The Master And Narendra

Sunday, March 1, 1885

SRl RAMAKRISHNA was seated on the small couch in his room, absorbed in deep samādhi. Mahimacharan, Ram, Manomohan, Nabai Chaitanya, M., and other devotees were sitting on a mat spread on the floor. They were watching the Master intently.

It was the day of the Dolayatra, a Hindu religious festival. Sri Krishna and Radha are the central figures of this celebration, their images being placed on a swing, which is rocked now and then.

A red powder is showered on the images. Later, friends and relatives throw the powder at one another. This festival is celebrated when winter passes into spring, on a full-moon day rendered doubly sacred by its association with the birth of Sri Chaitanya.

The devotees saw that the Master was returning to consciousness of the world, though his mind still lingered in the realm of God-vision. The Master said to Mahimacharan, “My dear sir, please tell us something about love of God.”

What need is there of penance if God is worshipped with love?

What is the use of penance if God is not worshipped with love?

What need is there of penance if God is seen within and without?

What is the use of penance if God is not seen within and without?

O Brahman! O my child! Cease from practising further penances.

Hasten to Sankara, the Ocean of Heavenly Wisdom;

Obtain from Him the love of God, the pure love praised by devotees, which snaps in twain the shackles that bind you to the world. Mahima said, “Once while the great sage Nārada was practising austerity, he suddenly heard a heavenly voice repeating those lines.”

Two kinds of devotion

MASTER; “There are two classes of devotees: jivakotis, or ordinary men, and Isvarakotis, or Divine Messengers. The jivakoti’s devotion to God is called vaidhi, formal; that is, it conforms to scriptural laws. He worships God with a fixed number of articles, repeats God’s holy name a specified number of times, and so on and so forth. This kind of devotion, like the path of knowledge, leads to the Knowledge of God and to samādhi. The jivakoti does not return from samādhi to the relative plane.

“But the case of the Isvarakoti is different. He follows the process of ’negation’ and ‘affirmation’. First he negates the world, realizing that it is not Brahman; but then he affirms the same world, seeing it as the manifestation of Brahman.

To give an illustration: a man wanting to climb to the roof first negates the stairs as not being the roof, but on reaching the roof he finds that the stairs are made of the same materials as the roof: brick, lime, and brick-dust. Then he can either move up and down the stairs or remain on the roof, as he pleases.

Vision of God

“Sukadeva was absorbed in samādhi-nirvikalpa samādhi, jada samādhi. Since Suka was to recite the Bhagavata to King Parikshit, the Lord sent the sage Nārada to him. Nārada saw him seated like an inert thing, absolutely unconscious of the world around him.

Thereupon Nārada sang four couplets on the beauty of Hari, to the accompaniment of the vina. While the first couplet was being sung the hair on Suka’s body stood on end. Next he shed tears; for he saw the form of God, the Embodiment of Spirit, within himself, in his heart. Thus Sukadeva saw the form of God even after jada samādhi. He was an Isvarakoti.

How a liberated soul lives in the world

“Hanuman, after having the vision of God both with form and without, remained firmly devoted to the form of Rāma, the Embodiment of Consciousness and Bliss. “Prahlada sometimes realized, ‘I am He’; sometimes he felt that he was the servant of God. How can such a person live without love of God? That is why he must accept the relationship of master and servant, feeling that God is the Master and himself the servant. This enables him to enjoy the Bliss of Hari. In this attitude he feels that God is the Bliss and he himself is the enjoyer.

“The ’ego of Devotion’, the ’ego of Knowledge’, and the ’ego of a child’ do not harm the devotee. Sankaracharya kept the ego of Knowledge’.

Detachment of a child

The ’ego of a child’ is not attached to anything. The child is beyond the three Gunās ; he is not under the control of any of them. One moment you find him angry; the next moment it is all over. One moment you see him building his play house; the next moment he forgets all about it. Now you see him love his playmates; but if they are out of his sight a few days he forgets all about them. A child is not under the control of any of the Gunās -sattva, rajas, or tamas.

“I-consciousness"after God-realization

“The bhakta feels, ‘O God, Thou art the Lord and I am Thy devotee.’ This ‘I’ is the ’ego of bhakti’. Why does such a lover of God retain the ’ego of Devotion’? There is a reason. The ego cannot begot rid of; so let the rascal remain as the servant of God, the devotee of God.

“You may reason a thousand times, but you cannot get rid of the ego. The ego is like a pitcher, and Brahman like the ocean-an infinite expanse of water on all sides. The pitcher is set in this ocean. The water is both inside and out; the water is everywhere; yet the pitcher remains. Now, this pitcher is the ’ego of the devotee’. As long as the ego remains, ‘you’ and ‘I’ remain, and there also remains the feeling, ‘O God, Thou art the Lord and I am Thy devotee; Thou art the Master and I am Thy servant.’ You may reason a million times, but you cannot get rid of it. But it is different if there is no pitcher.”

Narendra entered the room and saluted the Master. They began to talk together. Presently the Master came down from the couch and sat on the floor, on which a mat had been spread. In the mean time the room had become filled with people, both devotees and visitors.

Master warns Narendra about householders

MASTER (to Narendra): “Are you well? I hear that you often visit Girish Ghosh at his house. Is it true?”

NARENDRA: “Yes, sir, I go there now and then.”

Girish had been visiting Sri Ramakrishna for some months. The Master said that none could fathom the depth of Girish’s faith. And his longing for God was as intense as his faith was deep. At home, he was always absorbed in the thought of Sri Ramakrishna.

Many of the Master’s devotees visited him; they talked only about Sri Ramakrishna. But

Girish was a householder who had had varied experiences of worldly life, and the Master knew that Narendra would renounce the world, that he would shun “woman and gold” both mentally and outwardly.

MASTER: “Do you visit Girish frequently? No matter how much one washes a cup that has contained a solution of garlic, still a trace of the smell will certainly linger. The youngsters who come here are pure souls-untouched by ‘woman and gold’. Men who have associated a long time with ‘woman and gold’ smell of the garlic, as it were. They are like a mango pecked by crows. Such a fruit cannot be offered to the Deity in the temple, and you would hesitate to eat it yourself. Again, take the case of a new pot and another in which curd has been made. One is afraid to keep milk in the second pot, for the milk very often turns sour.

“Householder devotees like Girish form a class by themselves. They desire yoga and also bhoga. Their attitude is that of Ravana, who wanted to enjoy the maidens of heaven and at the same time realize Rāma. They are like the asuras, the demons, who enjoy various pleasures and also realize Narayana.”

NARENDRA: “But Girish has given up his old associates.”

MASTER: “Yes, yes. He is like a bull castrated in old age. In Burdwan I once saw an ox moving about the cows. I asked a bullock-cart driver: ‘what is this? an ox? How strange!’ He said to me: ‘True, sir. But it was castrated in old age, and so it hasn’t altogether shaken off the old tendencies.’

“In a certain place there sat some sannyāsis. A young woman happened to pass by. All continued as before to meditate on God, except one of them, who cast sidelong glances at her. Before becoming a monk he had been the father of three children.

“If you make a solution of garlic in a cup, won’t it be hard to remove the smell from it? Can a worthless tree like the babui produce mangoes? Of course such a thing may become possible through the occult powers of a yogi; but can everyone acquire such powers?