. I forgot the date. I can no longer remember the last day of the month, when it is very auspicious to repeat the name ofGod.” 716Sri Ramakrishna remained thoughtful a few minutes. MASTER: “But I remember if a man makes an engagement to visit me. “A man attains this state when his mind is one hundred per cent absorbed in God. When Hanuman returned from Ceylon, Rāma said to him: ‘You have seen Sita. Tell me, how did you find her?’ Hanuman said: ‘O Rāma, I saw that only the body of Sita lay there; it held neither her mind nor her soul. She has indeed consecrated her mind and soul to Your Lotus Feet. Therefore I saw only her body in Ceylon. Further, I saw the King of Death prowling about. But what could he do? It was only a body; it had neither mind nor soul.’ “If you meditate on an ideal you will acquire its nature. If you think of God day and night, you will acquire the nature of God. A salt doll went into the ocean to measure its depth. It became one with the ocean. What is the goal of books or scriptures? The attainment of God. A man opened a book belonging to a sādhu. He saw the word ‘Rāma’ written on every page. There was nothing else. “If a man loves God, even the slightest thing kindles spiritual feeling in him. Then, repeating the name of Rāma but once, he gets the fruit of ten million sandhyas. At the sight of a cloud the peacock’s emotion is awakened: he dances, spreading his tail. Radha had the same experience. Just the sight of a cloud recalled Krishna to her mind. “Chaitanyadeva was passing a village. He heard that drums were made from the earth of that place. At once he was overwhelmed with ecstasy because drums are used in kirtan. “But who can have this spiritual awakening? Only he who has renounced his attachment to worldly things. If the sap of attachment is totally dried up in a man, the slightest suggestion kindles his spiritual emotion. Though you strike a wet match a thousand times, it will not produce a spark. But if it is dried, the slightest rubbing will set it aflame. “Pain and pleasure are inevitable in a body. He who has realized God dedicates his mind and life, his body and soul, to God. When Rāma and Lakshmana went to take their bath in Pampa Lake, they thrust their bows into the ground. Coming out of the water, Lakshmana took out his bow and found its tip stained with blood. Rāma said to him: ‘Look, brother! Look. Perhaps we have hurt some creature.” Lakshmana dug in the earth and found a big bullfrog. It was dying. Rāma said to the frog in a sorrowful voice: ‘Why didn’t you croak? We should have tried to save you. You croak lustily enough when you are in the jaws of a snake.’ The frog said: ‘O Lord, when I am attacked by a snake I croak, saying: “O Rāma, save me! O Rāma, save me!” This time I found that it was Rāma who was killing me; so I kept still.’”