Selfless divine love
Table of Contents
“Bhakti, love of God, is the only essential thing. One kind of bhakti has a motive behind it. Again, there is a motiveless love, pure devotion, a love of God that seeks no return. Keshab Sen and the members of the Brahmo Samaj didn’t know about motiveless love.
In this love there is no desire; it is nothing but pure love of the Lotus Feet of God. “There is another kind of love, known as urjhitabhakti, an ecstatic love of God that overflows, as it were. When it is awakened, the devotee ’laughs and weeps and dances and sings’. Chaitanyadeva is an example of this love. Rāma said to Lakshmana, ‘Brother, if anywhere you see the manifestation of urjhita bhakti, know for certain that I am there.’”
Everything is possible through your grace. What was I before? See what I am now.
MASTER: “You had latent tendencies; so they are manifesting themselves now. Nothing happens except at the proper time. Take the case of a patient. Nature has almost cured him, when the physician prescribes a herb and asks him to drink its juice. After taking the medicine he is completely cured. Now, is the patient cured by the medicine, or does he get well by himself? Who can tell?
“Lakshmana said to Lava and Kusa: ‘You are mere children; you don’t know Rāma’s power. At the touch of His feet, Ahalyā, who had been turned into a stone, got back her human form.’ Lava and Kusa said: ‘Revered sir, we know that. We have heard the story. The stone became Ahalyā because of the power of the holy man’s words. The sage
Gautama said to her: “In the Tretayuga, Rāma will pass this hermitage. You will become Hanuman being again at the touch of His feet.”’ Now, who can tell whether the miracle happened in order that the sage’s words should be fulfilled or on account of Rāma’s holiness?
“Everything happens by the will of God. If your spiritual consciousness has been awakened at this place, know that I am only an instrument. ‘Uncle Moon is everybody’s uncle.’ All happens by the will of God.”
(smiling): “Did you say ‘by the will of God’? What I am saying is the very same thing.
(All laugh.)
MASTER (to Girish): “By being guileless one can speedily realize God. There are several kinds of people who do not attain divine knowledge. First, a man with a perverse mind; he is not guileless. Second, one who is very fastidious about outer purity. Third, a doubting person.”
Sri Ramakrishna spoke highly of Nityagopal’s ecstasy.
Three or four devotees stood near Sri Ramakrishna on the verandah and listened to his words about the exalted state of the paramahamsa. The Master said: “A Paramahamsa is always conscious that God alone is real and all else illusory. Only the swan has the power to separate milk from a mixture of milk and water. The swan’s tongue secretes an acid that separates the milk from the mixture. The paramahamsa also possesses such a juice; it is his ecstatic love for God. That separates the Real from the mixture of the Real and the unreal. Through it one becomes aware of God and sees Him.”
Wednesday, February 25, 1885
Knowledge of Brahman
Sri Ramakrishna was at the house of Girish Ghosh in Bosepara Lane, Calcutta. It was about three o’clock when M. arrived and prostrated himself before him. The Master was going to see a play at the Star Theatre. He was talking with the devotees about the Knowledge of Brahman.
MASTER: “Man experiences three states of consciousness: waking, dream, and deep sleep. Those who follow the path of knowledge explain away the three states. According to them, Brahman is beyond the three states. It is also beyond the gross, the subtle, and the causal bodies, and beyond the three Gunās -sattva, rajas, and tamas. All these are māyā, like a reflection in a mirror. The reflection is by no means the real substance. Brahman alone is the Substance and all else is illusory.
“The knowers of Brahman say, further, that it is the identification of the soul with the body that creates the notion of duality. In that state of identification the reflection appears real. When this identification disappears, a man realizes, ‘I am He; I am Brahman.’
Two paths of Brahmajnana
Then shall we all follow the path of reasoning?
MASTER: “Reasoning is one of the paths; it is the path of the Vedantists. But there is another path, the path of bhakti. If a bhakta, weeps longingly for the Knowledge of Brahman, he receives that as well. These are the two paths: jnāna and bhakti.
The ego of the Divine Incarnation
“One may attain the Knowledge of Brahman by either path. Some retain bhakti even after realizing Brahman, in order to teach humanity. An Incarnation of God is one of these.
“A man cannot easily get rid of the ego and the consciousness that the body is the soul. It becomes possible only when, through the grace of God, he attains samādhi-nirvikalpa samādhi, jada samādhi.
“The ego of the Incarnations returns to them when they come down from the plane of samādhi; but then it is the ’ego of Knowledge’ or the ’ego of Devotion’. Through the ’ego of Knowledge’ they teach men. Sankaracharya kept the ’ego of Knowledge’.
“Through the ’ego of Devotion’ Chaitanyadeva tasted divine love and enjoyed the company of the devotees. He talked about God and chanted His name.
The path of bhakti
“Since one cannot easily get rid of the ego, a bhakta does not explain away the states of waking, dream, and deep sleep. He accepts all the states. Further, he accepts the three Gunās -sattva, rajas, and tamas. A bhakta sees that God alone has become the 24 cosmic principles, the universe, and all living beings. He also sees that God reveals Himself to His devotees in a tangible form, which is the embodiment of Spirit.
“The bhakta takes shelter under Vidyā-māyā. He seeks holy company, goes on pilgrimage, and practises discrimination, devotion, and renunciation. He says that, since a man cannot easily get rid of his ego, he should let the rascal remain as the servant of God, the devotee of God.
Meaning of liberation
“But a bhakta also attains the Knowledge of Oneness; he sees that nothing exists but God. He does not regard the world as a dream, but says that it is God Himself who has become everything. In a wax garden you may see various objects, but everything is made of wax.
“But a man realizes this only when his devotion to God has matured. One gets jaundice when too much bile accumulates. Then one sees everything as yellow. From constantly meditating on Krishna, Radhika saw everything as Krishna; moreover, she even felt that she herself had become Krishna. If a piece of lead is kept in a lake of mercury a long time, it turns into mercury. The cockroach becomes motionless by constantly meditating on the kumira worm; it loses the power to move. At last it is transformed into a kumira. Similarly, by constantly meditating on God the bhakta loses his ego; he realizes that God is he and he is God. When the cockroach becomes the kumira everything is achieved.
Instantly one obtains liberation.
“As long as God retains the ego in a man, he should establish a definite relationship with God, calling on Him as Master, Mother, Friend, or the like. I spent one year as a handmaid-the handmaid of the Divine Mother, the Embodiment of Brahman. I used to dress myself as a woman. I put on a nose-ring. One can conquer lust by assuming the attitude of a woman.
Master warns against lust
“One must worship the Ādyāśakti . She must be propitiated. She alone has assumed all female forms. Therefore I look on all women as mother. The attitude of looking on woman as mother is very pure. The Tantra mentions the Vamachara method also.
But that is not a good method; it causes the aspirant’s downfall. A devotee keeping an object of enjoyment near him has reason to be afraid.
“Looking on woman as mother is like fasting on the Ekadasi day without touching even a drop of water; in this attitude there is not the slightest trace of sensual enjoyment. Another way of observing the Ekadasi allows the taking of fruit and the like. One can also observe the day by eating luchi and curries! But my attitude is not to touch even a drop of water while I observe the fast.
I worshipped the Shorasi as my mother; I looked on all parts of her body as those of my mother. This attitude of regarding God as Mother is the last word in sādhanā . ‘O God, Thou art my Mother and I am Thy child’-this is the last word in spirituality.