In plain words
How weak! It does not even bite. A little mosquito comes and settles on his nose. At first he calmly waves it off, like that. The mosquito's trait is this: coming back is its nature. When it comes back a second time, he swipes at it hard. The third time it settles on his nose, he kills it with a smack. You see! Man has become so weak that he cannot bear a little mosquito settling on him. All our ancient maharṣis went on doing tapas for hours upon hours, days upon days, for some years. Though snakes crawled about, though scorpions crawled about, whatever hunger and thirst came upon them, they would not waver at all. What is the inner meaning of this? All men today are building up attachment to the body beyond measure. Only when we build up attachment to the Ātma do we take no account at all of the claims of attachment to the body. We must set ourselves to sacrifice of this kind. It is just this: not by deeds, not by offspring or by wealth; by sacrifice alone did some attain immortality. Among men today, even if you search with a torch, sacrifice is nowhere to be seen. They leave their sandals outside, come in and sit down. They sit and sing bhajans, and the mind is on the sandals. In just such a situation Rāmakṛṣṇa Paramahaṃsa used to give fine teachings every evening. Hearing that he gave his teachings so well, Rāṇi Rāsamaṇi, the owner of the temple, came and sat among the people. Since Rāṇi Rāsamaṇi was the head of this temple, they gave her a high seat. They were listening to Rāmakṛṣṇa's teachings with great joy. But all of a sudden Rāmakṛṣṇa stood up. Rāṇi Rāsamaṇi was sitting with her head bowed. Rāmakṛṣṇa went and slapped her on both cheeks. He handed them out like Hot pakoḍās. When he struck her cheeks, everyone was greatly astonished. ‘What, is Rāmakṛṣṇa mad, mad?’ they were thinking. Had madness truly come on him today, or what: was it the new moon, or the full moon? The madness had grown strong. ‘He has struck the Rāṇi, the head of this temple, in disgrace before so many people!’ Thinking this, they fell into many misgivings. Not only did he slap her cheeks; he went on to say in public: ‘People! You think it very wrong that I struck Rāṇi Rāsamaṇi. What have you come here for? You came to hear my teachings. If you listen and follow them, you may follow them; if not, you may go.