Obstacles to samādhi

Tuesday, December 18, 1883

SRI RAMAKRISHNA was seated in his room with his devotees. He spoke highly of Devendranath Tagore’s love of God and renunciation, and then said, pointing to Rakhal and the other young devotees, “Devendra is a good man; but blessed indeed are those young aspirants who, like Sukadeva, practise renunciation from their very boyhood and think of God day and night without being involved in worldly life. Nature of worldly people

“The worldly man always has some desire or other, though at times he devotion to God. Once Mathur Babu was entangled in a lawsuit. He said shrine of Kāli, ‘Sir, please offer this flower to the Divine Mother.’ unsuspectingly, but he firmly believed that he would attain his objective if flower.

“What devotion Rati’s mother had! How often she used to come here and how much she served me! She was a Vaishnava. One day she noticed that I ate the food offered at the Kāli temple, and that stopped her coming. Her devotion to God was one-sided. It isn’t possible to understand a person right away.”

It was a winter morning, and the Master was sitting near the east door of his room, wrapped in his moleskin shawl. He looked at the sun and suddenly went into samādhi. His eyes stopped blinking and he lost all consciousness of the outer world. After a long time he came down to the plane of the sense world. Rakhal, Hazra, M., and other devotees were seated near him.

MASTER (to Hazra): “The state of samādhi is certainly inspired by love. Once, at Syambazar, they arranged a kirtan at Natavar Goswami’s house. There I had a vision of Krishna and the gopis of Vrindāvan. I felt that my subtle body was walking at Krishna’s heels.

“I went into samādhi when similar devotional songs were sung at the Hari Sabha in Jorashanko in Calcutta. That day they feared I might give up the body.” After the Master had finished his bath, he again spoke of the ecstatic love of the gopis. He said to M. and the other devotees: “One should accept the fervent attachment of the gopis to their beloved Krishna.

Sing songs like this: Tell me, friend, how far is the grove Where Krishna, my Beloved, dwells? His fragrance reaches me even here; But I am tired and can walk no farther.”

Again he sang:

I am not going home, O friend, For there it is hard for me to chant my Krishna’s name. . . . Sri Ramakrishna had vowed to offer green coconut and sugar to Siddhesvari, the Divine Mother, for Rakhal’s welfare. He asked M. whether he would pay for the offerings.

That afternoon the Master, accompanied by M., Rakhal, and some other devotees, set out in a carriage for the temple of Siddhesvari in Calcutta. On the way the offerings were purchased. On reaching the temple, the Master asked the devotees to offer the fruit and sugar to the Divine Mother. They saw the priests and their friends playing cards in the temple. Sri Ramakrishna said: “To play cards in a temple! One should think of God here.”

From the temple the Master went to Jadu Mallick’s house. Jadu was surrounded by his admirers, well-dressed dandies. He welcomed the Master.

MASTER ((with a smile): “Why do you keep so many clowns and flatterers with you?”

JADU (smiling): “That you may liberate them.” (Laughter.)

MASTER: “Flatterers think that the rich man will loosen his purse-strings for them. But it is very difficult to get anything from him. Once a jackal saw a bullock and would not give up his company. The bullock roamed about and the jackal followed him. The jackal thought: ‘There hang the bullock’s testicles. Some time or other they will drop to the ground and I shall eat them.’ When the bullock slept on the ground, the jackal lay down too, and when the bullock moved about, the jackal followed him. Many days passed in this way, but the bullock’s testicles still clung to his body. The jackal went away disappointed. (All laugh.) That also happens to flatterers.”

Jadu and his mother served refreshments to Sri Ramakrishna and the devotees.

Wednesday, December 19, 1883

At 9am, Sri Ramakrishna was talking to M. near the bel-tree at Dakshineswar.

This tree, under which the Master had practised the most austere sadhana, stood in the northern end of the temple garden. Farther north ran a high wall, and just outside was the government magazine. West of the bel-tree was a row of tall pines that rustled in the wind. Below the trees flowed the Ganges, and to the south could be seen the sacred grove of the Panchavati. The dense trees and underbrush hid the temples. No noise of the outside world reached the bel-tree.

MASTER (to M.): “But one cannot realize God without renouncing ‘woman and gold’.”

M: “Why? Did not Vasishtha say to Rāma, ‘O Rāma, You may renounce the world if the world is outside God’?”

MASTER (smiling): “He said that to Rāma so that Rāma might destroy Ravana. Rāma accepted the life of a householder and married to fulfil that mission.”

M. stood there like a log, stunned and speechless.

Sri Ramakrishna went to the Panchavati on his way back to his room. M. accompanied him. It was then about ten o’clock.

Path of the Impersonal God

M: “Sir, is there no spiritual discipline leading to realization of the Impersonal God?”

MASTER: “Yes, there is. But the path is extremely difficult. After intense austerities the rishis of olden times realized God as their inner most consciousness and experienced the real nature of Brahman. But how hard they had to work! They went out of their dwellings in the early morning and all day practised austerities and meditation.

Returning home at nightfall, they took a light supper of fruit and roots. “But an aspirant cannot succeed in this form of spiritual discipline if his mind is stained with worldliness even in the slightest degree. The mind must withdraw totally from all objects of form, taste, smell, touch, and sound. Only thus does it become pure.

The Pure Mind is the same as the Pure Ātman. But such a mind must be altogether free from ‘woman and gold’. When it becomes pure, one has another experience. One realizes: ‘God alone is the Doer, and I am His instrument.’ One does not feel oneself to be absolutely necessary to others either in their misery or in their happiness. “Once a wicked man beat into unconsciousness a monk who lived in a monastery. On regaining consciousness he was asked by his friends, ‘Who is feeding you milk?’ The monk said, ‘He who beat me is now feeding me.’ "

M: “Yes, sir. I know that story.”

Obstacles to samādhi

MASTER: “It is not enough to know it. One must assimilate its meaning. It is the thought of worldly objects that prevents the mind from going into samādhi. One becomes established in samādhi when one is completely rid of worldliness. It is possible for me to give up the body in samādhi; but I have a slight desire to enjoy the love of God and the company of His devotees. Therefore I pay a little attention to my body. “There is another kind of samādhi, called unmana samādhi. One attains it by suddenly gathering the dispersed mind. You understand what that is, don’t you?”

M: “Yes, sir.”

MASTER: “Yes. It is the sudden withdrawal of the dispersed mind to the Ideal. But that samādhi does not last long. Worldly thoughts intrude and destroy it. The yogi slips down from his yoga.

“At Kamarpukur I have seen the mongoose living in its hole up in the wall. It feels snug there. Sometimes people tie a brick to its tail; then the pull of the brick makes it come out of its hole. Every time the mongoose tries to be comfortable inside the hole, it has to come out because of the pull of the brick. Such is the effect of brooding on worldly objects that it makes the yogi stray from the path of yoga.

“Worldly people may now and then experience samādhi. The lotus blooms, no doubt, when the sun is up; but its petals close again when the sun is covered by a cloud. Worldly thought is the cloud.”

M: “Isn’t it possible to develop both jnāna and bhakti by the practice of spiritual discipline?”

MASTER: “Through the path of bhakti a man may attain them both. If it is necessary, God gives him the Knowledge of Brahman. But a highly qualified aspirant may develop both jnāna and bhakti at the same time. Such is the case with the Isvarakotis-Chaitanya for example. But the case of ordinary devotees is different.

“There are five kinds of light: the light of a lamp, the light of various kinds of fire, the light of the moon, the light of the sun, and lastly the combined light of the sun and the moon. Bhakti is the light of the moon, and jnāna the light of the sun.

“Sometimes it is seen that the sun has hardly set when the moon rises in the sky. In an Incarnation of God one sees, at the same time, the sun of Knowledge and the moon of Love.

“Can everyone, by the mere wish, develop Knowledge and Love at the same time? It depends on the person. One bamboo is more hollow than another. Is it possible for all to comprehend the nature of God? Can a one seer pot hold five seers of milk?”

M: “But what about the grace of God? Through His grace a camel can pass through the eye of a needle.”

MASTER: “But is it possible to obtain God’s grace just like that? A beggar may get a penny, if he asks for it. But suppose he asks you right off for his train fare: How about that?”

M. stood silent. The Master, too, remained silent. Suddenly he said: “Yes, it is true. Through the grace of God some may get both jnāna and bhakti.”

M. saluted the Master and went back to the bel-tree.

At midday, finding that M. had not yet returned, Sri Ramakrishna started toward the bel- tree; but on reaching the Panchavati he met M. carrying his prayer carpet and water- jug. M. saluted the Master.

Sri Ramakrishna said to M: “I was coming to look for you. Because of your delay I thought you might have scaled the wall and run away. I watched your eyes this morning and felt apprehensive lest you should go away like Narayan Shastri. Then I said to myself: ‘No, he won’t run away. He thinks a great deal before doing anything.’ "