Image worship

At 3:30pm M. again entered the Master’s room and sat on the floor. A teacher from the Broughton Institution had come with several students to pay a visit to Sri Ramakrishna. They were conversing together. Now and then the teacher asked questions. The conversation was about the worship of images.

MASTER (to the teacher): “What is wrong with image worship? The Vedānta says that Brahman manifests Itself where there is ‘Existence, Light, and Love’. Therefore nothing exists but Brahman.

“How long do small girls play with their dolls? As long as they are not married and do not live with their husbands. After marriage they put the dolls away in a box. What further need is there of worshipping the image after the vision of God?”

God-vision through yearning

The Master glanced at M. and said: “One attains God when one feels yearning for Him.

An intense restlessness is needed. Through it the whole mind goes to God.

“A man had a daughter who became a widow when she was very young. She had never known her husband: She noticed the husbands of other girls and said one day to her father, ‘Where is my husband?’ The father replied: ‘Govinda is your husband. He will come to you if you call Him.’ At these words the girl went to her room, closed the door, and cried to Govinda, saying: ‘O Govinda, corne to me! Show Yourself to me! Why don’t You come?’ God could not resist the girl’s piteous cry and appeared before her.

“One must have childlike faith-and the intense yearning that a child feels to see its mother. That yearning is like the red sky in the east at dawn. After such a sky the sun must rise. Immediately after that yearning one sees God.

“Let me tell you the story of a boy named Jatila. He used to walk to school through the woods, and the journey frightened him; One day he told his mother of his fear. She replied: ‘Why should you be afraid? Call Madhusudana.’ ‘Mother,’ asked the boy, ‘who is Madhusudana?’ The mother said, ‘He is your Elder Brother.’ One day after this, when the boy again felt afraid in the woods, he cried out, ‘O Brother Madhusudana!’ But there was no response. He began to weep aloud: ‘Where are You, Brother Madhusudana? Come to me. I am afraid.’ Then God could no longer stay away. He appeared before the boy and said: ‘Here I am. Why are you frightened?’ And so, saying He took the boy out of the woods and showed him the way to school. When He took leave of the boy, God said: ‘I will come whenever you call Me. Do not be afraid.’ One must have this faith of a child, this yearning.

“A brahmin used to worship his Family Deity daily with food offerings. One day he had to go away on business. As he was about to leave the house, he said to his young son: ‘Give the offering to the Deity today. See that God is fed.’ The boy offered food in the shrine, but the image remained silent on the altar. It would neither talk nor eat. The boy waited a long time, but still the image did not move. But the boy firmly believed that God would come down from His throne, sit on the floor, and partake of the food.

Again and again he prayed to the Deity, saying: ‘O Lord, come down and eat the food.

It is already very late. I cannot sit here any longer.’ But the image did not utter a word. The boy burst into tears and cried: ‘O Lord, my father asked me to feed You. Why won’t You come down? Why won’t You eat from my hands?’ The boy wept for some time with a longing soul. At last the Deity, smiling, came down from the altar and sat before the 373meal and ate it. After feeding the Deity, the boy came out of the shrine room. His relatives said: ‘The worship is over. Now bring away the offering.’ ‘Yes,’ said the boy, ’the worship is over. But God has eaten everything.’ ‘How is that?’ asked the relatives.

The boy replied innocently, ‘Why, God has eaten the food.’ They entered the shrine and were speechless with wonder to see that the Deity had really eaten every bit of the offering.”

Late in the afternoon Sri Ramakrishna was talking to M. They were standing on the south side of the nahabat. Since it was winter the Master was wrapped in his woolen shawl.

MASTER: “Where will you sleep? In the hut in the Panchavati?”

M: “Won’t they let me have the room on the upper floor of the nahabat?”

M. selected the nahabat because he had a poetic temperament. From there he could see the sky, the Ganges, the moonlight, and the flowers in the garden.

MASTER: “Oh, they’ll let you have it. But I suggested the Panchavati because so much contemplation and meditation have been practised there and the name of God has been chanted there so often.”

It was evening. Incense was burning in the Master’s room. He was sitting on the small couch, absorbed in meditation. M. was sitting on the floor with Rakhal, Lātu, and Ramlal.

Singing of devotional songs

The Master said to M., “The sum and substance of the whole thing is to cultivate devotion for God and love Him.” At Sri Ramakrishna’s request Ramlal sang a few songs, the Master himself singing the first line of each.

Ramlal sang:

Oh, what a vision I have beheld in Keshab Bharati’s hut! Gora, in all his matchless grace, Shedding tears in a thousand streams! Like a mad elephant He dances in ecstasy and sings, Drunk with an overwhelming love. . . .

Then he sang:

Though I am never loath to grant salvation, I hesitate indeed to grant pure love. Whoever wins pure love surpasses all; He is adored by men; He triumphs over the three worlds. . . .

Sri Ramakrishna said to Ramlal, “Sing that one- ‘Gaur and Nitai, ye blessed brothers’. "

Ramlal began the song and the Master joined him:

Gaur and Nitai, ye blessed brothers! I have heard how kind you are, And therefore I have come to you. When I visited Benares, Śiva, Lord of Kasi, told me Of the Parabrahman’s birth, As man, in Mother Sachi’s home. O Brahman, Thee I recognize! Many a sādhu have I seen, But never one so kind as you. Once at Braja you were born As Kanai and Balai, His brother; Now, once more, in Nadia, As Gaur and Nitai do you appear, Hiding the shapes that then you wore. In Braja’s pastures running freely, Once you frolicked; now, for play, You roll on the ground in Nadia, Chanting aloud Lord Hari’s name. Laughing, shouting, once you played At Braja with your cowherd friends; And now you chant Lord Hari’s name. O Gaur, how cleverly you hide The dark-blue form you wore at Braja! But your slanting eyes betray you. Through the blessing of your name The sinner is set free, they say; And so my soul is filled with hope. Now with eager heart I hasten To your feet: Lord! I implore you, Keep me safe within their shadow. You redeemed Jagai and Madhai, Wretched sinners though they were; I pray you, do the same for me. I have heard that you embrace All men as brothers, even the outcaste, Whispering in the ears of all Lord Hari’s life-renewing name.

Late at night M. sat alone in the nahabat. The sky, the river, the garden, the steeples of the temples; the trees, and the Panchavati were flooded with moonlight. Deep silence reigned everywhere, broken only by the melodious murmuring of the Ganges. M. was meditating on Sri Ramakrishna.

At 3an, M. left his seat. He proceeded toward the Panchavati as Sri Ramakrishna had suggested. He did not care for the nahabat any more and resolved to stay in the hut in the Panchavati.

Suddenly he heard a distant sound, as if someone were wailing piteously, “Oh, where art Thou, Brother Madhusudana?” The light of the full moon streamed through the thick foliage of the Panchavati, and as he proceeded he saw at a distance one of the Master’s disciples sitting alone in the grove, crying helplessly, “Oh, where art Thou, Brother Madhusudana?”

Silently M. watched him.