Newspaper Knowledge

A DEVOTEE: "Bankim has written a life of Krishna." 

MASTER: "He accepts Krishna but not Radhika." 

CAPTAIN: "I see he doesn't accept Krishna's lila with the gopis."  

MASTER: "I also hear that Bankim says that one needs passions such as lust." 

A  DEVOTEE:  "He  has  written  in  his  magazine  that  the  purpose  of  religion  is  to  give expression to our various faculties: physical, mental, and spiritual." 

CAPTAIN: "I see. He believes that lust and so forth are necessary. But he doesn't believe that Sri Krishna could enjoy His sportive pleasure in the world, that God could incarnate Himself in a human form and sport in Vrindāvan with Radha and the gopis."  

MASTER (smiling): "But these things are, not written in the newspaper. How could he believe them? 

"A man said to his friend, 'Yesterday, as I was passing through a certain part of the city, I saw a house fall with a crash.' 'Wait', said the friend. 'Let me look it up in the newspaper.' But this incident wasn't mentioned in the paper. Thereupon the man said, 'But the paper doesn't mention it.' His friend replied, 'I saw it with my own eyes.' 'Be that as it may, said the man, 'I can't believe it as long as it isn't in the paper.' 

"How can Bankim believe that God sports about as a man? He doesn't get it from his English education. … … ” 

- Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, P 789 (13 June 1885)