How to cultivate longing for God

At Girish’s house

Girish stood at the door to welcome the Master. As Sri Ramakrishna entered the house, Girish fell at his feet and lay there on the floor like a rod. At the Master’s bidding he stood up, touching the Master’s feet with his forehead. Sri Ramakrishna was taken to the drawing-room on the second floor.

The devotees followed him and sat down, eager to get a view of the Master and listen to every word that fell from his lips. As Sri Ramakrishna was about to take the seat reserved for him, he saw a newspaper lying near it. He signed to someone to remove the paper. Since a newspaper contains worldly matters-gossip and scandal-, he regarded it as unholy. After the paper was removed he took his seat. Nityagopal came forward and bowed low before the Master.

MASTER: “Well! You haven’t been to Dakshineswar for a long time.”

NITYAGOPAL: “True, sir. I haven’t been able to go there. I haven’t been well. I have had pains all over my body.”

MASTER: “How are you now?”

NITYAGOPAL: “Not so well, sir.”

MASTER: “Bring your mind down one or two notes.”

NITYAGOPAL: “I don’t like people’s company. They say all kinds of things about me. That sometimes frightens me, but again I feel great strength within.”

MASTER: “That’s only natural. Who lives with you?”

NITYAGOPAL: “Tārak. He is always with me. But sometimes he too gets on my nerves.”

MASTER: “Nangta told me that there lived at his monastery an ascetic who had acquired occult powers. He used to go about with his eyes fixed on the sky. But when one of his companions left him, he became disconsolate.”

Again the Master went into an ecstatic mood. Strange thoughts seemed to stir his mind and he remained speechless. After a while he said: “Art Thou come? I too am here.” Who could pretend to understand these words?

Narendra and Girish argue about God

Many of his devotees were in the room: Narendra, Girish, Ram, Haripada, Chuni, Balarām, and M. Narendra did not believe that God could incarnate Himself in a human body.

But Girish differed with him; he had the burning faith that from time to time the Almighty Lord, through His inscrutable Power, assumes a human body and descends to earth to serve a divine purpose.

The Master said to Girish, “I should like to hear you and Narendra argue in English.”

The discussion began; but they talked in Bengali. Narendra said: “God is Infinity. How is it possible for us to comprehend Him? He dwells in every human being. It is not the case that He manifests Himself through one person only.”

SRI RAMAKRISHNA (tenderly): “I quite agree with Narendra. God is everywhere. But then you must remember that there are different manifestations of His Power in different beings.

At some places there is a manifestation of His avidyaŚakti, at others a manifestation of His vidyaŚakti. Through different instruments God’s Power is manifest in different degrees, greater and smaller. Therefore all men are not equal.”

RAM: “What is the use of these futile arguments?”

MASTER (sharply): “No! No! There is a meaning in all this.”

GIRISH (to Narendra): “How do you know that God does not assume a human body?”

NARENDRA: “God is beyond words or thought.”

MASTER: “No, that is not true. He can be known by the pure buddhi, which is the same as the Pure Self. The seers of old directly perceived the Pure Self through their pure buddhi.”

GIRISH (to Narendra): “Unless God Himself teaches men through, His human Incarnation, who else will teach them spiritual mysteries? God takes a human body to teach men divine knowledge and divine love. Otherwise, who will teach?”

NARENDRA: “Why, God dwells in our own heart; He will certainly teach us from within the heart.”

MASTER (tenderly): “Yes, yes. He will teach us as our Inner Guide.”

Gradually Narendra and Girish became involved in a heated discussion. If God is Infinity, how can He have parts? What did Hamilton say? What were the views of Herbert Spencer, of Tyndall, of Huxley? And so forth and so on.

MASTER (to M.): “I don’t enjoy these discussions. Why should I argue at all? I clearly see that God is everything; He Himself has become all. I see that whatever is, is God. He is everything; again, He is beyond everything. I come to a state in which my mind and intellect merge in the Indivisible. At the sight of Narendra my mind loses itself in the consciousness of the Absolute. (To Girish) What do you say to that?”

GIRISH (with a smile): “Why ask me? As if I understood everything except that one point!”

(All laugh.)

MASTER: “Again, I cannot utter a word unless I come down at least two steps from the plane of samādhi. Sankara’s Non-dualistic explanation of Vedānta is true, and so is the Qualified Non-dualistic interpretation of Ramanuja.”

Qualified Monism

NARENDRA: “What is Qualified Non-dualism?”

MASTER: “It is the theory of Ramanuja. According to this theory, Brahman, or the Absolute, is qualified by the universe and its living beings: These three-Brahman, the world, and living beings-together constitute One. Take the instance of a bel-fruit.

A man wanted to know the weight of the fruit. He separated the shell, the flesh, and the seeds.

But can a man get the weight by weighing only the flesh? He must weigh flesh, shell, and seeds together. At first it appears that the real thing in the fruit is the flesh, and not its seeds or shell. Then by reasoning you find that the shell, seeds, and flesh all belong to the fruit; the shell and seeds belong to the same thing that the flesh belongs to.

Likewise, in spiritual discrimination one must first reason, following the method of ‘Not this, not this’: God is not the universe; God is not the living beings;

Brahman alone is real, and all else is unreal. Then one realizes, as with the bel-fruit, that the Reality from which we derive the notion of Brahman is the very Reality that evolves the idea of living beings and the universe. The Nitya and the Lila are the two aspects of one and the same Reality; therefore, according to Ramanuja, Brahman is qualified by the universe and the living beings. This is the theory of Qualified Non-dualism.

Futility of mere reasoning

(To M.) “I do see God directly. What shall I reason about? I clearly see that He Himself has become everything; that He Himself has become the universe and all living beings.

“But without awakening one’s own inner consciousness one cannot realize the All-pervading Consciousness. How long does a man reason? So long as he has not realized God. But mere words will not do. As for myself, I clearly see that He Himself has become everything.

The inner consciousness must be awakened through the grace of God.

Through this awakening a man goes into samādhi. He often forgets that he has a body.

He gets rid of his attachment to ‘woman and gold’ and does not enjoy any talk unless it is about God. Worldly talk gives him pain. Through the awakening of the inner consciousness one realizes the All-pervading Consciousness.”

The discussion came to a close. Sri Ramakrishna said to M.: “I have observed that a man acquires one kind of knowledge about God through reasoning and another kind through meditation; but he acquires a third kind of Knowledge about God when God reveals Himself to him, His devotee.

If God Himself reveals to His devotee the nature of Divine Incarnation-how He plays in human form-, then the devotee doesn’t have to, reason 806about the problem or need an explanation. Do you know what it is like? Suppose a man is in a dark room.

He goes on rubbing a match against a match-box and all of a sudden light comes. Likewise, if God gives us this flash of divine light, all our doubts are destroyed. Can one ever know God by mere reasoning?”

Sri Ramakrishna asked Narendra to sit by his side. He tenderly inquired about his health and showed him much affection.

NARENDRA (to the Master): “Why, I have meditated on Kāli for three or four days, but nothing has come of it.”