The Master And Narendra

The devotees listened spellbound to Sri Ramakrishna. His burning words entered their souls, spurring them along the path of renunciation.

Now he spoke to Ishan in a serious voice.

MASTER: “Don’t forget yourself because of what you hear from your flatterers. Flatterers gather around a worldly man.

Vultures gather around the carcass of a cow. “Worldly people have no stuff in them. They are like a heap of cow-dung.

Flatterers come to them and say: ‘You are so charitable and wise! You are so pious!’ These are not mere words but pointed bamboos thrust at them. How foolish it is! To be surrounded day and night by a bunch of worldly brahmin pundits and hear their flattery!

“Worldly men are slaves of three things: they are slaves of their wives, slaves of their money, slaves of their masters.

Can they have any inner stuff? There is a certain person whom I shall not name; he earns eight hundred rupees a month but is the slave of his wife. He stands up or sits down at her bidding.

“Arbitration and leadership? How trifling these are! Charity and doing good to others? You have had enough of these.

Those who are to devote themselves to such things belong to a different class. Now the time is ripe for you to devote your mind to the Lotus Feet of God. If you realize God, you will get everything else. First God, then charity, doing good to others, doing good to the world, and redeeming people. Why need you worry about these things. ‘Ravana died in Lanka and Behula wept for him bitterly!’

“That’s the trouble with you. It will be very good if a world-renouncing sannyāsi gives you some spiritual instruction. The advice of the worldly man will not be right, be he a brahmin pundit or anyone else.

“Be mad! Be mad with love of God! Let people know that Ishan has gone mad and cannot perform worldly duties any more. Then people will no longer come to you for leadership and arbitration. Throw aside the kosakusi and justify your name of Ishan.”

Ishan quoted:

O Mother, make me mad with Thy love! What need have I of knowledge or reason?

MASTER: “Mad! That’s the thing! Shivanath once said that one ’loses one’s head’ by thinking too much of God. ‘What?’ said I. ‘Can anyone ever become unconscious by thinking of Consciousness? God is of the nature of Eternity, Purity, and Consciousness. Through His Consciousness one becomes conscious of everything; through His Intelligence the whole world appears intelligent.’ Shivanath said that some Europeans had gone insane, that they had ’lost their heads’, by thinking too much about God. In their case it may be true; for they think of worldly things. There is a line in a song: ‘Divine fervour fills my body and robs me of consciousness.’ The consciousness referred to here is the consciousness of the outer world.”

Ishan was seated touching Sri Ramakrishna’s feet and listening to his words. Now and then he cast a glance at the basalt image of Kāli in the shrine. In the light of the lamp She appeared to be smiling. It was as if the living Deity, manifesting Herself through the image, was delighted to hear the Master’s words, holy as the words of the Vedas. ISHAN (pointing to the image); “Those words from your sacred lips have really come from there.”

MASTER: “I am the machine and She is the Operator. I am the house and She is the Indweller.

I am the chariot and She is the Charioteer. I move as She moves me; I speak as She speaks through me. In the Kaliyuga one does not hear the voice of God, it is said, except through the mouth of a child or a madman or some such person.

“A man cannot be a guru. Everything happens by the will of God. Heinous sins-the sins of many births-and accumulated ignorance all disappear in the twinkling of an eye, through the grace of God. When light enters a room that has been kept dark a thousand years, does it remove the thousand years’ darkness little by little, or instantly? Of course, at the mere touch of light all the darkness disappears.

“What can a man do? He may speak many words, but after all is said and done everything rests with God. The lawyer says: ‘I have said all that can be said. Now the verdict rests with the judge.’

Brahman is actionless. When It is engaged in creation, preservation, and dissolution, It is called the Primal Power, Ādyāśakti . This Power must be propitiated. Don’t you know that it is so written in the Chandi? The gods first sang a hymn to the Ādyāśakti in order to propitiate Her. Only then did Hari wake up from His yoga sleep.”

ISHAN: “Yes, sir. Brahma and the other gods sang this hymn at the timeof the death of the demons Madhu and Kaitabha: Svaha, Vashat, and Svadha art Thou; Thou the inner Self of the mantra; Thou the Nectar of Immortality, O Everlasting One!

Eternal and unutterable art Thou, and yet Thou art manifest In the three matras and the half matra: O Goddess, Thou art Savitri; Thou art the Ultimate Mother; All things have their support in Thee, by whom this universe was made. O Goddess, Thou sustainest all, and all by Thee is devoured! Thou it is that we call the Creator, when Thou createst the world, O Embodiment of creation! Thou it is that we call the Preserver, when Thou preservest it; Thou it is that we call the Destroyer, when Thou destroyest it.”

MASTER: “Yes, but you must assimilate that.” The Master rose. He mounted the platform in front of the shrine and saluted the Mother, touching the ground with his forehead. The devotees quickly gathered around him and fell at his feet. They all begged his grace. He descended from the platform and started toward his room, conversing with M. First he sang:

I bow my head, says Prasad, before desire and liberation; Knowing the secret that Kāli is one with the highest Brahman, I have discarded, once for all, both dharma and adharma. The Master continued: “Do you know the meaning of dharma and adharma? Here dharma means religious acts enjoined by the scriptures, suchas charity, sraddha, feeding the poor, and the like.

“The performance of this dharma is called the path of karma. It is an extremely difficult path: it is very hard to act without motive. Therefore one is asked to pursue the path of devotion.

“A man was performing the sraddha ceremony at his house. He was feeding many people. Just then a butcher passed, leading a cow to slaughter. He could not control the animal and became exhausted. He said to himself: ‘Let me go into that house and enjoy the feast of the sraddha ceremony and strengthen my body. Then I shall be able to drag the cow along.’

So he carried out his intention. But when he killed the cow, the sin of the slaughter fell also on the performer of the sraddha. That is why I say the path of devotion is better than the path of action.”

The Master entered his room accompanied by M. He was humming a song. The forceful words of renunciation that he had just spoken to Ishan found expression through its words. He sang the lines:

Mother, take everything else away from me, But leave me my necklace of bones and my pot of hemp! Sri Ramakrishna sat down on the small couch, and Adhar, Kishori, and the other devotees sat on the foor.

MASTER (to tile devotees): “I was noticing Ishan, Why, he hasn’t achieved anything!

What can be the reason? He practised the purascharana for five months. That would have caused a revolution in any other person.’

ADHAR: “It wasn’t wise of you to say those things to him in front of us.”

MASTER: “How is that? He is so much given to japa! How can words affect him?”

After a while Sri Ramakrishna said to Adhar, “Ishan is very charitable, and he practises japa and austerity a great deal.” The Master remained quiet a few moments. The eyes of the devotees were fixed on him. Suddenly Sri Ramakrishna said to Adhar, “You have both-yoga and bhoga.”