With The Devotees In Calcutta
Table of Contents
March 11, 1885
Balarām Bose
ON THE MORNING of Wednesday, March 11, Sri Ramakrishna and some of his disciples visited Balarām Bose’s house. Balarām was indeed blessed among the householder disciples of the Master.
Sri Ramakrishna often described him as a rasaddar, or supplier of stores, appointed by the Divine Mother to take care of his physical needs. Balarām’s house in Calcutta had been sanctified many times by the Master’s presence.
There he frequently lost himself in samādhi, dancing, singing, or talking about God. Those of the Master’s disciples and devotees who could not go to Dakshineswar visited him there and received his instruction.
He often asked Balarām to invite young disciples such as Rakhal, Bhavanāth, and Narendra to his house, saying: “These pure souls are veritable manifestations of God. To feed them is to feed God Himself.
They are born with special divine attributes. By serving them you will be serving God.” And so it happened that whenever the Master was at Balarām’s house the devotees would gather there. It was the Master’s chief vineyard in Calcutta. It was here that the devotees came to know each other intimately.
M taught in a school in the neighbourhood. He often brought his young students to visit the Master at Balarām’s house. On this day, having learnt of Sri Ramakrishna’s arrival, M. went there at noon during the recess hour of the school. He found the Master resting in the drawing room after his midday meal. Several young boys were in the room.
M prostrated himself before the Master and sat by his side.
MASTER (tenderly): “How could you come now? Have you no school work?”
M: “I have come directly from school. Just now I have no important work to do.”
A DEVOTEE: “No, sir; he is playing truant today.” (All laugh.)
M. said to himself, “Alas! It is indeed as if some invisible power had drawn me here.”
The Master, looking a little thoughtful, asked M. to come nearer. He said, “Please wring out my wet towel and put my coat in the sun.” Then he continued: “My legs and feet ache. Please rub them gently.”
M. felt very happy to be given the privilege of rendering these services to the Master.
Master’s exalted spiritual state
Sri Ramakrishna said to M.: “Can you tell me why I have been feeling like this the past few days? It is impossible for me to touch any metal. When I touched a metal cup I felt as if I had been stung by a horned fish. There was an excruciating pain all over my arm.
But I must use a brass water-jar, and so I tried to carry it after covering it with my towel. But the moment I touched the jar I felt the same acute pain in my arm. It was an unbearable pain! At last I prayed to the Divine Mother: ‘O Mother, I shall never do it again. Please forgive me this time.’
The younger Naren
“The younger Naren often visits me. Do you think his people at home will object? He is very pure and doesn’t know what carnal pleasure is.”
M: “He is a ’large receptacle’.”
MASTER: “That is true. Further, he says he remembers spiritual things after hearing them once only. He told me, ‘I used to weep in my boyhood because I couldn’t see God.’”
The Master and M. were thus talking about the young devotee when someone reminded M. of his school.
MASTER: “What is the time now?”
A DEVOTEE: “It is ten minutes to one.”
MASTER (to M.): “You had better go now. It is getting late for you. You have left your duties. (To Lātu) Where is Rakhal?”
LĀTU: “He has gone home.”
MASTER: “What? Has he gone away without seeing me?”
After school-hours M. returned to Balarām’s house and found the Master sitting in the drawing-room, surrounded by his devotees and disciples. Among them were Girish, Suresh, Balarām, Lātu, and Chunilal. The Master’s face was beaming with a sweet smile, which was reflected in the happy faces of those in the room. M. was asked to take a seat by the Master’s side.
MASTER (to Girish): “You had better argue this point with Narendra and see what he has to say.”
GIRISH: “Narendra says that God is infinite; we cannot even so much as say that the things or persons we perceive are parts of God. How can Infinity have parts? It cannot.”
Mystery of Divine Incarnation
MASTER: “However great and infinite God may be, His Essence can and does manifest itself through man by His mere will. God’s Incarnation as a man cannot be explained by analogy.
One must feel it for oneself and realize it by direct perception. An analogy can give us only a little glimpse. By touching the horns, legs, or tail of a cow, we in fact touch the cow herself; but for us the essential thing about a cow is her milk, which comes through the udder. The Divine Incarnation is like the udder. God incarnates Himself as man from time to time in order to teach people devotion and divine love.”
GIRISH: “Narendra says: ‘Is it ever possible to know all of God? He is infinite.’
MASTER (to Girish): “Who can comprehend everything about God? It is not given to man to know any aspect of God, great or small.
What need is there to know everything about God? It is enough if we only realize Him. And we see God Himself if we but see His Incarnation. Suppose a person goes to the Ganges and touches its water. He will then say, ‘Yes, I have seen and touched the Ganges.’ To say this it is not necessary for him to touch the whole length of the river from Hardwar to Gangasagar.
(Laughter.)
“If I touch your feet, surely that is the same as touching you. (Laughter.) If a person goes to the ocean and touches but a little of its water, he has surely touched the ocean itself. Fire, as an element, exists in all things, but in wood it is present to a greater degree.”
GIRISH (smiling): “I am looking for fire. Naturally I want to go to a place where I can get it.”
Seek God in man
MASTER (smiling): “Yes, fire, as an element, is present more in wood than in any other object. If you seek God, then seek Him in man; He manifests Himself more in man than in any other thing. If you see a man endowed with ecstatic love, overflowing with prema, mad after God, intoxicated with His love, then know for certain that God has incarnated Himself through that man.
(To M.) “There is no doubt that God exists in all things; but the manifestations of His Power are different in different beings. The greatest manifestation of His Power is through an Incarnation. Again, in some Incarnation there is a complete manifestation of God’s Power. It is the Śakti, the Power of God, that is born as an Incarnation.” GIRISH: “Narendra says that God is beyond our words and thought.”
God known to the pure mind
MASTER: “That is not altogether true. He is, no doubt, unknowable by this ordinary mind, but He can indeed be known by the pure mind. The mind and intellect become pure the moment they are free from attachment to ‘woman and gold’. The pure mind and pure intellect are one and the same. God is known by the pure mind. Didn’t the sages and seers of olden times see God? They realized the All-pervading Consciousness by means of their inner consciousness.”
GIRISH (with a smile): “I defeated Narendra in the argument.”
MASTER: “Oh, no! He said to me: ‘When Girish Ghosh has so much faith in God’s Incarnation as man, what can I say to him? It is not proper to meddle with such faith.’”
GIRISH (with a smile): “Sir, we are very free and easy with our words.
But M. is sitting there with his lips shut tight. What in the world is passing through his mind? What do you say about it, sir?”
MASTER (with a laugh): “There is a common adage that tells people to beware of the following: a man with a loose tongue, a man whose mind cannot be fathomed even by an expert diver, a man who sticks the sacred tulsi-leaf in his ears as a sign of holiness, a woman wearing a long veil to proclaim her chastity, and the cold water of a reservoir covered with green scum, by bathing in which one gets typhoid fever. These are all dangerous things. (With a smile) But it is different with M. He is a serious man.”
(All laugh.)
CHUNILAL: “People have begun to whisper about M.’s conduct. The younger Naren and Baburam are his students, as are Naran, Paltu, Purna, and Tejchandra. The rumour is that he brings these boys to you and so they neglect their studies. The boys’ guardians hold M. responsible.”
MASTER: “But who would believe their words?”