Nitya and Lila

Tuesday, July 14, 1885

It was the day of the Car Festival. Sri Ramakrishna left his bed very early in the morning. He was alone in the room, dancing and chanting the name of God. M. entered and saluted the Master. Other devotees arrived one by one. They saluted the Master and took seats near him. Sri Ramakrishna was longing intensely for Purna. He was talking to M. about him.

MASTER: “Did you give Purna any instruction?”

M: “I asked him to read the life of Chaitanya. He is familiar with the incidents of his life. I told him further that you ask people to stick to the truth.”

MASTER: “How did he take it when you said about me, ‘He is an Incarnation of God’?”

M: “I said to him, ‘Come with me If you want to see a person like Chaitanya.’”

MASTER: “Anything else?”

M: “Also that remark of yours that when an elephant enters a small pool there is a great splashing of water all around; likewise, in the case of a ‘small receptacle’, emotion overflows. “About his giving up of fish, I said to him: ‘Why have you done that? Your family will make a great fuss about it.’ "

MASTER: “That’s good. One should keep one’s feelings and emotions to oneself.”

It was about half past six in the morning. M. was going to bathe in the Ganges, when suddenly tremors of an earthquake were felt. At once he returned to Sri Ramakrishna’s room. The Master stood in the drawing room. The devotees stood around him. They were talking about the earthquake. The shaking had been rather violent, and many of the devotees were frightened.

M: “You should all have gone downstairs.”

MASTER: “Such is the fate of the house under whose roof one lives; and still people are so egotistic. (To M.) Do you remember the great storm of the month of Āświn?”

M: “Yes, sir. I was very young at that time-nine or ten years old. I was alone in a room while the storm was raging, and I prayed to God.”

M. was surprised and said to himself: “Why did the Master suddenly ask me about the great storm of Āświn? Does he know that I was alone at that time earnestly praying to God with tears in my eyes? Does he know all this? Has he been protecting me as my guru since my very birth?”

MASTER: “It was quite late in the day at Dakshineswar when the storm broke, but somehow they managed to cook the meals. The trees were uprooted. You see, this is the fate of the house one lives in.

Nitya and Lila

“But when one attains Perfect Knowledge, then one finds that dying and killing are one and the same thing; that is to say, both are unreal. When one is dead, one has not really died; and when one has killed another, the man is not really dead. Both the Lila and the Nitya belong to the same Reality. In one form It is the Absolute, and in another, the Lila. Even though the Lila is destroyed, the Nitya always exists. Water is water, whether it is still or in waves; it is the same water when the waves quiet down.”

Sri Ramakrishna sat in the drawing-room with the devotees. Mahendra Mukherji, Hari, the younger Naren, and many other devotees were there. Hari lived alone and studied Vedānta. He was about twenty-three years old, and unmarried. Sri Ramakrishna was very fond of him. He wanted Hari to visit him frequently. But since Hari loved solitude he did not often come to the Master.

MASTER (to Hari): “Well, I haven’t seen you for a long time.”

Essence of Vedānta & Absolute and Relative are correlatives

“You see, in one form He is the Absolute and in another He is the Relative. What does Vedānta teach? Brahman alone is real and the world illusory. Isn’t that so? But as long as God keeps the ’ego of a devotee’ in a man, the Relative is also real. When He completely effaces the ego, then what is remains. That cannot be described by the tongue.

But as long as God keeps the ego, one must accept all. By removing the outer sheaths of the plantain-tree, you reach the inner pith. As long as the tree contains sheaths, it also contains pith. So too, as long as it contains pith, it also contains sheaths. The pith goes with the sheaths and the sheaths go with the pith. In the same way, when you speak of the Nitya, it is understood that the Lila also exists; and when you speak of the Lila, it is understood that the Nitya also exists.

Brahman and Śakti

“It is He alone who has become the universe, living beings, and thetwenty-four cosmic principles. When He is action less, I call Him Brahman; when He creates, preserves, and destroys, I call Him Śakti. Brahman and Śakti are not different from each other. Water is water, whether it is still or moving.

“It is not possible to rid oneself of ‘I-consciousness’ and as long as one is aware of this ‘I-consciousness’, one cannot speak of the universe and its living beings as unreal. You cannot get the correct weight of the bel-fruit if you leave out its shell and pits. “The brick, lime, and brick-dust of which the stairs are made are the same brick, lime, and brick-dust of which the roof is made. The universe and its living beings exist on account of the Reality of Him who is known as Brahman.

Synthesis of the formless Reality and God with form

“The devotees-I mean the vijnanis-accept both God with form and the Formless, both the Personal God and the Impersonal. In a shoreless ocean-an infinite expanse of water-visible blocks of ice are formed here and there by intense cold. Similarly, under the cooling influence, so to say, of the deep love of Its worshipper, the Infinite reduces Itself to the finite and appears before the worshipper as God with form. Again, as, on the rising of the sun, the ice melts away, so, on the awakening of Knowledge, God with form melts away into the same Infinite and Formless.

“As long as a man analyses with the mind, he cannot reach the Absolute. As long as you reason with your mind, you have no way of getting rid of the universe and the objects of the senses-form, taste, smell, touch, and sound. When reasoning stops, you attain the Knowledge of Brahman. Ātman cannot be realized through this mind; Ātman is realized through Ātman alone. Pure Mind, Pure Buddhi, Pure Ātman-all these are one and the same.

“Just think how many things you need to perceive an object. You need eyes; you need light; you need mind. You cannot perceive the object if you leave out anyone of these three. As long as the mind functions how can you say that the universe and the ‘I’ do not exist?

“When the mind is annihilated, when it stops deliberating pro and con, then one goes into samādhi, one attains the Knowledge of Brahman. You know the seven notes of the scale: sa, re, ga, ma, pa, dha, ni. One cannot keep one’s voice on ’ni’ very long.”

Intimate Knowledge of God

Looking at the younger Naren, Sri Ramakrishna said: “What will you gain by merely being intuitively aware of God’s existence? A mere vision of God is by no means everything. You have to bring Him into your room. You have to talk to Him.

“Some have heard of milk, some have seen milk, and some have drunk milk. Some have seen the king, but only one or two can bring the King home and entertain him.”

M. went to the Ganges to take his bath. It was ten o’clock. Sri Ramakrishna was still talking with the devotees. After finishing his bath, M. returned to Balarām’s house. He saluted the Master and sat down near him.

Sri Ramakrishna was filled with intense spiritual fervour. Words of wisdom flowed from him. Now and then he narrated his profound mystical experiences to the devotees.