Master's love for young disciples

Wednesday, July 15, 1885

It was 4am. Sri Ramakrishna was in bed in the small room next to the drawing-room. M. was sitting on a bench on the outer verandah to the south of the room. A few minutes later Sri Ramakrishna came out to the verandah. M. saluted him.

MASTER: “I have already been up once. Well, shall we go to Dakshineswar this morning?”

M: “The Ganges is less choppy in the morning.”

Day was gradually breaking. The devotees had not yet arrived. Sri Ramakrishna had washed his mouth and was chanting the names of God in his sweet voice. He stood near the north door of the room. M. was by his side.

A few minutes later Gopal Ma arrived and stood near him. One or two woman devotees were looking at the Master from behind the doors of the inner apartments. They were like the gopis of Vrindāvan looking at Sri Krishna, or the woman devotees of Nadia looking at Gaurānga from behind the screen.

After chanting the name of Rāma, Sri Ramakrishna chanted the name of Krishna:

“Krishna! Krishna! Krishna of the gopis! Gopi! Gopi! Krishna, the Life of the cowherd boys of Vrindāvan! Krishna, the son of Nanda! Govinda! Govinda!”

Next he chanted the name of Gaurānga. Then he repeated, “Ālekh Niranjana”, which is a name of God. Saying, “Niranjana”, he wept. The devotees wept too. With tears in his eyes the Master said: “O Niranjan! O my child! Come! Eat this! Take this! When shall I make my life blessed by feeding you? You have assumed this human form for my sake.”

He prayed to Jagannath in a very touching voice:

“O Jagannath, Lord of the Universe! O Friend of the world! O Friend of the poor! I am not, O Lord, outside Thy universe. Be gracious to me!” While he sang in praise of Jagannath he was beside himself with divine love. Now he chanted the name of Narayana . He danced and sang: “O Narayana ! O Narayana ! Narayana ! Narayana !” He danced and sang again: Ah, friend! I have not found Him yet, whose love has driven me mad. . . .

Afterwards the Master sat in the small room with the devotees. He was completely stripped of his clothes, like a five-year-old child. M., Balarām, and a few other devotees were in the room.

MASTER: “One can see God’s form. One sees God when all Upādhis disappear and reasoning stops. Then a man becomes speechless and goes into samādhi. Coming to the theatre, people indulge in all kinds of gossip. But the moment the curtain goes up, all conversation stops; the spectators become fully absorbed in what they see on the stage.

Master’s love for young disciples

“I want to tell you something very secret. Why do I love boys like Purna and Narendra so much? Once, in a spiritual mood, I felt intense love for Jagannath, love such as a woman feels for her sweetheart. In that mood I was about to embrace Him; when I broke my arm.

It was then revealed to me: ‘You have assumed this human body. Therefore establish with human beings the relationship of friend, father, mother, or son.’

“I now feel for Purna and the other young boys as I once felt for Rāmlāla. I used to bathe Rāmlāla, feed Him, put Him to bed, and take Him wherever I went. I used to weep for Rāmlāla.

I have the same feeling for these young boys. Look at Niranjan. He is not attached to anything. He spends money from his own pocket to take poor patients to the hospital. At the proposal of marriage he says, ‘Goodness! That is the whirlpool of the Visalaks! I see him seated on a light. “Purna belongs to the realm of the Personal God.

He was born with an element of Vishnu. Ah, what yearning he has!

(To M.) “Didn’t you notice that he looked at you as if you were his spiritual brother, his very own? He said he would visit me again, at Captain’s house.

Master’s praise of Narendra

“Narendra belongs to a very high plane-the realm of the Absolute. He has a manly nature. So many devotees come here, but there is not one like him. “Every now and then I take stock of the devotees. I find that some are like lotuses with ten petals, some like lotuses with sixteen petals, some like lotuses with a hundred petals. But among lotuses Narendra is a thousand-petalled one.

“Other devotees may be like pots or pitchers; but Narendra is a huge water-barrel. “Others may be like pools or tanks; but Narendra is a huge reservoir like the Haldārpukur.

“Among fish, Narendra is a huge red-eyed carp; others are like minnows or smelts or sardines. Tārak of Belgharia may be called a bass.

“Narendra is a ‘very big receptacle’, one that can hold many things. He is like a bamboo with a big hollow space inside.

“Narendra is not under the control of anything. He is not under the control of attachment or sense pleasures. He is like a male pigeon. If you hold a male pigeon by its beak, it breaks away from you; but the female pigeon keeps still. Narendra has the nature of a man; so he sits on the right side in a carriage. Bhavanāth has a woman’s nature; so I make him sit on the other side. I feel great strength when Narendra is with me in a gathering.”

About eight o’clock in the morning Mahendra Mukherji arrived and saluted the Master. Haripada, Tulsiram and other devotees arrived one by one and saluted him. Baburam was laid up with fever and could not come.

MASTER (to M. and the others): “Hasn’t the younger Naren come? Perhaps he thought I had left. (To Mukherji) How amazing! Even during his boyhood, on returning from school, he cried for God. Is it a small thing to cry for God? He is very intelligent, too. He is like a bamboo with a big hollow space inside. All of his mind is fixed on me.

Girish Ghosh said to me: The younger Naren went to Navagopal’s house when a kirtan was going on. On entering the house he inquired about you and exclaimed, “Where is he?” He was totally unconscious of his surroundings and practically walked over the people.’ He has no fear of his relatives’ threats. Sometimes he spends three nights at a stretch at Dakshineswar.”

MUKHERJI: “Hari became simply speechless at what you said yesterday. He said to me: ‘Such wisdom can be found only in the philosophical systems of Samkhya, Yoga, and Vedānta. He is no ordinary person.’”

MASTER: “But I have never studied Samkhya or Vedānta.

Knowledge of God is the same as love of Him & Divine love leads to union with God. Perfect Jnāna and perfect bhakti are one and the same thing. A man reasons, saying, ‘Not this, not this’; he rejects the unreal. When his reasoning comes to an end, he attains the Knowledge of Brahman. Then he accepts what he rejected before. A man carefully climbs to the roof, rejecting the steps one by one. After reaching the roof he realizes that the steps are made of the same materials as the roof, namely, brick, lime, and brick-dust.

“He who is aware of the high is also aware of the low. After the attainment of knowledge one looks alike on high and low. “While Prahlada dwelt on the plane of the Supreme Reality, he maintained the attitude of ‘I am He’; but when he climbed down to the physical plane, he would look on himself as the servant of God.

“Hanuman also sometimes said, ‘I am He’, sometimes, ‘I am the servant of God’, sometimes, ‘I am a part of God.’ “Why should a man cherish love of God in his heart? How else will he live? How else will he spend his days?

“To be sure, the ego does not disappear altogether. As long as the pot of ‘I’ persists, one cannot realize ‘I am He.’ In samādhi the ego totally disappears; then what is remains. Ramprasad says: ‘O Mother, when I shall attain Knowledge, then You alone will know whether I am good or You are good.’

“As long as ‘I-consciousness’ exists, one should have the attitude of a bhakta; one should not say, ‘I am God.’ A man aware of his body should feel that he is not Krishna Himself, but His devotee. But if God draws the devotee to Himself, then it is different. It is like the master saying to his beloved servant: ‘Come, take your seat near me. You are the same as I.’

“The waves are part of the Ganges, but the Ganges is not part of the waves.

“Śiva experiences two states of mind. When He is completely absorbed in His own Self, He feels, ‘I am He.’ In that union neither body nor mind functions. But when He is conscious of His separate ego, He dances, exclaiming, ‘Rāma! Rāma!’ “That which is unmoving also moves. Just now you are still, but a few moments later the same you will be engaged in action.

“Jnāna and bhakti are one and the same thing. The difference is like this: one man says ‘water’, and another, ‘a block of ice’.