Yours is the path of bhakti. That is very good; it is an easy path. Who can fully know the infinite God? And what need is there of knowing the Infinite?
Having attained this rare human birth, my supreme need is to develop love for the Lotus Feet of God.
If a jug of water is enough to remove my thirst, why should I measure the quantity of water in a lake? I become drunk on even half a bottle of wine - what is the use of my calculating the quantity of liquor in the tavern? What need is there of knowing the Infinite?
The various states of mind of the Brahmajnani are described in the Vedas. The path of knowledge is extremely difficult. One cannot obtain jnāna if one has the least trace of worldliness and the slightest attachment to 'woman and gold'.
This is not the path for the Kaliyuga.
- Sri Ramakrishna to Brahmo Devotees,
Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, P 150
(October 28, 1882)
Sri Ramakrishna went to see ‘Wilson Circus’ at Calcutta with devotees. In the circus, a horse raced around a circular track over which large iron rings were hung at intervals. The circus rider, an Englishwoman, stood on one foot on the horse's back, and as the horse passed under the rings, she jumped through them, always alighting on one foot on the horse's back. The horse raced around the entire circle, and the woman never missed the horse or lost her balance.
After the circus, Sri Ramakrishna said to M.: “Did you see how that Englishwoman stood on one foot on her horse, while it ran like lightning? How difficult a feat that must be! She must have practiced a long time. The slightest carelessness and she would break her arms or legs; she might even be killed.
One faces the same difficulty leading the life of a householder. A few succeed in it through the grace of God and as a result of their spiritual practice. But most people fail.
Entering the world, they become more and more involved in it; they drown in worldliness and suffer the agonies of death.
A few only, like Janaka, have succeeded, through the power of their austerity, in leading the spiritual life as householders. Therefore spiritual practice is extremely necessary; otherwise one cannot rightly live in the world.”
- Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, P 154
(November 15, 1882)
There is a sign of Perfect Knowledge. Man becomes silent when It is attained. Then the 'I', which may be likened to the salt doll, melts in the Ocean of Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute and becomes one with It. Not the slightest trace of distinction is left.
As long as his self-analysis is not complete, man argues with much ado. But he becomes silent when he completes it.
When the empty pitcher has been filled with water, when the water inside the pitcher becomes one with the water of the lake outside, no more sound is heard. Sound comes from the pitcher as long as the pitcher is not filled with water.
- Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, P 148
(October 28, 1882)
A BRAHMO DEVOTEE: "Sir, has God forms or has He none?"
MASTER: "No one can say with finality that God is only 'this' and nothing else. He is formless, and again He has forms.
For the bhakta He assumes forms. But He is formless for the jnani, that is, for him who looks on the world as a mere dream.
The bhakta feels that he is one entity and the world another. Therefore God reveals Himself to him as a Person. But the jnani - the Vedantist, for instance - always reasons, applying the process of 'Not this, not this'. Through this discrimination he realizes, by his inner perception, that the ego and the universe are both illusory, like a dream.
Then the jnani realizes Brahman in his own consciousness. He cannot describe what Brahman is.
- Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, P 148
(October 28, 1882)
Think of Brahman, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute, as a shoreless ocean. Through the cooling influence, as it were, of the bhakta's love, the water has frozen at places into blocks of ice.
In other words, God now and then assumes various forms for His lovers and reveals Himself to them as a Person. But with the rising of the sun of Knowledge, the blocks of ice melt. Then one doesn't feel any more that God is a Person, nor does one see God's forms.
What He is cannot be described. Who will describe Him?
He who would do so disappears. He cannot find his 'I' any more.
If one analyses oneself, one doesn't find any such thing as 'I'. Take an onion, for instance. First of all you peel off the red outer skin; then you find thick white skins. Peel these off one after the other, and you won't find anything inside.
- Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, P 148
(October 28, 1882)
