Story of Prahlada

Saturday, December 15, 1883

M. had been staying at Dakshineswar with Sri Ramakrishna. The Master was sitting in his room, listening to the life of Prahlada, which Ramlal was reading from the Bhaktamala. M. was sitting on the floor. Rakhal, Lātu, and Harish were also in the room, and Hazra was on the verandah. While listening to the story of Prahlada’s love for God, Sri Ramakrishna went into an ecstatic mood.

Hiranyakasipu, the king of the demons and father of Prahlada, had put his son to endless torture to divert the boy’s mind from the love of God. But through divine grace all the king’s attempts to kill Prahlada were ineffective. At last God appeared, assuming the form of Nrisimha, the Man-lion, and killed Hiranyakasipu. The gods were frightened at the rage and roaring of the Man-lion and thought that the destruction of the world was imminent.

They sent Prahlada to pacify the Deity. The boy sang a hymn to Him in words of love, and the Man-lion, moved by affection, licked Prahlada’s body. Still in an ecstatic mood, the Master said, “Ah! Ah! What love for the devotee!” The Master went into deep samādhi. He sat there motionless. A tear-drop could be seen at the corner of each of his eyes.

Master admonishes M.

The Master came down to the plane of the sense world and spoke to M., expressing his abhorrence for those who, while practising spiritual discipline, enjoyed sex-life.

MASTER: “Aren’t you ashamed of yourself? You have children, and still you enjoy intercourse with your wife. Don’t you hate yourself for thus leading an animal life? Don’t you hate yourself for dallying with a body which contains only blood, phlegm, filth, and excreta? He who contemplates the Lotus Feet of God looks on even the most beautiful woman as mere ash from the cremation ground. To enjoy a body which will not last and which consists of such impure ingredients as intestines, bile, flesh, and bone! Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?”

M. sat there silently, hanging his head in shame.

MASTER: “A man who has tasted even a drop of God’s ecstatic love looks on ‘woman and gold’ as most insignificant. He who has tasted syrup made from sugar candy regards a drink made from treacle as a mere trifle. One gradually obtains that love for God if one but prays to Him with a yearning heart and always chants His name and glories.” The Master was in an ecstasy of love. He began to dance about the room and sing: Who is singing Hari’s name upon the sacred Ganges’ bank?

Is it Nitai that has come, the giver of heavenly love?

It was ten o’clock in the morning. Ramlal had finished the daily worship in the Kāli temple. The Master went to the temple accompanied by M. Entering the shrine, the Master sat before the image. He offered a flower or two at the feet of the Divine Mother. Then he put a flower on his own head and began to meditate. He sang a song to the Divine Mother:

Thy name, I have heard, O Consort of Śiva, is the destroyer of our fear,

And so on Thee I cast my burden: Save me! Save me, O kindly Mother!

Sri Ramakrishna returned from the Kāli temple and sat on the southeast verandah of his room. He ate some refreshments which had been offered at the temple, and the devotees also received a share.

Rakhal sat by the Master and read about Lord Erskine from Self-Help by Smiles.

MASTER (to M.): “What does the book say?”

M: “It says that Lord Erskine performed his duty without desiring any result for himself. Disinterested duty.”

MASTER: “That is very good. But the characteristic of a man of Perfect Knowledge is that he doesn’t keep a single book with him. He carries all his Knowledge on the tip of his tongue. There’s the instance of Sukadeva. Books-I mean the scriptures-contain a mixture of sand and sugar. The sādhu takes the sugar, leaving aside the sand. He takes only the essence.”

Vaishnavcharan, the musician, arrived and sang a few devotional songs.

M. spent the night in the nahabat.

Sunday, December 16, 1883

Sri Ramakrishna was seated with M. on the semicircular porch of his room at about 10am.

The fragrance of gardenias, jasmines, oleanders, roses, and other flowers filled the air. The Master was singing looking at M:

Thou must save me, sweetest Mother! Unto Thee I come for refuge,

Helpless as a bird imprisoned in a cage. I have done unnumbered wrongs, and aimlessly I roam about, Misled by maya’s spell, bereft of wisdom’s light, Comfortless as a mother cow whose calf has wandered far away.

MASTER: “But why? Why should I live like a ‘bird imprisoned in a cage’? Fie! For shame!” As the Master said these words he went into an ecstatic mood. His body became motionless and his mind stopped functioning; tears streamed down his cheeks. After a while he said, “O Mother, make me like Sita, completely forgetful of everything-body and limbs-, totally unconscious of hands, feet, and sense-organs-only the one thought in her mind, ‘Where is Rāma?’ "

Was the Master inspired by the ideal of Sita to teach M. the yearning that a devotee should feel for God? Sita’s very life was centred in Rāma. Completely absorbed in the thought of Rāma, Sita forgot even the body, which is so dear to all.

At 4pmm Mr. Mukherji, a relative of Prankrishna, arrived in the company of a brahmin well versed in the scriptures.

MUKHERJI: “I am very happy to meet you, sir.”

MASTER: “God dwells in all beings. He is the gold in all. In some places it is more clearly manifest than in others. God dwells in the worldly-minded, no doubt, but He is hidden there, like gold under deep layers of clay.”

MUKHERJI: “Sir, what is the difference between worldly and other-worldly things?”

Brahman and the world

MASTER: “While striving for the realization of God, the aspirant has to practise renunciation, applying the logic of ‘Neti, neti’-‘Not this, not this’, But after attaining the vision of God, he realizes that God alone has become all things.

“At one time Rāma was overpowered by the spirit of renunciation. Dasaratha, worried at this, went to the sageVasishtha and begged him to persuade Rāma not to give up the world. The sage came to Rāma and found him in a gloomy mood. The fire of intense renunciation had been raging in the Prince’s mind. Vasishtha said: ‘Rāma, why should

You renounce the world? Is the world outside God? Reason with me.’ Rāma realized that the world had evolved from the Supreme Brahman. So, He said nothing.

“Buttermilk is made from the same substance as butter. One who realizes this knows that butter goes with buttermilk and buttermilk with butter. After separating the butter with great effort-that is to say, after attaining Brahmajnana-you will realize that as long as butter exists, buttermilk also must exist. Wherever there is butter there must be buttermilk as well. As long as one feels that Brahman exists, one must also be aware that the universe, living beings, and the twenty-four cosmic principles exist as well.