← Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Vol. II

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE SHYAMPUKUR HOUSE,—OCTOBER, 1885

I.

The Master is staying in the Shyampukur house for treatment.

It is 10 A. M. on Friday, the 23rd of Oct., 1885, the day of the full moon, following the autumn festival of the Divine Mother.

M. is helping the Master with his socks. The Master smilingly asks, "May I not divide the comforter and wear it as a sock? It is so warm!" M. smiles.

Sri Ramakrishna refers laughingly to a long conversation he had with Dr. Sircar last night and observes, "How I told him, to say, 'Tuhu, Tuhu^*'!"

Chhota Naren reminds him how he told the Doctor that, although men suffer so terribly in the world, they still think that they are quite happy. Their fingers are lacerated by thorns and bleed profusely, yet they affirm that the fingers are quite safe. These thorns will have to be burnt to ashes in the fire of Knowledge. He then remarks, "That was a nice observation you made last night about the thorn and its destruction in the fire of Knowledge."

^* The reference is to the Master's parable of the calf which cries, 'Ham hai,' i. e., 'I am,' and at last learns through suffering to say, 'Tuhu,' i. e., 'Thou art.'

Sri Ramakrishna: I used to have the actual realisation of these things. One day, as I was passing behind 'the Kuthi', my whole body burst into flames like the fire of oblation!

"Padmalochan told me that he would invite an assembly of Pandits and declare my spiritual realisations, but he died shortly afterwards."

At eleven o'clock, Mani goes to Dr. Sircar to report the condition of the Master. The Doctor evinces an eager delight in learning more about the Master and says laughingly, "Did you notice how I told him that in order that one may say, 'Tuhu, Tuhu,' one must fall into the hands of a cotton-carder?"

Mani: Yes, you are right. One cannot be rid of egoism unless he falls into the hands of a capable teacher. How nicely he spoke last night of Bhakti as being like a woman and privileged to enter 'the inner apartments'!

Doctor: Yes, that is a nice saying. But yet one cannot discard knowledge.

Mani: Paramahamsadeva does not say that. He accepts both Jnana and Bhakti, both Nirakara and Sakara.—Under the cooling influence of Bhakti, a portion of 'the water' freezes into ice, but when the Sun of Knowledge shines, the ice melts into water again. That is to say through Bhakti Yoga you realise Him as Sakara and through Jnana Yoga, as Nirakara.

"And you see, he feels God so near and close to him that he always converses with Him. Like a little child, he complains to Him of his suffering.

"What a power of observation! He saw a specimen of a fossil in the Museum. This at once suggested to him a simile for the society of holy men: An object becomes a fossil by being near a stone; even so man becomes holy by keeping the company of holy men."

Doctor: Ishan Babu talked of Avatara. What is Avatara,—to look upon man as God!

Mani: What is the use of interfering with others' faith?

Doctor: Yes, what use?

Mani: How he made us laugh when he said that a certain man refused to believe that a house had collapsed, although he himself saw it, because the event was not mentioned in the newspaper!

The Doctor remains silent, for the Master had said to him, "Your science does not speak of Divine Incarnation; therefore there can be no Divine Incarnation!"

At twelve o'clock, the Doctor gets into his carriage with Mani. He will visit some of his patients before going to the Master.

The other night, at the invitation of Girish he attended the performance of 'Buddhaleela'. He says to Mani, "Why did he represent Buddha as the Incarnation of Vishnu? He had better have called him the Incarnation of Compassion."

The Doctor sets down Mani at the corner of Cornwallis Square.

II.

3 P. M. A few devotees are sitting in the Master's room. He has become impatient for the Doctor and is repeatedly asking, "When will he come?" "What is the time now?" But to-day the Doctor is due only after evening.

A sudden change has come over the Master: he has become verily like a little boy!

He is sitting with a pillow in his lap as if caressing and suckling a child with great affection! Absorbed in an ecstatic mood, his face is lit up with a child-like smile; and he has worn his cloth in an unusual fashion.

Mani and other disciples witness this in silent wonder!

The Master regains his normal mood after some time. It is time he takes his diet and he is given a little Suji^*.

He reveals a great mystery to Mani. He says: "Do you know what I saw in my trance?

The Master's superconscious experiences.

In a field, extending over seven or eight miles, through which lay the way to Shihor, I saw myself walking alone, looking exactly like the sixteen-year-old Paramahamsa boy of whom I had a vision in the Panchavati. A mist of joy lay all around, and out of it peered the face of a boy of about fourteen years. Both of us were completely nude, and we played and ran in the field in great joy. After some time we felt thirsty. He drank from a tumbler and offered me the remaining water. I said, 'No, brother, I cannot take your leavings.' He laughed and washed the tumbler and brought me a fresh glass of water."

^* A sort of pudding made of powdered wheat boiled in milk.

The Master is again plunged into Samadhi!

After some time he comes down to the normal plane and says to Mani, "A change is coming on me!—I may no longer take the sacramental food! The Real and the Appearance are becoming one to me!

"Do you know what I saw now? A Divine vision, the vision of the Divine Mother! She appeared with a child in the womb, which She brought forth and swallowed up the next instant. And as much of it as went into Her mouth became void! She shewed me that 'all is void'! And She said by these actions, as it were, 'Come confusion, come delusion, come!'"

This reminds Mani of a saying of the Master that the 'magician' alone is real and everything else is unreal.

Sri Ramakrishna: Well, how is it that the other time when I attracted Purna, I failed? This weakens my faith a little.

Mani: But that is working a miracle!

Sri Ramakrishna: A downright miracle!

Mani: Do you remember that day when we were returning to Dakshineswar in a carriage with you from Adhar Sen's and a bottle was broken? Some one said to you then, 'Is there any harm done? You please see to it.' And you replied, 'I care precious little for seeing to it,—that would be miracle-mongering!'

Sri Ramakrishna: Yes. Thus people lay down ailing children on the ground where men are chanting the praise of God, that they may be cured; or people cure disease through psychical powers,—all this is miracle-making. Only they whose spiritual outlook is low and narrow pray to God for the healing of disease.

III.

It is evening. Sri Ramakrishna is seated on the bed, thinking of the Mother and repeating Her blessed names. Many of the devotees are sitting in silence near him.

After some time Dr. Sircar makes his appearance in the Master's room. Sashi, Sarat, Ch. Naren, Paltu, Bhupati, and Girish are among the devotees in attendance. Sj. Ramtaran of the Star Theatre has come with Girish, to entertain the Master with his songs.

Doctor: (to the Master) Last night at three, I became very anxious for you. It began to rain and I feared your doors might have been left open.

The Master is much pleased at Doctor's solicitude for him and says, "Really?

Perception of body and soul as separate entities.

"So long as the body exists, it must be taken care of. But I find that it is quite separate from the Self. When we can completely shake off our infatuation for Kamini-Kanchana, we clearly perceive that the body is quite separate from the Soul. When the milk of a cocoanut dries up, the kernel comes off the shell, and it rattles as you shake it. It is just like a sheathed sword; the sheath is quite separate from the sword. That is why I cannot pray to Her for the cure of my physical illness."

Girish: (to the devotees) Pandit Sashadhar advised him to bring his mind, while in the Samadhi state, to bear on the body, in order to cure the disease. But the Master found, in one of his visions, that the body was a mere loose mass of flesh and bones.

Sri Ramakrishna: Once long ago, I was seriously ill. One day, as I was sitting within the Kali temple, I felt a desire to pray to the Mother for help. But I could not ask directly in my own name. I said, 'Mother, Hride asked me to tell you about my illness.' Before I could say more, the image of a human skeleton linked up with wire, the one I had seen in the Society, flashed into my mind. I at once said, 'Mother, only join the parts of my body with wire links like that, that I may move about, singing Thy name and praise.'

"I should not ask for a miracle. . . ."

Ramtaran is singing:

"Lo, my Vina^*, dearly beloved, sweet-tuned wreath of strings! If you love it, you can wake the strings to sweetest melodies.

"Tune the Vina neither low nor high, and I will make sweetness flow in a hundred streams. But the string o'erslack is dumb and music dies; and the string o'erstretched breaks, and music flies!"

He sings from 'Buddha-charita,'—

"We moan for rest, but rest can never find; and know not whence we come nor whither float away. Again and again, we go the round of smiles and tears, and pine to know whither life doth fly away. . . . .

"Burst our slumbers' bars, O Thou that art awake,—how long shall we lie tangled in Dream's meshes? Lo! thick lies the pall of blinding gloom, fraught with a million woes!—Rise, O dreamer; slumber not again.

"Shine forth, O Shining One, killing the blinding dark with Thy shafts of light. Thou art our only deliverer: At Thy feet we seek our deliverance."

Listening to the song, the Master has gone into ecstasy.

Ramtaran sings again:

"Blow storm, rage and roar! etc., etc."

When he has finished, the Master remarks, "What is this—you serve bitters after pudding? The moment you sang, 'Shine forth, O Shining One, kill the blinding dark with Thy shafts of light,' I saw the vision of the Sun rising, at once darkness vanished from all the world and everyone surrendered himself at His feet!"

^* A stringed instrument.

Ramtaran sings again:

"O Mother, Thou art the deliverer of the meek, and the redeemer of our sins. The three Gunas abide in Thee. Thou dost create and protect and destroy in turn. Thou bindest Thyself with attributes and transcendest them as well. Yea, Thou art the all and the whole."

And again:

"Dear friend, I fear my religion is at stake, and my worship of the Mother will remain undone. The mind defies all control,—oh shame, great shame!

"I try to meditate on the Mother with Her sword in hand and garland of human heads. But it is the Dark One, with His garland of wild flowers, playing the flute with His tempting lips that shines before my eyes. I think of the Mother with Her three eyes, but I see only Him with His arch looks, and it makes me forget all!

"I try to offer flowers at the feet of the Mother, but the ravishing thought of His lissom form unsteadies me. And my meditations of the naked Mother are drawn away by the rising vision of His yellow scarf!"

This song fills the Master with rapture. And the singing goes on:

"O Mother, who has offered all these red hybiscus flowers Thy feet? etc., etc."

IV.

The singing has ceased. A tense atmosphere fills the room: most of the devotees are sitting absorbed in a rapturous silence. Ch. Naren is meditating, totally unconscious of the external world, blissful and calm.

Pointing him out to the Doctor, the Master says, "He is very pure. His mind is not the least stained by worldliness." The Doctor carefully observes him.

Manomohan: (smilingly to the Doctor) He says of your son that if he gets him, he does not care for the father.

Doctor: So you see! That is why I say that you become wholly involved in the 'son'^*.

Sri Ramakrishna: (smiling) I do not say that I do not want the father.

Doctor: Yes, I understand you.

Sri Ramakrishna: Your boy is very simple. Shambhu became red in the face as he said, 'If I sincerely pray to God, He must respond to my prayers!'

"Why do I love the boys so dearly? Because they are like unadulterated milk; a little boiling is only needed and it can then be offered to the Deity. But adulterated milk requires boiling for a long time, and a large quantity of fuel is consumed.

Why the Master loves the boys.

"The boys are like fresh earthen pots,—good vessels in which milk can be safely kept. Instruction soon rouses up their spiritual consciousness. But the worldly people cannot be awakened so quickly. Milk cannot be kept without suspicion in a pot which has been previously used for curd; it may turn sour.

"Your boy is still free from worldliness. He is as yet untarnished by Kamini-Kanchana."

^* That is to say, forgetting God, and becoming engrossed in His Avatar or Bhakta.

Doctor: That is because he is living on his father's earnings. If he had to live by his own efforts, I could see how free he might keep himself.

Sri Ramakrishna: It may be true. But you must know that the Lord is far, far off, from worldliness. Otherwise He is within your palm!

"(To Drs. Sircar and Dokari) You are not required to renounce Kamini-Kanchna externally; you can renounce them mentally. So I said to the Goswamis, 'Why do you talk of renunciation? That will not do for you,—you have to attend to the daily worship of Shyama-sundara."

"But the Sannyasin must renounce externally: he must not see even the picture of a woman! To the Sannyasin, woman is verily like poison. He must stand at least ten cubits from her, or if that is not possible, at least one cubit. And he must not speak long with a woman, however, devout she may be. And he should so choose his residence that he may scarcely or never see the face of a woman!

"Money also is like poison to him. For money brings anxiety, pride, love of physical comforts and anger in its train. It inflames Rajas, and with Rajas comes Tamas. He therefore must not touch 'gold'; it leads men astray from God.

The duty of a householder.

"You will look upon money only as a means of getting food, clothing and shelter, of worshipping the Deity and serving Sadhus and devotees. But it is wrong to hoard it. Bees labour hard to build their hive, but man comes and robs it."

Doctor: Whom to hoard for?—For a wicked son, perchance!

Sri Ramakrishna: Wicked son! Perhaps your wife is unchaste: she has her secret lover and gives him your own watch and chain!

"You need not renounce woman completely. But when one or two children have been born you should live like brother and sister.

"It is the love of Kamini-Kanchana that begets pride of learning, pride of wealth and pride of position."

V.

Sri Ramakrishna: You cannot attain Knowledge till your egoism is destroyed. Water cannot stand on the top of a mound. But it flows in torrents into low land.

Doctor: But it is both pure and foul waters that accumulate in low land, even muddy and ditch water. But there are hollows also on mountain-tops, as in Nainital and Manasarovar, which contain only pure water of the sky.

Egoism incompatible with Knowledge.

Sri Ramakrishna: Water from the sky only—good!

Doctor: And from an elevated place water can be distributed on all sides.

Sri Ramakrishna: (smiling) A man was once granted a Siddha mantram^*. He went to the top of a hill and cried out, 'Repeat this Mantram and you will realise God.'

Doctor: Yes.

Sri Ramakrishna: But you must know that when one's soul thirsts after God, one forgets all difference between pure water and ditch water. To obtain the knowledge of God, he sometimes goes to good men, sometimes to imperfect men. But if the Lord is gracious the foul water cannot do him any harm. When He grants him His knowledge, He reveals to him what is good and what is evil.

"There may be hollows on the top of hills, but not on that of the 'wicked ego'! The pure water of the sky can accumulate only when it is the enlightened ego, or the ego of a devotee.

"True, you can distribute water on all sides from the top of an elevated land, but that is possible only from the hill of the enlightened ego.

"You cannot teach man without being ordained by God. Sankaracharya for the spiritual education of mankind retained his enlightened ego even after attaining the Supreme Knowledge. But to lecture without realising Him! What good will it do to man?

^* A Mantram by repeating which one is sure to attain God-realisation.

"I went to the Nandanbagan Brahmo Samaj. After service, some one delivered a lecture from the altar. The fellow had got it written at home. And as he read, he looked about. And while he meditated, he opened his eyes from time to time!

Folly of lecturing.

"He who has not seen God can never impart the right instructions. If he says one thing correctly, he errs in saying the next thing! Samadhyayi delivered a lecture; he said, 'God is beyond speech and mind, and is devoid of all bliss. Do you worship Him through the joy of your love and devotion.' See how he speaks of Him who is Bliss and Joy Itself! What good will this lecture do? Can such things ever edify mankind? A man once said, 'My uncle has got a cowshed full of horses.' Horses in a cow-shed! [Laughter.] That means there was no horse at all."

Doctor: (smiling) And also no cow. [Laughter.]

By this time the devotees who were rapt in ecstasy have regained their normal consciousness. The Doctor is highly pleased with them and inquires of M. who they are. M. introduces Paltu, Ch. Naren, Bhupati, Sarat, Sashi and other boy disciples. Of Sashi, M. says, "He is going to appear for the B.A. Examination." But the Doctor is inattentive. The Master calls his attention, saying, "Halloo listen to him."

Sri Ramakrishna: (pointing out M., to the Doctor) He instructs all the school-boys.

Doctor: Yes, I know.

Sri Ramakrishna: How wonderful! I am quite unlettered, yet all these learned men come here! What a wonder! I must say it is the play of God!

It is nine at night, the night of the autumnal full moon. The Doctor came here at six, and all the while he has been sitting here, witnessing this Divine sport!

Girish: (to Doctor) I say, do you ever feel that, though you do not intend to come here, you are drawn to this place by a secret force? Perchance I feel like that, therefore I ask you.

Doctor: No, I do not feel it. But the heart alone knows its own working. (To the Master) Besides, it is no use speaking it out.