Futility of mere study

“Can one find God in the sacred books? By reading the scriptures one may feel at the most that God exists. But God does not reveal Himself to a man unless he himself dives deep. Only after such a plunge, after the revelation of God through His grace, is one’s doubt destroyed. You. may read scriptures by the thousands and recite thousands of texts; but unless you plunge into God with yearning of heart, you will not comprehend Him. By mere scholarship you may fool man, but not God.

“Scriptures and books-what can one achieve with these alone? Nothing can be realized without His grace. Strive with a longing heart for His grace. Through His grace you will see Him and He will talk to you.”

Different degrees of divine manifestation

SUB-JUDGE: “Sir, does God show more grace to one than to another? If so, He can be accused of the fault of partiality.”

MASTER: “What are you saying? Do you mean to say that the moon and a glow-worm are the same, though both give light? Iswar Vidyāsāgar asked me the same question. He said, ‘Is it a fact, sir, that God gives more power to one and less to another?’ ‘God’, I said, ’exists in every being as the All pervading Spirit. He is in the ant as well as in me.

But there are different manifestations of His Power in different beings. If all are the same, then why have we come here to see you, attracted by your renown? Have you grown a pair of horns? Oh, no! It is not that. You have compassion; you have scholarship; there is a greater degree of these virtues in you than in others. That is the reason you are so well known.’ Don’t you see that there are men who, single-handed, can defeat a hundred persons? Again, one man takes to his heels in fear of another; you see such a person, too. If there are not different manifestations of power in different beings, then why did people respect Keshab Sen so much?

“It is said in the Gitā that if a man is respected and honoured by many, whether it be for his scholarship or his music or his oratory or anything else, then you may know for certain that he is endowed with a special divine power.”

A BRAMO (to the sub-judge): “Why don’t you accept what he says?”

MASTER (sharply, to the Brahmo): “What sort of man are you? To accept words without conviction! Why, that is hypocrisy! I see you are only a counterfeit.”

The Brahmo was much embarrassed.

Advice to the worldly-minded & Prayer in solitude

SUB-JUDGE: “Sir, must we renounce the world?”

MASTER: “No. Why should you? A man can realize God even in the world. But at the beginning he must spend a few days in solitude. He must practise spiritual discipline in a solitary place. He should take a room near his house, so that he may come home only for his meals. Keshab, Pratap, and others said to me, ‘Sir, we follow the ideal of King Janaka.’ ‘Mere words don’t make a King Janaka’, I replied. ‘How many austerities King Janaka first had to perform in solitude-standing on his head, and so on! Do something first; then you may become a King Janaka.’ You see a man writing English fluently; but could he do that at the very start? Perhaps he was the son of poor parents; he was cook in a family and earned his meals by his service. Perhaps he had to struggle hard to go on with his studies. It is after all these efforts that he can now write such fluent English.

Danger of “woman and gold”

“I said to Keshab Sen further, ‘How can the worldly man be cured of his serious disease unless he goes into solitude?’ A worldly man is suffering from delirious fever, as it were. Suppose there are pickled tamarind and jars of water in the room of such a patient. Now, how can you expect him to get rid of the disease? Just see, the very mention of pickled tamarind is making my mouth water!

(All laugh.)

You can very well imagine what will happen if the tamarind is actually put in front of me. To a man, a woman is the pickled tamarind, and his desire for enjoyment, the jars of water. There is neither end nor limit to this desire for worldly enjoyment. And the things are in the patient’s very room. Can you expect the patient to get rid of the delirious fever in this fashion? He must be removed for a few days to another place where there are neither pickled tamarind nor water-jars. Then he will be cured. After that if he returns to his old room he will have nothing to fear.

‘Woman and gold’ cannot do any harm to the man who lives in the world after attaining God. Only then can he lead a detached life in the world as King Janaka did. But he must be careful at the beginning. He must practise spiritual discipline in strict solitude. The peepal-tree, when young, is fenced around to protect it from cattle. But there is no need for the fence when the trunk grows thick and strong.

Then no harm will be done to the tree even if an elephant is tied to it. ‘Woman and gold’ will not be able to harm you in the least, if you go home and lead a householder’s life after increasing your spiritual strength and developing love for the Lotus Feet of God through the practice of spiritual discipline in solitude.

“A man sets milk in a quiet place to curdle, and then he extracts butter from the curd. After once extracting the butter of Devotion and Knowledge from the milk of the mind, if you keep that transformed mind in the water of the world, it will float in the world unattached. But if the mind in its ‘unripe’ state-that is to say, when it is just like liquid milk-is kept in the water of the world, then the milk and water will get mixed. In that case it will be impossible for the mind to float unattached in the world.

“Live in the world but, in order to realize God, hold fast to His Lotus Feet with one hand and with the other do your duties. When you get a respite from your duties, cling to God’s Lotus Feet with both hands-live in solitude and meditate on Him and serve Him ceaselessly.”

SUB-JUDGE (joyously): “Sir, these are very beautiful words indeed. Of course one must practise spiritual discipline in solitude. But we forget all about it. We think we have become King Janaka outright! (The Master and the devotees laugh.) I feel very happy and peaceful even to hear that there is no need to give up the world and that God can be realized from home as well.”

MASTER: “Why should you give up the world? Since you must fight, it is wise for you to fight from a fort. You must fight against your sense-organs, against your hunger and thirst. Therefore you will be wise to face the battle from the world. Further, in the Kaliyuga the life of a man depends on his food. If one day you have nothing to eat, then you will forget all about God. A man once said to his wife, ‘I am going to leave the world.’ She was a sensible woman. She said: ‘Why should you wander about? If you don’t have to knock at ten doors for your stomach’s sake, go. But if that is the case, then better live in this one place.’

“Again I say, why should you give up the world? You will find it more convenient at home. You won’t have to worry about food. You may even live with your wife. It isn’t harmful. You will find near at hand all that the body needs at different times. When you are ill, you will have someone near you to nurse you.

“Sages like Janaka, Vyāsa, and Vasishtha lived in the world after attaining Knowledge. They fenced with two swords, the one of Knowledge and the other of action.”

SUB-JUDGE: “How can we know that we have Knowledge?”

MASTER: “When one has Knowledge one does not see God any more at a distance. One does not think of Him any more as ‘He’. He becomes ‘This’. Then He is seen in one’s own heart. God dwells in every man. He who seeks God realizes Him.”