Rice Bags and Puffed Rice

DEVOTEE: "Why has God put us in the world?" 

MASTER: "To perpetuate His creation. It is His will, His maya. He has deluded man with 'woman and gold'." 

DEVOTEE: "Why has He deluded us? Why has He so willed?" 

MASTER: "If but once He should give man a taste of divine joy, then man would not care to lead a worldly life. The creation would come to an end. 

"The grain-dealer stores rice in huge bags in his warehouse. Near them he puts some puffed rice in a tray. This is to keep the rats away. The puffed rice tastes sweet to the rats and they nibble at it all night; they do not seek the rice itself. But just think! One seer of rice yields fourteen seers of puffed rice. How infinitely superior is the joy of God to the pleasure of 'woman and gold'! To one who thinks of the beauty of God, the beauty of even Rambha and Tilottama appears as but the ashes of a funeral pyre." 

- Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, P 385 (2 February 1884)