Harmless ego

MASTER: “Only the ego that is attached to ‘woman and. gold’ is harmful. But the ego that feels it is the servant of God does no harm to anybody.

Neither does the ego of a child, which is not under the control of any guna . One moment children quarrel, and the next moment they are on friendly terms. One moment they build their toy houses with great care, and immediately afterwards they knock them down.

There is no harm in the ‘I-consciousness’ that makes one feel oneself to be a child of God or His servant. This ego is really no ego at all. It is like sugar candy, which is not like other sweets. Other sweets make one ill; but sugar candy relieves acidity. Or take the case of Om. It is unlike other sounds.

“With this kind of ego one is able to love Satchidananda. It is impossible to get rid of the ego. Therefore it should be made to feel that it is the devotee of God, His servant.

Otherwise, how can one live? How intense was the love of the gopis for Sri Krishna!

(To Captain) Please tell us something about the gopis. You read the Bhagavata so much.”

CAPTAIN: “When Sri Krishna lived at Vrindāvan, without any of His royal splendour, even then the gopis loved Him more than their own souls. Therefore Sri Krishna said, ‘How shall I be able to pay off my debt to the gopis, who surrendered to me their all-their bodies, minds, and souls?’ "

Captain’s words awakened intense love for Krishna in the Master’s mind.

He exclaimed, “Govinda! Govinda! Govinda!” and was about to go into an ecstatic mood.

Captain was amazed and said: “How blessed he is! How blessed he is!”

Captain and the devotees watched this love-ecstasy of Sri Ramakrishna. They sat quietly gazing at him, awaiting his return to the consciousness of the world.

MASTER: “Tell us more.”

CAPTAIN: “Sri Krishna is unattainable by the yogis, by yogis like you; but He can be attained by lovers like the gopis. How many years did the yogis practise yoga for His vision! Yet they did not succeed. But the gopis realized Him with such ease!”

MASTER (smiling): “Yes, He ate from the hands of the gopis, wept for them, played with them, and made many demands on them.”

A DEVOTEE: “Bankim has written a life of Krishna.”

MASTER: “He accepts Krishna but not Radhika.”

CAPTAIN: “I see he doesn’t accept Krishna’s lila with the gopis.”

MASTER: “I also hear that Bankim says that one needs passions such as lust.”

A DEVOTEE: “He has written in his magazine that the purpose of religion is to give expression to our various faculties: physical, mental, and spiritual.”

CAPTAIN: “I see. He believes that lust and so forth are necessary. But he doesn’t believe that Sri Krishna could enjoy His sportive pleasure in the world, that God could incarnate Himself in a human form and sport in Vrindāvan with Radha and the gopis.”

MASTER (smiling): “But these things are, not written in the newspaper. How could he believe them?

“A man said to his friend, ‘Yesterday, as I was passing through a certain part of the city, I saw a house fall with a crash.’ ‘Wait’, said the friend. ‘Let me look it up in the newspaper.’ But this incident wasn’t mentioned in the paper.

Thereupon the man said, ‘But the paper doesn’t mention it.’ His friend replied, ‘I saw it with my own eyes.’ ‘Be that as it may, said the man, ‘I can’t believe it as long as it isn’t in the paper.’ “How can Bankim believe that God sports about as a man? He doesn’t get it from his English education.

It is very hard to explain how God fully incarnates Himself as man. Isn’t that so? The manifestation of Infinity in this human body only three and a half cubits tall!”

CAPTAIN: “Krishna is God Himself. In describing Him we have to use such terms as ‘whole’ and ‘part’.” MASTER: “Whole and part are like fire and its sparks. An Incarnation of God is for the sake of the bhaktas and not of the jnanis. It is said in the Adhyātma Rāmāyana that Rāma alone is both the Pervading Spirit and everything pervaded. ‘You are the Supreme Lord distinguished as the Vachaka, the signifying symbol, and the Vachya , the object signified.’”

CAPTAIN: “The ‘signifying symbol’ means the pervader, and the ‘object signified’ means the thing pervaded.”

MASTER: “The pervader in this case is a finite form, It is God incarnating Himself as a human being.”

Sri Ramakrishna was talking thus to Captain and the devotees when Jaygopal Sen and Trailokya of the Brahmo Samaj arrived. They saluted the Master and sat down. Sri Ramakrishna looked at Trailokya with a smile and continued the conversation. “Wicked ego” must be killed

MASTER: “It is on account of the ego that one is not able to see God. In front of the door of God’s mansion lies the stump of ego. One cannot enter the mansion without jumping over the stump.

“There was once a man who had acquired the power to tame ghosts. One day, at his summons, a ghost appeared. The ghost said: ’now tell me what you want me to do. The moment you cannot give me any work I shall break your neck.’

The man had many things to accomplish, and he had the ghost do them all, one by one. At last he could find nothing more for the ghost to do. ‘Now’, said the ghost, ‘I am going to break your neck.’ ‘Wait a minute’, said the man.

‘I shall return presently.’ He ran to his teacher and said: ‘Revered sir, I am in great danger. This is my trouble.’ And he told his teacher his trouble and asked, ‘What shall I do now?’ The teacher said: ’ do this. Tell the ghost to straighten this kinky hair.’ The ghost devoted itself day and night to straightening the hair. But how could it make a kinky hair straight? The hair remained kinky. “Likewise, the ego seems to vanish this moment, but it reappears the next. Unless one renounces the ego, one does not receive the grace of God.

“Suppose there is a feast in a house and the master of the house puts a man in charge of the stores. As long as the man remains in the store-room, the master doesn’t go there; but when of his own wills he renounces the store-room and goes away, then the master locks it and takes charge of it himself.

“A guardian is appointed only for a minor. A boy cannot safeguard his property; therefore the king assumes responsibility for him. God does not take over our responsibilities unless we renounce our ego.

“Once Lakshmi and Narayana were seated in Vaikuntha, when Narayana suddenly stood up. Lakshmi had been stroking His feet. She said, ‘Lord, where are You going?’ Narayana answered: ‘One of My devotees is in great danger. I must save him.’ With these words He went out.

But He came back immediately. Lakshmi said, ‘Lord, why have You returned so soon?’ Narayana smiled and said: The devotee was going along the road overwhelmed with love for Me. Some washermen were drying clothes on the grass, and the devotee walked over the clothes. At this the washermen chased him and were going to beat him with their sticks. So I ran out to protect him.’ ‘But why have You come back?’ asked Lakshmi. Narayana laughed and said: ‘I saw the devotee himself picking up a brick to throw at them. (All laugh.) So I came back.’

“I said to Keshab, ‘You must renounce your ego.’ Keshab replied, ‘If I do, how can I keep my organization together?’

“I said to him: ‘how slow you are to understand! I am not asking you to renounce the “ripe ego”, the ego that makes a man feel he is a servant of God or His devotee. Give up the “unripe ego”, the ego that creates attachment to “woman and gold”. The ego that makes a man feels he is God’s servant. His child is the “ripe ego”. It doesn’t harm one.’” TRAILOKYA: “It is very difficult to get rid of the ego. People only think they are free from it.”

MASTER: “Gauri would not refer to himself as ‘I’ lest he should feel egotistic. He would say ’this’ instead. I followed his example and would refer to myself as ’this’ instead of ‘I’. Instead of saying, ‘I have eaten,’ I would say, ‘This has eaten.’

Mathur noticed it and said one day: ‘What is this, revered father? Why should you talk that way? Let them talk that way. They have their egotism. You are free from it; you don’t have to talk like them.’

“I said to Keshab, ‘Since the ego cannot be given up, let it remain as the servant, the servant of God.’ Prahlada had two moods. Sometimes he would feel that he was God. In that mood he would say, ‘Thou art verily I, and I am verily Thou.’ But when he was conscious of his ego, he felt that God was the Master and he was His servant. After a man is firmly established in the ideal of ‘I am He’, he can live as God’s servant. He may then think of himself as the servant of God.