← Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Vol. II

CHAPTER XV.

THE DAKSHINESWAR TEMPLE,—FEBRUARY, 1884

I.

Sunday, the 24th of February, 1884.

Sri Ramakrishna is enjoying his noonday repose; his left hand is still supported by a splint. M. enters and makes his salutation at the Master's holy feet and sits near Mani Mallik on the floor.

Sri Ramakrishna: (to M.) How did you come here?

M.: I came to Alambazar in a carriage and from there I walked to the garden.

Mani Mallik: Oh! he has heavily perspired!

Sri Ramakrishna: (laughingly) So I say, all this is not the figment of my brain, or why should these 'Englishmen^*' take so much pains to come here?

The talk turns on the Master's health and his broken hand. Says he, "I sometimes lose all patience, and show my hand to this and that man and ask, 'Tell me, will it be cured?'

"Rakhal gets angry—he does not understand my mood. Now and then I think he had better go away from here; but immediately I say to the Mother, 'Mother, where will he go? Where would he not suffer troubles and tribulations?'

"This child-like impatience of mine is nothing new. I would tell Sejo Babu to feel my pulse, and ask him petulantly, 'Do you think I am ill?'

^* 'Englishmen' is an epithet which the Master applied to those whose ways and modes of life were largely influenced by English ideas or who had received an English education.

"But where then is my faith in God? One day I was going to the country in a bullock cart, when some dacoit-like men with clubs in hand came to our cart. I began to repeat the Holy Names Now I repeated the name of Rama, now of Durga, and again, 'Om Tat Sat,' so that if one failed, another might fit in! (To M.) Well, why am I so impatient?"

M.: You are always in the superconscious state; you have retained only a small part of your mind on the body, for the sake of the Bhaktas. That is why you sometimes become impatient for the safety of your body.

Sri Ramakrishna: Yes, a little of my mind is indeed attached to the body and so desires to live with Bhakti and the Bhaktas.

Mani Mallik is speaking of the Exhibition in the Calcutta Maiden, where a very beautiful image of Yashoda with the Child Krishna on her lap is being exhibited. This draws tears from the Master's eyes. The very mention of the name has filled his heart with the consciousness of Yashoda, who is the very embodiment of maternal love, and he is crying.

Manilal: You are ill, or you could go to see it.

Sri Ramakrishna: If I go, I won't be able to see all. Perhaps I should see some- thing and become unconscious and other things would remain unvisited.

"They took me to the Zoological Garden. But at the very sight of the lion, I went into Samadhi,—the sight of the Mother's vehicle filled me with an intense consciousness of the Mother Herself! Who cared to see other animals? So I finished my visit with seeing the lion and came back.

"For that reason Jadu Mallik's mother says sometimes, that she will take me to the Exhibition, and at other times she refuses."

Mani Mallik is an old Brahmo, nearly sixty-five years old. The Master instructs him according to his mood.

Sri Ramakrishna: Pandit Jayanarayan was very liberal. When I visited him, I found him a man of nice religious conceptions. His sons were all wearing boots. But he said, 'I shall retire to Benares.' And he did as he said; he lived and died in Benares.

"It is very good to retire from the world like that when one becomes old, and think of the Lord. What do you say?"

Manilal: Yes, the troubles of the world are unbearable.

Sri Ramakrishna: Gauri used to worship his wife with flower-offerings. Every woman is indeed an embodiment of the Mother Herself. (To Manilal) Just tell him that little story of yours.

The supreme quest of life

Manilal: (Smiling) Some men were crossing a river in a boat. One of them was a great scholar, and to display his learning, he said, 'I have read various Scriptures, the Vedas, the Vedanta, and the six systems of philosophy. And he asked one man, 'Have you studied the Vedanta?' He replied, 'No.' "Do you know the Sankhya and the Patanjal philosophies?' 'No, sir.' 'So you have studied no philosophy?' 'No sir.' Thus the Pandit talked on proudly and the other man sat silent. Soon after a great storm arose and the boat began to sink. Then said the man to the Pandit, 'Panditji, can you swim?' The Pandit confessed he did not know how. The man rejoined, 'I do not know your Sankhya and Patanjal, but I do know how to swim.'

Sri Ramakrishna: (Smilingly) What will it profit even if you know the various Scriptures? The one thing needful is to know how to cross the river of the world. God alone is real, everything else is unreal.

"When Arjuna aimed his arrow at the mark, Dronacharya asked him, 'What do you see? Do you see these kings?' Arjuna replied, 'No.' 'Do you see me?' 'No.' 'Do you see the tree?' 'No.' 'Do you see the bird on the tree?' 'No.' 'What do you see then?' 'I see only the eye of the bird.'

"And he alone can hit the mark who sees only the eye of the bird.

"He alone is clever who sees that God is the only reality.

"Said Hanuman, 'I know neither the phases of the moon nor the position of the stars; I think of Rama alone.'

"(To M.) Buy a few fans for use here.

"(To Manilal) Look here, go to his^* father once. The sight of a devotee will be inspiring."

II.

The Master is sitting on his cot. Manilal and other devotees are seated on the floor listening to the words of Divine Wisdom that drop from his hallowed lips. Says the Master to M., "Since the fracture of my hand, a deep change has come over me. I feel highly inclined to 'Naralila.'

"Nitya and Lila:—Nitya is the Undivided Existence - Knowledge - Bliss. And Lila, or sport, takes various forms, such as Lila as God, Lila as gods, Lila as man, Lila as the creation.

"Vaishnav-Charan used to tell me that Perfect Knowledge comes only with faith in 'Naralila'. I did not believe him then, but now I find it all true. Of man's pictures he used to prefer those which expressed soft feelings, feelings of love.

Naralila.

"To Manilal) It is God Himself who is sporting in the forms of men. He Himself has become Mani Mallik.

^* That is to say, M.'s.

"The Sikhs teach, 'Thou art Sachchidananda.'

"Man sometimes catches a glimpse of his real Self, and then he is overcome with mute wonder and his joy knows no bounds, as if he had met a dear one all on a sudden!

"(To M.) It is just as I felt the other day on seeing Baburam, when I was coming in a carriage; you were with me then.

"When Siva sees His real Self, He exclaims, 'What am I?' 'What am I?' and dances!

"It is written in the Adhyatma^*. Narada said, 'O Rama, all men are thine own selves, and it is Sita who has become all women.

"All those who acted in the Ramlila appeared to me as Narayana Himself assuming those human forms. The real and the imitation appeared as one.

"Why do men worship virgins? Because women are so many images of the Mother, and She manifests Herself in the greatest measure in a pure-hearted virgin.

"(To M.) Why do I lose all patience when I am ill? Because She has put me in the state of the child, and the child depends in every way on its mother.

"When the child of a maid-servant quarrels with her master's child, it says, 'I'll tell my mother.'

^* i.e., Adhyatma Ramayanam.

"They took me to Radhabazar to have me photographed and it was arranged that we would that day call at Rajendra Mitra's, where Keshab Sen and others were also to come. And I resolved I would tell them certain things. But when I reached Radhabazar, I totally forgot everything! Then I said, 'Mother, is Thou who wilt say! What shall I say?'

"Mine is not the nature of the Jnani. He considers himself great, and says, 'I, to have disease!'

"Koar Singh said to me, 'You still think of your body!'

The Master on himself.

"My nature is to believe that my Mother knows everything. It is She who spoke at Rajendra Mitra's. And that speech indeed is the true speech! One single ray of the knowledge of Saraswati can confound a thousand scholars!

"She has placed me in the state of a Bhakta, of a Vijnani. Hence it is that I can joke and make fun with Rakhal and others. Had I been in the condition of a Jnani, that would not have been possible.

"In this condition of mine I see that Mother Herself has become all this. I see Her everywhere.

"In the Kali temple, I found that Mother has become even the wicked—even the brother of the Bhagavat Pandit!^*

"I failed when I essayed to rebuke Ramlal's mother. I found she was Mother in another form. It is because I find the Mother in the maidens that I worship them.

"My wife strokes my feet, but I salute her afterwards.

"You touch my feet by way of salutation, but had Hride been here, who would have dared to touch my feet? He would never have allowed it.

"And because I am placed in such a condition, I have to return your salutes.

"You see, I cannot ignore even a wicked man. A Tulasi leaf, however dry or small, can be offered to the Deity!"

^* This, of course, is an allusion to a certain man known to the Master.