Rough Notebook-Open Forum

[Nagaraj]

Dea i,

the life of Sarada devi, may generally get unnoticed before the Master, but, the life of Mother is very touching indeed, no matter your husband be a realised soul, really a very touching soul. She is the epitome of humbleness. in Tamil (தண்ணடக்கம் ) Thannadakkam.

Has the Master anywhere said anything about, how does one get to know, if he has attained the truth. i am aware it may be a stupid question but, i have to ask... i am aware of Swayam Prakasha, Self knows, itself will know, it is its own illumination and so on... but, i feel, the Master has his knack of answering things like these... atleast quieten the mind  thank you.

Salutations to Bhagavan

[Ravi.N]

Nagaraj.
We may say the other way round-that Sri Ramakrishna was fortunate to be the husband of a Realized soul!Sri Sarada devi's stature can only be understood when we are left wondering how Swami Vivekananda used to dip himself in the Ganges 6 times before approaching her.Swami Brahmananda will be overwhelmed and shiver with Divine emotion and approach her like a child and prostrate before her.These were Brahma Jnanis!Swamiji's chicago speech was a success because he wrote to Holy Mother seeking her blessings and she blessed her' Naren' -'May Saraswati reside in your tongue'!There are instances of persons not accepted by the Master reverting to our Holy Mother who accepted them unconditionally saying-'Ok,if he does not accept,do not go to Him!I am your Mother and you are my children!"
More on our Holy Mother later.
You asked about how Sri Ramakrishna answers that question of knowing Truth for oneself.Here is an excerpt from The Gospel:
"After having the vision of God man is overpowered with bliss. He becomes silent. Who
will speak? Who will explain?
"The king lives beyond seven gates. At each gate sits a man endowed with great power and
glory. At each gate the visitor asks, 'Is this the king?' The gate-keeper answers, 'No. Not
this, not this.' The visitor passes through the seventh gate and. becomes overpowered with
joy. He is speechless. This time he doesn't have to ask, 'Is this the king?' The mere sight of
him removes all doubts."
PREACHER: "Yes, sir, it is so described in Vedanta."
MASTER: "When the Godhead is thought of as creating, preserving, and destroying, It is
known as the Personal God, Saguna Brahman, or the Primal Energy, Adyasakti. Again,
when It is thought of as beyond the three gunas, then It is called the Attributeless Reality,
Nirguna Brahman, beyond speech and thought; this is the Supreme Brahman, Parabrahman."
This is the same as what Sri Bhagavan says in ulladu nARpadu -kandEn enru karuththezha villai,kandilEn enru karthezhumAren!
There are more such exquisite sayings of sri Ramakrishna in The Gospel-He has this knack of making even a child of five to grasp and understand subtle truths through homely similies and parables.

[Nagaraj]

Dear i,

what a beautiful way to put it, it cannot be said in a better way

We may say the other way round-that Sri Ramakrishna was fortunate to be the husband of a Realized soul!Sri Sarada devi's stature can only be understood when we are left wondering how Swami Vivekananda used to dip himself in the Ganges 6 times before approaching her.Swami Brahmananda will be overwhelmed and shiver with Divine emotion and approach her like a child and prostrate before her.These were Brahma Jnanis!Swamiji's chicago speech was a success because he wrote to Holy Mother seeking her blessings and she blessed her' Naren' -'May Saraswati reside in your tongue'!There are instances of persons not accepted by the Master reverting to our Holy Mother who accepted them unconditionally saying-'Ok,if he does not accept,do not go to Him!I am your Mother and you are my children!"

Swami Vivekananda, Swami Brahmananda, themselves - if we have to look them we have to bend our neck upwards, and the kind of bhakthi and humbleness they showed towards mother is unfathomable.

it is so beautifully explained, verily its same as Bhagavan says in ulladu nARpadu -kandEn enru karuththezha villai,kandilEn enru karthezhumAren!

just silence... thank you..

Salutations to Bhagavan

[Nagaraj]

Dear i,

moreover, if we notice the lives of all great jnanis or realised sould, their autobiography ends here, at the point of entering the 7th gate or such a one utters his last real speech such as kandEn enru karuththezha villai,kandilEn enru karthezhumAren! these are the last ending words of every realised beings.

Everything else that follows after this, is only a biography

Salutations to Bhagavan

[Ravi.N]

The Story of Sri Ramakrishna continued...

Summary of the Master's Spiritual Experiences
We have now come to the end of Sri Ramakrishna's sadhana, the period of his spiritual
discipline. As a result of his supersensuous experiences he reached certain conclusions
regarding himself and spirituality in general. His conclusions about himself may be
summarised as follows:
First, he was an Incarnation of God, a specially commissioned person, whose spiritual
experiences were for the benefit of humanity. Whereas it takes an ordinary man a whole
life's struggle to realize one or two phases of God, he had in a few years realized God in all
His phases.
Second, he knew that he had always been a free soul, that the various disciplines through
which he had passed were really not necessary for his own liberation but were solely for the
benefit of others. Thus the terms liberation and bondage were not applicable to him. As
long as there are beings who consider themselves bound, God must come down to earth as
an Incarnation to free them from bondage, just as a magistrate must visit any part of his
district in which there is trouble.
Third, he came to foresee the time of his death. His words with respect to this matter were
literally fulfilled.
About spirituality in general the following were his conclusions:
First, he was firmly convinced that all religions are true, that every doctrinal system
represents a path to God. He had followed all the main paths and all had led him to the
same goal. He was the first religious prophet recorded in history to preach the harmony of
religions.
Second, the three great systems of thought known as Dualism, Qualified Non-dualism, and
Absolute Non-dualism - Dvaita, Visishtadvaita, and Advaita - he perceived to represent
three stages in man's progress toward the Ultimate Reality. They were not contradictory but
complementary and suited to different temperaments. For the ordinary man with strong
attachment to the senses, a dualistic form of religion, prescribing a certain amount of
material support, such as music and other symbols, is useful. A man of God-realization
transcends the idea of worldly duties, but the ordinary mortal must perform his duties,
striving to be unattached and to surrender the results to God. The mind can comprehend and
describe the range of thought and experience up to the Visishtadvaita, and no further. The
Advaita, the last word in spiritual experience, is something to be felt in samadhi, for it
transcends mind and speech. From the highest standpoint, the Absolute and Its
manifestation are equally real - the Lord's Name, His Abode, and the Lord Himself are of
the same spiritual Essence. Everything is Spirit, the difference being only in form.
Third, Sri Ramakrishna realized the wish of the Divine Mother that through him She should
found a new Order, consisting of those who would uphold the universal doctrines
illustrated in his life.
Fourth, his spiritual insight told him that those who were having their last birth on the
mortal plane of existence and those who had sincerely called on the Lord even once in their
lives must come to him.
In 1871 Mathur died, and some five years later Sambhu Mallick -
who, after Mathur's passing away, had taken care of the Master's comfort. In 1873 died his
elder brother Rameswar, and in 1876, his beloved mother. These bereavements left their
imprint on the tender human heart of Sri Ramakrishna albeit he had realized the
immortality of the soul and the illusoriness of birth and death.
In March 1875, about a year before the death of his mother, the Master met Keshab
Chandra Sen. The meeting was a momentous event for both Sri Ramakrishna and Keshab.
Here the Master for the first time came into actual contact with a worthy representative of
modern India.
to be continued....

[Subramanian.R]

kaNdanan enRida karuthezhavillai,
kandilan enRida karuthezhumARen....

occurs in Sri Arunachala Ashtakam, in Verse 2.


Arunachala Siva.

[Ravi.N]

Subramanian,
Thanks for the correction.
Namaskar.

[Ravi.N]

The Story of Sri Ramakrishna continued...

Brahmo Samaj
Keshab was the leader of the Brahmo Samaj, one of the two great movements that, during
the latter part of the nineteenth century, played an important part in shaping the course of
the renascence of India. The founder of the Brahmo movement had been the great Raja
Rammohan Roy (1774-1833). Though born in an orthodox brahmin family, Rammohan
Roy had shown great sympathy for Islam and Christianity. He had gone to Tibet in search
of the Buddhist mysteries. He had extracted from Christianity its ethical system, but had
rejected the divinity of Christ as he had denied the Hindu Incarnations. The religion of
Islam influenced him, to a great extent, in the formulation of his monotheistic doctrines.
But he always went back to the Vedas for his spiritual inspiration. The Brahmo Samaj,
which he founded in 1828, was dedicated to the "worship and adoration of the Eternal, the
Unsearchable, the Immutable Being, who is the Author and Preserver of the Universe". The
Samaj was open to all without distinction of colour, creed, caste, nation, or religion.
In Bengal
and some other parts of India the Brahmo movement took the form of Unitarian
Christianity, scoffed at Hindu rituals, and preached a crusade against image worship.
Influenced by Western culture, it declared the supremacy of reason, advocated the ideals of
the French Revolution, abolished the caste-system among, its own members, stood for the
emancipation of women, agitate for the abolition of early marriage, sanctioned the
remarriage of widows, and encouraged various educational and social-reform movements.
The immediate effect of the Brahmo movement in Bengal was the checking of the
proselytising activities of the Christian missionaries. It also raised Indian culture in the
estimation of its English masters. But it was an intellectual and eclectic religious ferment
born of the necessity of the time. Unlike Hinduism, it was not founded on the deep inner
experiences of sages and prophets. Its influence was confined to a comparatively few
educated men and women of the country, and the vast masses of the Hindus remained
outside it. It sounded monotonously only one of the notes in the rich gamut of the Eternal
Religion of the Hindus.

Arya Samaj
The other movement playing an important part in the nineteenth-century religious revival of
India was the Arya Samaj. The Brahmo Samaj, essentially a movement of compromise with
European culture, tacitly admitted the superiority of the West. But the founder of the Arya
Samaj was a pugnacious Hindu sannyasi who accepted the challenge of Islam and
Christianity and was resolved to combat all foreign influence in India. Swami Dayananda
(1824-1883) launched this movement in Bombay in 1875, and soon its influence was felt
throughout western India. The Swami was a great scholar of the Vedas, which he explained
as being strictly mono-theistic. He preached against the worship of images and reestablished
the ancient Vedic sacrificial rites. According to him the Vedas were the ultimate
authority on religion, and he accepted every word of them as literally true. The Arya Samaj
became a bulwark against the encroachments of Islam and Christianity, and its orthodox
flavour appealed to many Hindu minds. It also assumed leadership in many movements of
social reform. The caste-system became a target of its attack. Women it liberated from
many of their social disabilities. The cause of education received from it a great impetus. It
started agitation against early marriage and advocated the remarriage of Hindu widows. Its
influence was strongest in the Punjab, the battle-ground of the Hindu and Islamic cultures.
A new fighting attitude was introduced into the slumbering Hindu society. Unlike the
Brahmo Samaj, the influence of the Arya Samaj was not confined to the intellectuals. It was
a force that spread to the masses. It was a dogmatic movement intolerant of those disagreed
with its views, and it emphasized only one way, the Arya Samaj way, to the realization of
Truth. Sri Ramakrishna met Swami Dayananda when the latter visited Bengal.
continued...

[Subramanian.R]

Today is Mother's Day:

Apart from the Universal Mother, Mahadevi/Mahalakshmi/Mahasaraswati, how many Mothers have descended on this earth,
to teach us the definition of Motherhood!  Three Mothers come to my mind readily. There could be more. First is Mother Sarada
Devi, the second is Mother Azhagamma and the third is Mother Teresa.  Our humble pranams to these Mothers today! 

Arunachala Siva.

[Ravi.N]

The Story of Sri Ramakrishna continued...

Keshab chandra sen
Keshab Chandra Sen and Sri Ramakrishna met for the first time in the garden house of
Jaygopal Sen at Belgharia, a few miles from Dakshineswar, where the great Brahmo leader
was staying with some of his disciples. In many respects the two were poles apart, though
an irresistible inner attraction was to make them intimate friends. The Master had realized
God as Pure Spirit and Consciousness, but he believed in the various forms of God as well.
Keshab, on the other hand, regarded image worship as idolatry and gave allegorical
explanations of the Hindu deities.
Sri Ramakrishna, dressed in a red-bordered dhoti, one end of which was carelessly thrown
over his left shoulder, came to Jaygopal's garden house accompanied by Hriday. No one
took notice of the unostentatious visitor. Finally the Master said to Keshab, "People tell me
you have seen God; so I have come to hear from you about God." A magnificent
conversation followed. The Master sang a thrilling song about Kali and forthwith went into
samadhi. When Hriday uttered the sacred "Om" in his ears, he gradually came back to
consciousness of the world, his face still radiating a divine brilliance. Keshab and his
followers were amazed. The contrast between Sri Ramakrishna and the Brahmo devotees
was very interesting. There sat this small man, thin and extremely delicate. His eyes were
illumined with an inner light. Good humour gleamed in his eyes and lurked in the corners
of his mouth. His speech was Bengali of a homely kind with a slight, delightful stammer,
and his words held men enthralled by their wealth of spiritual experience, their
inexhaustible store of simile and metaphor, their power of observation, their bright and
subtle humour, their wonderful catholicity, their ceaseless flow of wisdom. And around him
now were the sophisticated men of Bengal, the best products of Western education, with
Keshab, the idol of young Bengal, as their leader.
Keshab's sincerity was enough for Sri Ramakrishna. Henceforth the two saw each other
frequently, either at Dakshineswar or at the temple of the Brahmo Samaj. Whenever the
Master was in the temple at the time of divine service, Keshab would request him to speak
to the congregation. And Keshab would visit the saint, in his turn, with offerings of flowers
and fruits.
Gradually other Brahmo leaders began to feel Sri Ramakrishna's influence. But they were
by no means uncritical admirers of the Master. They particularly disapproved of his ascetic
renunciation and condemnation of, "woman and gold". They measured him according to
their own ideals of the householder's life. Some could not understand his samadhi and
described it as a nervous malady. Yet they could not resist his magnetic personality.
The Brahmo leaders received much inspiration from their contact with Sri Ramakrishna. It
broadened their religious views and kindled in their hearts the yearning for God-realization;
it made them understand and appreciate the rituals and symbols of Hindu religion,
convinced them of the manifestation of God in diverse forms, and deepened their thoughts
about the harmony of religions. The Master, too, was impressed by the sincerity of many of
the, Brahmo devotees. He told them about his own realizations and explained to them the
essence of his teachings, such as the necessity of renunciation, sincerity in the pursuit of
one's own course of discipline, faith in God, the performance of one's duties without
thought of results, and discrimination between the Real and the unreal.
This contact with the educated and progressive Bengalis opened Sri Ramakrishna's eyes to
a new realm of thought. Born and brought up in a simple village, without any formal
education, and taught by the orthodox holy men of India in religious life, he had had no
opportunity to study the influence of modernism on the thoughts and lives of the Hindus.
He could not properly estimate the result of the impact of Western education on Indian
culture. He was a Hindu of the Hindus, renunciation being to him the only means to the
realization of God in life. From the Brahmos he learnt that the new generation of India
made a compromise between God and the world. Educated young men were influenced
more by the Western philosophers than by their own prophets. But Sri Ramakrishna was
not dismayed, for he saw in this, too, the hand of God. And though he expounded to the
Brahmos all his ideas about God and austere religious disciplines, yet he bade them accept
from his teachings only as much as suited their tastes and temperaments.
To be continued....

[Nagaraj]

I am unable to trace back to the thread in which the link for Human Gospel was shared. i just want to express my gratitude for sharing it.

The Human Gospel is verily like Periya Puranam, or much more than that itself, especially for Ramana devotees, where Ramanar Himself being the Supreme Parameshwara.

Prostrations to Bhagavan

[Nagaraj]

NEIGHBOUR: "What is discrimination?"

MASTER: "Discrimination is the reasoning by which one knows that God alone is real and all else is unreal. Real means eternal, and unreal means impermanent. He who has acquired discrimination knows that God is the only Substance and all else is non-existent. With the awakening of this spirit of discrimination a man wants to know God. On the contrary, if a man loves the unreal-such things as creature comforts, name, fame, and wealth, then he doesn't want to know God, who is of the very nature of Reality. Through discrimination between the Real and the unreal one seeks to know God.

"Listen to a song:

                      Come, let us go for a walk, O mind, to Kāli, the Wish-fulfilling Tree,
                      And there beneath It gather the four fruits of life.
                      Of your two wives, Dispassion and Worldliness,
                      Bring along Dispassion only, on your way to the Tree,
                      And ask her son Discrimination about the Truth. . . .

"By turning the mind within oneself one acquires discrimination, and through discrimination one thinks of Truth. Then the mind feels the desire to go for a walk to Kāli, the Wish-fulfilling Tree. Reaching that Tree, that is to say, going near to God, you can without any effort gather four fruits, namely, dharma, artha, kama, and moksha. Yes, after realizing God, one can also get, if one so desires, dharma, artha, and kama, which are necessary for leading the worldly life."

NEIGHBOUR: "Then why should one call the world maya?"

God and the world

MASTER: "As long as one has not realized God, one should renounce the world, following the process of 'Neti, neti.' But he who has attained God knows that it is God who has become all this. Then he sees that God, maya, living beings, and the universe form one whole. God includes the universe and its living beings. Suppose you have separated the shell, flesh, and seeds of a bel-fruit and someone asks you the weight of the fruit. Will you leave aside the shell and the seeds, and weigh only the flesh? Not at all. To know the real weight of the fruit, you must weigh the whole of it-the shell, the flesh, and the seeds. Only then can you tell its real weight. The shell may be likened to the universe, and the seeds to living beings. While one is engaged in discrimination one says to oneself that the universe and the living beings are non-Self and unsubstantial. At that time one thinks of the flesh alone as the substance, and the shell and seeds as unsubstantial. But after discrimination is over, one feels that all three parts of the fruit together form a unity. Then one further realizes that the stuff that has produced the flesh of the fruit has also produced the shell and seeds. To know the real nature of the bel-fruit one must know all three.

"It is the process of evolution and involution. The world, after its dissolution, remains involved in God; and God, at the time of creation, evolves as the world. Butter goes with buttermilk, and buttermilk goes with butter. If there is a thing called buttermilk, then butter also exists; and if there is a thing called butter, then buttermilk also exists. If the Self exists, then the non-Self must also exist.

Note WRT "If the Self exists, then the non-Self must also exist" :

                  What is called knowledge
                  Is nothing but [the corollary of] ignorance;
                  Each appears at the concealment of the other.

                  ----------

                 If we call this “ignorance,”
                 What shall we call “knowledge”?
                 Is the Self an object of either one?

                 (Jnaneshwar)

"The phenomenal world belongs to that very Reality to which the Absolute belongs; again, the Absolute belongs to that very Reality to which the phenomenal world belongs. He who is realized as God has also become the universe and its living beings. One who knows the Truth knows that it is He alone who has become father and mother, child and neighbour, man and animal, good and bad, holy and unholy, and so forth."

Virtue and vice

NEIGHBOUR: "Then is there no virtue and no sin?"

MASTER: "They both exist and do not exist. If God keeps the ego in a man, then He keeps in him the sense of differentiation and also the sense of virtue and sin. But in a rare few He completely effaces the ego and these go beyond virtue and sin, good and bad. As long as a man has not realized God, he retains the sense of differentiation and the knowledge of good and bad. You may say: 'Virtue and sin are the same to me. I am doing only as God bids me.' But you know in your heart of hearts that those are mere words. No sooner do you commit an evil deed than you feel a palpitation in your heart. Even after God has been realized, He keeps in the mind of the devotee, if He so desires, the feeling of the 'servant ego'. In that state the devotee says, 'O God, Thou art the Master and I am Thy servant.' Such a devotee enjoys only spiritual talk and spiritual deeds.
He does not enjoy the company of ungodly people. He does not care for any work that is not of a holy nature. So you see that God keeps the sense of differentiation even in such a devotee."

NEIGHBOUR: "You ask us, sir, to live in the world after knowing God. Can God really be known?"

MASTER: "God cannot be known by the sense-organs or by this mind; but He can be known by the pure mind, the mind that is free from worldiy desires."
NEIGHBOUR: "Who can know God?"
MASTER: "Right. Who can really know Him? But as for us, it is enough to know as much of Him as we need. What need have I of a whole well of water? One jar is more than enough for me. An ant went to a sugar hill. Did it need the entire hill? A grain or two of sugar was more than enough."

NEIGHBOUR: "Sir, we are like typhoid patients. How can we be satisfied with one jar of water? We feel like knowing, the whole of God."

MASTER: "That's true. But there is also medicine for typhoid."
NEIGHBOUR: "What is that medicine, sir?"

MASTER: "The company of holy men, repeating the name of God and singing His glories, and unceasing prayer. I prayed to the Divine Mother: 'Mother, I don't seek knowledge. Here, take Thy knowledge, take Thy ignorance. Give me only pure love for Thy Lotus Feet.' I didn't ask for anything else. "As is the disease, so must the remedy be. The Lord says in the Gitā: 'O Arjuna, take refuge in Me. I shall deliver you from all sins.' Take shelter at His feet: He will give you right understanding. He will take entire responsibility for you. Then you will get rid of the typhoid. Can one ever know God with such a mind as this? Can one pour four seers of milk into a one-seer pot? Can we ever know God unless He lets us know Him? Therefore I say, take shelter in God. Let Him do whatever He likes. He is self-willed. What power is there in a man?"

(The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna)

Prostrations to Bhagavan

[Ravi.N]

The Story of Sri Ramakrishna continued....

In the year 1879 occasional writings about Sri Ramakrishna by the Brahmos, in the Brahmo
magazines, began to attract his future disciples from the educated middle-class Bengalis,
and they continued to come till 1884. But others, too, came, feeling the subtle power of his
attraction. They were an ever shifting crowd of people of all castes and creeds: Hindus and
Brahmos, Vaishnavas and Saktas, the educated with university degrees and the illiterate,
old and young, maharajas and beggars, journalists and artists, pundits and devotees,
philosophers and the worldly-minded, jnanis and yogis, men of action and men of faith,
virtuous women and prostitutes, office-holders and vagabonds, philanthropists and selfseekers,
dramatists and drunkards, builders-up and pullers-down. He gave to them all,
without stint, from his illimitable store of realization. No one went away empty-handed. He
taught them the lofty knowledge of the Vedanta and the soul-melting love of the Purana.
Twenty hours out of twenty-four he would speak without rest or respite. He gave to all his
sympathy and enlightenment, and he touched them with that strange power of the soul
which could not but melt even the most hardened. And people understood him according to
their powers of comprehension.
The Master's Method of Teaching
But he remained as ever the willing instrument in the hand of God, the child of the Divine
Mother, totally untouched by the idea of being a teacher. He used to say that three ideas -
that he was a guru, a father, and a master - pricked his flesh like thorns. Yet he was an
extraordinary teacher. He stirred his disciples' hearts more by a subtle influence than by
actions or words. He never claimed to be the founder of a religion or the organizer of a sect.
Yet he was a religious dynamo. He was the verifier of all religions and creeds. He was like
an expert gardener, who prepares the soil and removes the weeds, knowing that the plants
will grow because of the inherent power of the seeds, producing each its appropriate
flowers and fruits. He never thrust his ideas on anybody. He understood people's limitations
and worked on the principle that what is good for one may be bad for another. He had the
unusual power of knowing the devotees' minds, even their inmost souls, at the first sight.
He accepted disciples with the full knowledge of their past tendencies and future
possibilities. The life of evil did not frighten him, nor did religious squeamishness raise
anybody in his estimation. He saw in everything the unerring finger of the Divine Mother.
Even the light that leads astray was to him the light from God.
To those who became his intimate disciples the Master was a friend, companion, and
playmate. Even the chores of religious discipline would be lightened in his presence. The
devotees would be so inebriated with pure joy in his company that they would have no time
to ask themselves whether he was an Incarnation, a perfect soul, or a yogi. His very
presence was a great teaching; words were superfluous. In later years his disciples
remarked that while they were with him they would regard him as a comrade, but
afterwards would tremble to think of their frivolities in the presence of such a great person.
They had convincing proof that the Master could, by his mere wish, kindle in their hearts
the love of God and give them His vision.
Through all this fun and frolic, this merriment and frivolity, he always kept before them the
shining ideal of God-Consciousness and the path of renunciation. He prescribed ascents
steep or graded according to the powers of the climber. He permitted no compromise with
the basic principles of purity. An aspirant had to keep his body, mind, senses, and soul
unspotted; had to have a sincere love for God and an ever mounting spirit of yearning. The
rest would be done by the Mother.
His disciples were of two kinds: the householders, and the young men, some of whom were
later to become monks. There was also a small group of women devotees.
To be continued...

[Hari]

I asked because I wondered if a Jnani can 'keep' His Personal form by His Will and I remembered that I have read somewhere that Sri Ramakrishna has decided to stay 'somewhere' between the Absolute and the Relative for Guidance for His followers.

[Ravi.N]

Ramana/Friends,
I am posting something that is Mystical on sri Ramakrishna as Requested by Ramana.Generally ,I avoid posting these things.It may not be understood properly or may not interest others.
Here is an excerpt from The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna:
Different manifestations of the Absolute
"But the Nitya and the Lila are the two aspects of the same Reality. As I have said before, it
is like the roof and the steps leading to it. The Absolute plays in many ways: as Isvara, as
the gods, as man, and as the universe. The Incarnation is the play of the Absolute as man.
Do you know how the Absolute plays as man? It is like the rushing down of water from a
big roof through a pipe; the power of Satchidananda-nay, Satchidananda Itself-descends
through the conduit of a human form as water descends through the pipe. Only twelve
sages, Bharadvaja and the others, recognized Rama as an Incarnation of God. Not everyone
can recognize an Incarnation.
"It is God alone who incarnates Himself as man to teach people the ways of love and
knowledge. Well, what do you think of me?
"Once my father went to Gaya. There Raghuvir said to him in a dream, 'I shall be born as
your son.' Thereupon my father said to Him: 'O Lord, I am a poor brahmin. How shall I be
able to serve You?' 'Don't worry about it', Raghuvir replied. 'It will be taken care of.'
"My sister, Hriday's mother, used to worship my feet with flowers and sandal-paste. One
day I placed my foot on her head and said to her, 'You will die in Benares.'
"Once Mathur Babu said to me: 'Father, there is nothing inside you but God. Your body is
like an empty shell. It may look from outside like a pumpkin, but inside there is nothing neither
flesh nor seed. Once I saw you as someone moving with a veil on.'
Master's vision of Gauranga
(To M.) "I am shown everything beforehand. Once I saw Gauranga and his devotees
singing kirtan in the Panchavati. I think I saw Balaram there and you too.
"I wanted to know the experiences of Gauranga and was shown them at Syambazar in our
native district. A crowd gathered; they even climbed the trees and the walls; they stayed
with me day and night. For seven days I had no privacy whatever. Thereupon I said to the
Divine Mother, 'Mother, I have had enough of it.'
"I am at peace now. I shall have to be born once more. Therefore I am not giving all
knowledge to my companions. (With a smile) Suppose I give you all knowledge; will you
then come to me again so willingly?
"I recognized you on hearing you read the Chaitanya Bhagavat. You are my own. The
same substance, like father and son. All of you are coming here again. When you pull one
part of the kalmi creeper, all the branches come toward you. You are all relatives-like
brothers. Suppose Rakhal, Harish, and the others had gone to Puri, and you were there too.
Would you live separately?
to be continued....