Instruction To Vaishnavās And Brāhmos

Sunday, September 23, 1883

SRI RAMAKRISHNA was sitting in his room at Dakshineswar with Rakhal , M., and other devotees. Hazra sat on the porch outside. The Master was conversing with the devotees.

MASTER (to a devotee): “Narendra doesn’t like even you, nowadays. (To M.) Why didn’t he come to see me at Adhar’s house?

Eulogy of Narendra

“How versatile Narendra is! He is gifted in singing, in playing on instruments, and in studies. He is independent and doesn’t care about anybody. The other day he was returning to Calcutta with Captain in his carriage. Captain begged Narendra to sit beside him, but he took a seat opposite. He didn’t even look at Captain.

“What can a man achieve through mere scholarship? What is needed is prayer and spiritual discipline. Gauri of Indesh was both a scholar and a devotee. He was a worshipper of the Divine Mother. Now and then he would be overpowered with spiritual fervour. When he chanted a hymn to the Mother, the pundits would seem like earth- worms beside him. I too would be overcome with ecstasy.

“At first he was a bigoted worshipper of Śakti. He used to pick up tulsi leaves with a couple of sticks, so as not to touch them with his fingers. (All laugh.) Then he went home. When he came back he didn’t behave that way any more.

He gave remarkable interpretations of Hindu mythology. He would say that the ten heads of Ravana represented the ten organs. Kumbhakarna was the symbol, of tamas, Ravana of rajas, and Bibhishana of sattva. That was why Bibhishana obtained favour with Rāma.” After the Master’s midday meal, while he was resting, Ram, Tārak, and some other devotees arrived from Calcutta.

Nityagopal, Tārak, and several others were staying with Ram, a house-holder disciple of the Master. Nityagopal was always in an exalted spiritual mood. Tārak’s mind, too, was always indrawn; he seldom exchanged words with others. Ram looked after their physical needs. Rakhal now and then spent a few days at Adhar’s house.

RAM (to the Master): “We have been taking lessons on the drum.”

MASTER (to Ram): “Nityagopal too?”

RAM: “No, sir. He plays a little.”

MASTER: “And Tārak?”

RAM: “He knows a good deal.”

MASTER: “Then he won’t keep his eyes on the ground so much. If the mind is much directed to something else, it doesn’t dwell deeply on God.”

RAM: “I have been studying the drum only to accompany the kirtan.”

MASTER (to M.): “I hear that you too are taking singing lessons. Is that so?”

M: “No, sir. I just open my mouth now and then.”

MASTER: “Have you practised that song: ‘O Mother, make me mad with Thy love’? If you have, please sing it. The song expresses my ideal perfectly.”

The conversation turned to Hazra’s hatred for certain people, which Sri Ramakrishna did not like.

MASTER (to the devotees): “I used frequently to visit a certain house at Kamarpukur. The boys of the family were of my age. The other day they came here and spent two or three days with me. Their mother, like Hazra, used to hate people. Then something happened to her foot, and gangrene set in. On account of the foul smell, no one could enter her room. I told the incident to Hazra and asked him not to hate anyone.”

Master in spiritual mood

Toward evening, as Sri Ramakrishna was standing in the northwest corner of the courtyard, he went into samādhi. In those days the Master remained almost always in an ecstatic state. He would lose consciousness of the world at the slightest suggestion from outside. But for scant conversation with visiting devotees, he remained in an indrawn mood and was unable to perform his daily worship and devotions.

Coming down to the relative world, he began to talk to the Divine Mother, still standing where he was. “O Mother,” he said, “worship has left me, and japa also. Please see, Mother, that I do not become an inert thing. Let my attitude toward God be that of the servant toward the master. O Mother, let me talk about Thee and chant Thy holy name.

I want to sing Thy glories. Give me a little strength of body that I may move about, that I may go to places where Thy devotees live, and sing Thy name.” In the morning Sri Ramakrishna had been to the Kāli temple to offer flowers at the Mother’s feet.

Continuing, the Master said: “O Mother, I offered flowers at Thy feet this morning. I thought: ‘That is good. My mind is again going back to formal worship.’ Then why do I feel like this now? Why art Thou turning me into a sort of inert thing?”

The moon had not yet risen. It was a dark night. The Master, still in an abstracted mood, sat on the small couch in his room and continued his talk with the Divine Mother.

He said: “Why this special discipline of the Gayatri? Why this jumping from this roof to that? Who told him to do it? Perhaps he is doing it of his own accord. . . . Well, he will practise a little of that discipline.”

The previous day Sri Ramakrishna had discouraged Ishan about Vedic worship, saying that it was not suitable for the Kaliyuga. He had asked Ishan to worship God as the Divine Mother.

The Master said to M., “Are these all my fancies, or are they real?” M. remained silent with wonder at the Master’s intimate relationship with the Divine Mother. He thought

She must be within us as well as without. Indeed She must be very near us; or why should the Master speak to Her in a whisper?