Sri Sri

Ramakrishna Kathamritam

CHAPTER 2

IN THE COMPANY OF DEVOTEES

 
3rd visit of Ch. 2 - March 1882.
The mind's inability to comprehend God.     Another day the Master was seated on the small couch in his room, with his usual beaming countenance. M. arrived with Kalikrishna, who did not know where his friend M. was taking him. He had only been told: "If you want to see a grog-shop, then come with me. You will see a huge jar of wine there." M. related this to Sri Ramakrishna, who laughed about it. The Master said: "The bliss of worship and communion with God is the true wine, the wine of ecstatic love. The goal of human life is to love God. Bhakti is the one essential thing. To know God through jnana and reasoning is extremely difficult.

    Then the Master sang:

Who is there that can understand what Mother Kali is?
Even the six darshanas are powerless to reveal Her. ...
The Master said, again: "The one goal of life is to cultivate love for God, the love that the milkmaids, the milkmen, and the cowherd boys of Vrindavan felt for Krishna. When Krishna went to Mathura, the cowherds roamed about weeping bitterly because of their separation from Him."

    Saying this the Master sang, with his eyes turned upward:

Just now I saw a youthful cowherd
With a young calf in his arms;
There he stood, by one hand holding
The branch of a young tree.
"Where are You, Brother Kanai?" he cried;
But "Kanai" scarcely could he utter;
"Ka" was as much as he could say.
He cried, "Where are You, Brother?"
And his eyes were filled with tears.
    When M. heard this song of the Master's, laden with love, his eyes were moist with tears.
 

Published by:
(c) The President.
Sri Ramakrishna Math.
Mylapore, Madras 600 004.
India.