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The Paramahansa Deva has come to visit the Brahmo Samaj at Sinti. It is Saturday, 28 October, 1882, the second day of the dark fortnight in the month of Aswin.

Grand festivities are going on here today the six monthly celebrations of the Brahmo Samaj. That is why Sri Ramakrishna has been invited here. At about three or four in the afternoon he has come to the beautiful garden house of Sri Veni Madhava Pal by a cab from Dakshineswar Kali Temple with many a bhakta. It is here in this garden house that the Brahmo Samaj conducts its meetings. He has great love for the Brahmo Samaj. Brahmo bhaktas too have great bhakti and reverence for him

Sinti is located near Paikpara about one and a half kosas (three miles) to the north of Calcutta. This is a beautiful garden house. Located far from the din of the city, this place is particularly suitable for Bhagavan’s worship

It is as if all are thirsting after the divine appear-ance! It is at this time that the carriage of the Paramahansa Deva reaches in front of the Samaj building.

All rise to welcome the great saint. He has arrived. Forming a circle, people surround him from all sides.

A platform has been built in the middle of the main hall of the Samaj building. This place is full of people. In front is the vestibule. The Paramahansa Deva is seated there. Some people are seated there too. There are two rooms on both sides of the vestibule. People are there in those rooms too. Keeping their necks erect people are standing at the doors of the rooms. There are steps from one end to the other to go up the vestibule. These steps are also full of people. There are two or three trees near the steps. There is a creeper canopy close by. A number of benches are there. Here too people are gazing at the great saint with their necks erect and ears agog. There is a path between so many rows of flower and fruit trees. All the trees are waving gently with the touch of the breeze as if bowing in joy they are giving him a welcome.

Thakur Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa Deva smilingly takes his seat. Now the sight of all falls instantly upon his happy and joyful figure. Till the start of the play, among the spectators some smile, some talk on worldly matters, some walk about either alone or with friends, some chew the beetle leaf, or the tobacco and some of them smoke cigarettes. But as soon as the curtain rises, they all stop talking about all matters and witness the play with full attention. It is like the garden bees which on seeing the lotus leave other flowers and come to drink nectar of the lotus.

With a smiling face, Sri Ramakrishna looks at Shivanath and other bhaktas. Says he, “I say, this is Shivanath! You see, you are a bhakta, I feel very happy to see you. This is the nature of all those who are addicted to smoking hemp. Such a smoker feels happy when he meets another like him. He may perhaps embrace him.” (Shivanath and all others laugh.)

“When I see a person whose mind is not in the Lord, I tell him, ‘Please go and sit there.’ Or I say, ‘See what a beautiful building this is! (Rani Rasmani’s Kali Temple, etc.) Go and see it. (All laugh.)

“If you ask worldly people to renounce all and devote themselves at the feet of the Lord, they do not listen to you. That is why, to attract worldly people Gaur and Nitai, the two brothers, made a proposition after consulting each other, ‘Soup of magur fish, embrace of a young woman, and repeat the name of Hari.’ In the beginning, so many people came to repeat the name of Hari tempted by the first two. Then having tasted a bit of the nectar of Hari’s name they realized that the fish soup was nothing compared to the tears falling in the love of Hari; that ‘a young woman’ meant the earth and ‘embrace of a young woman’ meant to roll about in the dust in the love of Hari.

“Nitai, somehow, used to find some way to make one repeat the name of Hari. Chaitanya Deva said that there is great importance of the Name of the Lord. It may not show immediate result but sooner or later it does yield fruit. As for example, somebody kept a seed on the cornice of a house. After a long time, the house fell down. The seed then fell on the ground, developed into a tree and bore fruit too.”

“Do you know, what kind of sattva quality of the worldly man is? His house lies crumbled at places but he would not get it repaired. The pigeons purge in the vestibule of the shrine and moss is growing in the courtyard, yet he is not aware of this. Household goods have grown old but no care to set them right. He lives with just a pair of clothes that he has. Such a man is very calm, polite, compassionate and simple. He does not do any harm to anybody.

“There are signs of rajoguna also in a worldly man. A watch, a chain of the watch and two or three rings on his fingers. Household goods quite tip top. On the wall there will be picture of the queen, picture of the prince, or picture of some great person. House well plastered and so forth as if no stain anywhere. Various superior clothes, uniforms of servants and maids and all such things would be there.

“Tamoguna of the worldly man has also its signs: Sleep, lust, anger, pride and the rest.

“Bhakti can also be of sattvic type. The bhakta who possesses the quality of sattva meditates secretly. He perhaps meditates inside his mosquito net. Everybody thinks, ‘He is in sleep. It appears he could not sleep at night so he is late in rising.’ And his attachment to his body is only to the extent of filling his stomach if he can have rice with spinach (a simple food), it suffices for him. There is no sophistication in his meals, nor in his dress; his household furniture is not polished. And a sattvic bhakta never flatters anybody for money.

“When a person has bhakti of the rajasic type, maybe he has a holy mark on his forehead and a rosary of rudraksha^{^[1]}^[2]; perhaps gold beads are strung in between the rosary. (Everybody laughs.) When he worships the deity, he clads himself in a silk dhoti?”

Sri Ramakrishna — A man having bhakti of tamas type has a burning faith. Such a bhakta forces the Lord like a dacoit forcing one to part with his wealth. ‘Kill, cut him down, tie him,’ such is the disposition of a dacoit.

“Why! I have chanted Her name how can there be any sin in me? I am Her son! I am eligible to Her wealth (power and glory). Such must be the spirit.

“If you can give a turn to your tamoguna, you can realize the Lord. Forcing demands on Him! He is no stranger, He is indeed our own person. And see, the quality of tamas can be used for the welfare of others.

“There are three types of physicians superior, mediocre and inferior. The physician who comes, feels the patient’s pulse and then says to him, ‘Brother, please take the medicine,’ and leaves, he is an inferior type of physician. He doesn’t care to find out if the patient has taken the medicine. The physician who persuades the patient in many ways to take the medicine, who says in a sweet voice, ‘O brother, how can you be cured unless you take the medicine? Dear brother, please take it. See I myself mix it for you. Now take it,’ is a mediocre physician. And the physician who sees that the patient is stubbornly refusing to take the medicine, puts his knee on the patient’s chest and forces the medicine down his throat is the superior type of physician. This is the tamoguna of the physician. This quality does good to the patient, it does not harm him.

“Like the physicians acharyas (religious teachers) are also of three types. Those who instruct their disciples on spiritual matters and then make no inquiries about their progress are inferior acharyas. Those who repeat their teachings again and again for the good of their disciples so that they may internalize the instructions, make requests in various ways and show love are mediocre acharyas. And the type of acharyas who use force when they find that the disciples do not listen in any way them I call superior acharyas.”

Sri Ramakrishna — One cannot reach the end of God. He is formless and then with form too. For a bhakta He is with form. For a jnani, that is to say, for him who takes the world like a dream, He is formless. What God is, he just cannot express by the word of mouth.

“Do you know how is this? It is like the shoreless ocean of Sachchidananda (Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute). Water in it turns into ice at places with the cold of bhakti. This ice takes a form. In other words, at times He manifests and takes a physical form before the bhakta. When the sun of jnana rises, the ice melts. Then the Lord does not appear like a person. Also His form is not visible. What He is cannot be expressed in words. And who is there to express God? He who is to describe is himself not there. Search as much as you like you cannot trace the I-ness.

“When one goes on reasoning, the I-ness vanishes completely. First you peel off the outer red skin of onion, then the soft white one. Continuing to peel in this way, nothing of the onion remains.

“When the I-ness vanishes, who remains there to look for it? Who is there to tell in what way comes the bodhebodha of the real nature of Brahman?

“A salt doll went to measure the ocean. As soon as it went in the ocean, it melted and became one with it. So, who remained to come and give the information?

“When the I-ness dies, all troubles cease. Reason you may a thousand times, I-ness does not vanish. For you and me it is good to cherish the idea of ‘I am bhakta.’

“For a bhakta Brahman is saguna (with qualities). In other words, God is with qualities and He is visible as a person with a form. It is He Who listens to prayers. All your prayers are addressed to Him alone. You are not the Vedantins either, nor are you jnanis, you are bhaktas. Whether you accept God with form or not, it does not matter. It is enough to understand that the Lord is a person who listens to your prayers, who creates, preserves and dissolves, a person who is infinitely powerful.

A Brahmo bhakta asked, “Sir, can we see the Lord? If so, why don’t we see Him?”

Sri Ramakrishna — Yes surely, He can be seen. He is seen with form and He is seen without form too. How can I explain this to you!

“People shed pitcherful of tears for son, wife and money. But who cries for the Lord? So long as the baby remains cajoled with his pap, his mother attends to all her household chores like cooking, etc. But when the child has no more liking for the pap and throwing it away begins to scream, the mother takes down the rice pan off the fire, comes running and picks up the baby in her arms.”

The Brahmo bhakta — Sir, why are there so many beliefs concerning the Lord’s form? Some say that God is with form, some say that He is formless. And even among believers in God with form, we hear of so many different forms. Why such a confusion?

Sri Ramakrishna — Whichever form of God a bhakta sees, he believes in that alone. In reality, there is no confusion. If He is attained by any means, He will Himself explain everything. If you have never been to a particular residential quarter, how can you know everything about it?

“Listen to a story. A man went out to answer the call of nature. He saw a bird perched on a tree. On his return he said to another man, ‘See, I saw a beautiful red coloured bird on that tree.’ The other man replied, ‘When I went there to answer the call of nature, I also saw it. But it is not of red colour, it is green.’ Yet another man said, ‘No, no, I also saw it. It is yellow.’ In the same manner many others said, ‘No, it is of tobacco, brinjal, blue colour and so on.’ All this resulted in a quarrel. Then they went to the foot of the tree and saw a man sitting there. When asked he said, ‘I live under this tree. I know the bird very well. Whatever you are saying is all true. It is sometimes red, sometimes green, sometimes yellow, sometimes blue and also of many more colours. See, it has many colours. Besides, at times I find that it has no colour at all. Now it is with qualities, now without qualities.’

“It means that the man who is always thinking of the Lord can only know His real nature. He alone knows that He is seen in different forms and in different moods. He is with qualities and also He is without qualities. It is only he who lives under the tree, knows that the variegated bird has different hues, and that sometimes it has no colour at all. Other people just argue, quarrel and trouble themselves.

“God grants darshan to the bhakta in the form he loves most gracious loving Lord of the bhakta as He is. The Purana says that God assumed the form of Rama for the sake of heroic bhakta Hanuman.”

Explanation of the forms of Kali and Shyama the Infinite is not comprehensible

“Why are the forms of Kali and Shyama three and a half cubits tall? It is because of the distance. On account of distance, the sun seems small. If you go near, it will look big beyond your imagination. And why is the complexion of Kali, or Shyama black? That, too, on account of distance. For example, water in a lake appears green, blue or black from a distance. But if you go near and take some water in your palm, you will find that it is colourless. The sky from a distance appears blue. But if you go near it, it has no colour.

“So I say that according to the Vedanta philosophy, Brahman is without attributes. What Its real nature is like cannot be expressed in words. But so long as you are real, the world is also real. The names and forms of the Lord are also real, taking Him as a person is real too.

“For you there is the path of bhakti. It is a very good and easy path. Can the Infinite Lord be known? Besides, where is the need to know Him? Having the rare privilege of been born as a man, we should develop devotion at His lotus feet by all means possible.

Sri Ramakrishna — The Vedas describe the different states of a Brahmajnani. However, this path, the path of jnana, is a very difficult path. If the least trace of worldly wisdom, or that of attachment to ‘women and gold’ persists one cannot attain jnana. This path is not for the age of Kali.

Actions drop out after samadhi the earlier story of his life how Thakur gave up karmas like tarpan^{^[2]}^[6]

“Once a person asked me, ‘Sir, can you teach me (how to attain) samadhi?’ (Everybody laughs.)

“All actions drop out after samadhi. Actions like puja (worship), japa and all other worldly activities drop off. In the beginning one is overactive with karmas (works) but as the man advances towards the Lord, the display of karmas becomes less so much so that even singing of His names and glories ceases. (To Shivanath) Till you did not reach the meeting, people talked so much of your good name, qualities and so on. But as soon as you arrived, all that stopped. Now everybody takes joy only at your sight. And people then say, ‘Here, here comes Shivanath Babu.’ All other talk about you stops.

“It is the same as in a feast given to the brahmins. In the beginning there is so much of activity. When they sit down with a leaf plate in front, much of the noise ceases. One hears only, ‘Bring some puris, bring some here.’ And again, when they begin eating puris and vegetables, seventy five percent of the noise subsides. When they have curds, you can hear only one sound, ‘Sup sup’ (of smacking their lips). (All laugh.) It is right to say that nobody utters a word. The feast over, the next step is to go to sleep. Then it is absolute silence.

“Therefore I say that in the beginning there is so much of activity. The more you advance on the path of the Lord, the lesser the karma becomes. At the end, all karmas drop and it is followed by samadhi.

“When the housewife is in her family way, her
mother‑in-law reduces her duties. In the tenth month, she is almost free from work. When the child is born, there is complete renunciation of work. The mother has only to look after the baby. All chores in the household are attended to by the mother-in-law, the husband’s sister, or his elder sister-in-law.”

“There is special manifestation of divine power in some. A man of ordinary calibre is afraid of imparting instruction to others. Habate wood (worn out wood) may itself float on the water somehow, but it sinks the moment a bird sits on it. Sages like Narada are bahaduri wood (logs of wood). This wood not only floats on the water, but can also carry men, bullocks and even elephants.”

The earlier story of his life theft of an ornament from
Radhakanta Temple in Dakshineswar

Sri Ramakrishna (to Shivanath) — Yes, my dear sir, why do you dwell so much on glories and splendour of the Lord? I said the same to Keshab Sen. One day they all came here to the Kali Temple. I said, ‘I would like to hear how you lecture.’ A meeting was then arranged in the chandni (porch) on the Ganga ghat and Keshab began to lecture. He spoke so well; I went into samadhi. Later on, I said to Keshab, ‘Why do you so much talk of all this: O Lord, what beautiful flowers You have made! You have created the sky, the stars, the sea and so on!’ Those who love splendour, love to talk about the Lord’s splendour.

Sri Ramakrishna again sings the same song full of sweetness with a voice that excels the Gandharvas^{^[3]}^[7]

Kabir says, ‘Listen, listen, listen! Meditate on the hallowed feet of the Guru (Divine preceptor).’

Sri Ramakrishna —How can we of tiny intellect understand the actions of the Lord? Many people have said so, that is why I do not disbelieve. Bhishma Deva lay dying on his bed of arrows. All the Pandavas are standing with Sri Krishna. They see tears flowing from the eyes of Bhishma Deva. Arjuna says to Sri Krishna, ‘Brother, how strange it is! Pitamah, who is Bhishma Deva himself, truthful, has conquered his senses, a jnani and one of the eight Vasus^{^[4]}^[9], even he is weeping at the time of his death because of maya. When Sri Krishna asked Bhishma about it, Bhishma replied, ‘Sri Krishna! You know very well that I am not weeping because of this. When I see that there is no end to the sufferings even of the Pandavas who have Bhagavan Himself as their charioteer, I weep thinking that I have not been able to understand anything of the ways of Bhagavan.’

Now the evening worship begins in the Samaj building. It is about half past eight at night. At four or five dandas after the evening the night is lit with the moonlight. It is as if the trees and the leaves of the creepers in the garden begin to float in the clear autumnal moonbeams. In the meanwhile, sankirtan starts in the prayer hall. Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna is dancing intoxicated in the love of Hari. Brahmo bhaktas holding drums and cymbals are dancing around him. All are intoxicated in bhava as if having the vision of Sri Bhagavan. The tune of Hari’s name is going a crescendo. The villagers all around listen the name of Hari with their minds full of gratitude for Veni Madhava, the devotee owner of the garden.

At the end of the kirtan, Sri Ramakrishna prostrates on the ground to offer his obeisance to the Mother of the Universe. While offering his obeisance says he, “Bhagavata bhakta Bhagavan! Salutations at the feet of jnanis, salutations at the feet of bhaktas, salutations at the feet of the bhaktas of God with form, salutations at the feet of the bhaktas of the formless God, salutations at the feet of the Brahmajnanis of yore, salutations at the feet of the Brahmajnanis of today’s Brahmo Samaj.”

Veni Madhava had made provisions for various kinds of delicious dishes that he fed to all the assembled bhaktas to their full satisfaction. Sri Ramakrishna also partakes of the prasad^{^[5]}^[10] full of joy in the company of the bhaktas.

[1][2]

[2][6] Sacrament of offering drinking water to the deities

[3][7]

[4][9]

[5][10] Sacramental food having offered to the deity