Sri Sri

Ramakrishna Kathamritam

    "The truth is that no one seeks God. There are people who eat the prickly leaves of the pineapple and not the fruit."

    DEVOTEE: "Sir, why has God put us in the world?"

    MASTER: "The world is the field of action. Through action one acquires knowledge. The guru instructs the disciple to perform certain works and refrain from others. Again, he advises the pupil to perform action without desiring the result. The impurity of the mind is destroyed through the performance of duty. It is like getting rid of a disease by means of medicine, under the instruction of a competent physician.

    "Why doesn't God free us from the world? Ah, He will free us when the disease is cured. He will liberate us from the world when we are through with the enjoyment of 'woman and gold'. Once a man registers his name in the hospital, he cannot run away. The doctor will not let him go away unless his illness is completely cured."

    During these days Sri Ramakrishna's heart overflowed with motherly love like the love Yasoda felt for Krishna. So he kept Rakhal with him. Rakhal felt toward the Master as a child feels towards its mother. He would sit leaning on the Master's lap as a young child leans on its mother while sucking her breast.

    Rakhal was thus seated by the Master when a man entered the room and said that a high tide was coming in the Ganges. The Master and the devotees ran to the Panchavati to see it. At the sight of a boat being tossed by the tide, Sri Ramakrishna exclaimed: "Look! Look! I hope nothing happens to it."

    They all sat in the Panchavati. The Master asked M. to explain the cause of the tide. M. drew on the ground the figures of the sun, moon, and earth and tried to explain gravitation, ebb-tide, flood-tide, new moon, full moon, eclipse, and so forth.

    MASTER (to M.): "Stop it! I can't follow you. It makes me dizzy. My head is aching. Well, how can they know of things so far off?

    "You see, during my childhood I could paint well; but arithmetic would make my head spin. I couldn't learn simple arithmetic."

    Sri Ramakrishna returned to his room with the devotees. Looking at a picture of Yasoda, on the wall, he said: "It is not well done. She looks like a garland-seller."

    The Master enjoyed a nap after his noon meal. Adhar and other devotees gradually gathered. This was Adhar's first visit. He was a deputy magistrate and about thirty years old.

    ADHAR (to the Master): "Sir, I have a question to ask. Is it good to sacrifice animals before the Deity? It certainly involves killing."

    MASTER: "The sastra prescribes sacrifice on special occasions. Such sacrifice is not harmful. Take, for instance, the sacrifice of a goat on the eight day of the full or new moon.

    "I am now in such a state of mind that I cannot watch a sacrifice. Also I cannot eat meat offered to the Divine Mother. Therefore I first touch my finger to it, then to my head, lest She should be angry with me.

    "Again, in a certain state of mind I see God in all beings, even in an ant. At that time, if I see a living being die, I find consolation in the thought that it is the death of the body, the soul being beyond life and death.

    "One should not reason  too much; it is enough if one loves the Lotus Feet of the Mother. Too much reasoning throws the mind into confusion. You get clear water if you drink from the surface of a pool. Put your hand deeper and stir the water, and it becomes muddy. Therefore pray to God for devotion.

    "Behind Dhruva's devotion there was desire. He practiced austerities to gain his father's kingdom. But Prahlada's love for God was motiveless -- a love that sought no return."

    A DEVOTEE: "How can one realize God?"

    MASTER: "Through that kind of love. But one must force one's demand on God. One should be able to say: 'O God, wilt Thou not reveal Thyself to me? I will cut my throat with a knife.' This is the tamas of bhakti."

    DEVOTEE: "Can one see God?"

    MASTER: "Yes, surely. One can see both aspects of God -- God with form and without form. One can see God with form, the Embodiment of Spirit. Again, God can be directly perceived in a man with a tangible form. Seeing an Incarnation of God is the same as seeing God Himself. God is born on earth as man in every age.