← Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Vol. II

CHAPTER XXI.

THE HOUSE OF DEVENDRA,—APRIL, 1885

I.

It is long past the appointed hour of 3 P. M. on the 6th day of the month of April, 1885. The sun is shining fiercely. The Master has come to see his devotees in Calcutta and pay a visit to the house of Devendra at Nimoo Goswami Lane. He is sitting in Balaram's parlour with a few devotees, conversing with M.

Our Master is in a perpetual intoxication of Divine Love, ever in the raptures of God-absorption! Though completely detached from the external world, his mind yet harbours an eager solicitude for his Antaranga disciples, that they may discover their real identities. Like a father eagerly toiling for the proper bringing up of his children, or like a bird intently working all day long for its offspring, his mind is ever yearning for his disciples!

Sri Ramakrishna: (to M.) I promised I would come at three, so I had to come. But the sun is blazing.

M.: Yes, sir, you have suffered much.

The devotees are fanning him.

Sri Ramakrishna: I have come for Chhota Naren and Baburam. Why did you not bring Purna?

M.: He does not like to come into the assembly. He fears that you will praise him before all, and his people will know of his coming here.

Sri Ramakrishna: True, but I won't do it any more. Well, it is very nice of you to teach religion to Purna.

M.: Besides, it is mentioned in the book of Vidyasagar himself^* that one should love God with all his heart and soul. It can not be helped if the authorities are displeased with such teaching.

Mere writers and true teachers.

Sri Ramakrishna: Yes, their books contain many such things, but the writers themselves cannot grasp and assimilate what they teach. Only the society of spiritual men makes such assimilation possible. Only when a Sannyasin, who has truly renounced, imparts religious instruction, do men pay heed to it. A mere scholar's writings or sermons cannot make such deep impressions on men's minds. Suppose a doctor, having a pot of molasses standing by his side, advises his patient not to take molasses; will the patient observe his injunction strictly? Well, what do you think of the spiritual condition of Purna? Does he experience any Bhava^†?

M.: Apparently not; there is no external manifestation of ecstasy. One day I told him that parable of yours.

^* 'Poetical Selections' by Iswar Ch. Vidyasagar, was a prescribed text in the school where M. taught and Purna studied.

^† A state of ecstasy in which the mind loses itself in God-consciousness.

Sri Ramakrishna: Which one?

M.: What you narrated the other day: A small 'receptacle' cannot control and conceal ecstatic moods, but a large 'receptacle,' though experiencing the deepest moods of Divine ecstasy, does not allow them to be manifest outside. You said that if an elephant enters the waters of a lake, the waters do not show the slightest agitation, but if it descends into a pool, they are violently ruffled and agitated and overflow the banks.

Sri Ramakrishna: His Bhava will not be manifest outwardly,—he belongs to a different stock. His other signs are also auspicious,—what do you think?

M.: His eyes are very bright and prominent.

Sri Ramakrishna: Mere brightness will not do; godly eyes are different. Say, did you ask him how he feels after that?^†

M.: Yes sir, I had a talk with him. He has been telling me for the last five days that, whenever he thinks of God or utters His name, tears flow from his eyes and the hairs of his body stand on end.

Sri Ramakrishna: Oh, then it is all right!

After a short pause, M. says, "He is waiting."

Sri Ramakrishna: Who?

M.: Purna. He is perhaps waiting at the gate of his house. And if any of us go there he will run up and salute us and then go back.

^† That is, after Purna's meeting with the Master.

Sri Ramakrishna: Ah! Ah!

The Master is reclining on a bolster. M. has brought with him a twelve-year-old boy of his school, named Kshirode.

M.: (to the Master) This is a very nice boy; he takes great delight in the words of God.

Sri Ramakrishna: (smiling) His eyes are like a deer's.

The boy touches the holy feet of the Master and bows low to the ground before him, and very devotedly shampoos his feet.

Sri Ramakrishna: Rakhal is now staying at home. He is also not having good health: he is suffering from a boil. I am told he is going to have a child.

Paltu and Binode are seated in front of the Master. Sri Ramakrishna smilingly asks the former, "What did you say to your father? (To M.) He made a retort to his father about his coming here. (To Paltu) What did you say?"

Paltu: I said, 'Yes, I go to him; is that wrong?' [Master and M. laugh.] I'll tell him more, if necessary!

Sri Ramakrishna: (smilingly to M.) Don't. What do you say,—should he go so far?

M.: No, sir, that will be too much. [Master laughs.]

Sri Ramakrishna: (to Binode) How are you? Why did you not go there^*?

Binode: I thought of going, but I was afraid of a relapse,—I have been ill and am not doing well.

^* i. e., to the Master, at Dakshineswar.

Sri Ramakrishna: Why not come with me there? The air is very pure and you will recover easily.

Chhota Naren has come. He follows the Master with a towel and will pour water for him to wash his face. M. also follows him. Ch. Naren washes the feet of the Master as he sits in the northern corner of the western veranda. Says Sri Ramakrishna to M., "Very hot!"

M.: Yes, sir.

Sri Ramakrishna: How do you live in such a small house? is it not very hot up-stairs?

M.: Yes, sir, it is.

Sri Ramakrishna: Moreover, your wife is suffering from brain complaint; keep her in a cool place.

Sri Ramakrishna: Yes, sir, I have asked her to sleep in a room downstairs.

The Master returns to the parlour and asks M. why he did not go to Dakshineswar last Sunday.

M.: There is no one else to look after my wife, and she is suffering from brain complaint.

The Master is now in a carriage on the way to Devendra's house with Ch. Naren, M. and a few other devotees. He is full of the thoughts of Purna. He says to M., "A very large 'receptacle'! Or how could he make me do japam for him? But he does not know all that!"

The devotees are astonished to hear that the Master did Japam for Purna!

Sri Ramakrishna: You could have brought him here to-day. Why did you not?

Seeing Ch. Naren laugh, the Master himself is laughing and all the devotees join in the laughter. The Master joyously points to Ch. Naren and says, "Look, look! how innocently he laughs, as if he knows nothing! But his mind is quite free of all those three—'land,' 'wife' and 'rupee.' Indeed, until the last trace of Kamini-Kanchana has vanished from the mind, one cannot realise God."

Once at Dakshineswar, the Master said to Devendra, "I am thinking of going to your home some day." Devendra replied, "I also have come to-day to beg the same favour from you. You will have to come on the next Sunday." The Master agreed, but he said, "Your income is small; do not invite too many people. The carriage-hire also will run to a good amount." Devendra laughingly said, "What though my income is small? 'One can run into debt for eating clarified butter!'"^* On hearing this, the Master laughed for a long time.

In a short while, the Master arrives at Devendra's house, and cautions him, "Devendra, do not make any elaborate arrangements for my entertainment: a little refreshment will do; I am not very well to-day."

II.

The Master is sitting in Devendra's drawing room on the ground floor of his house, surrounded by the joyous assembly of his devotees. It is past evening, and the room is well lighted. Ch. Naren, Ram, M., Girish, Devendra, Akshay, Upendra and many other devotees are squatting near the Master. Looking at a boy disciple, he is filled with great joy. He says, "He has not the least trace of those three things that bind man to the world,—'land,' 'money' and 'wife'!^* If our mind is attached to them, it cannot be fixed in God. He had a vision, too! (To the disciple) Tell us what you saw!"

^* This is a maxim ascribed to the materialistic school of Hindu philosophy.

Disciple: (with a smile) I saw heaps of dirt with some men sitting on them and others sitting at a short distance!

Sri Ramakrishna: He saw the condition of the worldly people who are forgetful of God. And thus it is that all these desires are vanishing from his mind! And if the mind is detached from Kamini-Kanchana, what need one fear any more?

"Oh! how strange! I myself had to practise Japam and meditation for a long time before I could get rid of them! How is it that these have left his mind so quickly? And is it so easy for lust to go? Even I felt a queer sensation in my heart after six months! I then threw myself on the ground under a tree and cried out, 'Mother, if it comes to that, I will cut my throat with a knife!'

^* That is to say, desire for land, money and wife.

"When Kamini-Kanchana leaves the mind, what remains? Only Brahmananda, the Bliss of God, remains!"

Shashi, a student of the third year class of Vidyasagar's College, has been recently paying visits to the Master. The Master refers to him, saying, "That boy comes to me: I have noticed that his mind will sometimes think of money. But there are some whose minds will never do it! And some of the boys will never marry!"

The devotees silently listen.

Sri Ramakrishna: It is indeed extremely difficult to recognise the Divine Incarnation until and unless Kamini-Kanchana has totally vanished from the mind. A seller of egg-apples, on being asked the value of a diamond, said, 'I can offer only nine seers of egg-apples in exchange,—not a single fruit more.'

All the devotees laugh out to hear this, and Ch. Naren laughs the loudest. The Master finds that he has caught the meaning in a flash, and remarks to the other devotees, "How keen is his intellect! Nengta^* also could intuitively understand everything,—Gita, Bhagavatam or any other Scriptures.

"This is certainly a wonderful thing, the renunciation of Kamini-Kanchana from boyhood! It falls to the lot of few. Otherwise, it is as though the mango had been stained by hails and can neither be offered to God nor be eaten by oneself.

^* Nengta ('The naked one') is the designation the Master applied to his Guru, Totapuri.

"There are men who did many sins in their early years; but in their old age they are taking the name of the Lord;—this is certainly better than nothing.

Sincere repentance.

"The mother of a certain Mallik, belonging to a very noble family, one day asked me about the prostitutes, whether or not they can attain salvation. She herself had done many ugly things in the past, so she put that question to me. I said, 'Yes, they will have salvation, if they weep from the bottom of their soul and vow that they will not do such things any more.' What will it avail if you merely repeat the Lord's name? Your tears must be sincere!"

III.

Now begins the Kirtan with the play of Khol and cymbals, and the Kirtaniya^* sings:

"Oh, how can I tell you what a vision greeted my eyes at Bharati's hut! It beamed with celestial light,—the golden form of Sri Gouranga; and love flowed in a hundred streams from his eyes!'

"Yea, love has made him mad, and, like a mad elephannt, he sings and dances and rolls on the earth, bathing his heart with tears! In tears he sings the name of the Lord with a lion's mighty voice, a voice that fills heaven and earth with its triumphant roars! And again, in the lowliest spirit, he holds the grass-blade in his teeth,^† and begs with folded hands at every door to be released from this service of Love!

^* A professional singer of Kirtan.

^† This is a sign of submission.

"Lo! having shorn his lovely locks, how he has taken the mendicant's rags! Ah! such devotion, such love!—the sight has melted my heart. The untold agonies of men have made him give up his all, that he may bestow his Love on them! Oh that Premadas may surrender himself at Gouranga's blessed feet, and wander, his servant, from door to door!"

The song has filled the Master with ecstasy. The Kirtaniya again sings, describing the state of the Shepherdesses of Braja when they were forsaken by Sri Krishna, and were searching for their Beloved in a grove of Madhavi creepers^*,—

"O Madhavi, give me my Sweet One! O give Him, give Him, to me! He is mine, give Him back, and make me forever thy grateful slave!

"Knowest thou, not, He is my very soul, that I cannot live without Him, even as the fish cannot live out of water? Him, thou hast concealed, O Madhavi!

"I am but a timid, guileless girl, so thou hast cheated me of my Beloved! Lo, I die without my Sweet One! Look, Madhavi! I die without seeing my Sweet One!"

To which Sri Ramakrishna adds:

"How far is Mathura, where lives the Lord of my soul?"

Sri Ramakrishna has fallen into Samadhi; his body is absolutely motionless. When after a long time, he comes down to the normal plane, he is still rapt in an intense mood, and talks alternately with the devotees and the Divine Mother!

Sri Ramakrishna: Mother, draw him to Thee; I can worry myself no more!

"(To M.) My mind is a little inclined towards your brother-in-law.

"(To Girish) You say many abusive and indecent things,—but that does not matter; it is better they come out. Some have this disease of using abusive language,—the more it seeks an outlet, the better!

^* A spring-creeper with sweet fragrant flowers.

"There is a good deal of fuss when the Upadhis^* are destroyed: the wood crackles when it burns, but the sound stops when the burning is over.

"Daily you will grow purer and purer! Daily you will make greater and greater progress! And men will wonder at you!

"I may not come many more times, but no matter; you will realise yourself."

The Master's rapturous mood is deepening again. He converses with the Mother: "O Mother, what credit is there in making a good man better? O Mother, what is the use of killing a man who is already dead? If Thou canst kill him who still stands erect,—then that will be Thy greatness!"

After a short pause, he suddenly exclaims, "I have come here from Dakshineswar. I go, O Mother!" as if a little child were responding to his mother calling from a distance! He again relapses into Samadhi and remains absolutely still!

The Master mutters out, "I won't eat luchi." A few Goswamis of the neighbourhood come to see the Master. They depart.

IV.

The Master is cheerfully talking with his devotees. It is the month of April, and it is very hot in Calcutta. Devendra has made a nice preparation of ice-cream with which he now entertains the Master and the devotees.

^* 'Limiting adjuncts.'

The Master's child-like delight knows no bounds at the ice-cream. The devotees also are highly delighted with it, and Mani says in a low voice, "Encore! Encore!"—this makes them all burst into laughter.

Sri Ramakrishna: We have had a nice Kirtan! It well describes the condition of the Gopis—'O Madhavi, give me my Sweet One!'

"The state of the Gopis is the state of love-madness. How wonderful! They are mad for Krishna!"

One devotee points to another, saying, "His is Sakhibhava,—the Bhava of the copis."

Ram: He has both the Bhavas,—Madhura Bhava, as well as the stern outlook of Jnana.

Sri Ramakrishna: What is it?

The Master then talks about Surendra.

Ram: I sent him word, but he is not come.

Sri Ramakrishna: He gets too tired after office work.

A Devotee: Ram Babu is writing about you.

Sri Ramakrishna: (smiling) What is he writing?

Devotee: His subject is 'The Devotion of the Paramahamsa'.

Sri Ramakrishna: Oh! Then Ram will have great fame!

Girish: (smiling) That is because he is your disciple.

Sri Ramakrishna: I have no disciples. I am the servant of the servant of Rama!

A few gentlemen of the Lane come to see the Master. But the Master is not pleased with them. He says, "What a place is this! I find none here!"

Devendra now takes him into the inner apartments and entertains him with refreshments. When the Master returns to the drawing room, Upendra and Akshay shampoo his feet. The Master says in praise of the ladies of the house, "Very nice ladies! They come from the village, so they are very devout!"

The Master begins singing. Who can measure the depth of his superhuman moods? Is it the joyful recollection of his own moods that flows out in sweet music? He sings:

"Who will know the Divine Man till he has become the same himself.

* * * *

"Stand, Darvesh, with thy blessed bowl! Let me gaze at thy heavenly face!"

* * * *

"A Fakir^* has come to us,—ever absorbed in moods Divine! He is the Thakur^‡ of the Hindoos and the Pir^§ of the Mussalmans!'

Devendra takes the Master to his carriage. It is on its way to Dakshineswar. The Master says to M., "I have taken a good deal of kulpi^†. Will you bring four or five of them for me? . . My mind is being attracted towards these boys,—Chhota Naren, Purna and your brother-in-law."

M.: Dwija?

Sri Ramakrishna: No; Dwija is all right,—my mind is going towards the elder one.

^* Mendicant.

‡ The object of worship.

§ A Saint.

^† An ice-cream preparation in a conical tin tube.