CHAPTER V.

INCARNATIONS OF GOD.

A short while after, the Doctor stood up to say goodbye. But Girish came in and the Doctor was so glad to see him that he took his seat again. Girish stepping forward saluted the Lord and kissed the dust of His hallowed feet. The Doctor watched all this in silence.

Doctor: So long as I am here Girish Babu will not be good enough to come. He must come just as I am about to go away. (Laughter).

There was then a talk about the Science Association and the lectures delivered there. Girish took an interest in these lectures.

Sri Râmakrishna (to the Doctor): Will you take me one day to the Association?

Doctor: My dear Sir, once you are there you will lose all sense-consciousness—at the site of the glorious and wonderful works of God—the intelligence shown in those works—the adaptation of means to end!

Sri Râmakrishna: O! Indeed?

Worship of The Spiritual Preceptor.

Doctor (to Girish): Do every thing else, but pray do not worship Him as God. By so doing you are only bringing ruin upon such a Holy Man!

Girish: Sir, there is, I fear, no help for it. He who has enabled me to get across this terrible Sea¹ of the World and the no less terrible sea of scepticism,—O, how else shall I serve such a person? There is nothing in Him that I cannot worship.

Doctor: I myself hold that all men are equal. A grocer's child was once brought into our place for treatment. Its bowels moved. Everybody put up the ends of their cloth to their nose. I did not. I sat by the child for half an hour. I did not put up the cloth to my nose even when the scavenger passes by with the tubs on his head. No, that is for me impossible. The sweeper is by no means less a human being than I am. Why shall I look down upon him? As to this Holy Man here, do you think I cannot salute and kiss the dust of His feet? Look here. (The Doctor salutes and kisses the dust of the Master's feet).

¹ Samsara Samudra.

Girish: Oh, Sir, the angels of heaven are saying, 'Blessed, blessed be this auspicious moment!'

Doctor: You seem to think that saluting one's feet is something like a marvel! You don't see that I can do the same in the case of everybody. (To a gentleman seated near) Now, Sir, oblige me by allowing me to salute your feet. (To another) And you, Sir. (To a third) And you, Sir (The Doctor salutes the feet of many).

Narendra (to the Doctor): Sir, we look upon the Master as a Person who is like God. Let me make my idea clear to you. There is a point somewhere between the vegetable creation and the animal creation where it is difficult to say whether a particular thing is a vegetable or an animal. Much in the same way there is a point somewhere between the man-world and the God-world where you cannot say with certainty whether a person is a human being or a God.

Doctor: Well, my friend, matters relating to God cannot be explained by analogy.

Narendra: I say not God, but God-like man.

Doctor: You should not give vent to feelings of reverence like that. Speaking for myself, no one has been able, I am sorry to say, to judge my inward feelings. My best friends often regard me as stern and cruel. Even you, my good friends, may beat me some day with shoes and turn me out.

Sri Râmakrishna (to the Doctor); Now, don't Doctor! These people love you so much. They watch and look for you like ladies come together in the bride-chamber looking for the coming bridegroom! (Laughter.)

Girish: Sir, everyone here has the greatest respect for you.

Doctor: (sorrowfully): My son—even my wife—looks upon me as hard-hearted—and for the simple reason that I am by nature loath to give vent to my feelings.

Girish: In that case, Sir, don't you think it would be better to throw open the door of your mind—at least, out of pity for your friends. You well see that your friends do not understand you.

Doctor: Shall I say it? Well, my feelings are worked up even more than yours.

To Narendra: I shed tears in solitude.

The Teacher¹ and the Atonement.

Doctor (to Sri Râmakrishna): Well, Sir, may I say that it is not good that you allow people during Samâdhi to touch your feet with their body?

Sri Râmakrishna: Surely you do not say that I am conscious of this?

¹ Guru

Doctor: You feel that that is not a right thing to do, don't you?

Sri Râmakrishna: What shall I say as regards the state of my mind during Samâdhi? After the Samâdhi is over I sometimes go so far as to ask myself, may this not be the cause of the disease that I have got? The thing is, the thought of God makes me mad. All this is the result of madness. There is no help for it.

Doctor (to the disciples): He expresses regret for what he does. He feels that the act is sinful.

Sri Râmakrishna (to Narendra): Well, you have a keen insight. Do explain it all to him.

Girish (to Doctor): Sir, you are quite mistaken. He is by no means sorry that his feet touch the persons of the devotees No, it is not that. His body is pure, sinless; purity itself. He is good enough, in his anxiety for their spiritual welfare, to allow His hallowed feet to touch the body of the devotees. As a result of his taking their sins upon himself, his own body, he sometimes thinks, may be suffering from disease. You may think of your own case. You were once taken ill with colic, as you once told us, as the result of hard study. Well, did not you at that time express your regret that you had sat up reading till very late hours at night? Does that prove that reading till very late hours at night is bad? The Master may be sorry from the point of view of a patient. He is by no means sorry from the point of view of a Teacher, of God anxious for the welfare of humanity.

The Doctor was rather put out of countenance and hung down his head.

Doctor (to Girish): I confess I am beaten. Now give me the dust of your feet.

(To Narendra): This matter apart, I must admit the acuteness of his (Girish's) intellectual powers.

Narendra (to Doctor): You may view the question another way. You sometimes devote your life to the task of making a scientific discovery—and then you do not look to your body, your health and so forth. Now, the knowledge of God is the grandest of all sciences; is it not natural that the Master has risked his health for this purpose, and, may be, has ruined it?