Worldly people have no time for spiritual practice

“When have worldly people time to think of God? A man wanted to engage a pundit who could explain the Bhagavata to him. His friend said: ‘I know of an excellent pundit. But there is one difficulty: he does a great deal of farming. He has four ploughs and eight bullocks and is always busy with them; he has no leisure.’ Thereupon the man said: ‘I don’t care for a pundit who has no leisure. I am not looking for a Bhagavata scholar burdened with ploughs and bullocks. I want a pundit who can really expound the sacred book to me.’

“There was a king who used to listen daily to a pundit’s exposition of the Bhagavata. Every day at the end of their study the pundit would ask the king, ‘O King, have you understood what I have read?’ To this question the king would daily give the same reply:

‘Sir, you had better understand it first yourself.’ Each day, when the pundit returned home, he would ponder the meaning of the king’s words. He was a pious man, devoted to prayer and meditation. Gradually he came to his senses and realized that the only real thing in the world is the Lotus Feet of God, and that all else is illusory. He felt dispassion for the world and took up the life of a monk. As he was leaving the world he sent a man to the king with the message: ‘Yes, O King! Now I have understood.’

“But do I look down on worldly people? Of course not. When I see them, I apply the Knowledge of Brahman, the Oneness of Existence. Brahman itself has become everything; all are Narayana Himself. Regarding all women as so many forms of the Divine Mother, I see no difference between a chaste woman and a streetwalker. “Alas! I find no customers who want anything better than kalai pulse. No one wants to give up ‘woman and gold’. Man, deluded by the beauty of woman and the power of money, forgets God. But to one who has seen the beauty of God, even the position of Brahma, the Creator, seems insignificant.

“A man said to Ravana, ‘You have been going to Sita in different disguises; why don’t you go to her in the form of Rāma?’ ‘But’, Ravana replied ‘when I meditate on Rāma in my heart, the most beautiful women-celestial maidens like Rambha and Tilottama- appear no better than ashes of the funeral pyre. Then even the position of Brahma appears trivial to me, not to speak of the beauty of another man’s wife.’ “Alas! I find that all the customers here seek worthless Kalai Pulse. Unless, the soul is pure, it cannot have genuine love of God and single-minded devotion to the ideal. The mind wanders away to various objects. 778(To Manomohan) “You may take offence at my words; but I said to Rakhal, ‘I would rather hear that you had drowned yourself in the Ganges than learn that you had accepted a job under another person and become his servant.’ “One day a Nepalese girl came here. She sang devotional songs to the accompaniment of the esraj. When someone asked her if she was married, she said sharply: ‘What? I am the handmaid of God! Whom else could I serve?’ “How can a man living in the midst of ‘woman and gold’ realize God? It is very hard for him to lead an unattached life. First, he is the slave of his wife, second, of money, and third, of the master whom he serves.

Akbar and the holy man

“When Akbar was Emperor of Delhi there lived a hermit in a hut in the forest. Many people visited the holy man. At one time he felt a great desire to entertain his visitors.

But how could he do so without money? So he decided to go to the Emperor for help, for the gate of Akbar’s palace was always open to holy men. The hermit entered the palace while the Emperor was at his daily devotions and took a seat in a corner of the room.

He heard the Emperor conclude his worship with the prayer, ‘O God, give me money; give me riches’, and so on and so forth. When the hermit heard this he was about to leave the prayer hall; but the Emperor signed to him to wait. When the prayer was over, Akbar said to him, ‘You came to see me; how is it that you were about to leave without saying anything to me?’ ‘Your Majesty need not trouble yourself about it’, answered the hermit. ‘I must leave now.’ When the Emperor insisted, the hermit said, ‘Many people visit my hut, and so I came here to ask you for some money.’ ‘Then’, said Akbar, ‘why were you going away without speaking to me?’ The hermit replied: ‘I found that you too were a beggar; you too prayed to God for money and riches. Thereupon I said to myself, “Why should I beg of a beggar? If I must beg, let me beg of God.” ’ "

NARENDRA: “Nowadays Girish Ghosh thinks of nothing but spiritual things.”

MASTER: “That is very good. But why is he so abusive? Why does he use such vulgar language to me? In my present state of mind I cannot bear such rudeness. When a thunderbolt strikes near a house, the heavy things inside the house are not much affected; but the window-panes rattle. Nowadays I cannot bear such roughness. A man living on the plane of sattva cannot bear noise and uproar. That is why Hriday was sent away. It was the Divine Mother who sent him away. During the later part of his stay he went to extremes; he became very rough and abusive. (To Narendra) Do you agree with Girish about me?”

NARENDRA: “He said he believed you to be an Incarnation of God. I didn’t say anything in answer to his remarks.”

MASTER: “But how great his faith is! Don’t you think so?”

The devotees listened intently to the Master’s words. He was still seated on the mat spread on the floor, with M. by his side and Narendra in front of him. The devotees were sitting around.

After a few minutes silence he said to Narendra tenderly, “My child, you will not attain God without renouncing ‘woman and gold’.” As he said this, great emotion welled up in his heart. Fixing on Narendra an earnest and tender look, he sang: We are afraid to speak, and yet we are afraid to keep still; Our minds, O Radha, half believe that we are about to lose you!

We tell you the secret that we know-

The secret whereby we ourselves, and others, with our help, Have passed through many a time of peril; Now it all depends on you.

Sri Ramakrishna seemed to be afraid lest Narendra should leave him. Narendra looked at the Master with tears in his eyes.

A visitor who was there for the first time heard and saw all this. He said to the Master,

“Sir, if one must renounce ‘woman and gold’, then what shall a householder do?”

MASTER: “You may enjoy ‘woman and gold’. What has passed between us is no concern of yours.” Mahimacharan, a householder devotee, heard everything and sat speechless.

MASTER (to Mahima): “Go forward. Push on. You will discover the forest of sandal-wood.

Go farther and you will find the silver-mine. Go farther still and you will see the gold-mine. Do not stop there. Go forward, and you will reach the mines of rubies and diamonds. Therefore I say, go forward.”

MAHIMA: “But, sir, something holds us back. We can’t move.”

MASTER (with a smile): “Why? Cut the reins. Cut them with the sword of God’s name.

‘The shackles of Kala, Time, are cut by Kāli’s name.’

“Every now and then, the Master cast his gracious look on Narendra. He said, “Have you now become an experienced physician?” Quoting a Sanskrit verse he said, “He who has killed only a hundred patients is a novice in medicine; but he becomes an expert after killing a thousand!”

Was the Master hinting that Narendra, even though still young, had had many painful experiences of life? Narendra smiled and kept silent. It was afternoon. The devotees were seated around the Master, listening to Nabai Chaitanya’s singing.

Suddenly the Master left the room, but the music continued. M. accompanied the Master.