About Rakhal

MASTER (to Girish): “Rakhal has now understood what is good and what is bad, what is real and what is unreal. He lives with his family, no doubt, but he knows what it means. He has a wife. And a son has been born to him. But he has realized that all these are illusory and impermanent. Rakhal will never be attached to the world.

“He is like a mudfish. The fish lives in the mud, but there is not the slightest trace of mud on its body.”

GIRISH: “Sir, I don’t understand all this. You can make everyone pure and unattached if you want to. You can make everyone good, whether he is a worldly man or a sannyāsi. The Malaya breeze, I believe, turns all trees into sandal-wood.”

MASTER: “Not unless there is substance in them. There are a few trees, the cotton-tree for instance, which are not turned into sandal-wood.”

GIRISH: “I don’t care.”

MASTER: “But this is the law.”

GIRISH: “But everything about you is illegal.”

The devotees were listening to this conversation in great amazement. Every now and then, the fan in M.’s hand stopped moving.

MASTER: “Yes, that may be true. When the river of bhakti overflows, the land all around is flooded with water to the depth of a pole.

“When a man is inebriated with divine love, he doesn’t abide by the injunctions of the Vedas. He picks Durva grass for the worship of the Deity, but he doesn’t clean it. He picks whatever he lays his hands on. While gathering tulsi-leaves he even breaks the branches. Ah! what state of mind I passed through!

(To M.) “When one develops love of God, one needs nothing else.”

M: “Yes, sir.”

MASTER: “But a devotee must assume toward God, a particular attitude. God in His Incarnation as Rāma demonstrated Śānta, Dāsya, Vātsalya, and sakhya. But Krishna demonstrated Madhur, besides all these.Radha’s love for Krishna “Radha cherished the attitude of Madhur toward Krishna. Her love was romantic.

But in the case of Sita it was the pure love of a chaste wife for her husband. There was no romance in her love. “But all this is the lila of God. He demonstrates different ideals to suit different times.”

The crazy woman

A crazy woman used to accompany Vijay Goswami to the Kāli temple at Dakshineswar and sing for Sri Ramakrishna. Her songs were about Kāli. She also used to sing the songs of the Brahmo Samaj. The devotees called her “Pagli” and tried to keep her away from the Master.

MASTER (to Girish and the others):

“Pagli cherishes the attitude of Madhur toward me.

One day she came to Dakshineswar. Suddenly she burst out crying. ‘Why are you crying?’ I asked her. And she said, ‘Oh, my head is aching!’ (All laugh.) Another day I was eating when she came to Dakshineswar. She suddenly said, ‘Won’t you be kind to me?’ I had no idea of what was passing through her mind and went on eating. Then she said, ‘Why did you push me away mentally?’ I asked her, ‘What is your attitude?’ She said, ‘Madhur.’ ‘Ah!’ I said. ‘But I look on all women as manifestations of the Divine Mother. All women are mothers to me.’ There upon she said, ‘I don’t know all that.’ Then I called Ramlal and said to him: ‘Ramlal, listen to her! What is she talking about this ‘pushing away mentally?’ Even now she keeps up that attitude.”

GIRISH: “Blessed indeed is Pagli !

May be she is crazy. May be she is beaten by the devotees. But she meditates on you twenty-four hours a day. No matter how she meditates on you, no harm can ever befall her.

“Sir, how can I express my own feelings about it? Think what I was before, and what I have become now by meditating on you! Formerly I was indolent; now that indolence has turned into resignation to God. Formerly I was a sinner; now I have become humble. What else can I say?”

The devotees remained silent. Rakhal expressed his sympathy for Pagli .

He said: ‘We all feel sorry for her. She causes so much annoyance, and for that she suffers, too.”

NIRANJAN (to Rakhal): “You feel that way for her because you have a wife at home. But we could kill her.” Rakhal (sharply): “Such bragging! How dare you utter such words before him [meaning Sri Ramakrishna]?”

MASTER (to Girish): “‘Woman and gold’ alone is the world. Many people regard money as their very life-blood. But however you may show love for money, one day, perhaps, every bit of it will slip from your hand.“In our part of the country the farmers make narrow ridges around their paddy-fields.

You know what those ridges are. Some farmers make ridges with great care all the way around their fields. Such ridges are destroyed by the rush of the rain-water. But some farmers leave a part of the ridge open and put sod there. The water flows through the sod, leaving the field covered with silt after the rain. They reap a rich harvest.

Good use of money

“They alone make good use of their money who spend it for the worship of God or the service of holy men and devotees. Their money bears fruit.

“I cannot eat anything offered by physicians. I mean those who traffic in human suffering. Their money is blood and pus.”

Sri Ramakrishna mentioned two physicians in this connection.

GIRISH: “Dr. Rajendra Dutta is a generous person. He doesn’t accept a penny from anybody. He gives away money in charity.”