Om Satchidananda Śiva

Saturday, September 22, 1883

Sri Ramakrishna was seated in the drawing-room of Adhar’s house in Calcutta, with Rakhal , Adhar, M., Ishan, and other devotees. Many gentlemen of the neighbourhood were also present. It was afternoon.

The Master was very fond of Ishan. He had been a superintendent in the Accountant General’s office, and later on his children also occupied high government positions. One of them was a class-mate of Narendra. Ishan’s purse was always open for the poor and needy. When he retired from service, he devoted his time to spiritual practices and charity. He often visited Sri Ramakrishna at Dakshineswar.

MASTER (to Ishan): “Please tell us the story of the boy who posted the letter.”

ISHAN (with a smile): “A boy once heard that God is our Creator. So he wrote a letter to God, setting forth his prayers, and posted it. The address he put on the envelope was ‘Heaven’.”

MASTER (with a smile): “Did you hear that story? One succeeds in spiritual life when one develops a faith like that boy’s. (To Ishan) Tell us about the renunciation of activities.”

ISHAN: “After the attainment of God, religious duties such as the sandyha drop away.

One day some people were sitting on the bank of the Ganges performing the sandyha.

But one of them abstained from it. On being asked the reason, he said: ‘I am observing asoucha. I cannot perform the sandyha ceremony.8 In my case the defilement is due to both a birth and a death. My mother, Ignorance, is dead, and my son, Self-Knowledge, has been born.’”

MASTER: “Tell us, also, how caste distinctions drop away when one attains Self- Knowledge.”

ISHAN: “Sankaracharya was once climbing the steps after finishing his bath in the Ganges, when he saw just in front of him an untouchable who had a pack of dogs with him. ‘You have touched me!’ said Sankara. ‘Revered sir,’ said the pariah, ‘I have not touched you, nor have you touched me. The Self is the Inner Ruler of all beings and cannot be contaminated. Is there any difference between the sun’s reflection in wine and its reflection in the Ganges?’ "

MASTER (with a smile): “And about harmony: how one can realize God through all paths.”

Ishan (smiling): “Both Hari and Hara are derived from the same root. The difference is only in the pratyaya. In reality, He who is Hari is also Hara. If a man has faith in God, then it doesn’t matter whom he worships.”

MASTER: “And please tell us also how the heart of the sādhu is the greatest of all.”

ISHAN: “This earth is the largest thing we see anywhere around us. But larger than the earth is the ocean, and larger than the ocean is the sky. But Vishnu, the Godhead, has covered earth, sky, and the nether world with one of His feet. And that foot of Vishnu is enshrined in the sādhu’s heart. Therefore the heart of a holy man is the greatest of all.”

The devotees were delighted with Ishan’s words.

Ishan intended to retire to a solitary place and practise a special discipline of the Gayatri, through which Brahman is invoked. But the Master said that the Knowledge of Brahman was not possible without the complete destruction of worldliness. Further, he said that it was impossible for a man totally to withdraw his mind from the objects of the senses in the Kaliyuga, when his life was dependent on food. That is why the Master discouraged people from attempting the Vedic worship of Brahman and asked them to worship Śakti, the Divine Mother, who is identical with Brahman.

MASTER (to Ishan): “Why do you waste your time simply repeating ‘Neti, neti’? Nothing whatsoever can be specified about Brahman, except that It exists. “Whatever we see or think about is the manifestation of the glory of the Primordial Energy, the Primal Consciousness. Creation, preservation, and destruction, living beings and the universe, and further, meditation and the meditator, bhakti and prema-all these are manifestations of the glory of that Power.

“But Brahman is identical with Its Power. On returning from Ceylon, Hanuman praised Rāma, saying: ‘O Rāma, You are the Supreme Brahman, and Sita is Your Śakti. You and She are identical’ Brahman and Śakti are like the snake and. its wriggling motion.

Thinking of the snake, one must think of its wriggling motion, and thinking of its wriggling motion, one must think of the snake. Or they are like milk and its whiteness. Thinking of milk, one has to think of its colour, that is, whiteness, and thinking of the whiteness of milk, one has to think of milk itself. Or they are like water and its wetness. Thinking of water, one has to think of its wetness, and thinking of the wetness of water, one has to think of water.

“This Primal Power, Mahamaya, has covered Brahman. As soon as the covering is withdrawn, one realizes: ‘I am what I was before’, ‘I am Thou; Thou art I’. “As long as that covering remains, the Vedantic formula ‘I am He’, that is, man is the Supreme Brahman, does not rightly apply. The wave is part of the water, but the water is not part of the wave. As long as that covering remains, one should call on God as Mother.

Addressing God, the devotee should say, ‘Thou art the Mother and I am Thy child; Thou art the Master and I am Thy servant.’ It is good to have the attitude of the servant toward the master. From this relationship of master and servant spring up other attitudes: the attitude of serene love for God, the attitude of friend toward friend, and so forth. When the master loves his servant, he may say to him, ‘Come, sit by my side; there is no difference between you and me.’ But if the servant comes forward of his own will to sit by the master, will not the master be angry?

“God’s play on earth as an Incarnation is the manifestation of the glory of the ChitŚakti, the Divine Power. That which is Brahman is also Rāma, Krishna, and Śiva.”

ISHAN: “Yes, sir. Both Hari and Hara are derived from the same root. The difference lies only in the pratyaya.”

MASTER: “Yes, there is only One without a second. The Vedas speak of It as ‘Om Satchidananda Brahma’, the Puranas as ‘Om Satchidananda Krishna,’ and the Tantra as

‘Om Satchidananda Śiva’.

“The ChitŚakti, as Mahamaya, has deluded all with ignorance. It is said in the Adhyātma Rāmāyana that when the rishis saw Rāma, they prayed to Him in these words only: ‘O Rāma, please do not delude us with Your world-bewitching maya.’ "

ISHAN: “What is this maya?”

MASTER: “Whatever you see, think, or hear is maya. In a word, ‘woman and gold’ is the covering of maya.

“There is no harm in chewing betel-leaf, eating fish, smoking, or rubbing the body with oil. What will one achieve by renouncing only these things? The one thing needful is the renunciation of ‘woman and gold’. That renunciation is the real and supreme renunciation. Householders should go into solitude now and then, to practise spiritual discipline in order to cultivate devotion to God; they should renounce mentally. But the sannyasi should renounce both mentally and physically.

“I once said to Keshab, ‘How can a typhoid patient be cured if he remains in a room where a pitcher of water and a jar of pickles are kept?’ Now and then one should live in solitude “.

A DEVOTEE: “Sir, what do you think of the Navavidhan? It seems to me like a hotchpotch of everything.”

MASTER: “Some say it is a modern thing. That sets me wondering: ‘Then is the God of the Brahmo Samaj a new God?’ The Brahmos speak of their cult as the Navavidhan, as a New Dispensation. Well, it may be so. Who knows? There are six systems of philosophy; so perhaps it is like one of these. “But do you know where those who speak of the formless God make their mistake? It is where they say that God is formless only, and that those who differ with them are wrong.

“But I know that God is both with and without form. And He may have many more aspects. It is possible for Him to be everything.

(To Ishan) “The ChitŚakti, Mahamaya, has become the twenty-four cosmic principles. One day as I was meditating, my mind wandered away to Rashke’s house. He is a scavenger. I said to my mind, ‘Stay there, you rogue!’ The Divine Mother revealed to me that the men and women in this house were mere masks; inside them was the same Divine Power, Kundalini, that rises up through the six spiritual centres of the body. “Is the Primal Energy man or woman? Once at Kamarpukur I saw the worship of Kāli in the house of the Lahas. They put a sacred thread.11 on the image of the Divine 322Mother. One man asked, ‘Why have they put the sacred thread on the Mother’s person?’ The master of the house said: ‘Brother, I see that you have rightly understood the Mother. But I do not yet know whether the Divine Mother is male or female.’ “It is said that Mahamaya swallowed Śiva. When the six centres in Her were awakened, Śiva came out through Her thigh. Then Śiva created the Tantra philosophy. “Take refuge in the ChitŚakti, the Mahamaya.” ISHAN: “Please bestow your grace on me.” MASTER: “Say to God with a guileless heart, ‘O God, reveal Thyself to me.’ And weep. Pray to God, ‘O God, keep my mind away from “woman, and gold”.’ And dive deep. Can a man get pearls by floating or swimming on the surface? He must dive deep.