At The Star Theatre (II)

Sunday, December 14, 1884

SRI RAMAKRISHNA arrived at the Star Theatre on Beadon Street in Calcutta to see a play about the life of Prahlada. M., Baburam, Narayan, and other devotees were with him. The hall was brightly lighted. The play had not yet begun. The Master was seated in a box, talking with Girish.

MASTER (smiling): “Ah! You have written nice plays.” Assimilation of spiritual ideas

GIRISH: “But, sir, how little I assimilate! I just write.”

MASTER: “No, you assimilate a great deal. The other day I said to you that no one could sketch a divine character unless he had love of God in his heart.

“Yes, one needs to assimilate spiritual ideas. I went to Keshab’s house to see the play, Nava-Vrindāvan. I saw a deputy magistrate there who earned eight hundred rupees a month.

Everyone said that he was a very learned man; but I found him restless because of a boy, his son. He was very anxious to find a good seat for the boy; he paid no attention to the spiritual conversation of the players.

The boy was pestering him with questions: ‘Father! What is this? What is that?’ He was extremely busy with the boy. You see, he merely read books; but he didn’t assimilate their ideas.”

GIRISH: “I often ask myself, ‘Why bother about the theatre any more?’”

MASTER: “No, no! Let things be as they are. People will learn much from your plays.”

Master sees a performance

The performance began. Prahlada was seen entering the schoolroom as a student. At the sight of him Sri Ramakrishna uttered once or twice the word “Prahlada” and went into samādhi.

During another scene Sri Ramakrishna wept to see Prahlada under an elephant’s feet. He cried when the boy was thrown into the fire.

The scene changed. Lakshmi and Narayana were seen seated in Goloka. Narayana was worried about Prahlada. This scene, too, threw Sri Ramakrishna into an ecstatic mood.

After the performance Girish conducted Sri Ramakrishna to his private room in the theatre. He said to the Master, “Would you care to see the farce, Vivaha Vibhrata [The Confusion of Marriage’]?”

MASTER: “Oh, no! Why something like that after the life of Prahlada? I once said to the leader of a theatrical troupe, ‘End your performance with some religious talk.’ We have been listening to such wonderful spiritual conversation; and now to see ‘The Confusion of Marriage’! A worldly topic! We should become our old selves again. We should return to our old mood.”

GIRISH: “How did you like the performance?”

MASTER: “I found that it was God Himself who was acting the different parts. Those who played the female parts seemed to me the direct embodiments of the Blissful Mother, and the cowherd boys of Goloka the embodiments of Narayana Himself. It was God alone who had become all these.

Signs of God-vision & Different moods of liberated souls

“There are signs by which you can know whether a man has truly seen God. One of these is joy; there is no hesitancy in him. He is like the ocean: the waves and sounds are on the surface; below are profound depths. The man who has seen God behaves sometimes like a madman; sometimes like a ghoul, without any feeling of purity or impurity; sometimes like an inert thing, remaining speechless because he sees God within and without; sometimes like a child, without any attachment, wandering about unconcernedly with his cloth under his arm. Again, in the mood of a child, he acts in different ways: sometimes like a boy, indulging in frivolity; sometimes like a young man, working and teaching with the strength of a lion.

“Man cannot see God on account of his ego. You cannot see the sun when a cloud rises in the sky. But that doesn’t mean there is no sun; the sun is there just the same. “But there is no harm in the ’ego of a child’. On the contrary, this ego is helpful. Greens are bad for the stomach; but hinche is good. So hinche cannot properly be called greens. Sugar candy, likewise, cannot be classed with other sweets. Other sweets are injurious to the health, but not sugar candy.

“So I said to Keshab, ‘If I tell you more than I have already said, you won’t be able to keep your organization together.’ That frightened him. Then I said to him, ‘There is no harm in the “ego of a child” or the “ego of a servant”.’ “He who has seen God finds that God alone has become the world and all its living beings; it is He who has become all. Such a person is called a superior devotee.”

The ego of the devotee & Three classes of devotees

GIRISH (smiling); “Yes, God is everything. But the devotee keeps a trace of ego; that is not harmful.”

MASTER (smiling): “Yes, there is no harm in that. That trace of ego is kept in order to enjoy God. You can enjoy divine bliss only when you make a distinction between yourself and God-the distinction between the servant and the Master.

“There is also the devotee of the mediocre class: he sees that God dwells in all beings as their Inner Guide. But the inferior devotee says, ‘God exists; He is up there’, that is to say, beyond the sky. (All laugh.)

“When I saw the cowherd, boys of Goloka in your performance I felt that God has become all. He who has seen God knows truly that God alone is the Doer, that it is He who does everything.”

GIRISH: “Sir, I know truly that it is God who does everything.”

MASTER: “I say, ‘O Mother, I am the machine and You are the Operator; I am inert and You make me conscious; I do as You make me do; I speak as You make me speak.’

But the ignorant say, ‘I am partly responsible, and God is partly responsible.’ "

GIRISH: “Sir, I am not really doing anything. Why should I bother about work at all?”

MASTER: “No, work is good. When the ground is well cultivated and cleared of stones and pebbles, whatever you plant will grow. But one should work without any personal motive.

“There are two types of paramahamsas: the Jnāni and the premi. The Jnāni is self-centred; he feels that it is enough to have Knowledge for his own self. The premi, like Sukadeva, after attaining his own realization, teaches men. Some eat mangoes and wipe off the traces from their mouths; but some share their mangoes with others. Spades and baskets are needed to dig a well.

After the digging is over, some throw the spades and baskets into the well. But others put them away; for a neighbour may use them.

Sukadeva and a few others kept the spades and baskets for the benefit of others. (To Girish) You should do the same.”

GIRISH: “Please bless me, sir.”

MASTER: “Have faith in the Divine Mother and you will attain everything.”

GIRISH: “But I am a sinner.”

MASTER: “The wretch who constantly harps on sin becomes a sinner.”

GIRISH: “Sir, the very ground where I used to sit would become unholy.”

MASTER: “How can you say that? Suppose a light is brought into a room that has been dark a thousand years; does it illumine the room little by little, or all in a flash?”

GIRISH: “Then you have blessed me.”

MASTER: “If you sincerely believe it. What more shall I say? I eat and drink and chant the name of God.”

GIRISH: “I have no sincerity. Please give it to me.”

MASTER: “I? Sages like Nārada and Sukadeva could have done that.”

GIRISH: “I don’t see Nārada and Sukadeva. ‘But you are here before me.”

MASTER (smiling): “All right. You have faith.”

All remained silent. The conversation began again.

GIRISH: “I have one desire: love of God for its own sake.”

MASTER: “Only the Isvarakotis have such love. It is not for ordinary men.”

All sat in silence. The Master began to sing in an absent-minded mood, his gaze turned upward:

Can everyone have the vision of Syama? Is Kāli’s treasure for everyone?

Oh, what a pity my foolish mind will not see what is true!

Even with all His penances, rarely does Śiva Himself behold

The mind-bewitching sight of Mother Syama’s crimson feet.

To him who meditates on Her the riches of heaven are poor indeed;

If Syama casts Her glance on him, he swims in Eternal Bliss.

The Prince of yogis, the King of the gods, meditate on Her feet in vain;

Yet worthless Kamalakanta yearns for the Mother’s blessed feet!

Girish repeated: Yet worthless Kamalakanta yearns for the Mother’s blessed feet!