Master's advice to Shyam Basu

MASTER (to Shyam Basu): “Give up worldly talk altogether. Don’t talk about anything whatever but God. If you see a worldly person coming near you, leave the place before he arrives. You have spent your whole life in the world. You have seen that it is all hollow.

Isn’t that so? God alone is Substance, and all else is illusory. God alone is real, and all else has only a two days existence. What is there in the world? The world is like apickled hog plum: one craves for it. But what is there in a hog plum? Only skin and pit.

And if you eat it you will have colic.”

SHYAM: “Yes, sir. Everything you have said is true.”

Nature of the world

MASTER: “For many years you have devoted yourself to various worldly things. You will not be able to think of God and meditate on Him in this confusion of the world. A little solitude is necessary for you; otherwise your mind will not be steady. Therefore you must fix a place for meditation at least half a mile away from your house.”

Shyam Basu remained silent a few moments. He appeared absorbed in thought.

MASTER (Smiling): “Besides, all your teeth are gone. Why should you bother so much about the Durga Puja? (All laugh.) A man used to celebrate the worship of Durga with the sacrifice of goats and with other ceremonies. He continued the worship many years and then stopped it. A friend asked him, ‘Why don’t you perform the Durga Puja any more?’ ‘Brother,’ replied the man, ‘my teeth are all gone. I have lost the power to chew goat-meat.’”

SHYAM: “Ah! How sweet these words are!”

MASTER (smiling): “This world is a mixture of sand and sugar. Like the ant, one should discard the sand and eat the sugar. He who can eat the sugar is clever indeed. Build a quiet place for thinking of God-a place for your meditation. Have it ready. I shall visit it.”

SHYAM: “Sir, is there such a thing as reincarnation? Shall we be born again?”

MASTER: “Ask God about it. Pray to Him sincerely. He will tell you everything. Speak to Jadu Mallick, and he himself will tell you how many houses he has, and how many government bonds. It is not right to try to know these things at the beginning. First of all realize God; then He Himself will let you know whatever you desire.”

SHYAM: “Sir, how much wrong, how many sinful things a man does in this world! Can he ever realize God?”

MASTER: “If a man practises spiritual discipline before his death and if he gives up his body praying to God and meditating on Him, when will sin touch him? It is no doubt the elephant’s nature to smear his body with dust and mud, even after his bath. But he cannot do so if the mahut takes him into the stable immediately after his bath.”

In spite of his serious illness the Master keenly felt the sorrow and suffering of men. Day and night he thought about their welfare. The devotees wondered at his compassion.

The assurance of Sri Ramakrishna that no sin can touch a man if he gives up his body while praying to God was deeply impressed on their minds.Friday, October 30, 1885

It was nine o’clock in the morning. Sri Ramakrishna was talking with M. in his room. No one else was present. M. was going to Dr. Sarkar to report his condition and bring him to examine the Master.

Master on Purna and Manindra

MASTER (to M., smiling): “Purna came this morning. He has such a nice nature! Manindra has an element of Prakriti, of womanliness. He has read the life of Chaitanya and understood the attitude of the gopis. He has also realized that God is Purusha and man is Prakriti, and that man should worship God as His handmaid. How remarkable!”

M: “It is true, sir.”

Purna was then fifteen or sixteen years old. Sri Ramakrishna always longed to see him. But his relatives did not allow him to visit the Master. One night, before his illness, Sri Ramakrishna had been so eager to see Purna that he had suddenly left Dakshineswar and arrived at M.’s house in Calcutta. M. had brought Purna from his home to see Sri Ramakrishna. The Master had given the boy many instructions about prayer and had afterwards returned to Dakshineswar. Manindra was about the same age as Purna. The devotees addressed him as “khoka”. He used to dance in ecstasy when he heard the chanting of God’s name.

About half past ten M. arrived at Dr. Sarkar’s house. He went up to the second floor and sat in a chair on the porch adjacent to the drawing-room. In front of Dr. Sarkar was a glass bowl in which some goldfish were kept. Now and then Dr. Sarkar threw some cardamom shells into the bowl. Again, he threw pellets of flour to the sparrows. M. watched him.

Dr. Sarkar on bhakti and jnāna

DOCTOR (smiling, to M.): “You see, these goldfish are staring at me like devotees staring at God. They haven’t noticed the food I have thrown into the water. Therefore I say, what will you gain by mere bhakti? You need knowledge too. (M. smiles.) Look there at the sparrows! They flew away when I threw flour pellets to them. They were frightened. They have no bhakti because they are without knowledge. They don’t know that flour is their food.”

Dr. Sarkar and M. entered the drawing-room. There were shelves all around filled with books. The doctor rested a little. M. looked at the books. He picked up Canon Farrar’s Life of Jesus and read a few pages. Dr. Sarkar told M. how the first homeopathic hospital was started in the teeth of great opposition. He asked M. to read the letters relating to it, which had been published in the “Calcutta Journal of Medicine” in 1876. Dr. Sarkar was much devoted to homeopathy.

M. picked up another book, Munger’s New Theology. Dr. Sarkar noticed it.

DOCTOR: “Munger has based his conclusions on nice argument and reasoning. It is not like your believing a thing simply because a Chaitanya or a Buddha or Jesus Christ has said so.”

M. (smiling): “Yes, we should not believe Chaitanya or Buddha; but we must believe Munger!”

DOCTOR: “Whatever you say.”

M: “We must quote someone as our authority; so it is Munger.” (The doctor smiles.)

Dr. Sarkar got into his carriage accompanied by M. The carriage proceeded toward Syampukur. It was midday. They gossiped together. The conversation turned to Dr. Bhaduri, who had also been visiting the Master now and then.

M. (smiling): “Bhaduri said about you that you must begin all over again from the stone and brick-bat.”

DR. SARKAR: “How is that?”

M: “Because you don’t believe in the Mahatmas, astral bodies, and so forth. Perhaps Bhaduri is a Theosophist. Further, you don’t believe in the Incarnation of God. That is why he teased you, saying that when, you died this time you would certainly not be reborn as a human being. That would be far off. You wouldn’t be born even as an animal or bird, or even as a tree or a plant. You would have to begin all over again, from stone and brick-bat. Then, after many, many births, you might assume a human body.”

DR. SARKAR: “Goodness gracious!”

M: “Bhaduri further said that the knowledge of your physical science was a false knowledge. Such knowledge is momentary. He gave an analogy. Suppose there are two wells.

The one gets its water from an underground spring. The other has no such spring and is filled with rain-water. But the water of the second well does not last a long time. The knowledge of your science is like the rain-water. It dries up.”

DR. SARKAR (with a smile): “I see!”

The carriage arrived at Cornwallis Street. Dr. Sarkar picked up Dr. Pratap Mazumdar. Pratap had visited Sri Ramakrishna the previous day. They soon arrived at Syampukur.

Sri Ramakrishna was sitting in his room, on the second floor, with several devotees.

DR. SARKAR (to the Master): “I see you are coughing. (Smiling) But it is good to go to Kasi.” (All laugh.)MASTER (smiling): “But that will give me liberation. I don’t want liberation; I want love of God!” (All laugh.)

Pratap was Dr. Bhaduri’s son-in-law. Sri Ramakrishna was speaking to Pratap in praise of his father-in-law.

MASTER (to Pratap): “Ah, what a grand person he has become! He contemplates God and observes purity in his conduct. Further, he accepts both aspects of God-personal and impersonal.”

M. was very eager to mention Dr. Bhaduri’s remarks about Dr. Sarkar’s being born again as a stone or brick-bat. He asked the younger Naren very softly whether he remembered those remarks of Dr. Bhaduri. Sri Ramakrishna overheard this.

MASTER (to Dr. Sarkar): “Do you know what Dr. Bhaduri said about you? He said that, because you didn’t believe these things, in the next cycle you would have to begin your earthly life from a stone or brick-bat.” (All laugh.)

DR. SARKAR (smiling): “Suppose I begin from a stone or brick-bat, and after many births obtain a human body; but as soon as I come back to this place I shall have to begin over again from a stone or brick-bat.” (The doctor and all laugh.)

The conversation turned to the Master’s ecstasy in spite of his illness.

PRATAP: “Yesterday I saw you in an ecstatic mood.”

MASTER: “It happened of itself; but it was not intense.”

DR. SARKAR: “Ecstasy and talking are not good for you now.” MASTER (to Dr. Sarkar): “I saw you yesterday in my samādhi. I found that you are a mine of knowledge; but it is all dry knowledge. You have not tasted divine bliss. (To Pratap, referring to Dr. Sarkar) If he ever tastes divine bliss, he will see everything, above and below, filled with it. Then he will not say that whatever he says is right and what others say is wrong. Then he will not utter sharp, strong, pointed words.”

The devotees remained silent.