Master praises doctor's son

“Your son is a nice boy. Why shouldn’t he be? Does a mango-tree of the fine ‘Bombay’ variety ever bear Sour mangoes? How firm his faith in God is! That man is a true man whose mind dwells on God. He alone is a man whose spiritual consciousness has been awakened and who is firmly convinced that God alone is real and all else illusory. He does not believe in Divine Incarnation; but what does that matter? It is enough if he believes that God exists, and that all this universe and its living beings are the manifestations of His Power-like a rich man and his garden.On Divine Incarnation

“Some say that there are ten Divine Incarnations, some twenty-four, while others say that there are innumerable Incarnations. If you see anywhere a special manifestation of God’s Power, you may know that God has incarnated Himself there. That is my opinion.

Absolute and Relative

“There is another view, according to which God has become all that you see. It is like a bel-fruit, which consists of three parts: seeds, shell, and flesh. That which is the Absolute has also its relative aspect, and that which is the Relative has also its absolute aspect. You cannot set aside the Absolute and understand just the Relative. And it is only because there is the Relative that you can transcend it step by step and reach the Absolute.

“So long as ‘I-consciousness’ exists, a man cannot go beyond the Relative. Through meditation he can negate the phenomena, following the process of ‘Neti, neti’, and reach the Absolute; but nothing can really be denied, as in the instance of the bel-fruit.”

DOCTOR: “Quite true.”

MASTER: “Kacha had been immersed in nirvikalpa samādhi. When his mind was coming down to the relative plane, someone asked him, ‘What do you see now?’ Kacha replied:

‘I see that the universe is soaked, as it were, in God. Everything is filled with God. It is God alone who has become all that I see. I do not know what to accept and what to reject.’

“In my opinion one should realize both the Nitya and the Lila and then live in the world as the servant of God. Hanuman saw both the Personal God and the formless Reality. He then lived as a devotee of God, as His servant.”

M. (to himself): “So we must accept both-the Absolute and the Relative. Since the introduction of the Vedānta philosophy in Germany, some of the European philosophers, too, have been thinking along that line. But the Master says that one cannot realize both the Nitya and the Lila without complete renunciation, that is to say, without totally giving up ‘woman and gold’. Such a person must be a true renouncer; he must be totally detached from the world. Here lies the real difference between him and such European philosophers as Hegel”

Dr. Sarkar on Incarnation

In Dr. Sarkar’s opinion, God created men and ordained that every soul should make infinite progress. He would not believe that one man was greater than another. That was why he did not believe in the doctrine of Divine Incarnation.

DOCTOR: “I believe in infinite progress. If that is not so, then what is the use of leading a mere five or six years’ existence in the world? I would rather hang myself with a rope round my neck.“Incarnation! What is that? To cower before a man who excretes filth! It is absurd. But if you speak of a man as the reflection of God’s Light-yes, that I admit.”

GIRISH (smiling): “But you have not seen God’s Light.”

Dr. Sarkar was hesitating before giving a reply. A friend who sat near him whispered something into his ear.

DOCTOR (to Girish): “You too have not seen anything but a reflection.”

GIRISH: “I see It! I see the Light! I shall prove that Sri Krishna is an Incarnation of God or I shall cut out my tongue!”

Futility of discussion

MASTER: “All this is useless talk. It is like the ravings of a delirious patient. A delirious patient says, ‘I shall drink a whole tank of water; I shall eat a whole pot of rice.’ The physician says: ‘Yes, yes. You will have all these. We shall give you whatever you want when you are convalescent.’

“When butter is heated it sizzles and crackles. But all sound comes to a stop when it is thoroughly boiled. As a man’s mind is, so is his conception of God. I have seen in rich men’s houses portraits of the Queen and other aristocrats. But the devotees keep in their houses pictures of gods and goddesses.

Go beyond knowledge and ignorance

“Lakshmana said, ‘O Rāma, even a sage like Vasishthadeva was overcome with grief on account of the death of his sons!’ ‘Brother,’ replied Rāma, ‘whoever has knowledge has ignorance also. Whoever is conscious of light is also conscious of darkness. Therefore go beyond knowledge and ignorance.’ One attains that state through an intimate knowledge of God. This knowledge is called vijnāna .

“When a thorn enters the sole of your foot you have to get another thorn. You then remove the first thorn with the help of the second Afterwards you throwaway both. Likewise, after removing the thorn of ignorance with the help of the thorn of knowledge, you should throwaway the thorns of both knowledge and ignorance.

“There are signs of Perfect Knowledge. One is that reasoning comes to an end. As I have just said, the butter sizzles and crackles as long as it is not thoroughly boiled.”

Doctor: “But can one retain Perfect Knowledge permanently? You say that all is God. Then why have you taken up this profession of a paramahamsa? And why do these people attend on you? Why don’t you keep silent?”

MASTER (smiling): “Water is water whether it is still or moves or breaks into waves.The story of the “Māhut Narayana” “I must tell you something else. Why should I not listen to the ‘mahut Narayana’? The guru had taught his disciple that everything was Narayana. A mad elephant was coming toward the disciple, but he did not move away since he believed the guru’s words. He thought that the elephant was Narayana. The mahut shouted to him: ‘Get away! Get away!’ But the disciple did not move. The elephant picked him up and threw him to the ground. The disciple was not quite dead; when his face was sprinkled with water he regained consciousness. Being asked why he had not moved away, he said: ‘why should I? The guru said, “Everything is Narayana.”’ ‘But, my child,’ said the Guru, ‘Why didn’t you listen to the words of the mahut Narayana?’

“It is God who dwells within as the Pure Mind and Pure Intelligence. I am the machine and He is its Operator. I am the house and He is the Indweller. It is God who is the mahut Narayana.”

DOCTOR: “Let me ask you something. Why do you ask me to cure your illness?”

MASTER: “I talk that way as long as I am conscious of the ‘jar’ of the ’ego’. Think of a vast ocean filled with water on all sides. A jar is immersed in it. There is water both inside and outside the jar; but the water does not become one unless the jar is broken. It is God who has kept this ‘jar’ of the ’ego’ in me.”

DOCTOR: “What is the meaning of ’ego’ and all that you are talking about? You must explain it to me. Do you mean to say that God is playing tricks on us?”

GIRISH: “Sir, how do you know that He is not playing tricks?”

MASTER (smiling): “It is God who has kept this ’ego’ in us. All this is His play, His Lila. A king has four sons. They are all princes; but when they play, one becomes a minister, another a police officer, and so on. Though a prince, he plays as a police officer.

(To the doctor) “Listen. If you realize Ātman you will see the truth of all I have said. All doubts disappear after the vision of God.”

DOCTOR: “But is it ever possible to get rid of all doubts?”

MASTER: “Learn from me as much as I have told you. But if you want to know more, you must pray to God in solitude. Ask Him why He has so ordained. “The son of the house can give a beggar only a small measure of rice. But if the beggar asks for his train fare, then the master of the house must be called.”

The doctor remained silent.

Master reasons with Dr. Sarkar

MASTER: “Well, you love reasoning. All right. Let us reason a little. Listen. According to the Jnāni there is no Incarnation of God. Krishna said to Arjuna: ‘You speak of Me as anIncarnation of God. Let me show you something. Come with Me.’

Arjuna had followed Sri Krishna a short distance, when Sri Krishna asked him, ‘What do you see there?’ Arjuna replied, ‘A big tree with black berries hanging in bunches.’ Krishna said, ‘Those are not black berries. Go nearer and look at them.’ Arjuna went nearer and saw that they were Krishnas hanging in bunches. ‘Do you see now’, said Krishna, ‘how many Krishnas like Me have grown there?’

“Kavirdas said of Krishna, ‘He danced like a monkey to the clapping of the gopis!’ “As you go nearer to God you see less and less of His Upādhis , His attributes. A devotee at first may see the Deity as the ten-armed Divine Mother; when he goes nearer he sees Her possessed of six arms; still nearer, he sees the Deity as the two-armed Gopala. The nearer he comes to the Deity, the fewer attributes he sees. At last, when he comes into the presence of the Deity, he sees only Light without any attributes.

“Listen a little to the Vedantic reasoning. A magician came to a king to show his magic. When the magician moved away a little, the king saw a rider on horseback approaching him. He was brilliantly arrayed and had various weapons in his hands. The king and the audience began to reason out what was real in the phenomenon before them. Evidently the horse was not real, nor the robes, nor the armour. At last they found out beyond the shadow of a doubt that the rider alone was there. The significance of this is that

Brahman alone is real and the world unreal Nothing whatsoever remains if you analyse.”

DOCTOR: “I don’t object to this.”