First Ecstasy

In that part of the country [Kamarpukur] children are given puffed rice to eat from small baskets. Those who are poor and have not baskets eat from the corner of their wearing cloth. Boys go out to play on the roads or in the fields carrying puffed rice either in a basket or in the corner of their cloth. 

It was June or July. I was then six or seven years old. One morning I took some puffed rice in a small basket and was eating it as I walked along the narrow ridges of the rice fields. In one part of the sky a beautiful black cloud appeared, heavy with rain. I was watching it and eating the puffed rice. Very soon the cloud covered almost the whole sky. Then a flock of cranes came flying, white as milk against the black cloud. 

It was so beautiful that I became absorbed in the sight; I lost consciousness of everything outside of myself. I fell down, and the puffed rice was scattered over the ground. I cannot say how long I was in that state. Some people saw this and carried me home. 
That was the first time I lost external consciousness due to ecstasy. 

          - Sri Ramakrishna, 
                    Sri Ramakrishna and His Divine Play, P 167

Avatar and Individual Soul

Disciplines of Tantra

Different Attitudes of Aspirants

 … in order to realize God, one must assume one of these attitudes: Śānta, Dāsya, sakhya, Vātsalya, or Madhur.
   
Śānta, the serene attitude. The rishis of olden times had this attitude toward God. They did not desire any worldly enjoyment. It is like the single-minded devotion of a wife to her husband. She knows that her husband is the embodiment of beauty and love, a veritable Madan.
   
Dāsya, the attitude of a servant toward his master. Hanuman had this attitude toward Rama. He felt the strength of a lion when he worked for Rama. A wife feels this mood also. She serves her husband with all her heart and soul. A mother also has a little of this attitude, as Yaśoda had toward Krishna.   

Sakhya, the attitude of friendship. Friends say to one another, 'Come here and sit near me.' Sridāmā and other friends sometimes fed Krishna with fruit, part of which they had already eaten, and sometimes climbed on His shoulders.   
Vātsalya, the attitude of a mother toward her child. This was Yaśoda's attitude toward Krishna. The wife, too, has a little of this. She feeds her husband with her very life-blood, as it were. The mother feels happy only when the child has eaten to his heart's content. Yaśoda would roam about with butter in her hand, in order to feed Krishna.   

Madhur, the attitude of a woman toward her paramour. Radha had this attitude toward Krishna. The wife also feels it for her husband. This attitude includes all the other four. 

           - Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, P 115 
                              (August 24, 1882)

One God

God and Worldly Duties

MASTER: "Perform your duties in an unselfish spirit. … … 
Always try to perform your duties without desiring any result." 

M: "Yes, sir. But may I know if one can realize God while performing one's duties? Can 'Rama' and 'desire' coexist? The other day I read in a Hindi couplet: 'Where Rama is, there desire cannot be; where desire is, there Rama cannot be.' "
  
MASTER: "All, without exception, perform work. Even to chant the name and glories of God is work, as is the meditation of the non-dualist on 'I am He'. Breathing is also an activity. 
There is no way of renouncing work altogether. So do your work, but surrender the result to God." 

                - Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, P 113-14 
                   (August 24, 1882)

Seeing God Everywhere