Work and worship

Friday, December 14, 1883

At 9AM Sri Ramakrishna was standing on the southeast verandah near the door of his room, with Ramlal by his side. Rakhal and Lātu were moving about. M. arrived and prostrated himself before the Master.

Sri Ramakrishna said to him affectionately: “You have come. That’s very good. Today is an auspicious day.” It was the last day of the Bengali month and the day of the full moon. M. was going to spend a few days with the Master practising spiritual discipline. The Master had said to him, “If an aspirant practises a little spiritual discipline, then someone comes forward to help him.”

The Master had said to M: “You should not eat every day at the guesthouse of the Kāli temple. The guest-house is intended to supply free food to monks and the destitute. Bring your own cook with you.” M. had accordingly done so. The Master arranged a place for the man to cook and he asked Ramlal to speak to the milkman about milk. A little later Ramlal began to read from the Adhyātma Rāmāyana. The Master and M. listened while he read:

Rāma had married Sita after breaking the great bow of Śiva. On the way to Ayhodhya with His bride, Rāma was confronted by the warrior sage Parasurama, who was about to make trouble for Him. Parasurama threw a bow at Rāma and challenged Him to string it. Dasaratha, Rāma’s father, was seized with fear. With a smile, Rāma took the bow in His left hand and strung it. Then twanging the bow-string, He fixed an arrow and asked Parasurama where to shoot it. That curbed the pride of the warrior sage. Prostrating himself before Rāma, Parasurama worshipped Him as the Supreme Brahman. As Sri Ramakrishna listened to Parasurama’s hymn, he went into a spiritual mood and now and then chanted the name of Rāma in his melodious voice.

Then the Master asked Ramlal to read about Guhaka. Ramlal read: Guhaka, the pariah, was chief of the untouchables and an intimate friend of Rāma. When Rāma, Sita, and Lakshmana were starting into the forest to redeem Dasaratha’s pledge, Guhaka ferried them across the river. Rāma embraced Guhaka tenderly and told him He was going to spend fourteen years in exile, wearing the bark of trees and eating herbs, fruits, and roots that grew in the woods. He promised to visit Guhaka again on His way back to Ayhodhya after the period of exile was over. The pariah king waited patiently. But when the fourteenth year had run out and Rāma had not returned, Guhaka lighted a funeral pyre. He was on the point of entering it when Hanuman arrived as Rāma’s messenger. In a celestial chariot Rāma and Sita soon appeared, and Guhaka’s joy was unbounded.

After the midday meal Sri Ramakrishna lay down on his bed to rest. M. was seated on the floor. Presently Dr. Shyama and a few devotees arrived. The Master sat up on the bed and began to converse with them.

Work and worship

MASTER: “It is by no means necessary for a man always to be engaged in his duties. Actions drop away when one realizes, God, as the flower drops of itself when the fruit appears.

“He who has realized God no longer performs religious duties such as the sandhya. In his case the sandhya merges in the Gayatri. When that happens, it is enough for a person to repeat just the Gayatri mantra. Then the Gayatri merges in Om. After that one no longer chants even the Gayatri; it is enough then to chant simply Om. How long should a man practise such devotions as the sandhya? As long as he does not feel a thrill in his body and shed tears of joy while repeating the name of Rāma or of Hari. People worship God to win money or a lawsuit. That is not good.”

A DEVOTEE: “We find that everyone strives after money. Even Keshab Sen married his daughter to a prince.”

MASTER: “Keshab’s case is quite different. God provides everything for a genuine devotee, even without his making any effort. The son of a real king gets his monthly allowance. I am not talking of lawyers and men of that sort, who go through suffering in order to earn money, and who become slaves of others to that end. I am speaking of a real prince. A true devotee has no desire. He does not care for money. Money comes to him of itself. The Gitā describes such a devotee as ‘content with what comes to him without effort’. A good brahmin, without any personal motive, can accept food even from the house of an untouchable. He does not desire it; it comes of its own accord.”

How to live in the world

A DEVOTEE: “Sir, how should one live in the world?”

MASTER: “Live in the world as the mud fish lives in the mud. One develops love of God by going away from the world into solitude, now and then, and meditating on God. After that one can live in the world unattached. The mud is there, and the fish has to live in it, but its body is not stained by the mud. Such a man can lead the life of a householder in a spirit of detachment”

The Master noticed that M. was listening to his words with great attention. MASTER (looking at M.): “One can realize God if one feels intense dispassion for worldly things. A man with such dispassion feels that the world is like a forest on fire. He regards his wife and children as a deep well. If he really feels that kind of dispassion, he renounces home and family. It is not enough for him to live in the world in a spirit of detachment.

‘Woman and gold’ alone is maya. If maya is once recognized, it feels ashamed of itself and takes to flight. A man put on a tiger skin and tried to frighten another man. But the latter said: ‘Ah! I have recognized you! You are our Hare.’ At that the man dressed in the skin went away smiling to frighten someone else.

Women as embodiments of the Divine Mother

“All women are the embodiments of Śakti. It is the Primal Power that has become women and appears to us in the form of women. It is said in the Adhyātma Rāmāyana that Nārada and others praised Rāma, saying: ‘O Rāma, Thou alone art all that we see as male, and Sita, all that we see as female. Thou art Indra, and Sita is Indrani; Thou art Śiva and Sita is Sivani; Thou art man, and Sita is woman. What more need I say? Thou alone dost exist wherever there is a male, and Sita wherever there is a female.’ (To the devotees) “One cannot renounce by the mere wish. There are prarabdha karma- inherited tendencies-and the like. Once a yogi said to a king, ‘Live with me in the forest and think of God.’ The king replied: ‘That I cannot very well do. I could live with you, but I still have the desire for enjoyment. If I live in this forest, perhaps I shall create a kingdom even here. I still have desires.’

“Natabar Panja used to look after his cows in this garden during his boyhood. He had many desires. Hence he has established a castor-oil factory and earned a great deal of money. He has a prosperous castor-oil business at Alambazar.

“There is one sect that prescribes spiritual discipline in company with women. I was once taken to the women belonging to the Kartabhaja sect. They all sat around me. I addressed them as ‘mother’. At that they whispered among themselves: ‘He is still a pravartaka. He doesn’t know the way.’ According to that sect the pravartaka is the beginner. Then comes the sadhaka, the struggling aspirant, and last of all the siddha of the siddha, the supremely perfect. A woman walked over to Vaishnavcharan and sat near him. Asked about it, he answered, ‘She feels just like a young girl.’ One quickly strays from the religious path by looking on woman as wife: But to regard her as mother is a pure attitude.”

Some of the devotees took leave of the Master, saying that they were going to visit the temple of Kāli and several of the other temples.

M. went walking alone in the Panchavati and other places in the temple garden. He thought about the Master’s assurance that God can be easily realized, and about his exhortation to lead a life of intense renunciation, and his saying that maya, when recognized, takes to flight.