Duty Towards Wife

SUB-JUDGE: "What is a householder's duty to his wife?" 

MASTER: "You should give her spiritual advice and support her during your lifetime and provide for her livelihood after your death, if she is a chaste wife. 

"But if you are intoxicated with the Knowledge of God, then you have no more duties to perform. Then God Himself will think about your morrow if you yourself cannot do so. God Himself will think about your family if you are intoxicated with Him. If a landlord dies leaving behind a minor son, then a guardian appointed by the court takes charge of the son. These are all points of law; you know them." 

- Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, P 628 (19 October 1884)

Futility of Mere Study

Can one find God in the sacred books? By reading the scriptures one may feel at the most that God exists. But God does not reveal Himself to a man unless he himself dives deep.  Only after such a plunge, after the revelation of God through His grace, is one's doubt destroyed. You may read scriptures by the thousands and recite thousands of texts; but unless you plunge into God with yearning of heart, you will not comprehend Him. By mere scholarship you may fool man, but not God. 

Scriptures and books - what can one achieve with these alone? Nothing can be realized without His grace. Strive with a longing heart for His grace. Through His grace you will see Him and He will talk to you. 

- Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, P 625 (19 October 1884)

Sanatana Dharma

 

Inner Controller

 

God and Maya

 

Mother through All

I see all things – trees, plants, people, cows, grass, water – as if they are covered with different sheaths, like pillow cases. Haven’t you seen them? Some are made of coarse cloth dyed red, some of finely patterned cloth, and others of different kinds of cloth; some are quadrangles and some are round. Everything in the universe is just like that. 

Just as there is only one substance – cotton – stuffed into all those pillow cases, so the same indivisible Satchidananda exists within the sheaths of people, cows, grass, water, mountains, and everything else. Look, I see clearly that the Divine Mother has covered Herself with different wrappers – She has assumed various forms and is peeping through them. 

Without understanding my condition, people tried to correct and pacify me. …  

- Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Ramakrishna and His Divine Play, P 632

 

In Heart