Master reprimands Captain

Immediately after saying this he began to criticize the young devotees. He said: ‘They study English books and don’t discriminate about their food. It is not good that they should visit you frequently. It may do you harm. Hazra is a real man, a grand fellow.

Don’t allow those young people to visit you so much.’ At first I said, ‘What can I do if they come?’ Then I gave him some mortal blows. His daughter laughed. I said to him:

‘God is far, far away from the worldly-minded. But God is very near the man-nay, within a distance of three cubits-whose mind is free from worldliness.’ Speaking of Rakhal , Captain said, ‘He eats with all sorts of people.’ Perhaps he had heard it from Hazra.

Thereupon I said to him: ‘A man may practise intense austerity and japa, but he won’t achieve anything if his mind dwells on the world. But blessed is the man who keeps his mind on God even though he eats pork. He will certainly realize God in due time. Hazra, with all his austerity and japa, doesn’t allow an opportunity to slip by for earning money as a broker.’

“‘Yes, yes!’ said Captain. ‘You are right.’ I said to him further, ‘A few minutes ago you said that all men were parts of Rāma and all women parts of Sita, and now you are talking like this!’

“Captain said: ‘Yes, that’s true. But you don’t love everybody.’

“I said: ‘According to the scriptures, water is God. We see water everywhere. But some water we drink, some we bathe in, and some we use for washing dirty things. Here sit your wife and daughter. I see them as embodiments of the Blessed Mother.’

“Thereupon Captain said, ‘Yes, yes! That’s true.’ He wanted to apologize by touching my feet.”

After speaking thus, Sri Ramakrishna laughed. Then he began to tell of Captain’s many virtues.

MASTER: “Captain has many virtues. Every day he attends to his devotions. He himself performs the worship of the Family Deity. How many mantras he recites while bathing the image! He is a great ritualist. He performs his daily devotions, such as worship, japa, Ārati , recital of the scriptures, and chanting of hymns.

“I scolded Captain and said: ‘Too much reading has spoiled you. Don’t read any more.’

“About my own spiritual state Captain said, ‘Your soul, like a bird, is ready to fly.’ There are two entities: jivatma, the embodied soul, and Paramatma, the Supreme Soul. The embodied soul is the bird. The Supreme Soul is like the Ākāśa; it is the Chidakasa, the Ākāśa of Consciousness.

Captain said: ‘Your embodied soul flies into the Ākāśa of Consciousness. Thus you go into samādhi.’

(Smiling) “He critisized the Bengalis. He said: ‘The Bengalis are fools. They have a gem near them, but they cannot recognize it.’

“Captain’s father was a great devotee. He was a Subedar in the English army. Even on the battle-field he would perform his worship at the proper time. With one hand he would worship Śiva and with the other he would wield his gun and sword.

(To M.) “But Captain is engaged in worldly duties day and night. Whenever I go to his house I see him surrounded by his wife and children. Besides, his men bring him their account books now and then. But at times his mind dwells on God also. It is like the case of a typhoid patient who is always in a delirium. Now and then he gets a flash of consciousness and cries out: ‘I want a drink of water! I want a drink of water!’ But while you are giving him the water, he becomes unconscious again and is not aware of anything.

I said to Captain, ‘You are a ritualist.’ He said: ‘Yes, I feel very happy while performing worship and things like that. Worldly people have no other way.’ “I said to him: ’ but must one perform formal worship for ever? How long does a bee buzz about? As long as it hasn’t lighted on a flower. While sipping honey it doesn’t buzz.’

‘But’, he said, ‘can we, like you, give up worship and other rituals?’ Yet he doesn’t always say the same thing. Sometimes he says that all this is inert, sometimes that all this is conscious. I say: ‘What do you mean by inert? Everything is Chaitanya, Consciousness.’”

Sri Ramakrishna asked M. about Purna.

MASTER: “If I see Purna once more, then my longing for him will diminish. How intelligent he is! His mind is much drawn to me. He says, ‘I too feel a strange sensation in my heart for you.’ (To M.) They have taken him away from your school. Will that harm you?”

M: “If Vidyāsāgar tells me that Purna’s relatives have taken him away from the school on my account, I have an explanation to give him.”

MASTER: “What will you say?”

M: “I shall say that one thinks of God in holy company. That is by no means bad.

Further, I shall tell him that the text-books prescribed by the school authorities say that one should love God with all one’s soul” (The Master laughs.)

MASTER : “At Captain’s house I sent for the younger Naren. I said to him:’ where is your house? I want to see it.’ ‘Please do come’, he said. But he became nervous as we were going there, lest his father should know about it. (All laugh.)

(To a visitor) “You haven’t been here for a long time-about seven or eight months.”

VISITOR: “About a year, sir.”

MASTER: “Another gentleman used to come with you.”

VISITOR: “Yes, sir. Nilmani Babu.”

MASTER: “Why doesn’t he come any more? Ask him to come some time. I want to see him. Who is this boy with you?”

VISITOR: “He comes from Assam.”

MASTER: “Where is Assam? In which direction?” Dwija spoke to the Master about Ashu. Ashu’s father was arranging for his marriage, but Ashu had no wish to marry.

MASTER: “See, he doesn’t want to marry. They are forcing him.”

Sri Ramakrishna said to a devotee that he should show respect to his elder brother. He said: “The elder brother is like one’s father. Respect him.”

A pundit was sitting with the devotees. He came from upper India.

MASTER (smiling, to M.): “The pundit is a great student of the Bhagavata.”

M. and the devotees looked at the pundit.

MASTER (to the pundit): “Well, sir, what is Yogamaya?”

The pundit gave some sort of explanation.

MASTER: “Why isn’t Radhika called Yogamaya?” The pundit also answered this question after a fashion.