Extracts from the book “The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna”
by ‘M’ahendranath Gupta (conversations between Sri Ramakrishna, the Master, and
his disciples / devotees)
Prema-bhakti
"But
it isn't any and every kind of bhakti that enables one to realize God.
One cannot realize God without prema-bhakti. Another name for
prema-bhakti is raga-bhakti. God cannot be realized without love and
longing. Unless one has learnt to love God, one cannot realize Him.”
"There
is another kind of bhakti, known as vaidhi-bhakti, according to which one must
repeat the name of God a fixed number of times, fast, make pilgrimages, worship
God with prescribed offerings, make so many sacrifices, and so forth and so
on. By continuing such practices a long time one gradually acquires
raga-bhakti. God cannot be realized until one has raga-bhakti. One
must love God. In order to realize God one must be completely free from
worldliness and direct all of one's mind to Him.”
"But
some acquire raga-bhakti directly. It is innate in them. They have
it from their very childhood. Even at an early age they weep for
God. An instance of such bhakti is to be found in Prahlada.
Vaidhi-bhakti is like moving a fan to make a breeze. One needs the fan to
make the breeze. Similarly, one practises japa, austerity, and fasting,
in order to acquire love of God. But the fan is set aside when the
southern breeze blows of itself.”
Such
actions as japa and austerity drop away when one spontaneously feels love and
attachment for God. Who, indeed, will perform the ceremonies enjoined in
the scriptures, when mad with love of God?
"Devotion
to God may be said to be 'green' so long as it doesn't grow into love of God;
but it becomes 'ripe' when it has grown into such love.”
"A
man with 'green' bhakti cannot assimilate spiritual talk and instruction; but
one with 'ripe' bhakti can. The image that falls on a photographic plate
covered with black film is retained. On the other hand, thousands of
images may be reflected on a bare piece of glass, but not one of them is
retained. As the object moves away, the glass becomes the same as it was
before. One cannot assimilate spiritual instruction unless one has
already developed love of God."
VIJAY:
"Is bhakti alone sufficient for the attainment of God, for His
vision?"
MASTER:
"Yes, one can see God through bhakti alone. But it must be 'ripe'
bhakti, prema-bhakti and raga-bhakti. When one has that bhakti, one loves
God even as the mother loves the child, the child the mother, or the wife the
husband.”
"When
one has such love and attachment for God, one doesn't feel the attraction of
maya to wife, children, relatives, and friends. One retains only
compassion for them. To such a man the world appears a strange land, a
place where he has merely to perform his duties. It is like a man's
having his real home in the country, but coming to Calcutta for work; he has to
rent a house in Calcutta for the sake of his duties. When one develops
love of God, one completely gets rid of one's attachment to the world and
worldly wisdom.”
"One
cannot see God if one has even the slightest trace of worldliness.
Match-sticks, if damp, won't strike fire though you rub a thousand of them
against the match-box. You only waste a heap of sticks. The mind
soaked in worldliness is such a damp match-stick. Once Sri Radha said to
her friends that she saw Krishna everywhere-both within and without. The
friends answered: 'Why, we don't see Him at all. Are you delirious?'
Radha said, 'Friends, paint your eyes with the collyrium of divine love, and
then you will see Him.'
God's
name destroys sin
NEIGHBOUR:
"Sir, we are sinners. What will happen to us?"
MASTER:
"All the sins of the body flyaway if one chants the name of God and sings
His glories. The birds of sin dwell in the tree of the body.
Singing the name of God is like clapping your hands. As, at a clap of the
hands, the birds in the tree flyaway, so do our sins disappear at the chanting
of God's name and glories.”
"Again,
you find that the water of a reservoir dug in a meadow is evaporated by the heat
of the sun. Likewise, the water of the reservoir of sin is dried up by
the singing of the name and glories of God.”
"You
must practise it every day. The other day, at the circus, I saw a horse
running at top speed, with an Englishwoman standing on one foot on its
back. How much she must have practised to acquire that skill!”
"Weep
at least once to see God.”
"These,
then, are the two means: practice and passionate attachment to God, that is to
say, restlessness of the soul to see Him."
