The guru and the Chosen Ideal

Sri Ramakrishna took his midday meal. On account of his illness he ate very little.

The Master’s natural tendency of mind was to soar into the plane of God-Consciousness. He would force his mind to be conscious of the body. But, like a child, he was incapable of looking after his body. Like a child he said to the devotees: “I have eaten a little. I shall rest now. You may go out for a little while.” Sri Ramakrishna rested a few minutes.

The devotees returned to the room.GIRISH: “The guru and the Ishta. I like very much the form of the guru. I am not afraid of him. Why should it be so? I am afraid of ecstasy. At the sight of ecstasy I run away.”

The guru and the Chosen Ideal

MASTER: “He who is the Ishta appears in the form of the guru. The aspirant practises meditation on a corpse. When he obtains the vision of his Chosen Ideal, it is really the guru who appears to him and says, ‘This is that’, that is to say, he points out to the disciple his Ishta. Uttering these words, the guru disappears into the form of the Ishta. The disciple no longer sees the guru. In the state of perfect Jnāna, who is the guru and who is the sishya? That creates a very difficult situation; there the teacher and the disciple do not see each other.’ "

A DEVOTEE: “Guru’s head and disciple’s feet.”

GIRISH (joyously): “Yes! Yes! It is true.”

NAVAGOPAL: “But listen to its meaning. The disciple’s head belongs to the guru; and the guru’s feet belong to the disciple. Do you understand?”

GIRISH: “No, that is not the meaning. Haven’t you seen the child climbing on the head of the father? That is why the disciple’s feet are mentioned.”

NAVAGOPAL: “But then the disciple must feel like a young baby.”

Two classes of devotees kitten and young monkey

MASTER: “There are two classes of devotees. One class has the nature of the kitten. The kitten depends completely on its mother. It accepts whatever its mother does for it. The kitten only cries, ‘Mew, mew!’ It doesn’t know what to do or where to go. Sometimes the mother puts the kitten near the heart, sometimes on the bed. Devotees of this class give God the power of attorney and thus become free of all worry. The Sikhs said to me that God was kind. I said to them: ‘How is that? He is our Father and our Mother. Shouldn’t parents bring up their children after begetting them? Do you mean to say that the neighbours will look after them?’ Devotees of this class have an unwavering conviction that God is our Mother and our Father.

“There is another class of devotees. They have the nature of the young monkey. The young monkey clings to its mother with might and main. The devotees who behave like the young monkey have a slight idea of being the doer. They feel: ‘we must go to the sacred places; we must practise japa and austerity; we must perform worship with sixteen articles as prescribed by the sastras. Only then shall we be able to realize God.’

Such is their attitude.

“The aspirants of both classes are devotees of God. The farther you advance, the more you will realize that God alone has become everything. He alone does everything. He alone is the Guru and He alone is the Ishta. He alone gives us knowledge and devotion.“The farther you advance, the more you will see that there are other things even beyond the sandal-wood forest-mines of silver and gold and precious gems. Therefore go forward.

Worldly man’s obstacles

“But how can I ask people to go forward? If worldly people go too far, then the bottom will drop out of their world. One day Keshab was conducting a religious service. He said, ‘O God, may we all sink and disappear in the river of bhakti!’ When the warship was over I said to him: ‘Look here. How can you disappear altogether in the river of bhakti? If you do, what will happen to those seated behind the screen? But do one thing: sink now and then, and come back again to dry land."(All laugh.)

The Vaishnava from Katoa was arguing.

MASTER (to the Vaishnava): “Stop that sizzling noise! When butter containing water is heated over a fire, it makes that sound.

“If a man but once tastes the joy of God, his desire to argue takes wing. The bee, realizing the joy of sipping honey, doesn’t buzz about any more. What will you achieve by quoting from books? The pundits recite verses and do nothing else. “What will you gain by merely repeating ‘siddhi’? You will not be intoxicated even by gargling with a solution of siddhi. It must go into your stomach; not until then will you be intoxicated. One cannot comprehend what I am saying unless one prays to God in solitude, all by oneself, with a longing heart.”

Dr. Rakhal arrived to examine Sri Ramakrishna. The Master said to him eagerly, “Come in and sit down.”

The conversation with the Vaishnava continued.

MASTER: “Man should possess dignity and alertness. Only he whose spiritual consciousness is awakened possesses this dignity and alertness and can be called a man.

Futile is the human birth without the awakening of spiritual consciousness. “There are many men at Kamarpukur with big bellies and imposing moustaches. Yet the villagers go with palanquins and bring righteous and truthful persons from twenty miles away to arbitrate their quarrels. They do not bring mere pundits. “Truthfulness is the tapasya of the Kaliyuga.‘Truthfulness, submission to God, and looking on the wives of other men as one’s own mother’-these are the means to realize God.”

Like a child Sri Ramakrishna said to the physician, “Sir, please cure my throat.”

DOCTOR: “Do you ask me to cure you?“MASTER: “The physician is Narayana Himself. I honour everybody. You may say that if I look on all as Narayana then I should keep quiet. But I also accept the words of the ‘Mahut Narayana’.

“The Pure Mind and the Pure Ātman are one and the same thing. Whatever comes up in the Pure Mind is the voice of God. God alone is the ‘mahut Narayana.’

“Why should I not listen to God? He alone is the Master. As long as He keeps ‘I- consciousness’ in me, I shall obey His orders.” The doctor was going to examine Sri Ramakrishna’s throat.

Mahendra Sarkar pressed my tongue the way they press a cow’s.”

Like a child Sri Ramakrishna said to the physician, pulling at his shirt-sleeves again and again, “Sir! My dear sir! Please cure my throat.” Looking at the laryngoscope, he said with a smile: “I know it. You will see the reflection in it.” Narendra sang. But on account of the Master’s illness there was not much music.