“Silence the dogs of invectives ! Let the elephant of Being trumpet its blessings on all!... He is born in vain who, having attained the human birth, so difficult to get, does not attempt to realise God in this very life." Ramakrishna

 "He is born in vain who, having attained the human birth, so difficult to get, does not attempt to realise God in this very life." Ramakrishna, 19th century Hindu mystic.

MY SWEET LORD ~ George Harrison, Concert For Bengladesh (1971)

https://youtu.be/6wZEF5vf-ac

“Greeting to the feet of the Jnânin! Greeting to the feet of the Bhakta! Greeting to the devout who believe in the formless God! Greeting to those who believe in God with form! Greeting to the men of old who knew Brahman! Greeting to the modern knowers of Truth....” (Ranakrishna, October 28, 1882)

“When I think of the Supreme Being as inactive, neither creating, nor preserving, nor destroying, I call Him Brahman or Purusha, the impersonal God. When I think of Him as, active, creating, preserving, destroying, I call Him Shakti or Maya or Prakriti, the personal God. But the distinction between them does not mean a difference. The personal and the impersonal are the same Being, in the same way as milk and its whiteness, or the diamond and its lustre, or the serpent and its undulations. It is impossible to conceive of the one without the other. The Divine Mother and Brahman are one.”

From that moment everything became plain. The visionary hurled back from the gulf on fire with Brahman discovered with rapture that on the brink the Divine Mother, his Beloved, was awaiting him. And he saw Her now with new eyes, for he had grasped Her deep significance, Her identity with the Absolute. She was the Absolute, manifesting Herself to men, the Impersonal made man-or rather Woman. She was the source of all Incarnations, the Divine Intercessor between the Infinite and the finite. Then Ramakrishna intoned the Canticle of the Divine Mother : “Yea! My Divine Mother is none other than the Absolute. She is at the same time the One and the Many, and beyond the One and the Many. My Divine Mother says: 'I am the Mother of the Universe, I am the Brahman of the Vedanta, I am the Atman of the Upanishads. It is I, Brahman, who created differentiation. Good and bad works alike obey Me. The Law of Karma in truth exists; but it is I, who am the Law-giver. It is I who make and unmake laws. I order all Karma, good and bad. Come to Me! Either through Love (Bhakti), through Knowledge (Jnana) or through Action (Karma), for all lead to God. I will lead you through this world, the Ocean of action. And if you wish it, I will give you the knowledge of the Absolute as well. You cannot escape from Me. Even those who have realised the Absolute in Samadhi return to Me at My will. My Divine Mother is the primordial Divine Energy. She is omnipresent. She is both the outside and the inside of visible phenomena. She is the parent of the world, and the world carries Her in its heart. She is the Spider and the world is the web She has spun. The Spider draws the thread out of Herself and then winds it round Herself. My Mother is at the same time the container and the contained. She is the shell, but She is also the kernel.”

Seven years later (I am grouping the facts for the sake of clearness) an experience of the same order led Ramakrishna to “realise” Christianity. Somewhere about November, 1874, a certain Mallik, a Hindu of Calcutta, with a garden near Dakshineswar, read the Bible to him. For the first time Ramakrishna met Christ. Shortly afterwards the Word was made flesh. The life of Jesus secretly pervaded him. One day when he was sitting in the room of a friend, a rich Hindu, he saw on the wall a picture representing the Madonna and Child. The figures became alive. Then the expected came to pass according to the invariable order of the spirit; the holy visions came close to him and entered into him so that his whole being was impregnated with them. This time the inflowing was much more powerful than in the case of Islam. It covered his entire soul, breaking down all barriers. Hindu ideas were swept away. In terror Ramakrishna, struggling in the midst of the waves, cried out: “Oh Mother, what are you doing? Help me!” It was in vain. The tidal race swept everything before it. The spirit of the Hindu was changed. He had no room for anything but Christ. For several days he was filled by Christian thought and Christian love. He no longer thought of going to the temple. Then one afternoon in the grove of Dakshineswar he saw coming towards him a person with beautiful large eyes, a serene regard and a fair skin. Although he did not know who it was, he succumbed to the charm of his unknown guest. He drew near and a voice sang in the depths of Ramakrishna's soul : “Behold the Christ, who shed his heart's blood for the redemption of the world, who suffered a sea of anguish for love of men. It is He, the master Yogin, who is in eternal union with God. It is Jesus, Love incarnate ....” The Son of Man embraced the seer of India, the son of the Mother, and became merged in him. Ramakrishna was lost in ecstasy, Once again he realised union with Brahman. Then gradually he came down to earth, but from that time he believed in the Divinity of Jesus Christ, the Incarnate God. But for him Christ was not the only Incarnation. Buddha and Krishna were others. At this point I can imagine our uncompromising Christians, who cherish the body of their one God, raising their eyebrows haughtily, and saying: “But what did he know of our God? This was a vision, a figment of the imagination. This was too easy, for he knew nothing of the doctrine.” He did in truth know very little, but he was a Bhakta, who believed through love. He did not claim to possess the knowledge of the Jnanins, Who believe through the intellect. But when the bow is firmly held, does not each of the two arrows reach the same target? And do not both roads meet for the man who journeys to the very end? Vivekananda, Ramakrishna's great and learned disciple, said of him: “Outwardly he was Bhakta but inwardly Jnanin.” At a certain pitch of intensity great love comprehends and great intellect forces the retreats of the heart. Moreover it is surely not for Christians to deny the power of love. It was love that made the humble fishermen of Galilee the chosen disciples of their God and the founders of his Church. And to whom did the risen Christ first appear but to the repentant sinner, whose only claim to the privilege lay in the tears of love wherewith she had washed the feet of Christ and dried them with her hair? Lastly, knowledge does not consist in the number of books a man has read. In Ramakrishna's India, as in the India of old, culture is largely transmitted orally, and Ramakrishna gained during the course of his life through intercourse with thousands of monks, pilgrims, pandits, and all sorts of men preoccupied with religious problems, an encyclopaedic knowledge of religion and religious philosophy,-a knowledge constantly deepened by meditation. “One day a disciple wondering at his knowledge asked him: 'How were you able to master all past knowledge?' And Ramakrishna answered: 'I have not read, I have heard the learned. I have made a garland of their knowledge wearing it round my neck, and I have given it as an offering at the feet of the Mother.” He could say to his disciples : “I have practised all religions, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, and I have also followed the paths of the different Hindu sects ..... I have found that it is the same God towards whom all are directing their steps, though along different paths. You must try all beliefs and traverse all the different ways once. Wherever I look I see men quarrelling in the name of religion-Hindus, Mohammedans, Brahmos, Vaishnavas and the rest, but they never reflect that He, who is called Krishna is also called Shiva, and bears the name of Primitive Energy, Jesus and Allah as well—the same Rama with a thousand names. The lank has several ghats. At one Hindus draw water in pitchers, and call it jal; at another Mussalmans draw water in leathern bottles and call it pâni; at a third Christians and call it water. Can we imagine that the water is not jal, but only pani or water? How ridiculous! The substance is One under different names and everyone is seeking the same Substance ; nothing but climate, temperament and name vary. Let each man follow his own path. If he sincerely and ardently wishes to know God, peace be unto him! He will surely realise Him.” The period after 1867 added nothing vital to Ramakrishna's inner store but he learnt to use what he had treasured. His revelations were brought into contact with the outside world and his spiritual conquests were confronted with the achievements of other human experience, and he realised more fully the unique prize that had been awarded him. It was during these years that he came to a knowledge of his mission among men and his present duty of action. He resembles The Little Poor Man of Assisi in many ways, both moral and physical. He too was the tender brother of everything that lives and dies, and had drunk so deep of the milk of loving kindness that he could not be satisfied with a happiness he could not share with others. On the threshold of his deepest 'ecstasies he prayed to the Mother as She was drawing him to Herself: “Oh Mother, let me remain in contact with men! Do not make me a dried up ascetic!” And the Mother, as She threw him back to the shores of life from the depths of the Ocean, replied (half consciously he heard Her voice): “Stay on the threshold of relative consciousness for the love of humanity !” And so he returned to the world of men and his first experience was a bath of warm and simple humanity. In May, 1867, still much enfeebled by the crises he had passed through, he went to rest for six or seven months in his own countryside of Kamarpukur after an absence of eight years. He gave himself up with the joy of a child to the familiar cordiality of the good people of the village, happy at the sight of their little Gadadhar, whose strange fame had reached them and made them rather anxious. And these simple peasants were nearer by their very simplicity to the profundity of his beliefs than the doctors of the towns and the devotees of the temples...

“Jiva is Shiva (all living beings are God).'Who then dare talk of showing mercy to them? Not mercy, but service, service, for man must be regarded as God!”

...Keshab protested against this attack on a sensitive point; he declared that he hated idolatry, that the God he worshipped was a formless God. Ramakrishna answered quietly: “God is with form and without form. Images and other symbols are just as valid as your attributes. And these attributes are not different from idolatry, but are merely hard and petrified forms of it.” And again : “You wish to be strict and partial. .. For myself I have a burning desire to worship the Lord in as many ways as I can; nevertheless my heart's desire has never been satisfied. I long to worship with offerings of flowers and fruits, to repeat His holy name in solitude, to meditate upon Him, to sing His hymns, to dance in the joy of the Lord! ... Those who believe that God is without form attain Him just as well as those who believe He has form. The only two essentials are faith and self-surrender. ....”

“The world is the Mother's plaything. It is Her pleasure to let slip from Illusion one or two flying kites among the thousands. It is Her sport. She says to the human soul in confidence with a wink of the eve: 'Go and live in the world until I tell you to do something else! ....”

“To create is to be like God,” he said to Keshab, who was then spending himself in endless and fruitless polemics. “When you are filled with the essence of all existence then whatever you say becomes true. Poets have praised virtue and truth ; has that made their readers virtuous and truthful? When a selfless person lives amongst us his deeds become the very heart-beat of virtue. Whatever he does to others improves even their meanest dreams. Whatever he touches becomes true and pure. He becomes the father of reality. What he creates never flounders in time. This is what I expect you to do. Silence the dogs of invectives ! Let the elephant of Being trumpet its blessings on all! You have that power; will you use it? Or, shall you squander this lifetime by abusing people?”

And how deeply and indulgently Ramakrishna's “Maternal” eye penetrated and understood, so that he knew how to guide the troubled souls of the most lost of his children, is shown in the story, worthy of the Franciscan legends, of his relations with the comedian, Girish Chunder Ghosh. This great actor and dramatist was a Bohemian and a debauchee, a rebel against God, although his genius enabled him on occasions to write beautiful religious works. But he regarded such writing as a game. He did not realise a fact that struck Ramakrishna at the first glance, that he himself was the plaything of God. He heard people talk of the Paramahamsa, and was curious to see him, as he might have been curious to see a freak in a circus. At their first meeting he was drunk and he insulted him. Ramakrishna in a calm and bantering tone said to him: “At least you might drink to God! Perhaps He drinks as well. ...” The drunkard, his mouth agape, exclaimed: “How do you know?”

“If He did not drink, how could He have created this topsyturvy world?” Girish remained in stupefied silence. When he had gone, Ramakrishna said quietly to his astounded disciples : “That man is a great devotee of God.” At his own invitation he went to see Girish act in his Calcutta theatre. Girish was vain and looked for compliments. But Ramakrishna said to him: “My son, you suffer from a crooked soul.” Girish was furious and loaded him with insults. Ramakrishna blessed him and went away. The next day Girish came to beg his pardon, and became a disciple of Ramakrishna. But he could not give up drinking. Ramakrishna never asked him to do so, with the result that eventually Girish broke the habit ; for Ramakrishna had strengthened his resolution by allowing him to feel that he was absolutely free. But this was not enough. Ramakrishna told him that to refrain from doing evil was too negative a virtue; he must draw near to God. Girish found this impossible, for he had never been able to submit to discipline. In despair he said that he would prefer suicide to meditation and prayer. “I am not asking you for much,” Ramakrishna replied. “Just one prayer before you eat, and one prayer before you go to bed. Can you not do it?” “No; I hate routine. I cannot pray or meditate. I cannot even think of God for a second.” “Good,” replied Ramakrishna. “Well, if you really desire to see the Lord, but if at the same time you will not take a single step towards Him, will you make me your proxy? I will do your praying for you, while you will lead your own life. But take care ; you must promise me to live from henceforth absolutely at the Lord's mercy.” Girish accepted his suggestion without fully realising the consequences. His life was no longer under the control of his own will, but at the mercy of inner forces, like a leaf in the wind, or like a kitten whose mother can carry it equally well onto a king's bed as a dust-heap. He had to accept this condition without demur, and it was not easy. Girish struggled loyally, but once he was driven to say: “Yes, I will do it.”

“What did you say?” Ramakrishna cried sternly. “You have no longer the will to do or not to do. Remember! .... I am your proxy. Your behaviour is according to the will of the Lord within you. I pray for you; but my prayers will avail nothing unless you abandon all initiative.” Girish submitted, and the result of this discipline was that after a time he attained self-surrender to the impersonal Self; he was conquered by God. But he did not renounce his profession as dramatist and actor, and Ramakrishna never desired it. Instead he purified it. He had been the first to introduce women onto the Bengal stage, and now he rescued many unfortunate girls from misery and uplifted them. Afterwards he took them to Ramakrishna's monastery. He became one of the most religious followers of the Master, one of the greatest of his householder disciples. Notwithstanding his freedom of speech and caustic humour, he was respected and venerated after the Master's death by the monastic disciples. As he was dying, he said: “The folly of matter is a terrible veil. Take it away from my eyes, Ramakrishna!”

Romain Rolland, Life of Ramakrishna

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. 

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. 

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. 

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. 

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 

Matthew 5:3-10, Our Lord Jesus Christ

Photo: Ramakrishna