Egotism condemned

In the mean time the Master had partially lost consciousness of the outer world. Looking at the physician, he said with folded hands: “No, no. Why should I go into samādhi?”

Hardly had he spoken these words when he went into a deep ecstasy. His body became motionless, his eyes fixed, his tongue speechless. He sat there like a statue cut in stone, completely unconscious of the outer world. Turned inward were his mind, ego, and all the other organs of perception. He seemed an altogether different person.

Narendra continued his songs, pouring his entire heart and soul into them:

What matchless beauty! What a bewitching Face I behold! The Sovereign of my soul has entered my lowly hut; The springs of my love are welling forth on every side. Tell me, my Beloved! O Thou, the Lord of my heart! What treasure shall I lay before Thy Lotus Feet? Take Thou my life, my soul; what more can I offer Thee? Take everything that is mine. Deign to accept my all.

Narendra continued:

O gracious Lord, if like a bee My soul cannot imbed itself Deep in the Lotus of Thy Feet, What comfort can I find in life? . . . As the doctor heard the words, “The purest wife’s unspotted love”, his eyes were filled with tears. He cried out, “Ah me! Ah me!”

Narendra sang again:

Oh, when will dawn the blessed day When Love will waken in my heart? When will my tears flow uncontrolledAs I repeat Lord Hari’s name, And all my longing be fulfilled? . . .

In the midst of the singing Sri Ramakrishna had regained consciousness of the outer world. When Narendra finished the song, the Master continued his conversation, keeping them all spellbound. The devotees looked at his face in wonder. It did not show the slightest trace of the agonizing pain of his illness. The face shone with heavenly joy.

Addressing the doctor, the Master said: “Give up this false modesty. Why should you feel shy about singing the name of God? The proverb says very truly: ‘One cannot realize God if one is a victim of shame, hatred, or fear.’ Give up such foolish notions as: ‘I am such a great man! Shall I dance crying the name of God? What will other great men think of me on hearing of this? They may say that the doctor, poor fellow, has been dancing uttering the name of Hari, and thus pity me.’ Give up all these foolish notions.”

DOCTOR: “I never bother about what people say. I don’t care a straw about their opinions.”

MASTER: “Yes, I know of your strong feeling about that. (All laugh.)

On knowledge and ignorance

“Go beyond knowledge and ignorance; only then can you realize God. To know many things is ignorance. Pride of scholarship is also ignorance. The unwavering conviction that God alone dwells in all beings is Jnāna, knowledge. To know Him intimately is vijnāna, a richer Knowledge if a thorn gets into your foot, a second thorn is needed to take it out.

When it is out both thorns are thrown away. You have to procure the thorn of knowledge to remove the thorn of ignorance; then you must set aside both knowledge and ignorance. God is beyond both knowledge and ignorance. Once Lakshmana said to Rāma, ‘Brother, how amazing it is that such a wise man as Vasishtha wept bitterly at the death of his sons!’ Rāma said: ‘Brother, he who has knowledge must also have ignorance. He who has knowledge of one thing must also have knowledge of many things. He who is aware of light is also aware of darkness.’ Brahman is beyond knowledge and ignorance, virtue and vice, merit and demerit, cleanliness and uncleanliness.”

Sri Ramakrishna then recited the following song of Ramprasad: Come, let us go for a walk, O mind, to Kāli, the Wish-fulfilling Tree, And there beneath it gather the four fruits of life. When will you learn to lie, O mind, in the abode of Blessedness, With Cleanliness and Defilement on either side of you?

Only when you have found the way

To keep your wives contentedly under a single roof, Will you behold the matchless form of Mother Syama. . . .

SHYAM BASU: “Sir, what remains after one throws away both thorns?“Brahman cannot be described

MASTER: " Nitya–Śuddha–Buddha rupam, the Eternal and Ever-pure Consciousness. How can I make it clear to you? Suppose a man who has never tasted ghee asks you, ‘What does ghee taste like?’ Now, how can you explain that to him? At the most you can say:

‘What is ghee like? It is just like ghee!’ A young girl asked her friend: ‘Well, friend, your husband is here. What sort of pleasure do you enjoy with him?’ The friend answered:

‘My dear, you will know it for yourself when you get a husband. How can I explain it to you?’

“It is said in the Purana that Bhagavati, the Divine Mother, was once born as the daughter of King Himalaya. After Her birth She showed Her father Her many forms. The Lord of the mountains, after enjoying all these visions, said to the Divine Mother, ‘May I have the vision of Brahman as It is described in the Vedas!’ Then the Divine Mother answered, ‘Father, if you want to have the vision of Brahman you must live in the company of holy men.’

“What Brahman is cannot be described in words. Somebody once said that everything in the world has been made impure, like food that has touched the tongue, and that Brahman alone remains undefiled. The meaning is this: All scriptures and holy books-the Vedas, the Puranas, the Tantras, and so forth-may be said to have been defiled because their contents have been uttered by the tongues of men; but what Brahman is no tongue has yet been able to describe. Therefore Brahman is still undefiled. One cannot describe in words the joy of play and communion with Satchidananda. He alone knows, who has realized it.”

Egotism condemned

Addressing Dr. Sarkar, Sri Ramakrishna continued: “Look here. One cannot attain Knowledge unless one is free from egotism. There is a saying: When shall I be free?

When ‘I’ shall cease to be.

‘I’ and ‘mine’-that is ignorance. ‘Thou’ and Thine’ that is Knowledge. A true devotee says: ‘O God, Thou alone art the Doer; Thou alone doest all. I am a mere instrument; I do as Thou makest me do. All these-wealth, possessions, nay, the universe Itself-belong to Thee. This house and these relatives are Thine alone, not mine. I am Thy servant; mine is only the right to serve Thee according to Thy bidding.’

“Those who have read a few books cannot get rid of conceit. Once I had a talk with Kalikrishna Tagore about God. At once he said, ‘I know all about that.’ I said to him:

‘Does a man who has visited Delhi brag about it? Does a gentleman go about telling everyone that he is a gentleman?’ "

SHYAM: “But Kalikrishna Tagore has great respect for you.”

MASTER: “Oh, how vanity turns a person’s head! There was a scavenger woman in the temple garden at Dakshineswar. And her pride! And all because of a few ornaments. Oneday a few men were passing her on the path and she shouted to them, ‘Hey! Get out of the way, you people!’ If a scavenger woman could talk that way, what can one say about the vanity of others?”