October 1882.
SECTION IV
October 1882.
STEAMER TRIP WITH KESHAB CHANDRA SEN, LEADER OF THE BRAHMO SAMAJ—THE NEO-THEISTIC MOVEMENT IN BENGAL
CHAPTER I
THE MASTER IN SAMADHI
This is the day when the Goddess1 of Wealth and Prosperity is worshipped in India. It is the full moon after Durga Puja; Friday, 27th October 1882. Sri Râmakrishna was seated in his room in the Temple-garden talking with Bejoy, Goswamy and Haralal. Some one came in and said 'Keshab Sen has come; he is on board-a-steamer which has just come up and stands before the Ghat.'
A short while and Keshab's disciples came in and bowed down before Sri Râmakrishna. They said, 'Sir, the steamer is here for you; Keshab Babu is on board, and has sent us to you with a request that you will kindly come on board and join him. You may be assured that you will enjoy the trip.'
It is just 4 o'clock. A boat takes the Master to the steamer. Bejoy is with him. Stepping into the boat Sri Râmakrishna loses all sense-consciousness! He is in Samadhi!
1 Lakshmi.
M. is on board the steamer. As the Master's boat is coming up, M. looks at the blessed sight—the picture of the Master with the senses stilled; motionless before the Blessed Vision that His soul is enjoying. M. came on board at about 3 o'clock. He is very eager to see the meeting between the Master and Keshab and witness the joy that is sure to come of such a meeting. He wishes very much to listen to their conversation. The mind of many a young man like M. has been captured, so to speak, by the saintly character of Keshab and by his unrivalled eloquence.
Indeed, many regarded Keshab as their own flesh and blood and had thus given him their hearts' love. Keshab has received an English education; he is well versed in English Philosophy and Literature; in the next place he has on different occasions called the Worship of Images by the name of 'idolatry.' It is certainly curious that such a man looks upon Sri Râmakrishna with reverence and admiration and visits him at the Temple off and on! It is a most interesting task for M. and others to find out the common ground on which they both meet.
The Master, indeed, holds that God is without form. He is thus at one with Keshab on this point, but he also holds that God is 'with form' too! He meditates upon God, the Absolute.1 At the same time He does not neglect to worship with flowers, incense and other offerings, the images with forms—manifest as Gods and Goddesses in the Hindu Pantheon. What is more, he sings and dances before them with the madness of the joy of the Lord. The Master unlike an ascetic lies down on a bed supported by a bedstead; the cloth that he puts on is red-bordered; He uses also coats and stockings and slippers. With all this he is not of the world. The signs of Him are all like those that mark out an ascetic from a householder; hence people call Him a Paramahamsa. On the other hand, Keshab holds that God is without form; he lives the life of a householder in the midst of his wife and children; he delivers lectures in English; he brings out a paper dealing with religious subjects; he does also attend in his own way to worldly affairs.
1 Brahman.
The boat has come alongside. Everybody is eager to see the Master. They crowd to the gangway. Keshab is anxious to see that he gets on board the steamer in safety.
It is with great difficulty that he is brought back to sense-consciousness once more in order to be taken inside the cabin on the upper deck. The state of Divine Ecstasy has not left him even now. He leans on a disciple as he is led into the room. He takes his steps mechanically, but His mind is fixed on God.
He enters the cabin on the upper deck. Keshab and others bow down to him. But what little sense-consciousness has returned is now beginning to leave him altogether.
Inside the cabin are a bench, a table and a few chairs. The Master is seated on one of the chairs; Keshab on another; Bejoy has also taken his seat. Other devotees, most of them Brahmos, are also seated, many of them on the bare floor. The cabin is a small one. Many remain standing at the door and the windows, and they eagerly peep in.
The Master is now in Samadhi again; absolutely devoid of outer-consciousness! Everybody is watching his face. Keshab sees that many people have come together within the cabin and that the Master is in need of more air. Bejoy, until lately a follower of Keshab, has after the schism become a member of another sect, the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj. He spoke against Keshab on different occasions with reference to his having given away his child-daughter in marriage in opposition to the well-known principles of his sect. Keshab is thus a little unprepared to meet Bejoy, whose visit to the steamer is most unexpected.
Keshab leaves his seat. He will open the windows.
The Prison-house of the World.
All look earnestly on the Master with fixed eyes. He comes down from his Samadhi; but the consciousness of the Divine Presence continues to be as intense as before. He talks to the Mother of the Universe in words that are hardly articulate.
He says "Oh Mother! why hast Thou brought me here? They are hedged round and are not free! Is it indeed possible for me to save them out of their prison-house?"
Is it that the Master looks upon men of the world as beings who are shut up within a prison-house (Samsâr); who cannot get out into the free air of God-consciousness; who cannot so much as catch a glimpse of the Light Divine; who, in short, are bound hand and foot by affairs of the world? Men of the world can indeed see only the things within their prison-house—pleasures of the senses and worldly things. Is it thus that he says to the Divine Mother, 'Why hast Thou brought me here?'
The Soul and the Body.
Nilmadhab of Ghazipur is present at this unique meeting. Observing that the Master has come to Himself, he and a Brahmo devotee begin to talk of Powhari Baba, the great saint of Ghazipur.
A Brahmo (to the Master): Sir, these gentlemen have been fortunate enough to see Powhari Baba at Ghazipur. The Baba is another holy man like your good self.
Not even yet has the Master got back the power of speech. His heart is full; He cannot speak. He only smiles on the good man who talks of the Baba.
Brahmo (to the Master): Sir, Powhari Baba has your photograph too, which he has put up in his own room.
The Master smiles again and points to his own body with his finger. At last in a subdued tone he says, 'A pillow-case! It is nothing but a pillow-case.'
'The pillow and the pillow-case!' The Soul and the Body! Does the Master say that the body alone dieth and the Soul dieth not,—that the photograph is of the body which will not last for ever? Does he for this reason say, 'Let us not set very high value on a photograph which is of the body, but rather worship Him who is the Ruler of the Soul within?'
The Lord's Drawing-room.
The Master goes on:—'But there is one thing to be borne in mind. The heart of the devotee1 is the Temple of the Lord. It is indeed a fact that the Lord is more or less manifest in all things. But He is manifest in a special sense within the heart of the devotee. Thus, a Zemindar can be met at any of the houses of which he is owner. Still people would say, the Zemindar may be usually seen in a particular drawing-room. The heart of the devotee is the Lord's Drawing-room. If one wants to meet the Lord, one had better seek an audience in the Drawing-room, (Laughter.)
One God with different names
The same Being whom the Vedantists call Brahman (the Absolute), is called Atman (Universal Soul) by the Yogis and Bhagavân (or God Personal with Divine attributes) by Bhaktas (Devotees or God-lovers.)
The high-caste Brahmin always remains one and the same person. When his duty is to worship the Lord he is called the priest, but when the same man is employed in the kitchen he is called a cook,
1 Bhakta.
The Non-dualist.
The Vedantist who seeks to realize God the Absolute, reasons, saying, not this, not this; that is, the Absolute is not this, not that; not any finite object; nor the individual soul, nor the external world. When as the result of this kind of reasoning, the mind ceases to be moved by desires, when, in fact, the conditioned mind vanishes, then is it that one can attain True Knowledge,1 then is it that one's soul goes into Samadhi. Such a man truly realizes God the Absolute and finds the phenomenal universe to be consequently unreal. He realizes that names and forms applied to finite objects are like dreams; that God the Absolute cannot be described by words; indeed, that one cannot so much as say that God is a Person.
The Dualist or the Bhakta.
Such is the point of view of a Non-dualist. Devotees or Lovers2 of God, however, think and feel differently. Unlike the Non-dualists they look upon the waking state as a real state and upon the external world as a real and not like a dream. They believe also in Names and Forms. They say that the objects of the Universe before us are the works of God, who is a Personal God and is possessed of many attributes. The starry heavens, the sun, the moon; the mountains, the sea; men, birds, and beasts; all are His glorious works. He is the rich man and these are his riches. He is both within and without. The most advanced among devotees further says, 'It is He who has become manifest to us as the Human Soul and the External World, as the twenty-four categories* mentioned by the philosopher.'1 The devotee wants not to be one with the sugar but would rather have a taste of it. (Laughter).
1 Brahma-gnâna.
2 Bhaktas.
Do you know how the devotee actually thinks and feels? He says, 'Oh Lord! Thou art the Master, I am Thy servant; Thou art my Mother and I Thy child;' or again 'Thou art my child and I Thy father or Thy mother'; or thus, 'Thou art the whole and I Thy part.' The devotee will not say 'I am God.'2
The Yogi (or the aspirant who seeks to commune with God) wishes also to realize the Universal Soul3. His object is to bring by self-control the finite human soul4 into communion with the Infinite Soul.3 He tries first to put together his mind which lies scattered in the act of running after the world of senses; he then seeks to fix it on the Universal Soul. Hence the necessity of meditating on Him in solitude and in a posture which causes no distraction.
But It is One and the same Substance,† the difference being only in the names. It is the same Being whom men call by the name of the Absolute,5 the Soul of the Universe, the Personal God1 with Divine Attributes. The first is the name applied by the Vedantist philosopher (Monist), the second by the Yogi and the third by the Devotees2 (Dualists).
1 Sânkhya.
2 Brahman.
3 Atman.
4 Jivâtman.
5 Brahman.
* The twenty-four categories are the following: viz.:—the five elemenets (Earth. Water, Fire, Air, Space); the five fine elements; the five organs of sence, the five organs of work; the mind; the determinative faculty (buddhi): The ego; Prakriti.
† " Substantia"—Spinoza.