3
ONE IS SAVED A GREAT DEAL BY KEEPING THE COMPANY OF AN ALL-RENOUNCING SADHU
1.
The fourth level roof at the Morton School. 5 p.m., the month of Jaishtha (May-June). M. is seated on a chair facing west. In front of him is Antevasi’s cabin. Hemendra Maharaj has arrived and having offered his pranam to M., is seated in front of him. He is the president of the Vidyapith. He has prepared the annual report of the Vidyapith and shows its manuscript to M. It is now under print. Swami is holding its press proof. M. has asked Antevasi to revise it. Gradually the bhaktas come in one by one like a peacock looking for an opium pill at a fixed hour.
Suddenly the sky is overcast. There is darkness all around. And the cloud bursts and there is torrential rain. M. moves in to the staircase room alongwith the bhaktas. He sits on a chair facing south close to the door. To his left and in front of him sit the Elder Jiten, Vinay, the Younger Ramesh, the Younger Jiten, the Younger Nalini, Balai, Manoranjan, Gadadhar, Jagabandhu and others on benches. It is raining intermittently. It is about 8 p.m. now. Swami Sadbhavananda having delivered the proof at the press, returns. While M. showers the nectar of the Word inside the house, Varundeva (the water god) is showering water outside.
M. (to the bhaktas) — Mahamaya makes one forget all. Only the other day the avatara came and said all this. He himself practised it all. He has made us see it all almost forcibly, yet where does the awakening come?
"O, what a state Thakur had: uttering ‘Ma, Ma,’ all the twenty-four hours of the day! He would not sleep at night practically. Maybe he keeps quiet for five to ten minutes. Again he wakes up with ‘Ma, Ma,’ again - inhaling ‘Ma’ and exhaling ‘Ma’! He was just like a child who can not live without his mother, who wants his mother."
M. (to the Younger Ramesh) — If you speak to the wall, can it hear you? What do you say?
"Abraham spoke rightly to Lazarus, ‘If you were to go to this rich man’s house who is dwelling in hell now and tell the members of his household that both hell and heaven exist, would they listen to you? They would say: ‘You are an impostor.’ So many prophets have come and said so many things. Has anybody accepted even their words? Then who is going to believe you?"
The Elder Jiten (humbly) — If He graciously grants His darshan once, all doubts vanish.
M. (smiling) — Yes, that too happens. But then one must have ‘a rupee or a rupee and a quarter.’ Who is going to pay you the fare for going to Badrinarayan? (laughter).
M. (to Swami Sadbhavananda) — Swami Trigunatita said so. Once he felt like renouncing all. He left the Math without telling anybody. The Math was then situated in Alam Bazar. Everybody was worried where he had gone? He returned after eight days all of a sudden. Then all felt relaxed and made merry with him. The brother disciples enjoyed fun and frolic in different ways. One of them asked, ‘I say, Sarda, how far can your renunciation run?’ He smiles and answers, ‘Up to Konnagar.’ ‘What happened then?’ ‘What else? It ended,’ says he smilingly. ‘I say tell us the story of your renunciation. How it came about and how it ended?" asked a brother disciple. ‘All right, then listen,’ says Sarda still full of the same simple spirit of pure fun, ‘First grew a deep renunciation; then I left the Math and I crossed the Ganga. Then I went to Konnagar stayed in a devotee’s garden and satisfied my hunger with the food of charity. I spent a number of days in great joy till I felt a desire to go to Vrindaban. As I expressed this desire to the bhaktas saying: Do please give me the fare to Vrindaban. One of them angrily said: Who can give you so much Mahashaya? Had it been a rupee or rupee and a quarter, it would have been all right.’ (Everybody laughs loudly).
A certain Bhakta — Thakur says: ‘If you ask for the fare to Vrindaban from the core of your heart he does give it. He even grants darshan.’
M. — Yes, he said so. And it is an eternal truth. But you have to say it from the core of your heart. Sitting in an arm-chair and saying - let it be, if it is to be so. Otherwise let it not be - this will not do. You have to say it with a yearning heart. Giving up food and water, one has to resolve: ‘let the body perish. I shall not rise without your darshan.’ - such a yearning is needed. Buddha Deva had it this way. Said he, ‘I am sitting on this seat. I shall not rise from here. Let the body perish if it must - let my flesh and bones be turned into powder and fly away with the air, I shall not rise.’
A Devotee — Sir, What is the story of Lazarus?
M. — Lazarus was a devotee, struck with poverty and leprosy. He used to beg. A festival was being celebrated at a rich man’s house - many persons were feasting there. The beggar Lazarus also appeared at the door. But he was given nothing to eat and he died of starvation there. The angles came and took him to heaven. He was now in great joy. Abraham was also there. One day he heard a loud wail. He lifted his eyes and saw that the same rich man was wailing with death like pain. Lazarus wanted to go to him and bring him to heaven. As he was about to start, Abraham said, ‘You can only see him but you can not go to him - there is an impassable gulf in between.’ The rich man then made another request: ‘Please go to my kith and kin and tell them that both heaven and hell exist.’ Lazarus set out, it was then that Abraham intervened to say the aforesaid: ‘If you were to go to the house of this rich man dwelling in hell now, to tell that both heaven and hell truly exist, would his people accept your words?
"If they listen to you, how will the world go on? Mahamaya’s work will end. That is why the Mother makes one forget with Her power of ignorance, casts Her spell. One forgets God living amidst sons, friends, wealth and opulence.
"So Thakur taught one to always pray: Don’t make me forget by Your world-bewitching maya. Mother, may I never forget.
"One is saved to a great extent by keeping the company of an all-renouncing sadhu. So Thakur exhorts one always to keep the company of sadhus. Did he only say so? No, he himself created sadhus. And they all are living in the Math. Where can you find such sadhus? They only want God, nothing besides Him. Pure blooded they are like the Chataka bird taking no other water than that of the rain - the purest of pure water. Only those who go to them and serve them will rise. Many have risen, the others will. Instead of doing so, one talks nonsense sitting in an arm chair and gives himself the luxury of saying: He grants His darshan once everything is set right.
"See, what divine joy the sadhu lives with. Sarada ran away from the Math and then returned. He was joyful when he ran away and he was joyful when he returned. What a pure fun and merry-making with the brother disciples! For it was all for the highest ideal - Good or bad, victory or defeat, fun and frolic in all these, He was kept in mind.
"But can the householder do so? While thinking of sensory matters one begins to think of the person dear to senses as well. One gets more and more attached to him. That’s why He has made an arrangement to prevent the mind from drowning itself in senses. It is He who has created sadhus. Without seeing a contrast one doesn’t learn. So just as His power of ignorance ties one down to the earth, similarly His power of knowledge frees the jiva from this world of maya and takes it towards God. The sadhus are votaries of the power of knowledge. Their minds always remain directed towards God. Their watch gives the correct time. The watches of others are not dependable."
2.
M. remains silent for some time, with his mind drawn inward. During this interval some of the bhaktas begin to scratch kochrer dad - they begin to comment in whispers upon politics and social mores and praise the Westerners, forgetting time, place and personality. One of the company says to M.: Sir Ashutosh Chaudhri was a man of parts. He was a High Court judge. He had no enemies. He has recently breathed his last. M. says in a disinterested tone, ‘So he must be a good man if he had no enemies; if he satisfied everybody.’ Now the devotees have decided to bring up various sensory topics without inhibition - they freely talk. Seeing it, M. smiles. However like a magician he silently stops it by pressing a switch as it were or as like one drawing and shutting behind doors a restless naughty boy. A new peaceful current begins to flow by this magic touch of M., a deep solemn mood descends in the twinkling of an eye.
M. (to all) — How many great chief justices, how many great prime ministers have been there in England? But where are they now? Nobody even remembers them. The same thing Napoleon said in captivity in St. Helena to the sons to his caretaker. The boys used to serve him devotedly. Napoleon, showing them a map, said, ‘This is the end to what I have been able to achieve. But what Christ did has only endured.’ This he said pointing to Palestine. In other words the glory of Christ is everlasting. The work that is done with religion at the base alone endures - the actions done by man for God. Nobody knows where the other actions are lost.
M. (to Jagabandhu) — How the lawyers talk - always of money matters! W.C. Banerji is carrying out a cross-examination: ‘What are your possessions?’ The answer comes: so many bighas of land and fruit trees. The next question: ‘What else?’ Answer: nothing - and all such trivial matters, all pertaining to money and property.
"And there was that case of Shankar Nayar. Justice Makkardey said to Nayar’s advocate, Morale, ‘You cited a case. That’s why.’ Morale’s criminal experience was not adequate. Such are the matters judges and lawyers talk of: he knows so and so or he does not know so and so. Except for such trivial matters, they talk of nothing else.
"Somebody gives evidence. Can’t the judge see that it is cooked; hasn’t he himself been practicing as a lawyer for so long before being elevated to the bench. It is not difficult for him to realise this. But because of technicalities perhaps a person, who has done no wrong, is being sentenced - for it does not conform to law. On the other hand it is asserted that arguments are based on equity, truth and justice. Had it been so, why should have an innocent person been punished?
"Such is the play of money. It cannot protect truth and justice. See, it is all this that the judges and the courts concern themselves with. What a big personality, one thought, a judge of the high court was in one’s childhood! Now they all appear to be nothing. Truth, justice and impartiality are far from them.
A judge asks a Santhal man, ‘What is your age?’ The Santhal says ‘Judge, you are so great, you know so much yet you don’t know even this. All right, just write down I am sixteen.’ (All laugh). The fellow is over fifty. He can not calculate - an entirely unsophisticated mind he has. (Laughing) The others counseled him not to speak so rudely to the judge, he could be jailed.
"What is the goal of life? God-realization. If it be so, what are they living with; what are they doing? Unless the mind is purified, one can not realize God. The mind can not be purified with what they are doing; the mind and the speech cannot become one - that being so, how can they see God? In that case it boils down to this: Eat, drink and die. When the goal is God-realization, one doesn’t do such things.
"I studied with Justice Sarada Mitra. He was then a lawyer. At times I used to go to the High Court to hear their arguments. One day when I went there Sarada Babu asked me, ‘What has brought you here? By coming here a man loses his morals. This is a centre of the wicked men.’ Didn’t he know that I used to visit Thakur?
"Didn’t Thakur say, ‘Enter the den of jackal, you will only see the tails of other beasts. If you enter a tiger’s den you will find the elephant’s pearls and elephant’s tusks there’."
M. (to all, referring to the Elder Jiten) — So, the conclusion is, so long as death is not abolished, one must have an aim. What aim? God-realization! It is different when death is abolished.
Some mangoes of prasad have been received from Thakur-Bari. Sadhus and bhaktas partake of this mango prasad. It’s about 9 p.m. Having given the devotees the assignment of reading the Kathamrita, M. goes to the third level to take his meals.
16th of October 1882. The reading continues. Jagabandhu is reading - Narendra has arrived at Dakshineswar Temple along with several Brahmo friends. Thakur is very happy that Narendra has come. Narendra stays there for the night with his friends, Priya and others. The next morning having taken their bath in the Ganga, Narendra comes with his friends to offer pranam to Thakur. Thakur sends him to the Vatatala along with his companions to meditate there. It is 9 a.m. After a while Thakur himself comes there accompanied by M.
It is about 10.30 now. The devotees stand on the level below the altar near Thakur.
Thakur gives them instructions. Sri Ramakrishna: While meditating one should get completely absorbed in God. It is not possible to find the jewels lying at the bottom of the sea by just swimming on the surface.
M. comes downstairs after having meal and listens to the reading.
M. (to the bhaktas) — The ‘jewel’ means God. Thakur used to sing a particular song when Brahmo devotees used to come: ‘Dive Dive, O my mind, dive deep into the sea of His beauty. By fathoming the bottomless, you can reach the priceless treasure.’
"Those people only give lectures. That is why Thakur asks them to absorb themselve in dhyana. Who will listen to their lecture? It’s only when you have experienced it yourself that people listen to you.
"The mind is outgoing, it roams about outside. That makes one happy. But if it is withdrawn, pulled inside and concentrated on God one gradually begins to see the wealth. Knowledge, devotion, discrimination, dispassion, peace, happiness, prema and samadhi constitute that wealth. Then one gets His darshan by His grace.
"On one side of the mind, there is the world, on the other side, God. Such a vast expanse the mind has! Meditation on God purifies the mind. He grants His darshan in a pure mind.
"One only had lectures in the Brahmo Samaj. After listening to these lectures I used to think that God was far away above. When I came to Thakur I saw that God was so near, at hand. Why so? Because their knowledge was derived from books, while Thakur’s knowledge came from ‘playing the musical notation’ - the difference is that of heaven and nether worlds. So he asks the Brahmos to practise dhyana."
The reading continues. Sri Ramakrishna says, ‘There is no Madhava in your temple. O Padua, you have only created confusion by blowing your counch.’
M. (to the devotees) — Just notice this: Thakur says, ‘What use taking mere lectures?’ First of all install Madhava that is God in the temple of your heart. In other words, awaken Him, see Him. Then the world will hear you wonderstruck. Thakur said to Bankim Babu, ‘You speak in vain. People will listen to you for two days. Then it will be the same with them as before. By swimming on the surface you cannot find the jewel.’
(To Gadadhar) "What does it avail if you memorize a few things and keep your eyes closed for a while. Without selfless work the mind cannot to purified. You cannot find the jewel."
M. (to the Elder Jiten) — If one could live without eating, was there any need for so much? So one can’t understand His ways. Just see, what rules He has made for the world. Eat, drink and procreate, this is the law.
"Yet there are some clever people who do not marry. They are clever indeed. It’s marriage that brings the worries of filling the stomach and earning money. This leads to a fall from Yoga - because one has to feed some five mouths. If there is only one stomach there isn’t so much worry. Live on alms, put a morsel in the mouth and think of Him day and night.
"Had there been no worry of the stomach for man, his mind could always remain riveted high up. It is for the stomach that the man looks downwards.
"Thakur said: ‘I saw a man with ‘upward glance’ at the turning of the tall military building.’
"You must install Madhava whatever you may do. Then alone there will be peace and happiness for yourself as well as for the world."
Morton School, Calcutta.
Friday, 23rd May 1924.
The 9th day of Jaishtha, 1331 B.Y.
The fifth day of the dark fortnight, 28 dandas/10 palas.