Various Monks

Wednesday, September 26, 1883

There were very few devotees with the Master, for most of them came on Sundays. Rakhal and Lātu were living with him the greater part of the time. M. arrived in the afternoon and found the Master seated on the small couch. The conversation turned to Narendra.

MASTER (to M.): “Have you seen Narendra lately? (With a smile) He said of me: ‘He still goes to the Kāli temple, But he will not when he truly understands.’ His people are very much dissatisfied with him because he comes here now and then. The other day he came here in a hired carriage, and Surendra paid for it. Narendra’s aunt almost had a row with Surendra about it.”

The Master left the couch and went to the northeast verandah, where Hazra, Kishori, Rakhal , and a few other devotees were sitting.

MASTER (to M.): “How is it that you are here today? Have you no school?”

M: “Our school closed today at half past one.”

MASTER: “Why so early?”

M: “Vidyasagar visited the school. He owns the school. So the boys get a half holiday whenever he comes.”

MASTER: “Why doesn’t Vidyasagar keep his word? ‘If one who holds to truth and looks on woman as his mother does not realize God, then Tulsi is a liar.’ If a man holds to truth he will certainly realize God. The other day Vidyasagar said he would come here and visit me. But he hasn’t kept his word.”

Difference between scholar and holy man

“There is a big difference between a scholar and a holy man. The mind of a mere scholar is fixed on ‘woman and gold’, but the sādhu’s mind is on the Lotus Feet of Hari.

A scholar says one thing and does another. But it is quite a different matter with a sādhu. The words and actions of a man who has given his mind to the Lotus Feet of God are altogether different. In Benares I saw a young sannyasi who belonged to the sect of Nanak..

He was the same age as you. He used to refer to me as the ’loving monk’. His sect has a monastery in Benares. I was invited there one day. I found that the mohant was like a housewife. I asked him, ‘What is the way?’ ‘For the Kaliyuga’, he said, ’the path of devotion as enjoined by Nārada.’ He was reading a book. When the reading was over, he recited: ‘Vishnu is in water, Vishnu is on land, Vishnu is on the mountain top; the whole world is pervaded by Vishnu.’ At the end he said, ‘Peace! Peace! Abiding Peace!’

Path of love suited to modern times

“One day he was reading the Gitā. He was so strict about his monastic rules that he would not read a holy book looking at a worldly man. So he turned his face toward me and his back on Mathur, who was also present. It was this holy man who told me of Nārada’s path of devotion as suited to the people of the Kaliyuga.”

M: “Are not sādhus of his class followers of the Vedānta?”

MASTER: “Yes, they are. But they also accept the path of devotion. The fact is that in the Kaliyuga one cannot wholly follow the path laid down in the Vedas. Once a man said to me that he would perform the Purascharana of the Gayatri. I said: ‘Why don’t you do that according to the Tantra? In the Kaliyuga the discipline of Tantra is very efficacious.’

“It is extremely difficult to perform the rites enjoined in the Vedas. Further, at the present time people lead the life of slaves It is said that those who serve others for twelve years or so become slaves. They acquire the traits of those they serve. While serving their masters they acquire the rajas, the tamas, the spirit of violence, the love of luxury, and the other traits of their masters. Not only do they serve their masters, but they also enjoy a pension after their term of service is over.

Description of various monks

“Once a Vedantic monk came here. He used to dance at the sight of a cloud. He would go into an ecstasy of joy over a rain-storm. He would get very angry if, anyone went near him when he meditated. One day I came to him while he was meditating, and that made him very cross. He discriminated constantly, ‘Brahman alone is real and the world is illusory.’

Since the appearance of diversity is due to maya, he walked about with a prism from a chandelier in his hand. One sees different colours through the prism; in reality there is no such thing as colour. Likewise, nothing exists, in reality, except Brahman.

But there is an appearance of the manifold because of maya, egoism. He would not look at an object more than once, lest he should be deluded by maya and attachment. He would discriminate, while taking his bath, at the sight of birds flying in the sky.

He knew grammar. He stayed here for three days. One day he heard the sound of a flute near the embankment and said that a man who had realized Brahman would go into samādhi at such a sound.”

While talking about the monk, the Master showed his devotees the manners and movements of a paramahamsa: the gait of a child, face beaming with laughter, eyes swimming in joy, and body completely naked. Then he again took his seat on the small couch and poured out his soul-enthralling words.

MASTER (to M.): “I learnt Vedānta from Nangta: ‘Brahman alone is real; the world is illusory.’ The magician performs his magic. He produces a mango-tree which even bears mangoes. But this is all sleight of hand. The magician alone is real.”

M: “It seems that the whole of life is a long sleep. This much I understand, that we are not seeing things rightly. We perceive the world with a mind by which we cannot comprehend even the nature of the sky. So how can our perceptions be correct?”

MASTER: “There is another way of looking at it. We do not see the sky rightly. It looks as if the sky were touching the ground at the horizon. How can a man see correctly? His mind is delirious, like the mind of a typhoid patient.”

The Master sang in his sweet voice:

What a delirious fever is this that I suffer from! O Mother, Thy grace is my only cure. . . .

Continuing, the Master said: “Truly it is a state of delirium. Just see how worldly men quarrel among themselves. No one knows what they quarrel about. Oh, how they quarrel! ‘May such and such a thing befall you!’ How much shouting! How much abuse!”

M: “I said to Kishori: The box is empty; there is nothing inside. But two men pull at it from either side, thinking the box contains money.’ Well, the body alone is the cause of all this mischief, isn’t it? The jnanis see all this and say to themselves, ‘What a relief one feels when this pillow-case of the body drops off.’”

The Master and M. went toward the Kāli temple.

MASTER: “Why should you say such things? This world may be a ‘frame work of illusion’, but it is also said that it is a ‘mansion of mirth’. Let the body remain. One can also turn this world into a mansion of mirth.”

M: “But where is unbroken bliss in this world?”

MASTER: “Yes, where is it?”

Sri Ramakrishna stood in front of the shrine of Kāli and prostrated himself before the Divine Mother. M. followed him. Then the Master sat on the lower floor in front of the shrine room, facing the blissful image, and leaned against a pillar of the natmandir. He wore a red-bordered cloth, part of which was on his shoulder and back. M. sat by his side.

M: “Since there is no unbroken happiness in the world, why should one assume a body at all? I know that the body is meant only to reap the results of past action. But who knows what sort of action it is performing now? The unfortunate part is that we are being crushed.”

MASTER: “If a pea falls into filth, it grows into a pea-plant none the less.”

M: “But still there are the eight bonds.”