Master's own reminiscences

April 12, 1885

SRI RAMAKRISHNA was sitting with the devotees in Balarām’s drawing room in Calcutta.

M. arrived at three o’clock. Girish, Balarām, the younger Naren, Paltu, Dwija, Purna, Mahendra Mukherji, and many other devotees were there. Shortly Trailokya Sannyal, Jaygopal Sen, and other members of the Brahmo Samaj arrived. Many woman devotees were present also, seated behind a screen. Among them was Mohini’s wife, who had almost gone insane on account of her son’s death. There were a few other afflicted souls like her who used to visit the Master to obtain peace of mind.

Sri Ramakrishna was describing to the devotees the various incidents of his sādhanā and the phases of his spiritual realization.

Various forms of his meditation.

MASTER: “During my sādhanā , when I meditated, I would actually see a person sitting neat me with a trident in his hand. He would threaten to strike me with the weapon unless I fixed my mind on the Lotus Feet of God, warning me that it would pierce my breast if my mind strayed from God.

“The Divine Mother would put me in such a state that sometimes my mind would come down from the Nitya to the Lila, and sometimes go up from the Lila to the Nitya. “Sometimes, when the mind descended to the Lila, I would meditate day and night on Sita and Rāma. At those times I would constantly behold the forms of Sita and Rāma. Rāmlāla was my constant companion. Sometimes I would bathe Him and sometimes feed Him.

“Again, I used to be absorbed in the ideal of Radha and Krishna and would constantly see their forms. Or again, I would be absorbed in Gaurānga. He is the harmonization of two ideals: the Purusha and the Prakriti. At such times I would always see the form of Gaurānga.

Master’s meditation on formless Spirit

“Then a change came over me. The mind left the plane of the Lila and ascended to the Nitya. I found no distinction between the sacred tulsi and the ordinary sajina plant. I no longer enjoyed seeing the forms of God; I said to myself, ‘They come and go.’ I lifted my mind above them.

I removed all the pictures of gods and goddesses from my room and began to meditate on the Primal Purusha, the Indivisible Satchidananda, regarding myself as His handmaid.

Three kinds of sādhanā

“I practised all sorts of sādhanā . There are three classes of sādhanā : sattvic, rajasic, and tamasic. In the sattvic sādhanā the devotee calls on the Lord with great longing or simply repeats His name; he doesn’t seek any result in return. The rajasic sādhanā prescribes many rituals: purascharana, pilgrimage, panchatapa, worship with sixteen articles, and so forth.

The tamasic sādhanā is a worship of God with the help of tamas.

The attitude of a tamasic devotee is this: ‘Hail, Kāli! What? Wilt Thou not reveal Thyself to me? If not, I will cut my throat with a knife!’ In this discipline one does not observe conventional purity; it is like some of the disciplines prescribed by the Tantra.

“During my sādhanā period I had all kinds of amazing visions. I distinctly perceived the communion of Ātman. A person exactly resembling me entered my body and began to commune with each one of the six lotuses. The petals of these lotuses had been closed;

But as each of them experienced the communion, the drooping flower bloomed and turned itself upward. Thus blossomed forth the lotuses at the centres of Muladhara, Svadhisthana, Anāhata, Visuddha, Ājnā, and Sahasrara. The drooping flowers turned upward. I perceived all these things directly.

“When I meditated during my sādhanā , I used to think of the unflickering flame of a lamp set in a windless place.

Nature of deep concentration

“In deep meditation a man is not at all conscious of the outer world. A hunter was aiming at a bird. A bridal procession passed along beside him, with the groom’s relatives and friends, music, carriages, and horses. It took a long time for the procession to pass the hunter, but he was not at all conscious of it. He did not know that the bridegroom had gone by.

“A man was angling in a lake all by himself. After a long while the float began to move. Now and then its tip touched the water. The angler was holding the rod tight in his hands, ready to pull it up, when a passer-by stopped and said, ‘Sir, can you tell me where Mr. Bannerji lives?’

There was no reply from the angler, who was just on the point of pulling up the rod. Again and again the stranger said to him in a loud voice, ‘Sir, can you tell me where Mr. Bannerji lives?’ But the angler was unconscious of everything around him. His hands were trembling, his eyes fixed on the float. The stranger was annoyed and went on. When he had gone quite a way, the angler’s float sank under water and with one pull of the rod he landed the fish. He wiped the sweat from his face with his towel and shouted after the stranger. ‘Hey!’ he said. ‘Come here! Listen!’ But the man would not turn his face. After much shouting, however, he came back and said to the angler, ‘Why are you shouting at me?’ ‘What did you ask me about?’ said .the angler. The stranger said, ‘I repeated the question so many times and now you art asking me to repeat it once more!’ The angler replied, ‘At that time my float was about to sink; so I didn’t hear a word of what you said.’

Single-mindedness in meditation

“A person can achieve such single-mindedness in meditation that he will see nothing, hear nothing. He will not be conscious even of touch. A snake may crawl over his body, but he will not know it. Neither of them will be aware of the other.

“In deep meditation the sense-organs stop functioning; the mind does not look outward. It is like closing the gate of the outer court in a house. There are five objects of the senses: form, taste, smell, touch, and sound. They are all left outside. “At the beginning of meditation the objects of the senses appear before the aspirant. But when the meditation becomes deep, they no longer bother him. They are left outside.

How many things I saw during meditation! I vividly perceived before me a heap of rupees, a shawl, a plate of sweets, and two women with rings in their noses. ‘What do you want?’ I asked my mind. ‘Do you want to enjoy any of these things?’ ‘No,’ replied the mind, ‘I don’t want any of them. I don’t want anything but the Lotus Feet of God.’ I saw the inside and the outside of the women, as one sees from out side the articles in a glass room. I saw what is in them: entrails, blood, filth, worms, phlegm, and such things.”

Girish Chandra Ghosh used to say now and then that he could cure illness by the strength of the Master’s name.

Occult powers

MASTER (to Girish and the other devotees): “People of small intellect seek occult powers-powers to cure disease, win a lawsuit, walk on water, and such things. But the genuine devotees of God don’t want anything except His Lotus Feet. One day Hriday said to me, ‘Uncle, please ask the Mother for some powers, some occult powers.’ I have the nature of a child.

While I was practising japa in the Kāli temple, I said to Kāli, ‘Mother, Hriday asked me to pray to You for some occult powers.’ The Divine Mother at once showed me a vision. A middle-aged prostitute, about forty years old, appeared and sat with her back to me. She had large hips and wore a black-bordered sari. Soon she was covered with filth. The Mother showed me that occult powers are as abominable as the filth of that prostitute. Thereupon I went to Hriday and scolded him, saying: ‘why did you teach me such a prayer? It is because of you that I had such an experience.’