Unreality of all worldly relationships
Table of Contents
Saturday, May 9, 1885
At about 3PM, Sri Ramakrishna sat in Balarām’s drawing-room in a happy mood. Many devotees were present. Narendra, M., Bhavanāth, Purna, Paltu, the younger Naren, Girish, Ram, Binode, Dwija, and others sat around him.
Balarām was not there. He had gone to Monghyr for a change of air. His eldest daughter had invited Sri Ramakrishna and the devotees and celebrated the occasion with a feast.
The Master was resting after the meal.
Again and again the Master asked M.: “Am I liberal-minded? Tell me.”
BHAVANĀTH (smiling): “Why do you ask him? He will only keep quiet.” A beggar entered the room. He wanted to sing. The devotees listened to a song or two. Narendra liked his singing and asked him to sing more.
Stop! We don’t want any more songs. Where is the money? (To Narendra) You may order the music, but who will pay?"
A DEVOTEE (smiling): “Sir, the beggar may think you are an amir, a wealthy aristocrat, the way you are leaning against that big pillow.(All laugh.)
(smiling): “He may also think I am ill.”
The conversation drifted to Hazra and his egotism. For some reason he had had to go away from Dakshineswar.
NARENDRA: “Hazra now admits he was egotistic.”
MASTER: “Don’t believe him. He says so in order to come back to Dakshineswar. (To the devotees) Narendra always insists that Hazra is a grand person.”
NARENDRA: “Even now I say so.”
MASTER: “Why? You have heard so much about him, and still you think so?”
NARENDRA: “He has slight defects but many virtues.”
Hazra’s selfishness
MASTER: “I admit that he has devotion to his ideal. He said to me, ‘You don’t care for me now, but later you will be seeking my company.’ A goswami came from Srerampore.
He was a descendant of Advaita Goswami. He intended to spend a night or two at the temple garden. I asked him very cordially to stay. Do you know what Hazra said to me?
He said, ‘Send him to the temple officer.’ What was in his mind was that the goswami might ask for milk or food, and that he might have to give him some from his own share.
I said to Hazra: ‘Now, you rogue! Even I prostrate myself before him because he is a goswami.
You, after leading a worldly life and indulging a great deal in “woman and gold”, have so much pride because of a little japa! Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?’
“One realizes God through sattva. Rajas and tamas take one away from Him.
The scriptures describe sattva as white, rajas as red, and tamas as black. Once I asked Hazra: Tell me what you think of the people that come here. How much sattva does each one possess?’
He said, ‘Narendra has one hundred per cent and I have one hundred and ten per cent.’ ‘What about me?’ I asked. And he said: ‘You still have a trace of pink. You have only seventy five per cent, I should say.’ (All laugh.)
“Hazra used to practise japa at Dakshineswar. While telling his beads, he would also try to do a little brokerage business. He has a debt of a few thousand rupees which he must clear up. About the brahmin cooks of the temple he remarked, ‘Do you think I talk with people of that sort?’
The truth is that you cannot attain God if you have even a trace of desire. Subtle is the way of dharma. If you are trying to thread a needle, you will not succeed if the thread has even a slight fibre sticking out.
There are people who perform japa for thirty years and still do not attain any result.
Why? A gangrenous sore requires very drastic treatment. Ordinary medicine won’t cure it.
“No matter how much sādhanā you practise, you will not realize the goal as long as you have desire. But this also is true, that one can fealize the goal in a moment through the grace of God, through His kindness. Take the case of a room that has been dark a thousand years. If somebody suddenly brings a lamp into it, the room is lighted in an instant.
Suppose a poor man’s son has fallen into the good graces of a rich person. He marries his daughter. Immediately he gets an equipage, clothes, furniture, a house, and other things.
A DEVOTEE: “Sir, how does one receive God’s grace?”
MASTER: “God has the nature of a child. A child is sitting with gems in the skirt of his cloth. Many a person passes by him along the road. Many of them pray to him for gems. But he hides the gems with his hands and says, turning away his face, ‘No, I will not give any away.’ But another man comes along. He doesn’t ask for the gems, and yet the child runs after him and offers him the gems, begging him to accept them.
One cannot realize God without renunciation. Who will accept my words? I have been seeking a companion, a sympathetic soul who will under-stand my feelings. When I see a great devotee, I say to myself, ‘Perhaps he will accept my ideal.’ But later on I find that he behaves in a different way.
“A ghost sought a companion. One becomes a ghost if one dies from an accident on a Saturday or a Tuesday. So whenever the ghost found someone who seemed to be dying from an accident on either of these days, he would run to him. He would say to himself that at last he had found his companion But no sooner would he run to the man than he would see the man getting up. The man, perhaps, had fallen from a roof and after a few moments regained consciousness.
“Once Mathur Babu was in an ecstatic mood. He behaved like a drunkard and could not look after his work. At this all said: ‘Who will look after his estate if he behaves like that? Certainly the young priest has cast a spell upon him.’
During one of Narendra’s early visits I touched his chest and he became unconscious.
Regaining consciousness, he wept and said: ‘Oh, why did you do that to me? I have a father! I have a mother!’ This ‘I’ and ‘mine’ spring from ignorance.
Unreality of all worldly relationships
A guru said to his disciple: ‘The world is illusory. Come away with me.’ ‘But, revered sir,’ said the disciple, ‘my people at home-my father, my mother, my wife-love me so much. How can I give them up?’ The guru said: No doubt you now have this feeling of “I” and “mine” and say that they love you; but this is all an illusion of your mind. I shall teach you a trick, and you will know whether they love you truly or not.’
Saying this, the teacher gave the disciple a pill and said to him: ‘Swallow this at home. You will appear to be a corpse, but you will not lose consciousness. You will see everything and hear everything. Then I shall come to your house and gradually you will regain your normal state.’
“The disciple followed the teacher’s instructions and lay on his bed like a dead person: The house was filled with loud wailing. His mother, his wife, and the others lay on the ground weeping bitterly.
Just then a brahmin entered the house and said to them, ‘What is the matter with you?’ ‘This boy is dead’, they replied. The brahmin felt his pulse and said: ‘How is that? No, he is not dead. I have a medicine for him that will cure him completely.’
The joy of the relatives was unbounded; it seemed to them that heaven itself had come down into their house. ‘But’, said the brahmin, ‘I must tell you something else. Another person must take some of this medicine first and then the boy must swallow the rest. But the other person will die.
I see he has so many dear relatives here; one of them will certainly agree to take the medicine. I see his wife and mother crying bitterly. Surely they will not hesitate to take it.’
“At once the weeping stopped and all sat quiet. The mother said: ‘Well, this is a big family. Suppose I die; then who will look after the family?’ She fell into a reflective mood. The wife, who had been crying a minute before and bemoaning her ill luck, said: ‘Well, he has gone the way of mortals. I have these two or three young children. Who will look after them if I die?’
“The disciple saw everything and heard everything. He stood up at once and said to the teacher: ‘Let us go, revered sir. I will follow you.’
(All laugh.)
“Another disciple said to his teacher: ‘Revered sir, my wife takes great care of me. It is for her sake that I cannot give up the world.’ The disciple practised hathayoga.
The teacher taught him, too, a trick to test his wife’s love. One day there was a great wailing in his house. The neighbours came running and saw the hathayogi seated in a posture, his limbs paralysed and distorted. They thought he was dead. His wife fell on the ground, weeping piteously: ‘Oh, what has befallen me? How have you provided for our future?
Oh, friends, I never dreamt I should meet such a fate!’
“In the mean time the relatives and friends had brought a cot to take the corpse out. But suddenly a difficulty arose as they started to move it.
Since the body was twisted and stiff, it could not be taken out through the door. A neighbour quickly brought an axe and began to chop away the door-frame. The wife was crying bitterly, when she heard the sound of the axe. She ran to the door. ‘What are you doing, friends?’ she asked, still weeping. The neighbour said, ‘We can’t take the body out; so we are chopping away the door-frame.’
“‘Please’, said the wife, ‘don’t do any such thing. I am a widow now; I have no one to look after me. I have to bring up these young children. If you destroy this door, I shall not be able to replace it. Friends, death is inevitable for all, and my husband cannot be called back to life. You had better cut his limbs.’ The hathayogi at once stood up. The effect of the medicine had worn off. He said to his wife: ‘You evil one! You want to cut off my hands and feet, do you?’ So saying, he renounced home and followed his teacher.
(All laugh.)
“Many women make a show of grief. Knowing beforehand that they will have to weep, they first take off their nose-rings and other ornaments, put them securely in a box, and lock it. Then they fall on the ground and weep, O friends, what has befallen us?’”
NARENDRA: “How can I believe, without proof, that God incarnates Him self as a man?”
GIRISH: “Faith alone is sufficient. What is the proof that these objects exist here? Faith alone is the proof.”
A DEVOTEE: “Have philosophers been able to prove that the external world exists outside us? But they say we have an irresistible belief in it.”
GIRISH (to Narendra): “You wouldn’t believe, even if God appeared before you. God Himself might say that He was God born as a man, but perhaps you would say that He was a liar and a cheat.”
The conversation turned to the immortality of the gods.
NARENDRA: “What is the proof of their immortality?”
GIRISH: “You wouldn’t believe it even if the gods appeared before you.”
NARENDRA: “That the immortals existed in the past requires proof.”
M whispered something to Paltu.
PALTU (smiling, to Narendra): “What need is there for the immortals to be without beginning? To be immortal one need only be without end.” MASTER (smiling): “Narendra is the son of a lawyer, but Paltu of a deputy magistrate.” (All laugh.)
All kept silent awhile.
JOGIN (smiling): “He: [meaning the Master] doesn’t accept Narendra’s words any more.”
MASTER (smiling); “One day I remarked that the chatak bird doesn’t drink any water except that which falls from the sky. Narendra said, ‘The chatak drinks ordinary water as well.’
Then I said to the Divine Mother, ‘Mother, then are my words untrue?’ I was greatly worried about it. Another day, later on, Narendra was here. Several birds were flying about in the room. He exclaimed, ‘There! There!’ ‘What is there?’ I asked. He said,
There is your chatak!’ I found they were only bats. Since that day I don’t accept what he says. (All laugh.)
At Jadu Mallick’s garden house Narendra said to me, The forms of God that you see are the fiction of your mind.’ I was amazed and said to him, ‘But they speak too!
‘Narendra answered, ‘Yes, one may think so.’ I went to the temple and wept before the Mother. ‘O Mother,’ I said, ‘what is this?
Then is this all false? How could Narendra say that?’ Instantly I had a revelation. I saw Consciousness-Indivisible Consciousness-and a divine being formed of that Consciousness. The divine form said to me, ‘If your words are untrue, how is that they tally with the facts? Thereupon I said to Narendra: ‘You rogue! You created unbelief in my mind. Don’t come here any more.’
The discussion continued. Narendra was arguing. He was then slightly Over 22 years of age.
Narendra (to Girish, M., and others): “How am I to believe in the Words of scripture? The Mahanirvana Tantra says, in one place, that unless a man attains the Knowledge of Brahman he goes to hell; and the same book says, in another place, that there is no salvation without the worship of Parvathi, the Divine Mother. Manu writes about himself in the Manusamhita; Moses describes his own death in Pentateuch.