Balarām's father

Thursday, July 3, 1884

Sri Ramakrishna was sitting in Balarām Bose’s house in Calcutta. It was the day of the “Return Car Festival”. The Lord of the Universe was worshipped in Balarām’s house as Jagannath. There was a small car in the house for use during the Car Festival.

Balarām’s father was a pious Vaishnava who devoted most of his time to prayer and meditation in his garden house at Vrindāvan. He also studied devotional books and enjoyed the company of devotees. Balarām had brought his father to Calcutta to meet the Master.

Sri Ramakrishna was in a very happy mood. Seated near him were Ram, Balarām, Balarām’s father, M., Manomohan, and several young devotees. He was conversing with them.

Dogmatism in religion

MASTER (to Balarām’s father and the others): “The Bhaktamala is one of the Vaishnava books. It is a fine book. It describes the lives of the various Vaishnava devotees. But it is one-sided. At one place the author found peace of mind only after compelling Bhagavati, the Divine Mother, to take Her initiation according to the Vaishnava discipline. “Once I spoke highly of Vaishnavcharan to Mathur and persuaded him to invite Vaishnavcharan to his house.

Mathur welcomed him with great courtesy. He fed his guest from silver plates. Then do you know what happened? Vaishnav said in front of Mathur, ‘You will achieve nothing whatsoever in spiritual life unless you accept Krishna as your Ideal.’ Mathur was a follower of the Sakta cult and a worshipper of the Divine Mother. At once his face became crimson. I nudged Vaishnavcharan.

I understand that the Bhagavata also contains some statements like that. I hear that it is said there that trying to cross the ocean of the world without accepting Krishna as the Ideal Deity is like trying to cross a great sea by holding the tail of a dog. Each sect magnifies its own view.

The Saktas, too, try to belittle the Vaishnavas. The Vaishnavas say that Krishna alone is the Helmsman to take one across the ocean of the world. The Saktas retort: ‘Oh, yes! We agree to that. Our Divine Mother is the Empress of the Universe. Why should She bother about a ferry-boat? Therefore She has engaged that fellow Krishna for the purpose.’

(All laugh.)

Besides, how vain people are about their own sects! There are weavers in the villages near Kamarpukur. Many of them are Vaishnavas and like to talk big. They say: ‘Which Vishnu does he worship? The Preserver?

Oh, we wouldn’t touch him!’ Or: ‘Which Śiva are you talking about? We accept the Atmaramasiva.’ Or again, ‘Please explain to us which Hari you worship’. They spin their yarn and indulge in talk like that.

“Rati’s mother, Rani Katyayani’s favourite confidante, is a follower of Vaishnavcharan. She is a bigoted Vaishnava. She used to visit me very frequently, and none could outdo her in devotion. One day she noticed me eating the prasad from the Kāli temple. Since then I haven’t seen even her shadow.

He is indeed a real man who has harmonized everything. Most people are one-sided.

But I find that all opinions point to the One. All views-the Sakta, the Vaishnava, the Vedānta-have that One for their centre. He who is formless is, again, endowed with form. It is He who appears in different forms: The attributeless Brahman is my Father.

God with attributes is my Mother. Whom shall I blame? Whom shall I praise? The two pans of the scales are equally heavy.’

“He who is described in the Vedas is also described in the Tantras and the Puranas. All of them speak about the one Satchidananda. The Nitya and the Lila are the two aspects of the one Reality. It is described in the Vedas as ‘Om Satchidananda Brahman’, in the Tantras as ‘Om Satchidananda Śiva’, the ever-pure Śiva, and in the Puranas as ‘Om Satchidananda Krishna’.

All the scriptures, the Vedas, the Puranas, and the Tantras, speak only of one Satchidananda. It is stated in the Vaishnava scripture that it is Krishna Himself who has become Kāli.”

Sri Ramakrishna went to the porch for a few minutes and then returned. As he was going out, Vishvamvhar’s daughter, six or seven years old, saluted him. On returning to the room, the Master began talking to the little girl and her companions, who were of the same age.

THE CHILD (to the Master): “I saluted you and you didn’t even notice it.”

MASTER (smiling): “Did you? I really didn’t notice.”

CHILD: “Then wait. I want to salute you again-the other foot too.”

Sri Ramakrishna laughed and sat down. He returned the salute and bowed to the child, touching the ground with his forehead. He asked her to sing. The child said, “I swear I don’t sing.” When the Master pressed her again, she said, “Should you press me when I said ‘I swear’?”

The Master was very happy with the children and sang light and frivolous songs to entertain them. He sang: Come, let me braid your hair, Lest your husband should scold you When he beholds you! The children and the devotees laughed.

MASTER (to the devotees): “The paramahamsa is like a five-year-old child. He sees everything filled with Consciousness. At one time I was staying at Kamarpukur when Shivaram was four or five years old. One day he was trying to catch grasshoppers near the pond. The leaves were moving. To stop their rustling he said to the leaves: ‘Hush! Hush! I want to catch a grasshopper.’ Another day it was stormy. It rained hard.

Shivaram was with me inside the house. There were flashes of lightning. He wanted to open the door and go out. I scolded him and stopped him, but still he peeped out now and then. When he saw the lightning he exclaimed, ‘There, uncle! They are striking matches again!’

The paramahamsa is like a child. He cannot distinguish between a stranger and a relative. He isn’t particular about worldly relationships. One day Shivaram said to me, ‘Uncle, are you my father’s brother or his brother-in-law?’

“The paramahamsa is like a child. He doesn’t keep any track of his whereabouts. He sees everything as Brahman. He is indifferent to his own movements. Shivaram went to Hriday’s house to see the Durga Puja. He slipped out of the house and wandered away. A passer-by saw the child, who was then only four years old, and asked, ‘Where do you come from?’

He couldn’t say much. He only said the word ‘hut’. He was speaking of the big hut in which the image of the Divine Mother was being worshipped. The stranger asked him further, ‘Whom are you living with?’ He only said the word ‘brother’.

“Sometimes the paramahamsa behaves like a madman. When I experienced that divine madness I used to worship my own sexual organ as the Śiva-phallus. But I can’t do that now. A few days after the dedication of the temple at Dakshineswar, a madman came there who was really a sage endowed with the Knowledge of Brahman. He had a bamboo twig in one hand and a potted mango-plant in the other, and was wearing torn shoes.

He didn’t follow any social conventions. After bathing in the Ganges he didn’t perform any religious rites. He ate something that he carried in a corner of his wearing-cloth. Then he entered the Kāli temple and chanted hymns to the Deity. The temple trembled. Haladhāri was then in the shrine. The madman wasn’t allowed to eat at the guest-house, but he paid no attention to this slight. He searched for food in the rubbish heap where the dogs were eating crumbs from the discarded leaf-plates.

Now and then he pushed the dogs aside to get his crumbs. The dogs didn’t mind either. Haladhāri followed him and asked: ‘Who are you? Are you a purnajnani?’ The madman whispered, ‘Sh! Yes, I am a purnajnani.’ My heart began to palpitate as Haladhāri told me about it. I clung to Hriday.

I said to the Divine Mother, ‘Mother, shall I too have to pass through such a state?’ We all went to see the man. He spoke words of great wisdom to us but behaved like a madman before others. Haladhāri followed him a great way when he left the garden.

After passing the gate he said to Haladhāri: ‘What else shall I say to you? When you no longer make any distinction between the water of this pool and the water of the Ganges, then you will know that you have Perfect Knowledge.’ Saying this he walked rapidly away.”

Sri Ramakrishna began to talk with M. Other devotees, too, were present.

MASTER (to M.): “How do you feel about Shashadhar?”

M: “He is very nice.”

MASTER: “He is very intelligent, isn’t he?”

M: “Yes, sir. He is very erudite.”

MASTER: “According to the Gitā there is a power of God in one who is respected and honoured by many. But Shashadhar has still a few things to do.

What will he accomplish with mere scholarship? He needs to practise some austerity. It is necessary to practise some spiritual discipline.

“Gauri Pundit practised austerity. When he chanted a hymn to the Divine Mother, the other pundits would seem no more than earthworms.

“Narayan Shastri was not merely a scholar, either. He practised sadhana as well. He studied for twenty-five years without a break. Nyaya alone, he studied for seven years.

Still he would go into ecstasy while repeating the name of Śiva. The King of Jaipur wanted to make him his court pundit, but Narayan refused. He used to spend much time here. He had a great desire to go to the Vasishtha Āśrama to practise tapasya. He often spoke to me about it, but I forbade him to go there. At that he said: ‘Who knows when I shall die? When shall I practise sadhana? Any day I may crack.’ After much insistence on his part I let him go. Some say that he is dead, that he died while practising austerity.

Others say that he is still alive and that they saw him off on a railway train.

“Before meeting Keshab, I asked Narayan Shastri to visit him and tell me what he thought of him. Narayan reported that Keshab was an adept in japa. He knew astrology and remarked that Keshab had been born under a good star. Then I went to visit Keshab in the garden house at Belgharia. Hriday was with me. The moment I saw Keshab, I said: ‘Of all the people I see here, he alone has dropped his tail. He can now live on land as well as in water, like a frog.’

“Keshab sent three members of the Brahmo Samaj to the temple garden at Dakshineswar to test me. Prasanna was one of them. They were commissioned to watch me day and night, and to report to Keshab. They were in my room and intended to spend the night there. They constantly uttered the word ‘Dayamaya’ and said to me: ‘Follow Keshab Babu. That will do you good.’ I said, ‘I believe in God with form.’ Still they went on with their exclamations of ‘Dayamaya!’ Then a strange mood came over me. I said to them, ‘Get out of here!’ I didn’t allow them to spend the night in my room.

So they slept on the verandah. Captain also spent the night in the temple garden the first time he visited me.

“Michael visited the temple garden when Narayan Shastri was living with me. Dwarika Babu, Mathur’s eldest son, brought him here. The owners of the temple garden were about to get into a lawsuit with the English proprietors of the neighbouring powder magazine; so they wanted Michael’s advice. I met him in the big room next to the manager’s office. Narayan Shastri was with me. I asked Narayan to talk to him.

Michael couldn’t talk very well in Sanskrit. He made mistakes. Then they talked in the popular dialect. Narayan Shastri asked him his reason for giving up the Hindu religion. Pointing to his stomach, Michael said, ‘It was for this.’ Narayan said, ‘What shall I say to a man who gives up his religion for his belly’s sake?’ Thereupon Michael asked me to say something.

I said: ‘I don’t know why, but I don’t feel like saying anything. Someone seems to be pressing my tongue.’

MANOMOHAN: “Mr. Choudhury will not come. He said: ‘That fellow Shashadhar from Faridpur will be there. I shall not go.’ "

Mr. Choudhury had obtained his Master’s degree from Calcutta University. He drew a salary of three or four hundred rupees. After the death of his first wife he had felt intense dispassion for the world, but after some time he had married again. He frequently visited the Master at the temple garden.

MASTER: “How mean of him! He is vain of his scholarship. Besides, he has married a second time. He looks on the world as a mere mud-puddle. (To the devotees) “This attachment to ‘woman and gold’ makes a man small-minded.

When I first saw Haramohan he had many good traits. I longed to see him. He was then 18 years old.

I used to send for him every now and then, but he wouldn’t come. He is now living away from the family with his wife. He had been living with his uncle before. That was very good. He had no worldly troubles. Now he has a separate home and does the marketing for his wife daily. The other day he came to Dakshineswar. I said to him: ‘Go away. Leave this place. I don’t even feel like touching you.’ "

Sri Ramakrishna went to the inner apartments to see the Deity. He offered some flowers.

The ladies of Balarām’s family were pleased to see him.

The Master came back to the drawing-room and said: “The worldly minded practise devotions, japa, and austerity only by fits and starts. But those who know nothing else but God repeat His name with every breath. Some always repeat mentally, ‘Om Rāma’.

Even the followers of the path of knowledge repeat, ‘Soham’, ‘I am He’. There are others whose tongues are always moving, repeating the name of God. One should remember and think of God constantly.”

Pundit Shashadhar entered the room with one or two friends and saluted the Master.

MASTER (smiling): “We are like the bridesmaids waiting near the bed for the arrival of the groom.” The pundit laughed. The room was filled with devotees, among them Dr.Pratap and Balarām’s father. The Master continued his talk.

MASTER (to Shashadhar): “The first sign of knowledge is a peaceful nature, and the second is absence of egotism. You have both. There are other indications of a Jnāni.

He shows intense dispassion in the presence of a sādhu, is a lion when at work, for instance, when he lectures, and is full of wit before his wife. (All laugh.) “But the nature of the vijnāni is quite different, as was the case with Chaitanyadeva. He acts like a child or a madman or an inert thing or a ghoul. While in the mood of a child, he sometimes shows childlike guilelessness, sometimes the frivolity of adolescence, and sometimes, while instructing others, the strength of a young man.”