Pure Love

 

Charity - Rama's Will

MASTER: “… Sitting on the bank of the Ganges below the Panchavati, I used to say, 'Rupee is clay and clay is rupee;' Then I threw both into the Ganges." 

BANKIM: "Indeed! Money is clay! Sir, if you have a few pennies you can help the poor. If money is clay, then a man cannot give in charity or do good to others."

MASTER (to Bankim): "Charity! Doing good! How dare you say you can do good to others? Man struts about so much; but if one pours foul water into his mouth when he is asleep, he doesn't even know it; his mouth overflows with it. Where are his boasting, his vanity, his pride, then? 

"A sannyāsi must give up 'woman and gold'; he cannot accept it any more. One must not swallow one's own spittle. When a sannyāsi gives something to another, he knows that it is not himself who gives. Kindness belongs to God alone. How can a man lay claim to it? Charity depends on the will of Rāma. A true sannyāsi renounces 'woman and gold' both mentally and outwardly. 

- Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, P 670 (6 December 1884)

First God

 

Meaning of Radha and Krishna

ADHAR (introducing Bankim [Chandra Chatterji]): "Sir, he is a great scholar and has written many books. He has come here to see you. His name is Bankim Babu." 

MASTER (smiling): "Bankim! Well, what has made you bent?" 

BANKIM (smiling): "Why, sir, boots are responsible for it. The kicks of our white masters have bent my body." 

MASTER: "No, my dear sir! Sri Krishna was bent on account of His ecstatic love. His body was bent in three places owing to His love for Radha. That is how some people explain Sri Krishna's form. 

Do you know why He has a deep-blue complexion? And why He is of such small stature-only three and a half cubits measured by His own hand? God looks so as long as He is seen from a distance. So the water of the ocean looks blue from afar. But if you go near the ocean and take the water in your hand, you will no longer find it blue; it will be very clear, transparent. So the sun appears small because it is very far away; if you go near it, you will no longer find it small. When one knows the true nature of God, He appears neither blue nor small. But that is a far-off vision; one does not see it except in samādhi. As long as 'I' and 'you' exist, name and form will also exist. 

Everything is God's lila. His sportive pleasure. As long as a man is conscious of 'I' and 'you', he will experience the manifestations of God through diverse forms. 

- Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, P 666-67 (6 December 1884)

Sannyasi

 

See God in the World

MAHIMA: "Can a man live in the world if his mind is once directed to God?" 

MASTER: "Why not? Where will he go away from the world? I realize that wherever I live I am always in the Ayodhya of Rāma. This whole world is Rāma's Ayodhya. After receiving instruction from His teacher, Rāma said that He would renounce the world. Daśaratha sent the sage Vasishtha to Rāma to dissuade Him. Vasishtha found Him filled with intense renunciation. He said to Rāma: 'First of all, reason with me, Rāma; then You may leave the world. May I ask You if this world is outside, God? If that is so, then You may give it up.' Rāma found that it is God alone who has become the universe and all its living beings. Everything in the world appears real on account of God's reality behind it. Thereupon Rāma became silent. 

- Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, P 648 (26 October 1884)

Superior Devotee