CHAPTER VI

THE DAKSHINESWAR TEMPLE,—FEBRUARY, 1888

The noonday meal being over, Sri Ramakrishna is engaged in conversation with the devotees in his well-known chamber. It is the 25th of February of the year 1883.

Rakhal, Harish, Latoo, and Hazrah are living at the Temple Garden in the constant company of the Master. Ram , Kedar, Nityagopal, M. and a few others, including a Mr. Chaudhury, have come to visit the Master.

Mr. Chaudhury has lately lost his wife, and to console his mind, has been paying a few visits to the Master. He has passed several examinations at the University and is employed in Government service.

Sri Ramakrishna: (to Ram and others) Rakhal, Narendra, and Bhavanath are Nitya-siddhas ('Ever-perfect')—'wide awake' from their very birth. And it is only for imparting spiritual education to man that they have assumed the human body.

Kripa-siddha

"There is another class of devotees called the kripa-siddhas^*. The grace of the Lord suddenly descends on them and they at once attain the Divine Vision and the Knowledge Divine, even as a room that has been dark for hundreds of years becomes illumined the moment a light is brought into it, and not by degrees.

^* 'Perfected through Divine Grace.'

"Those who live in the world must practise Sadhana. They must repair to solitude and earnestly pray for His vision.

(To Chaudhury)" He, the Lord cannot be realised through scholarship. Who, indeed, can understand Him by reasoning?—Let us all try our best to have devotion to His lotus-feet.

"Infinite is His glory,—Who can conceive it? Who, again, can understand His inscrutable ways?

"Bhishmadeva was one of the eight Vasus—even he shed tears on his bed of arrows! He said, 'Behold, the Lord Himself is ever with the Pandavas, yet they have no end of suffering! Who can fathom His ways?'

God, the Supreme Dispenser.

"Some there are who think that by little Sadhana they have practised, they have surpassed other people. But triumph and defeat are in His hands. I have seen a prostitute expiring here in the Ganges, retaining her consciousness to the very last moment.^*"

Chaudhury: How can I see Him?

Sri Ramakrishna: Not with these eyes! Only when He vouchsafes you the spiritual eye can you have His vision. Before Arjuna could perceive the Universal Form of the Lord, the Lord gave him the spiritual sight.

^* It is considered by the Hindus to be an act of great spiritual merit to die in this way in the Ganges.

"Your philosophy only speculates and reasons. But you cannot find Him that way.

"If you have the devotion of love, that is to say, a devotion which is actuated by motives of love and self surrender then He cannot remain unmoved.

Reasonless Love.

"Do you know how very fond of devotion He is?—Just as the cow is fond of the straw which is seasoned with oil-cake and which it devours greedily.

"This Love-devotion is pure devotion and is reasonless. Prahlad had it.

"It is as if you were to visit a rich man daily, though you do not expect to get anything by it,—only because you love to see him; and you say, when asked, 'No, sir, I want nothing, I have come only to see you.' This is Reasonless Devotion; you desire nothing from God, you simply love Him!"

Saying so, the Master begins to sing:

"I mind not, O I mind not to give thee Salvation. But Love;—It is hard to give. Whoever gets it excels all and claims triumphantly the homage of the worlds!

"I'll tell thee the secret of love, O Chandravali; it is rarer than Salvation! And forever it binds at Bali's door, down in the nether worlds!

"In Brindavan alone it is found, and none know it but the Gopas and Gopis. Verily for this Love, I carry the loads of Nanda as his obedient son!"

Sri Ramakrishna: The essential thing is that one should have devotion of Love for the Lord, and discrimination and dispassion.

Chaudhury: Sir, can I not do without a Guru?

Sri Ramakrishna: Satchidananda, God Himself, is Guru.

"When at the end of the Shuva-sadhana, the Sadhaka realises his Ishtam, the Guru appears before him and says, 'Look, here is your Ishtam. He who is the Guru is also the Ishtam and he gives the clue to His realisation.

"They perform the Anantavrata, but it is Vishnu they really worship; the idea is that in Him are contained all the forms of God.

Synthesis of religions.

To Ram and others; "If you ask which form of the Lord you should meditate on, I say, meditate upon any form you like, but know that all are one.

"Never be intolerant of any of the Divine forms. Siva, Kali, Hari—all these are merely different manifestations of the One; and blessed indeed is he who has known all as one.

"'In appearance he is a Saiva, but within his heart is Kali, and he utters, Haribol! Haribol!'

"The body cannot last if lust, anger and other passions become totally extinct. So try only to minimise them."

Referring to Kedar, the Master says,

"He is very nice. He believes in the Absolute and also in the relative aspect of God; He is a believer both in Brahman and Its god-manifestations and human incarnations."

For Kedar declares that our Master is God Himself incarnated in a human body.

The Master then refers to Nityagopal saying to the devotees that his spiritual condition is very beautiful, and then continues:—

Regulations of a Sannyasin's life.

(To Nityagopal) "Don't you go there often; go only on rare occasions. You must be careful, for though she may be a devotee, she is woman!

"Very strict are the regulations of the life of a Sannyasin. He must not look at a woman even in a picture! This does not apply to the householder.

"Even if a woman is a great devotee, a man should not associate with her.

"And though a Tyagi^* may have complete self-control, as an example to society he must observe all these restrictions.

"The life of perfect renunciation led by the Sannyasin will teach others to renounce. If he falters they also will be degraded. For the Sannyasin is the teacher of the world."

Now the Master and the devotees go out and walk about. M. stands before the picture of Prahlada, looking intently at it, for as the Master has said, he is an example of Reasonless Love!

^* A man who has renounced the world.