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Date Posted:10:59:25 06/06/04 Sun Author: M - 7 May 2004 Subject: Ramakrishna
Ramakrishna
As long as you do not feel that God is the Master, you must come back to the world, you must be born again and again. There will be no rebirth when you can truly say, ‘O God, Thou art the Master’. As long as you cannot say, ‘O Lord, Thou alone art real’, you will not be released from the life of the world. This going and coming, this rebirth, is inevitable. There will be no liberation. Further, what can you achieve by saying, ’It is mine? The manager of an estate may say, ‘This is our garden; these are our couches and furniture.’ But when he is dismissed by the master, he hasn’t the right to take away even a chest of worthless mango-wood given to him for his use. “The feeling of ‘I and mine’ has covered the Reality. Because of this we do not see Truth. Attainment of Chaitanya, Divine Consciousness, is not possible without the knowledge of Advaita, Non-duality. After realizing Chaitanya one enjoys Nityananda, Eternal Bliss. One enjoys this Bliss after attaining the state of a paramahansa.
“Vedanta does not recognize the Incarnation of God. According to it, Chaitanyadeva is only a bubble of the non-dual Brahman.
“Do you know what the vision of Divine Consciousness is like? It is like a sudden illumination of a dark room when a match is struck.
“The Incarnation of God is accepted by those who follow the path of bhakti. A woman belonging to the Kartabhaja sect observed my condition and remarked; ‘You have inner realization. Don’t dance and sing too much. Ripe grapes must be preserved carefully in cotton. The mother-in-law lessens her daughter-in-law’s acitvities when the daughter-in-law is with child. One characteristic of God-realization is that the activities of a man with such realization gradually drop away. Inside this man [meaning Sri Ramakrishna] is the real Jewel.
“Watching me eat, she remarked, ‘Sir, are you yourself eating, or are you feeding someone else?’
“The feeling of ego has covered the Truth. Narendra once said, ‘As the “I” of man recedes, the “I” of God approaches.’ Kedar says, “The more clay there is in the jar, the less water it holds.’
“Krishna said to Arjuna: ‘Brother, you will not realize Me if you possess even one of the eight siddhis.’ These give only a little power. With healing and the like one may do only a little good to others. Isn’t that true?
“Therefore I prayed to the Divine Mother for pure love only, a love that does not seek any return. I never asked for occult powers.”
While talking thus, Sri Ramakrishna went into samadhi. He sat there motionless, completely forgetful of the outer world. Then, coming down to the sense world, he sang:
Ah, friend! I have not found Him yet, whose love has driven me mad….
