Brahmani's indescribable joy

The brahmani came and saluted the Master. She was beside herself with joy. She did not know what to say. In a half-choked voice she said: “This joy is too much for me.

Perhaps I shall die of it. Tell me, friends, how shall I be able to live? I did not feel such a thrill even when Chandi, my daughter, used to visit the house accompanied by liveried footmen, with armed guards lining both sides of the street.

Oh! Now I have no trace of my grief at her death. I was afraid he would not come. Then I thought that, if that happened, I should throw into the Ganges all the things I had arranged for his reception and entertainment.

I should not speak to him any more. If he visited a place, I should go there, look at him from a distance, and then come away. “Let me go and tell everybody how happy I am. Let me go and tell Yogin of my good luck.”

Still overwhelmed with joy she said: “A labourer won a hundred thousand rupees in a lottery. The moment he heard the news he died of joy. Yes, he really and truly died. I am afraid the same thing is going to happen to me. Please bless me, friends, or else I shall certainly die.”

M. was amazed to see the brahmani’s sincere joy and her ecstatic mood. He was about to take the dust of her feet.

“What are you doing?” she exclaimed and saluted M.

The brahmani was extremely happy at the sight of the devotees. She said: “I am so happy to see you all here. I have brought the younger Naren; without him, who would there be to make us laugh?”

She was talking like this when her sister came up and said: “Come down, sister! How can I manage things if you stay here? Can I do it all by myself?” But the brahmani was overwhelmed with joy. She could not take her eyes from the

Master and the devotees.

After a while she very respectfully took Sri Ramakrishna to another room and offered him sweets and other refreshments. The devotees were entertained on the roof.

It was about eight o’clock in the evening. Sri Ramakrishna was ready to leave. When he came to the door, the brahmani asked her sister-in-law to salute the Master. Next, one of her brothers took the dust of the Master’s feet. Referring to him, she said: “He is one of my brothers. He is a fool” “No, no!” said the Master. “They are all good.” A man showed the way with a light. At places it was dark. Sri Ramakrishna stood in front of the cow-shed.

The devotees gathered around him. M. saluted the Master, who was about to go to the house of Ganu’s mother.

Master’s visit to Ganu’s mother

Sri Ramakrishna was seated in the drawing-room of Ganu’s mother’s house. It was on the Street floor. The room was used by a concert party. Several young men played on their instruments now and then for the pleasure of the Master. It was eight-thirty in the evening. Moonlight flooded the streets, the houses, and the sky. It was the first day after the full moon.

The brahmani, who had also come, was visiting the drawing-room and the inner apartments alternately. Every few minutes she would come to the door of the drawing- room and look at the Master. Some youngsters from the neighbourhood also looked at him through the windows. The people of the locality, young and old, came thronging to see the saint.

The younger Naren saw the boys in the street climbing the windows. He said to them: “Why are you here? Get away! Go home!” The Master said tenderly, “Let them stay.” Every now and then he chanted: “Hari Om! Hari Om!”

The floor of the drawing-room was covered with a carpet. The young musicians sat on it and sang:

O Kesava, bestow Thy grace Upon Thy luckless servants here! O Kesava, who dost delight To roam Vrindāvan’s glades and groves! . . .

Master praises the music.

MASTER: “Ah, how sweet the music is! How melodious the violin is! How good the accompaniments are! (Pointing to a boy) He and the flutist seem to be a nice pair.”

The orchestra went on playing. After it was over, Sri Ramakrishna said joyfully, “It is very fine indeed.” Pointing to a young man, he said, “He seems to know how to play every instrument.” He said to M., “They are all good people.”

After the concert the young musician said to the devotees, “We should like to hear some of you sing.” The brahmani stood near the door. She said: “None of them knows how to sing. Perhaps Mohin Babu can sing. But he will not sing before the Master.”

A YOUNG MAN: “Why? I can sing even before my father.”

THE YOUNGER NAREN (laughing): “But he has not yet advanced that far.”

All laughed. A few minutes later the brahmani said to Sri Ramakrishna, “Please come inside.”

MASTER: “Why?”

BRAHMANI: “The refreshments are served there. Please come.”

MASTER: “Why not bring them here?”

BRAHMANI: “Ganu’s mother requests you to bless the room with the dust of your feet.

Then the room will be turned into Benares, and anyone dying in it will have no trouble hereafter.”

Sri Ramakrishna went inside accompanied by the brahmani and the young men of the family. The devotees were strolling outside in the moonlight. M. and Binode were pacing the street south of the house and recalling the various incidents in the life of their beloved Master.

Sri Ramakrishna had returned to Balarām’s house. He was resting in the small room to the west of the drawing-room. It was quite late, almost a quarter to eleven. Sri Ramakrishna said to Jogin, “Please rub my feet gently.” M. was sitting near by. While Jogin was rubbing his feet the Master said suddenly: “I feel hungry. I shall eat some farina pudding.”

The brahmani had accompanied the Master and the devotees to Balarām’s house. Her brother knew how to play the drums. Sri Ramakrishna said, “It will serve our purpose to send for her brother when Narendra or some other singer wants to sing.”

Sri Ramakrishna ate a little pudding. Jogin and the other devotees left the room. M. was stroking the Master’s feet. They talked together.

MASTER (referring to the brahmani and her relatives): “Ah! How happy they were!”

Martha and Mary

M: “How amazing! A similar thing happened with two women at the time of Jesus. They too were sisters, and devoted to Christ. Martha and Mary.”

MASTER (eagerly); “Tell me the story.”

M: “Jesus Christ, like you, went to their house with His devotees. At the sight of Him one of the sisters was filled with ecstatic happiness. It reminds me of a song about Gaurānga:

My two eyes sank in the sea of Gora’s heavenly beauty And did not come back to me again;

Down went my mind, as well, forgetting how to swim.

“The other sister, all by herself, was arranging the food to entertain Jesus. She complained to the Master, saying: ‘Lord, please judge for Yourself-how wrong my sister is! She is sitting in Your room and I am doing all these things by myself.’ Jesus said: ‘Your sister indeed’ is blessed. She has developed the only thing needful in human life: love of God.”

MASTER: “Well, after seeing all this, What do you feel?”

Master about himself

M: “I feel that Christ, Chaitanyadeva, and yourself-all three are one and the same. It is the same Person that has become all these three.”

MASTER: “Yes, yes! One! One! It is indeed one. Don’t you see that it is He alone who dwells here in this way.”

As he said this, Sri Ramakrishna pointed with his finger to his own body.

M: “You explained clearly, the other day, how God incarnates Himself on earth.”

MASTER: “Tell me what I said.”

M: “You told us to imagine a field extending to the horizon and beyond. It extends without any obstruction; but we cannot see it on account of a wall in front of us. In that wall there is a round hole. Through the hole we see a part of that infinite field.”

MASTER: “Tell me what that hole is.”

M: “You are that hole. Through you can be seen everything-that Infinite Meadow without any end.”

Sri Ramakrishna was very much pleased. Patting M.’s back, he said: “I see you have understood that. That’s fine!”

M: “It is indeed difficult to understand that. One cannot quite grasp how God, Perfect

Brahman that He is, can dwell in that small body.”

The Master quoted from a song:

Oh, no one at all has found out who He is; Like a madman from door to door He roams, Like a poor beggar He roams from door to door.

Master and Jesus

M: “You also told us about Jesus.”

MASTER: “What did I say?”

M: “You went into samādhi at the sight of Jesus Christ’s picture in Jadu Mallick’s garden house. You saw Jesus come down from the picture and merge in your body.” Sri Ramakrishna was silent a few moments. Then he said to M.: “Perhaps there is a meaning in what has happened to my throat [referring to the sore in his throat]. This has happened lest I should make myself light before all; lest I should go to all sorts of places and sing and dance.”

About Dwija

Sri Ramakrishna began to talk about Dwija.

MASTER: “He didn’t come today. Why?”

M: “I asked him to come. He said he would. I don’t know why he didn’t.”

MASTER: “He has great yearning. Well, he must be someone belonging to this. Isn’t that so?”

M: “Yes, sir, it must be so. Otherwise, how could he have such yearning?”

Sri Ramakrishna lay down inside the mosquito curtain. M. fanned him. The Master turned on his side. He told M. how God incarnates Himself in a human body. He told him, further, about his, M.’s, spiritual ideal.

MASTER: “At the beginning I too passed through such states that I did not see divine forms. Even now I don’t see them often.”

M: “Among all the forms God chooses for His Lila, I like best His play as a human being.”

MASTER: “That is enough. And you are seeing me.”