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One day some Sikh soldiers came to the temple garden at Dakshineswar. I met them in front of the Kāli temple. One of them referred to God as very compassionate.
‘Is that true? But how do you know?’ He answered, ‘Because, sir, God gives us food and takes every care of us.’
I said: ‘Why should that surprise you? God is the Father of us all. Who will look after the child if the father doesn’t? Do you mean to say that the people of the neighbouring village should look after the child?
Have I forbidden you to? What I mean is that God is our very own. He is not a stranger to us.
(to Narendra) I listened to your singing, but I didn’t enjoy it. So I left the room. Your mind is now set on seeking a job, and therefore your song sounded dull.
Narendra flushed. He felt ashamed of himself and remained silent.
The Master asked for a drink of water. A glass of water had been placed near him, but he could not take it. He asked for some fresh water. Later it was found that a man of immoral character had touched the first glass.
PUNDIT (to Hazra): “You live in his company day and night. You must be very happy.”
MASTER (with a smile): “This is indeed a great occasion for me. Today I have seen the crescent moon of the second day of the bright fortnight. (All laugh.) Do you know why I referred to the moon of the second day? Sita once said to Ravana, ‘You are the full moon and Rāma is the crescent moon of the second day of the bright fortnight.’ Ravana did not understand the meaning of these words. He thought Sita was flattering him and became exceedingly happy.
But Sita meant that Ravana had reached the fullest limit of his power and prosperity, and that thenceforth he would wane like the full moon. Rāma, on the other hand, was like the moon of the second day. He would wax day by day.
The Master was about to take his leave. The pundit and his friends bowed low before him.
It was not yet dusk, and Sri Ramakrishna returned to Ishan’s house with the devotees.
The Master took his seat in the drawing-room with Ishan and his sons, a pundit, and a few devotees.
MASTER (smiling to Ishan): “I said to Pundit Shashadhar: ‘You have hardly set your foot on the tree, and yet you aspire to lay hold of a big bunch of fruit. First of all practise some spiritual discipline. Then you may teach others.’ "
ISHAN: “Every preacher thinks that he enlightens others. The glowworm also may think that it illumines the world. Imagining this to be the glow–worm’s feeling, someone said to it: ‘O glow–worm, how can you bring light to the world? You only reveal the intensity of the darkness.’
MASTER (with a smile): “But Shashadhar is not just a scholar. He also has a little discrimination and dispassion.”
A pundit who was present said to Sri Ramakrishna, “You are indeed a great soul.”
MASTER: “You may say that about sages like Nārada, Prahlada, or Sukadeva. I am like your son.
“Of course, in one sense your words are true. It is said that in one respect the devotee of God is greater than God Himself, because he carries God in his heart. (All rejoice.) It is said in the Vaishnava books: ‘A devotee regards himself as a higher, and God as a lower, being.’
Yaśoda, the mother of Krishna, was about to fetter Krishna, who was God Incarnate, with chains. She believed that no one but herself could take care of Krishna. “Sometimes God acts as the magnet and the devotee as the needle. God attracts the devotee to Himself. Again, sometimes the devotee acts as the magnet and God as the needle. Such is the attraction of the devotee that God comes to him, unable to resist his love.”
The Master was about to leave for Dakshineswar. Ishan and the other devotees stood around him while he gave Ishan various words of advice.
Advice to householders
MASTER: “A devotee who can call on God while living a householder’s life is a hero indeed. God thinks: ‘He who has renounced the world for My sake will surely pray to Me.
He must serve Me. Is there anything very remarkable about it? People will cry shame on him if he fails to do so. But he is blessed indeed who prays to Me in the midst of his worldly duties. He is trying to find Me, overcoming a great obstacle-pushing away, as it were, a huge block of stone weighing a ton. Such a man is a real hero.’ "
PUNDIT: “You are right, sir. The scripture says the same thing. There is in the Mahabharata the story of the ‘pious hunter’ and the ‘chaste woman’. Once a hermit was disturbed in his meditation by a crow. When he cast an angry glance at the bird, it was reduced to ashes. The hermit said to himself: ‘I have destroyed the crow by a mere glance.
I must have made great progress in spiritual life.’ One day he went to a woman’s house to beg his food. She was devoted to her husband and served him day and night; she provided him with water to wash his feet and even dried them with her hair. When the hermit knocked at her door for alms, she was serving her husband and could not open the door at once. The hermit, in a fit of anger, began to curse her.
The chaste woman answered from the inner apartments: ‘I am not your crow. Wait a few minutes, sir. After finishing my service to my husband I shall give you my attention.’ The hermit was very much surprised to find that this simple woman was aware of his having burnt the crow to ashes.
He wanted her to give him spiritual instruction. At her bidding he went to the ‘pious hunter’ at Benares. This hunter sold meat, but he also served his parents day and night as embodiments of God. The hermit said to himself in utter amazement: ‘Why, he is a butcher and a worldly man! How can he give me the Knowledge of Brahman?’ But the hunter was a knower of Brahman and had acquired divine knowledge through the performance of his worldly duties. The hermit was illumined by the instruction of the ‘pious hunter’.”
The Master was about to take his leave. He was standing at the door of the next house, where Ishan’s father-in-law lived. Ishan and the other devotees stood by the Master.
They were waiting to bid him good-bye. Sri Ramakrishna said to Ishan: “Live in the world like an ant. The world contains a mixture of truth and untruth, sugar and sand. Be an ant and take the sugar.
Again, the world is a mixture of milk and water, the bliss of God-Consciousness and the pleasure of sense-enjoyment. Be a swan and drink the milk, leaving the water aside.
Live in the world like a waterfowl. The water clings to the bird, but the bird shakes it off. Live in the world like a mudfish. The fish lives in the mud, but its skin is always bright and shiny.
The world is indeed a mixture of truth and make-believe. Discard the make-believe and take the truth.”
Sri Ramakrishna got into the carriage and left for Dakshineswar.
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