Ego of old age

“Then there is an ’ego of old age’. (Dr. Sarkar laughs.) An old man has many shackles: caste, pride, shame, hatred, and fear. Furthermore, he is bound by the ideas of worldly cleverness, calculating intelligence, and deceit. If he is angry with anybody, he cannot shake it off easily; perhaps he keeps the feeling as long as he lives. Again, there is the ’ego of scholarship’ and the ’ego of wealth’. The ’ego of old age’ is an ‘unripe ego’.

Characteristics of tamas

(To the doctor) “There are a few men who cannot attain knowledge of God: men proud of their scholarship, proud of their education, or proud of their wealth. If you speak to such people about a holy man and ask them to visit him, they make all kinds of excuses and will not go. But in their heart of hearts they think: ‘Why, we are big people ourselves. Must we go and visit someone else?’

“A characteristic of tamas is pride. Pride and delusion come from tamas. “It is said in the Purana that Ravana had an excess of rajas, Kumbhakarna of tamas, and Bibhishana of sattva. That is why Bibhishana was able to receive the grace of Rāma. Another characteristic of tamas is anger. Through anger one loses one’s wits and cannot distinguish between right and wrong. In a fit of anger Hanuman set fire to Lanka, without thinking for a moment that the fire might also burn down the hut where Sita lived.

“Still another feature of tamas is lust.Turn your passions to God Girindra Ghosh of PathuriaGhata once remarked, ‘Since you cannot get rid of your passions-your lust, your anger, and so on-give them a new direction. Instead of desiring worldly pleasures, desire God. Have intercourse with Brahman. If you cannot get rid of anger, then change its direction. Assume the tamasic attitude of bhakti, and say: ‘What? I have repeated the hallowed name of Durga, and shall I not be liberated? How can I be a sinner any more? How can I be bound any more?’ If you cannot get rid of temptation, direct it toward God. Be infatuated with God’s beauty. If you cannot get rid of pride, then be proud to say that you are the servant of God, you are the child of God. Thus turn the six passions toward God.”

DOCTOR: “It is very hard to control the sense-organs. They are like restive horses, whose eyes must be covered with blinkers. In the case of some horses it is necessary to prevent them from seeing at all.”

MASTER: “A man need not fear anything if but once he receives the grace of God, if but once he obtains the vision of God, if but once he attains Self-Knowledge. Then the six passions cannot do him any harm.

“Eternally perfect souls like Nārada and Prahlada did not have to take the trouble to put blinkers on their eyes. The child who holds his father’s hand, while walking along the narrow balk in the paddy-field, may loosen his hold in a moment of carelessness and slip into the ditch. But it is quite different if the father holds the child’s hand. Then the child never falls into the ditch.”

DOCTOR: “But it is not proper for a father to hold his child by the hand.”

MASTER: “It is not quite like that. Great sages have childlike natures. Before God they are always like children. They have no pride. Their strength is the strength of God, the strength of their Father. They have nothing to call their own. They are firmly convinced of that.”

DOCTOR: “Can you make a horse move forward without first covering his eyes with blinkers? Can one realize God without first controlling the passions?”

Paths of knowledge and devotion

MASTER: “What you say is according to the path of discrimination. It is known as Jnāna yoga. Through that path, too, one attains God. The jnanis say that an aspirant must first of all purify his heart. First he needs spiritual exercises; then he will attain Knowledge.

“But God can also be realized through the path of devotion. Once the devotee develops love for the Lotus Feet of God and enjoys the singing of His name and attributes, he does not have to make a special effort to restrain his senses. For such a devotee the sense-organs come under control of themselves.“Suppose a man has just lost his son and is mourning his death. Can he be in a mood to quarrel with others that very day, or enjoy a feast in the house of a friend? Can he, that very day, show his pride before others or enjoy sense pleasures?

“If the moth discovers light, can it remain in darkness any longer?”

DOCTOR (with a smile): “Of course it cannot. It would rather fly into the flame and perish.”

MASTER: “Oh no, that’s not so. A lover of God does not burn himself to death, like a moth. The light to which he rushes is like the light of a gem. That light is brilliant, no doubt, but it is also cooling and soothing. That light does not scorch his body; it gives him joy and peace.

Difficulty of path of knowledge

“One realizes God by following the path of discrimination and knowledge. But this is an extremely difficult path. It is easy enough to say such things as, ‘I am not the body, mind, or intellect; I am beyond grief, disease, and sorrow; I am the embodiment of Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute; I am beyond pain and pleasure; I am not under the control of the sense-organs’, but it is very hard to assimilate these ideas and practise them. Suppose I see, my hand cut by a thorn and blood gushing out; then it is not right for me to say: ‘Why, my hand is not cut by the thorn! I am all right.’ In order to be able to say that, I must first of all burn the thorn itself in the fire of Knowledge.

“Many people think they cannot have knowledge or understanding of God without reading books. But hearing is better than reading, and seeing is better than hearing. Hearing about Benares is different from reading about it; but seeing Benares is different from either hearing or reading.

“Those actually engaged in a game of chess do not always judge the moves on the board correctly. The onlookers often judge the moves better than the players. Worldly people often think themselves very intelligent, but they are attached to the things of the world. They are the actual players and cannot understand their own moves correctly. But holy men, who have renounced everything, are unattached to the world; they are really more intelligent than worldly people. Since they do not take any part in worldly life, their position is that of onlookers, and so they see things more clearly.”

DOCTOR (to the devotees): “If he [meaning Sri Ramakrishna] had studied books he could not have acquired so much knowledge. Faraday communed with nature; that is why he was able to discover many scientific truths. He could not have known so much from the mere study of books. Mathematical formulas only throw the brain into confusion and bar the path of original inquiry.”

MASTER: “There was a time when I lay on the ground in the Panchavati and prayed to the Divine Mother, ‘O Mother, reveal to me what the karmis have realized through their ritualistic worship, what the yogis have realized through yoga, and what the jnanis haverealized through discrimination.’

How much I communed with the Divine Mother! How can I describe it all?

“Ah, what a state I passed through! Sleep left me completely.”

The Master sang:

My sleep is broken; how can I slumber any more? For now I am wide awake in the sleeplessness of yoga. O Divine Mother, made one with Thee in yoga-sleep at last, My slumber I have lulled asleep for evermore. A man has come to me from a country where there is no night; Rituals and devotions have all grown profitless for me. He continued: “I have not read books. But people show me respect because I chant the name of the Divine Mother. Sambhu Mallick said about me, ‘Here is a great hero without a sword or shield!’”

(Laughter.)

The conversation turned to the performance of a drama by Girish Ghosh called The Life of Buddha. The doctor had seen the play and been much pleased with it.

DOCTOR (to Girish): “You are a very bad man. Must I go to the theatre every day?”

MASTER (to M.): “What does he say? I don’t quite understand.”

M: “The doctor liked the play very much.”