1.

The Elder Jiten (to the bhaktas) – The Guru holding the tether makes the devotees graze on the grass and so forth, and gets them stripped off their desire for sensory enjoyments.

The Young Man (opposing strongly) – Why should the bhakta eat grass? He shall take the nectar — the nectar of the name of the Lord; the bhakta enjoys this bliss.

The Elder Jiten – But I do see that he is holding and making us eat the grass.

The Young Man – Yes, you may say so since you eat it. Why do you involve others? This is your personal matter — you can say it. How can you say so about others? Did Gurudeva (Thakur) eat grass? Besides, there are so many sannyasis and all- renouncing bhaktas — do all of them eat grass?

The Elder Jiten – They also bear all pains and sorrows that come on taking up a body.

The Young Man – Does it mean that they ‘eat grass’ — the way you say? Sri Ramakrishna also suffered from physical illness, Chaitanya gave up his body due to fever, Christ was crucified on the cross, Buddha gave up the body due to blood-dysentery — do you mean all this as ‘eating grass’. This is not so. Your saying of ‘eating grass’ means indulging in sense pleasures, serving woman and gold. Is that not so? How then can you call this bodily suffering as eating grass? Instead, they have tasted nectar and enjoyed the bliss of Brahman.

Doctor Bakshi – Leave the avataras and other great spiritual personalities alone. Talk of others.

The Young Man – How can we even talk of others? How great devotees they are all! They drink nectar. How many all-renouncing and sannyasi bhaktas there are! If you say that you are talking of those who live in the household, how can you say it even about them? Indulging in sensory pleasures and then renouncing is not within the capacity of everyone.

The Elder Jiten (with a feeling of disappointment) – What do I know brother, I see it only that way — he is making us ‘eat grass’.

Doctorr. Bakshi – You may say it (about yourself), but you shouldn’t say that all others too ‘eat grass’.

The Elder Jiten (to M.) – I said that we have to rid ourselves of sensory enjoyment by thus enjoying it. The gGuru will hold the tether while you indulge in sensory enjoyment. Ending the desire for sensory enjoyments by indulging in it while holding the gGuru’s hand. Jagabandhu opposes it very strongly.

M. – Who says so — who amongst you? It’s all right, if the gGuru says so.

The Elder Jiten (baffled) – What do I know Sir, I have fallen into your hands. Please do what is good.

M. (smiling a little, in a jocular tone) – Do wh…t …is …go …od.

M. (to the Elder Jiten, affectionately with a grave concern) – What else can you do? Do what he has said, what the gGuru has asked to do. The gGuru says to take rice-water. There is a patient suffering from delirium. By taking rice-water, one can be cured of delirium. It will be right if one takes rice-water.

"Besides, what he says — keep the company of sadhus. The company of sadhus dispels one’s desire for sensory enjoyments. The company of sadhus, staying in a solitary corner, visiting the places of pilgrimage, reading of holy books, charity and compassion — all these unwind the thread. The thread that has got wound on the reel gets detached.

"What one has been seeing since one’s childhood — the marriage of one’s brother, of sister, visits of the son-in-law and arranging a separate bed room for him to sleep. Learning by observing, this is the natural state. The thread that has got wound, now how should it be detached? — it is by [obeying] all that the Guru has said."

M. (to the Doctor) – What about the car? Have you asked him, — the driver?

The Doctor – No.

M. – It would have been right if you had done so. I have already told you. Either dismiss him or let him himself pay the amount.

The Doctor – He is an idiot sort of a person.

M. – Is it right to call him an idiot and tolerate whatever he does? Are you prepared to be deceived even a third time? You have already lost the blanket, and jewellery and so on. Even some parts of the car have been stolen.

"How angry was Thakur when somebody brought him seven betel leaves! He said to Yogen Swamiji, ‘Go you rascal, go and return them immediately. You can get ten for one pice.’ Yogen had brought only seven. Thakur at once sent him a mile away to Alam Bazaar.

"If one said that it was out of kindness, one could not be saved. What I have observed and learnt while living with him, it seems that it is not kindness but weakness. If one goes on putting up with such a thing one brings harm to oneself. Today it is one thing, tomorrow it may be quite another. If one goes on doing likewise one suffers personally."

The Doctor – Yes Sir. But it (the lawsuit) shall lead to the expenditure of one hundred and fifty rupees.

M. (sharply) – No, no. It is not a question of money. It weakens the mind. Speaking in human language, it is worth ten million rupees (to protect the dignity of justice and truth by filing a suit). And this kindness is worth only a rupee. How precious is that state of mind (which saves truth and justice)! It is priceless indeed. If you must say, it is ten million rupees.

"He who allows himself to be deceived here will also be deceived there (in spiritual matters). You won’t be able to save yourself when attacked by women. One should live in household with that mentality.

"That’s why, Thakur said that one who can keep an account of salt can also keep an account of sugar. What one can do here, one can also do there.

"It is not safe to call it kindness."One could not be saved, if one said that it was out of kindness."

M. (to the bhaktas) – One has to be hard when one takes to work. This what is happening is not about worldly things — it’s about the highest ideal.

"Whatever the obstacle one has in the way to God, one must get rid off it immediately. Why to do all this? To attain Him. It is enough if one does so; one must at once, in an unconcerned manner, forsake that which pushes one far away from God.

"With such a (soft) state of mind one is deceived in every field."

M. (to all present) – What a quick decision! A kirtan was going on in the verandah. Thakur was listening to it sitting in the verandah. Some ladies (from the house of Pyari Mukherji in Uttar Para) came and asked whether they could sit in the room. Thakur immediately replied, ‘No, not at all. Where’s the place for you to sit here? It won’t be possible here.’

"Why did he say, ‘It won’t be possible?’ They are worldly people, this is the only reason. Moreover, his independence would be intruded upon. Once they are there, Thakur won’t be able to enter the room. Thereafter, we saw that he went into the room to feed young devotees.

"Just see, what a quick decision it was! Quick decision is a sign of greatness.

"Those who have a vacillating mind, are unable to decide their course of action, have a weak mind. Thakur used to say on seeing Vivekananda, ‘Just see, how he moves — just like a bare sword.’ Only by becoming so, one can attain.

"You can visit your patients for some days by hiring a taxi. It will be more expensive but you will do a great work.

"This man (the driver) is not careful. The other day he went to Beliaghata. You were also there and also he (Jagabandhu). He hit a bullock-cart with the car. And he stood there just uttering, ‘Ha.’ He should have moved it back. Instead, he stood there uttering, ‘Ha.’ A fool."

2.

M. (to the bhaktas) – That is why, the household life is so difficult. Herein you have to keeping your eye ion all directions. One may be hit by a bullet coming from any direction — the lead shots are always being fired. Be careless even for a moment and you are gone.

"Thakur asked a particular bhakta to live in the family as a maid-servant. But at the same time he added, ‘When you work you must know within that you are not the doer. But you’ll show as if you are the doer.’ Otherwise, nobody will accept. And he said, ‘You may show terror when necessary. But, you must not inject poison.’ If you can’t do so, keep yourself away. Go and sit under a tree. He used to say, ‘If you have the strength of ten thousand elephants, you may step into the household life.’ Step into the world with two swords — one that of jnana and the other of karma. Jnana means that I am the son of the Lord. Father, mother, wife or son — none of these are mine, nor am I theirs. Only the Lord is mine as well as theirs the eternal friend, one’s own. This has to be understood. The sword of karma means to take to work tactfully. And to do it selflessly, to work for the Lord. What you sow in the nature, you have to work according to it. Otherwise, it is a bondage. You’ll have to be reborn Tto reap the fruit of your actions you’ll have to be reborn.

"The world will be stagnant if there is no interest in karma (action). The other name for the world is action. Action bears two fruits — one garala and the other amrita. Garala means poison, that which harms man; it brings harm to one’s prana (life). And how does it harm the prana? It makes one fall into the cycle of birth and death. It doesn’t kill one at a single stroke. But one has to be born again and again endlessly. It troubles the jiva this way. Sometimes one takes a birth that is generally taken as good by people — for example, as a human being, as a raja or such like that, or one may find a place in the heaven, goes to a higher region. There one finds even more of sensory enjoyments than on earth. He indulges in that which brings his downfall from there too.

"Then follow the lower (categories of) birth, as an animal, a bird etc. In this there is nothing but sorrow throughout. There are only two fruits of an action — good or bad. And there are also two forms of it — birth and death."

A Certain Bhakta – Is it possible to live with that much of reasoning?

M. – What’s impossible in it? The gGuru, the avatara, has come and told how to gain that idea. Don’t they say us to think that God is the master of all. We ought to meditate on this idea. One must always keep the company of sadhus. Don’t the sadhus always meditate on this that God alone is the doer and the man a non-doer. One’s ego does not go. So, they say, let this rascal remain as the ‘servant-I’.

"He said that one must make an effort to keep the company of sadhus. And then, he has also defined a sadhu. Says he, ‘He indeed is a sadhu by sitting close to him the feeling comes to the mind that the world is transitory; this jnana comes that He alone is the eternal friend of all.’

"It is by keeping the company of such sadhus that the mind can retain (the thought) that the world is a place of birth and death. I am not the person of this place. Nobody belongs to me here. God alone is everything to me. I am Brahman. We are the children of Immortality. If one can remember this, then the thought that there is no other duty for me in this world except repeating the name of God comes to the mind spontaneously. Everything brings harm, except God. And, everything becomes possible by remembering these two thoughts.

"Can a person who is going to be hanged after seven days enjoy himself even if all articles of enjoyment are made available to him? It is just the same state.

"That’s why, Thakur said, ‘Manushya (a real man) is he who is dead even while alive.’ While the mind of others tends to enjoy worldly pleasures, that of him goes towards renunciation of the world, renunciation of sensory enjoyments. He does not enjoy the worldly pleasures the same way as a dead person cannot do so. He accepts only that much which is essential for preserving the body.

"That is why, the avatara comes to show the way how the mind is fixed always on God. A special class has been created, the class of ‘sadhus’. Sadhus always remember Him. He has asked to keep their company giving up all else. This is the right thing for us do. And, to pray, ‘O Mother, please don’t enchantbewitch me by Your world-bewitchingenchanting maya.’ The impossible becomes possible by doing so. A tiger becomes vegetarian while living in a house full of meat."

M. (to the bhakta) – Thakur would say, ‘Meditating on me alone will do. You will not have to do anything else.’ Do you believe it?

The Bhakta – Yes Sir, there is no doubt about his words.

M. – Thakur didn’t say this to everybody. He would say so only to those whom he knew to be a member the family (his bhakta). While to others, the bhaktas of Brahmo Samaj for example, he used to say, ‘A roti (chapati, bread) of sugarcandy will taste sweet in whatever way you eat it.’ But this roti has to be taken. Roti of sugarcandy, that is to say God.

"Meditating on me alone will do — he who has gained this faith is saved. He will not have to bear the sorrow of repeated births. One must know that the time is ripe for the son of the family to return home. The cycle of birth and death will end soon. Tatprasadat param shantim sthanam prapsyasi shashvatam (Gita 18:62). (By His grace you will gain supreme peace and the eternal abode). This is the highest ideal of man.

"One who has an unshakable faith in Thakur is in one’s last birth. Thakur came just for this, just to say so. Said he, ‘I swear unto you, whosoever will think on me shall inherit my wealth just like a son inherits his father’s wealth. My wealth constitutes jnana, bhakti, discrimination, dispassion, peace, happiness, prema and samadhi.’

"But, it is very difficult to recognize him. He has hidden himself behind so many coverings. He was poor, almost illiterate and then a priest. Who is capable of recognizing him under so many coverings? Only those who have accumulated by the efforts done in the past lives will advance towards him unknowingly. ‘Without seeing, without hearing the mind has merged itself in him?’ The state of an earnest devotee is the same as that of a ship being attracted by a mount of magnet. All desires fall off."

M. (to the bhaktas) – Once cast a glance above. What a phenomenon is happening there! We are living in this infinite math. The sansara (world) comes from the root ‘Ssrija’. It means to project. Sansara i.e. what has been projected by God, which has come out of His body. If that is so, the whole universe is a holy a place, a place of pilgrimage. That is why, it is a vast math, an infinite ashrama, an infinite math. If onlyone meditates on this alone, one shall attain perfection and see God.

"The idea that all beings in this vast world are the forms of the Lord, I am also one of His forms, Sachchidananda. — Iif one takes to this idea all work, meditation, moving about, everything indeed is done in the presence of God. By doing so, our smallness will end. The little ‘I’ will be dissolved in the virat (immense) — ‘I am that Sachchidananda.’

"Only thinking makes one small or big. In fact, there is nothing big or small. God indeed is everything. ‘Anorniyan mahato mahiyan’ — He is the smallest of the small and the biggest of the big. What else is religion? It is to dissolve the small ‘I’ into the immense ‘I’. Then, the small one becomes big. Ganga becomes the ocean.

"This is as if the alchemy — to turn a base metal like iron into gold. There is a poor man, nobody recognizes him. But when he relates himself to a big person, everybody starts recognizing him. The water of rivulet becomes the water of the Ganga when it falls into it.

"The sadhus live in the math. They think on God day and night. That is why, the math is a holy place. The same way God is there in the universe. He Himself has become all. Besides, He resides in every being as the antaryamin (the controller within). Because of this, the universe is also a great holy place of pilgrimage.

"This process is known as sublimation — to dissolve the smaller into the bigger to make it big. ‘I am the child of God,’ one must become God’s child by thinking so — both in qualities as well as in actions. However, in appearance one remains a human being. I am the child of man — this base feeling should be transformed into the great feeling of ‘I am the child of God.’ This is what is called religion."

Morton School, Calcutta

Saturday, 30th August 1924

14th Bhadra, 1331 (B.Y.)

New moon day, 21 Dandas / 28 Palas.