Advice to Dr. Sarkar

Suddenly Sri Ramakrishna went into a spiritual mood and said to Dr. Sarkar: “Mahindra Babu, what is this madness of yours about money? Why such attachment to wife? Why such longing for name and fame? Give up all these, now, and direct your mind to God with whole-souled devotion. Enjoy the Bliss of God.”

Dr. Sarkar sat still without uttering a word. The devotees also remained silent.How a Jnāni should meditate

MASTER: “Nangta used to tell me how a Jnāni meditates. Everywhere is water; all the regions above and below are filled with water; man, like a fish, is swimming joyously in that water. In real meditation you will actually see all this.

“Take the case of the infinite ocean. There is no limit to its water: Suppose a pot is immersed in it: there is water both inside and outside the pot. The Jnāni sees that both inside and outside there is nothing but Paramatman. Then what is this pot? It is ‘I- consciousness’. Because of the pot the water appears to be divided into two parts; because of the pot you seem to perceive an inside and an outside. One feels that way as long as this pot of ‘I’ exists. When the ‘I’ disappears, what is remains. That cannot be described in words.

“Do you know another way a Jnāni meditates? Think of infinite Ākāśa and a bird flying there, joyfully spreading Its wings. There is the Chidakasa, and Ātman is the bird. The bird is not imprisoned in a cage; it flies in the Chidakasa. Its joy is limitless.”

The devotees listened with great attention to these words about meditation.After a time Pratap resumed the conversation.

PRATAP (to Dr. Sarkar): “When one thinks seriously, one undoubtedly sees everything as a mere shadow.”

DR. SARKAR: “If you speak of a shadow, then you need three things: the sun, the object, and the shadow. How can there be any shadow without an object? And you say that God is real and the creation unreal. I say that the creation is real too.”

PRATAP: “Very well. As you see a reflection in a mirror, so you see this universe in the mirror of your mind.”

DR. SARKAR: “But how can there be a reflection without an object?” NARENDRA: “Why, God is the object.”

Dr. Sarkar remained silent.

MASTER (to Dr. Sarkar): “You said a very fine thing. No one else has said before that samādhi is the result of the union of the mind with God. You alone have said that.

“Shivanath said that one lost one’s head by too much thinking of God. In other words, one becomes unconscious by meditating on the Universal Consciousness. Think of it! Becoming unconscious by contemplating Him who is of the very nature of Consciousness, and whose Consciousness endows the world with consciousness!

“And what does your ‘science’ say? This combined with this produces that; that combined with that produces this. One is more likely to lose consciousness by contemplating those things-by handling material things too much.“DR. SARKAR: “One can see God in those things.”

M: “If so, one sees God more clearly in man, and still better in a great soul. In a great soul there is a greater manifestation of God.”

DR. SARKAR: “Yes, in man, no doubt.”

Losing consciousness in the thought of God

MASTER: “Losing consciousness by contemplating God-through whose Consciousness even inert matter appears to be conscious, and hands, feet, and body move! People say that the body moves of itself; but they do not know that it is God who moves it. They say that water scalds the hand. But water can by no means scald the hand; it is the heat in the water, the fire in the water, that scalds.

“Rice is boiling in a pot. Potatoes and egg-plant are also jumping about in the pot. The children say that the potatoes and egg-plant jump of themselves; they do not know that there is fire underneath. Man says that the sense-organs do their work of themselves; but he does not know that inside dwells He whose very nature is Consciousness.”

Dr. Sarkar stood up. He was about to take his leave. Sri Ramakrishna also stood up.

DR. SARKAR: “People call on God when they are faced with a crisis. Is it for the mere fun of it that they say, ‘O Lord! Thou, Thou!’? You speak of God because of that trouble in your throat. You have now fallen into the clutches of the cotton-carder. You had better speak to the carder. I am just quoting your own words.”

MASTER: “There is nothing for me to say.”

DR. SARKAR: “Why not? We lie in the lap of God. We feel free with Him. To whom should we speak about our illness if not to Him?”

MASTER: “Right you are. Once in a while I try to speak to Him about it, but I do not succeed.”

DR. SARKAR: “Why should you even speak to Him? Does He not know of it?”

MASTER (smiling): “A Mussulman, while saying his prayers, shouted: ‘O Allah! O Allah!’ Another person said to him: ‘You are calling on Allah. That’s all right. But why are you shouting like that? Don’t you know that He hears the sound of the anklets on the feet of an ant?’

Story of Vilwamangal

“When the mind is united with God, one sees Him very near, in one’s own heart. But you must remember one thing. The more you realize this unity, the farther your mind is withdrawn from worldly things. There is the story of Vilwamangal in the Bhaktamala. He used to visit a prostitute. One night he was very late in going to her house. He had been detained at home by the sraddha ceremony of his father and mother. In his hands hewas carrying the food offered in the ceremony, to feed his mistress. His whole soul was so set upon the woman that he was not at all conscious of his movements.

He didn’t even know how he was walking. There was a yogi seated on the path, meditating on God with eyes closed. Vilwamangal stepped on him. The yogi became angry, and cried out: ‘What? Are you blind? I have been thinking of God, and you step on my body!’ ‘I beg your pardon,’ said Vilwamangal, ‘but may I ask you something? I have been unconscious, thinking of a prostitute, and you are conscious of the outer world though thinking of God. What kind of meditation is that?’ In the end Vilwamangal renounced the world and went away in order to worship God. He said to the prostitute: ‘You are my guru. You have taught me how one should yearn for God.’ He addressed the prostitute as his mother and gave her up.”

DR. SARKAR: “To address a woman as mother is the Tantrik form of worship.”

Stories of the Bhagavata scholars

MASTER: “Listen to a story. There was a king who used daily to hear the Bhagavata recited by a pundit. Every day, after explaining the sacred book, the pundit would say to the king, ‘O King, have you understood what I have said?’ And every day the king would reply, ‘You had better understand it first yourself.’ The pundit would return home and think: ‘Why does the king talk to me that way day after day? I explain the texts to him so clearly, and he says to me, “You had better understand it first yourself.” What does he mean?’

The pundit used to practise spiritual discipline. A few days later he came to realize that God alone is real and everything else-house, family, wealth, friends, name, and fame-illusory. Convinced of the unreality of the world, he renounced it. As he left home he asked a man to take this message to the king: ‘O King, I now understand.’

“Here is another story. A man needed a scholar of the Bhagavata to expound the sacred text to him every day. But it was very difficult to procure such a scholar. After he had searched a great deal, another man came to him and said, ‘Sir, I have found an excellent scholar of the Bhagavata.’ ‘Very well,’ said the man, ‘bring him here.’ The other man replied: ‘But there is a little hitch. The scholar has a few ploughs and bullocks; he is busy with them all day. He must look after the cultivation of his land. He hasn’t a moment’s leisure. Thereupon the man who required the scholar said: ‘I don’t want a Bhagavata scholar who is burdened with ploughs and bullocks. I want a man who has leisure and can tell me about God.’ (To Dr. Sarhar) Do you understand?”

Dr. Sarkar remained silent.