Master in ecstasy

As the Master sang this last song he stood up. He was almost intoxicated with divine love. Again and again he said to the devotees," Cherish my precious Mother Syama tenderly within."

Then he danced and sang:

Is Kāli, my Mother, really black? The Naked One, of blackest hue, Lights the Lotus of the Heart. . . .

The Master reeled as he sang. Niranjan came forward to hold him. The Master said to him softly, “Don’t touch me, you rascal!” Seeing the Master dance, the devotees stood up. He caught hold of M.’s hand and said: “Don’t be foolish! Dance!”

Sri Ramakrishna resumed his seat, still charged with divine ecstasy. Coming down a little to the normal state, he said: “Om! Om! Om!

Om! Om! Om Kāli!” Again he said, “Let me have a smoke.” Many of the devotees stood around. Mahimacharan was fanning him. The Master asked him to sit down and recite from the scriptures. Mahimacharan recited from the Mahanirvana Tantra:

Om; I bow to Thee, the Everlasting Cause of the world; I bow to Thee, Pure Consciousness, the Soul that sustains the whole universe. I bow to Thee, who art One without duality, who dost bestow liberation; I bow to Thee, Brahman, the all-pervading Attributeless Reality.

Thou alone art the Refuge, the only Object of adoration; Thou art the only Cause of the universe, the Soul of everything that is; Thou alone art the world’s Creator, Thou its Preserver and Destroyer; Thou art the immutable Supreme Lord, the Absolute; Thou art unchanging Consciousness.

Dread of the dreadful! Terror of the terrible! Refuge of all beings! Purity of purifiers! Thou alone dost rule over those in the high places, Supreme over the supreme, the Protector of protectors.

Almighty Lord, who art made manifest as the Form of all, yet art Thyself unmanifest and indestructible;

Thou who art imperceptible to the senses, yet art the very Truth; Incomprehensible, imperishable, all-pervading, hidden, and without form; O Lord! O Light of the Universe! Protect us from harm.

On that One alone we meditate; that One is the sole object of our worship; To That alone, the non-dual Witness of the Universe, we bow. In that One who alone exists and who is our sole eternal Support, we seek, refuge, The self-dependent Lord, the Vessel of Safety in the ocean of existence.

Sri Ramakrishna listened to the hymn with folded hands. After it was sung he saluted

Brahman; the devotees did likewise.

Adhar arrived from Calcutta and bowed down before the Master.

MASTER (to M.): “We have had such joy today! How much joy Hari’s name creates! Is it not so?”

M: “Yes, sir.”

Mahimacharan was a student of philosophy. That day he too had chanted the name of Hari and danced during the kirtan. This made the Master very happy.

It was about dusk. Many of the devotees took their leave. A lamp was lighted in Sri Ramakrishna’s room and incense was burnt.

After some time the moon came out, flooding the sky with its light.

Sri Ramakrishna was sitting on his couch. He was in a spiritual mood, absorbed in contemplation of the Divine Mother. Now and then he chanted Her hallowed name. Adhar was sitting on the floor. M. and Niranjan, too, were there. Sri Ramakrishna began to talk to Adhar.

MASTER: “What! You have come just now! We have had so much kirtan and dancing.

Shyamdas began the kirtan. He is Ram’s music teacher. But I didn’t enjoy his singing very much; I didn’t feel like dancing. Later I heard about his character. I was told that he had as many mistresses as there are hairs on a man’s head.

“Didn’t you get the job?”

Adhar held the post of deputy magistrate, a government post that carried with it great prestige. He earned three hundred rupees a month. He had applied for the office of vice- chairman of the Calcutta Municipality. The salary attached to this office was one thousand rupees. In order to secure it, Adhar had interviewed many influential people in Calcutta.

MASTER (to M. and Niranjan): “Hazra said to me, ‘Please pray to the Divine Mother for Adhar, that he may secure the job.’ Adhar made the same request to me. I said to the Mother:

‘O Mother, Adhar has been visiting You. May he get the job if it pleases You.’ But at the same time I said to Her: ‘How small-minded he is! He is praying to You for things like that and not for Knowledge and Devotion.’

(To Adhar) “Why did you dance attendance on all those small-minded people? You have seen so much; you have heard so much!

After reading the entire Ramayana, to ask whose wife Sita is!’ "

ADHAR: “A man cannot but do these things if he wants to lead a householder’s life. You haven’t forbidden us to, have you?”

Advice to Adhar about renunciation

MASTER: “Nivritti alone is good, and not pravritti. Once, when I was in a God-intoxicated state, I was asked to go to the manager of the Kāli temple to sign the receipt for my salary. They all do it here. But I said to the manager: ‘I cannot do that. I am not asking for any salary. You may give it to someone else if you want.’ I am the servant of God alone. Whom else shall I serve? Mallick noticed the late hours of my meals and arranged for a cook. He gave me one rupee for a month’s expenses. That embarrassed me. I had to run to him whenever he sent for me. It would have been quite a different thing if I had gone to him of my own accord.

“In leading the worldly life one has to humour mean-minded people and do many such things. After the attainment of my exalted state, I noticed how things were around me and said to the Divine Mother, ‘O Mother! Please change the direction of my mind right now, so that I may not have to flatter rich people.’

(To Adhar) “Be satisfied with the job you have. People hanker after a post paying fifty or a hundred rupees, and you are earning three hundred rupees! You are a deputy magistrate. I saw a deputy magistrate at Kamarpukur. His name was Ishwar Ghosha!

He had a turban on his head. Men’s very bones trembled before him. I remember having seen him during my boyhood. Is a deputy magistrate a person to be trifled with? “Serve him whom you are already serving. The mind becomes soiled by serving but one master. And to serve five masters!

“Once a woman became attached to a Mussalman and invited him to her room. But he was a righteous person; he said to her that he wanted to use the toilet and must go home to get his water-jar for water. The woman offered him her own, but he said: ‘No, that will not do. I shall use the jar to which I have already exposed myself. I cannot expose myself before a new one.’ With these words he went away. That brought the woman to her senses. She understood that a new water-jar, in her case, signified a paramour.”

Narendra was in straitened circumstances on account of his father’s unexpected death. He had been seeking a job to maintain his mother, brothers, and sisters. He had served a few days as headmaster of the Vidyasagar School at Bowbazar.

ADHAR: “May I ask if Narendra would accept a job?”

MASTER: “Yes, he would. He has his mother, brothers, and sisters to support.”

ADHAR: “Well, Narendra can support his family with fifty or with a hundred rupees. Will he try for a hundred?”

MASTER: “Worldly people think highly of their wealth. They feel that there is nothing like it. Sambhu said, ‘It is my desire to leave all my property at the Lotus Feet of God.’ But does God care for money? He wants from His devotees knowledge, devotion, discrimination, and renunciation.

“After the theft of the jewelry from the temple of Radhakanta, Mathur Babu said: ‘O God, You could not protect Your own jewelry! What a shame!’ Once he wanted to give me an estate and consulted Hriday about it. I overheard the whole thing from the Kāli temple and said to him: ‘Please don’t harbour any such thought. It will injure me greatly.’ "

ADHAR: “I can tell you truthfully, sir, that not more than six or seven persons like you have been born since the creation of the world.”

MASTER: “How so? There certainly are people who have given up everything for God. As soon as a man gives up his wealth, people come to know about him. But it is also true that there are others unknown to people. Are there not such holy men in upper India?”

ADHAR: “I know of at least one such person in Calcutta. He is Devendranath Tagore.”

MASTER: “What did you say? Who has enjoyed the world as much as he? Once I visited him at his house with Mathur Babu. I saw that he had many young children. The family physician was there writing out prescriptions.

If, after having eight children, a man doesn’t think of God, then who will? If, after, enjoying so much wealth, Devendranath hadn’t thought of God, then people would have cried shame upon him.”

NIRANJAN: “But he paid off all his father’s debts.”

MASTER: “Keep quiet! Don’t torment me any more. Do you call anyone a man who doesn’t payoff his father’s debts if he is able to? But I admit that Devendranath is infinitely greater than other worldly men, who are sunk in their worldliness. They can learn much from him.