CHAPTER XXV.

THE COSSIPORE GARDEN,—DECEMBER, 1885

The Master is staying in the Cossipore Garden. His illness has taken a serious turn. But he is ever thinking of the welfare of his disciples. It is always one or another of them that is engaging his solicitious thoughts.

It is evening of Wednesday, the 23rd of December, 1885. Twelve days ago, on Friday the 11th of December, the Master removed from the Shyampukur house to the present place. The boy disciples have begun, one by one, to remain permanently in the garden to nurse the Master, though some of them have still to come from their homes. The householder disciples come here to see him almost every day and sometimes spend the night.

Nearly all the disciples have by this time come to know the Master. It was in 1881 that the first group of disciples came. By the end of 1884, Sarat and Sashi became known to the Master, and after their college examination in the middle of 1885, they have been frequently visiting him. The first meeting of Girish with the Master occurred at the Star Theatre, in September, 1884. Since the beginning of the following December he has been regularly visiting Sri Ramakrishna. And it was during the latter part of December of the same year that Sarada first came in contact with the Master in the Dakshineswar Temple. Subodh and Kshirode joined him in August, 1885.

This morning there was a wondrous manifestation of the Master's love. He said to Niranjan, "Thou art my father; I shall sit on thy lap." He touched Kalipada over the heart and said, "Awake!" and affectionately stroked his chin, saying, "Whoever has sincerely prayed to God, or done his daily worship, must come here!" Two lady devotees also received his blessing: he fell into Samadhi and touched their heart with his feet and they burst into tears of joy. His love veritably overflowed to-day! He wanted to bless Gopal of Sinti and said, "Call him to me."

It is evening. The Master is thinking of the Divine Mother. A while after he speaks with a few devotees; but his voice is very low. Kali, Chunilal, M., Navagopal, Sashi and Niranjan are in attendance.

Sri Ramakrishna: (to M.) Buy a stool for this place. What will it cost?

M.: Between two and three rupees.

Sri Ramakrishna: If a small seat costs twelve annas why should a stool cost so much?

M.: It will not cost much.

Sri Ramakrishna: To-morrow is Thursday, inauspicious during the last hours of the day-time. Can you not come here before three?

M.: Yes, sir, I shall.

Sri Ramakrishhna: Well, how long will it take to cure this disease?

M.: The case is somewhat aggravated. It will take some days.

Sri Ramakrishna: How many?

M.: About six months.

The Master becomes very excited on hearing this. He says, "What do you say?"

M.: I mean, to cure completely.

Sri Ramakrishna: Say that! Well, how is it that in spite of all these divine visions, ecstasy and Samadhi, I still suffer from disease?

M.: Your suffering is no doubt great, but it has a deep meaning.

Sri Ramakrishna: What is it?

M.: A change will come over you,—your mind is inclining towards the formless aspect of God; even your illumined ego is vanishing.

The meaning of the Master's illness.

Sri Ramakrishna: Yes, my preaching is coming to an end,—I cannot teach any more. I see everything is Rama Himself! And sometimes I think, 'Whom shall I teach?'

"You see, it is because this house has been engaged that various kinds of devotees are coming here. I cannot have a sign-board put up, like Sashadhar or Krishna Prasanna Sen, to say that 'a lecture will be delivered at such and such an hour!'" [The Master and M. laugh.]

M.: There is yet another purpose, the choice of disciples. The devotees have achieved in these few days what they could not have done by five years' tapasya—they have achieved Sadhana, love and devotion.

Sri Ramakrishna: Yes, that is all right. But Niranjan went home!

"(To Niranjan) Tell me how you feel."

Niranjan: Formerly I loved you, no doubt, but now it is impossible to live without you!

M.: I once saw how great they are.

Sri Ramakrishna: Where?

M.: I stood in a corner of the Shyampukur house and said to myself: 'They have made their way here through innumerable barriers, and given themselves over to your service.'

These words fill the Master with ecstasy and he loses himself in Samadhi. When he regains his normal mood, he says to M., "I saw that everything was passing from Sakara to Nirakara! I wish I could tell you the other things, but I cannot!

"Well, this tendency of mine towards 'Nirakara' is only an indication of my nearing dissolution, is it not?"

M.: (wonderingly) It may be so!

Sri Ramakrishna: Even now I see that the Nirakara Akhanda Sachchidananda is posing in this way! . . . I have suppressed my emotions with a great effort!

"The choice of disciples which you spoke of is true. Now that I am ill, I can understand who are Antaranga and who are Bahiranga. Those who are living here, renouncing the world, are my Antaranga. And those who pay only occasional visits, to make formal inquiries about me, are Bahiranga. Did you not note Bhavanath? He came to Shyampukur dressed like a bridegroom and asked me how I was doing, and he did not come any more."

II.

Sri Ramakrishna: (to Mani) When the Lord incarnates Himself for the sake of His devotees many devotees also come with Him. Some of them are Antaranga, some are Bahiranga and others are Rasad-dars^*.

"I realised this state for the first time when I was ten or eleven years old, as I was once going through a field on my way to the shrine of Bishalakshi. What a vision it was! I at once lost my external consciousness.

"When I was about twenty-three years old, the Divine Mother asked me in the Kali temple, 'Dost thou want to be Akshara?' I did not know the meaning of Akshara! I asked Haladhari. He said, 'Kshara means Jiva and Akshara means Paramatman.'

^* Rasad-dar=A commissary.

The Master on himself.

"At the time of the evening service of the Temple, I would go to the terrace of the 'Kuthi' and cry out, 'O devotees, where are you? Come to me soon! I am dying in the company of the worldly-minded!'

"When I told all this to the 'Englishmen', they said it was mere hallucination. I believed them and consoled myself. But now it is all coming true! The devotees have all come!^*

"She also gave me a vision of the five Rasad-dars. First, Sejo Babu appeared. Next, Shambhu Mallik,—I had never seen him before; but I had had a vision in which I saw a fair-complexioned man with a cap on his head. When, long after, I met him for the first time, I remembered that it was he whom I had previously seen in my vision. I have not yet identified the other three. But they were all fair-complexioned. I think Surendra is something of a Rasad-dar.

"When I realised this state^†, a being, looking exactly like myself, came and thoroughly shook my Ida, Pingala and Sushumna nerves. He licked the 'lotuses' of the six 'centres' with his tongue, and the drooping lotuses at once turned their faces upwards! And at last the Sahasrara 'lotus' became full-bloomed!^*

^* The Master here refers to a revelation he had after the completion of his Sadhana, in which the Divine Mother assured him that many pure-hearted devotees would come to him and he would not have to suffer the painful company of the worldly-minded.

^† The state of God-consciousness, realised during the Sadhana period of his life.

"She would reveal to me the sort of men that would come. I saw with these eyes,—not in a superconscious vision—the Kirtan procession of Chaitanya-deva going from the Bat-tala towards the Vakul-tala. And in the congregation I saw Balaram and also, I think, you . . . . .

"I saw Sashi and Sarat amongst the followers of Rishi Krishna (Christ).

"I had the vision of a boy in the Bat-tala. Hride said, 'Then a son will be born to you.' I said, 'How can that be? To me every woman is Mother!' That boy is Rakhal!

"I said to Mother, 'Mother, if thou hast placed me in this condition, then send a rich man to me.' That is why Sejo Babu served me for fourteen long years. And in how many different ways! He made a separate storehouse for the service of the Sadhus. Carriage, palanquin, and whatever I asked him to give to any one, he gave! The Brahmani used to identify him as Pratap Rudra.^†

"Bijoy had a vision of this form^‡. How do you account for it? Bijoy said to me, 'I touched your form in the vision exactly as I can touch you.'

^* For 'lotuses' and 'six centres,' vide Raja Yoga by Swami Vivekananda.

^† The Brahmani was the spiritual preceptor of the Master. Raja Pratap Rudra, king of Orissa, was a most devoted follower of Sri Chaitanya and served him with the utmost care and faithfulness.

‡ That of the Master.

"Noto^* counted thirty-one disciples in all. That is not much! But then Bijoy and Kedar also are making some more.

"I was shown in a vision that I would have to live my last days on pudding. During my present illness, my wife was one day feeding me with pudding. I burst into tears and said, 'Is this living on pudding,—so painfully—near the end?'"

^* Noto or Latu, afterwards known as Swami Adbhutananda.