1.

M. (to the Younger Ramesh) – Just cast a glance once,. sSee what is happening above. Infinite, all infinite. There is no end, no bank of it. For tens of thousands of years they are there, yet none has been able to know even one star. Nowadays they say that any of these stars is even bigger than the sun. Nine planets, the earth and so on, are revolving round the sun. Such suns are also infinite. Any numbers of planets are revolving around it. They are numberless, infinite. And limitless, infinite is this universe.

M. (to Antevasi) – It is said in the Vedas that all this is going on by His power of maya. The rishis had seen maya... ‘Devatmashakti svagunanir-gudam,.’ (Divine Power has Her own inherent qualities).

"Thakur also saw it with these very eyes that this power of maya creates the whole universe and then it lives becoming the universe. It is inside and it is outside too. He saw that this very maya creates the worldwhole universe. And It Itself devours it. Said he, ‘All is under It.’ He said that so long as there is the body there is the world. Till then one is under it, within its domain. Speech, action and thought are all His maya. Even meditation on Him is maya. What is beyond maya cannot be spoken with the word of mouth. There one can only go with the Lord of maya.

"The world reflects itself because there is the mind. When the mind perishes the world perishes. However, one has to take recourse to one mood to understand it — shanta (attitude of calmness), dasya (attitude of a servant), sakhya (of a friend), vatsalya (of a parent) and madhura (of a lover), so saidsays Thakur. Or ‘Soham’ (I am He) — this too is an attitude. One should take up that favourable attitude which one likes. One has to have a relationship. Why did he ask us to forge a relationship? The answer, such relationships are already there among us, you see. So one has to change their course to God. The man calls those who are related to him by body as his near and dear one. ‘Near and dear one,’ that is to say one’s own. But in reality only God is one’s own.

"The earth on which one falls down also uplifts one when one holds on to it. Form, taste and the rest bind one, yet they are the means to liberation. Maya brings bondage, and then holding on to it one gets uplifted.

"Everything on that side is ‘beyond speech and mind,’ all formless. The guru enjoined one tto reach the Formless by holding on to the One with form. Reason? The mind cannot perceive anything unless it is concrete. So one should bhe intimate with God in the attitude of father, mother, friend and such other sweet relationships. The man understands such relationships naturally.

"Holding on to His form and meditating on it, one has the vision of His form. If the bhakta so desires, the Lord also shows him His formless Self. Besides, there are worshippers of the Formless too. But this is very difficult. In the Gita He says, ‘Avyakta hi gatir dukham dehavadbhir avapyate,’ (Gita 2:5). (For the goal of the Unmanifested is very hard for the embodied to reach).

"Thakur said, ‘Just as the snow falls like cotton shreds, so as one has the vision of all His forms.’ "

M. (to Mohan) – In spite of all the frailties of man he can have His darshan by His grace. Just see, what a weakling he is yet hhbe talks so big. Let him go a little higher he will not hbe able to breath. Go a little high up by an airplane you will find that there is not enough oxygen. Then you feel you are dying. Such is the affair.

"This creation of His is a miracle. Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are all unable to understand this sport of His. ‘Where is its end?’ So saying they all roam about. But they do not find it.

"So the Lord said in the Gita (7:14): This sport of mine is ‘divine,’ ‘made of gunas,’ and ‘difficult to cross over.’ You can free yourself from the maya, only by holding on to Me. There is no other way. Thakur said, ‘Unless the Mother makes one pierce this mystery, nobody has the power to understand it.’ "

M. – Yes, somebody referring to Thakur said, ‘We are like the fish in the sea.’ On hearing it Thakur said, ‘No, the simile is not correct. Say, the fish in the sea of Sachchidananda.’ Do you know what is that sea of Sachchidananda like? Water, water everywhere. Above and below, right and left there is water everywhere, in all the ten directions. All is Sachchidananda! It is in this infinite and boundless sea the jiva swims about like a fish.

(To a particular bhakta) " Have you been able to understand something? Besides, what is the necessity to understand? That Boundless, Infinite comes down in a form for the sake of the devotee. He came only very recently in the human form. Its heat is still there in the atmosphere — so recently he came. And he left only the other day. If you are able to know him your work is done.

"So Thakur taught the devotees by praying, ‘Mother, I don’t wantrds to know all this. It is enough if I have pure devotion at Your lotus feet, pure unalloyed devotion.’

"That which is infinite becomes finite for the devotee — that which is boundless becomes limited for the bhaktas, that which is extremely difficult becomes very easy for the bhakta. What is the use of reasoning so much? Take to the easy path — ‘Mam eva ye prapadyante mayam etam taranti te, ’ (Gita 7:14) (Only those who take refuge in Me alone, they cross over this illusion). This is the easy path. Thakur also said, ‘Hold me.’

"Who can understand even an ant? How did it get life? Who created it? If one cannot understand even this, why talk so big?

"How can one understand, tell me? Is it like saying two and two make four? These are not finite things. So don’t try to understand the infinite by your finite intellect. What to do then? Just this, take the prescription. What is it? Mother, I don’t even want to know all this, grant me pure devotion at Your lotus feet — pray in this way."

The Pundit (to the resident of Bankura) – Giving up all one must be an introvert, otherwise one can achieve nothing. What can one understand by being an extrovert?

The Bankura Man – Why? The Paramahansa Deva says, ‘Live in the world like the maid in the rich man’s house. She takes to all the work of the world. Her mind remains attached to her children at her home, and so on.’

M. (to the new comer) – Thakur cried and cried and prayed to the Mother, saying, ‘I do not want to know, Mother, what the Veda, Purana and Tantra have.’ Said he, ‘Mother, how can a man know You unless You make him do so. Nobody can know You.’

"If it was possible for man to know God by his intellect, why did the spiritually great say so much? The Veda says, ‘Naisha mati tarkena paniya’ (you cannot attain Him by intellect and reason). And after that it is, ‘Yamevaisha vrinute tena labhyah,’ ‘Avak mansagocharam’ (He is available only to him whom He accepts, He is beyond speech and mind). How can one know Him? Thakur said, ‘You cannot measure one seer with one sixteenth 1/16 of a seer of intellect.’ The song goes, ‘Who can know You unless You tell him? The Veda and Vedanta are unable to give Your whole picture. One gropes in darkness and dies in it.’

"These are all the words of the spiritually great. Besides, you have, ‘Pravachanena na labhyah,’ ‘Na bahuna shrutena’ (Katha Upanishad 1.II.23). (He cannot be known through much study, nor through much learning). This too is from Vedas.

"He is not a finite thing that you can buy — He is infinite! How will you be able to know the infinite by your finite intellect? What is this effort like? Like that was of an ant. It thought that this time it was taking only a grain of sugar and that the next time it would take away the whole hill of sugar in its mouth.

"There is only one way to know Him. Lord Krishna even gave it, ‘Mam eva ye prapadyante mayam etam taranti te’ (Gita 7:14). (Those who take refuge in Me alone, they cross over this illusion). By holding Me alone you will know Me. Crossing over the illusion means to know Him. Thes same thing he has said in another way, ‘Tatprasadat param shantim stanam prapsyasi shashvatam’ (Gita 18:62). (By His grace you will gain supreme peace and eternal abode). It is only by God’s grace that you can know Him, and gain permanent peace and shelter forever. There is no other way."

M. (to Mohan) – By learning you cannot gain Him. ‘Pravachanena na labhyah,’ ‘Na bahuna shrutena’ (Katha Upanishad 1.II.23). (He cannot be known through much study, nor through much learning). Neither by discourse nor by hearing you can attain Him. He is not even attained by the mind alone. ‘Yanmanasa na manute’ (Kena Upanishad I.6). (That which man does not comprehend with the mind). All these are words of the Veda.

"Many great pundits used to go to the Paramahansa Deva. They would sit before him with folded hands.

"The room was full of people when Thakur was talking to the Mother of the Universe. He was saying, ‘Mother, what is there in learning? Who can know yYou by his learning? For shame!’ (Smiling) Sometimes he would laugh and say, ‘These pundits do soar very high but their sight remains fixed to the charnel-pits,’ — that is to say in the world, in woman and gold.

"Padma Lochan, Narayana Shastri, Shashadhar Chudamani, Vaishnava Charan, all these people used to come to Thakur. He himself went to see Vidyasagar. Gauri Pundit of Indesh also came to see him. He also met Dayananda Saraswati."

M. (to the man from Bankura) – If you pray to Him, He tells you how He can be attained. Or He may send somebody telling him: that gGo and convey to him — this is how you must do.

"One devotee was calling on Thakur most earnestly. He was calling on him in his heart. This was not known to anybody. Thakur sent an other devotee saying, ‘Go and tell him how to do it.’ And he himself went to another devotee. Why? For he was calling on him yearningly, he was crying. The devotee was wonder-struck on seeing. Said he, ‘It was I who had to go to you. You have come yourself.’ Thakur laughed and said, ‘Yes, sometimes even the needle attracts the magnet.’ One must pray to Him with a longing heart. When you do so He lets you know."

2.

"Thakur told a story. There was a fakirfaqir. Many devotees used to visit him. He felt a desire to feed them and arrange for thereir lodging. So he went to king Akbar. He was offering Namaz at that time. At the end of the Namaz he prayed, ‘O Allah! Grant me wealth, riches and kingdom.’ Hearing this the fakirfaqir was about to go. Seeing him dodoing so, Akbar beckoned him with his hand to keep sitting. Then he came and asked him, ‘Why were you going back?’ The fakirfaqir replied, ‘I came to ask for help. I saw that you yourself were a beggar. So I decided, what could a beggar ask of another beggar? That’s why,So I was going to leave. I have decided that if I have to ask for any thing I shall only do so from Allah.’ "

M. (to the man from Bankura) – It only means this that one should pray to God. If it is a prayer from the heart, hHe fulfills it. Possibly, He may send someone, or hHe may tell in the mind in the form of an idea.

The Bankura Man – Well baba (father), are we moved by the fruit of our karmas or by the will of the God?

M. – The Paramahansa Deva did not be believe in the fruit of karmas or someany such thing. He used to say, ‘Pray to Him. If He wills all obstacles will be removed.’ He used to say it with a song, ‘If all will happen by what is written by destiny, who will then call uttering Durga, Durga?’

"Buddhism has a lot about fruit of action and so on. These are all philosophical speculations. If you call upon Him yearningly, He sets everything right. We heard this from Thakur’s mouthlips."

The Man from Bankura – How can I know that I am calling upon Him rightly?

M. – It is for this that Thakur enjoined upon us to keep company of sadhus. By keeping company of sadhus you will know how much dependent you have become on Him, or whether you have been calling on Him rightly.

"If you want to learn law where will you go? To a judge, an advocate or a registrar, isn’t it? It is the same with the sadhus. They are authorities in the matter of God. You will understand all by visiting them. You will then not have to ask anybody else."

The Pundit – All doubts get cleared. When the needle is mud stained, the magnet does not attract it. The mud is wiped away by the company of sadhus. Vivekchudamani has this, ‘Shabdajalam maharanyam chittabhraman karnam’ (the dense jungle of the maze of words causes the mind to ramble).

M. – I used to see the Paramahansa, he was always praying like the unceasing flow of the oil. He would say, ‘Mother, pray don’t bewitch me by Your world-enchanting maya.’

"The book of the English (Bible) also has it. Christ says, ‘Pray without ceasing, always pray like the ceaseless flow of oil!’ "

M. (to the man from Bankura) – Somebody said to the Paramahansa Deva one day, ‘So everybody should bhe told to worship Brahman by infusing Brahman into the idol. It is no use worshipping just a clay idol.’ Thakur immediately rejoined, ‘Just see this. You people only lecture. I say brother, you have no need to think over this matter. You don’t have to rack your brain over it. He has already made every arrangement for what one may need. You don’t have to turn your head on this matter.’

"God has already arranged for the food of all the three bodies, the gross, the subtle and the causal. For the gross body the food is rice, lentils, flouor and so on. For the subtle body it is physical knowledge, art, science and so on. And the food of the causal body is prayer, reading the holy books, repeating the name, meditation, going on pilgrimage etc. By means of all these, one attains yoga with the mahakarana, that is God.

"Just see this. For growing paddy, He sends the sun, the moon and the rain. Inspiring the man’s mind, He has made him establish schools, colleges and other centres of education. Besides, temples, maths, ashramas and sadhus provide food to the causal body.

"He has arranged everything rightly. You don’t have to worry about it. You have only to call on Him — in some way to have His darshan. Weep and say to Him in a secret nook, say to Him yearningly, ‘Lord, grant me yYour darshan.’ Not putting up a signboard but in a way that nobody comes to know of it.

"Aha, is there any limit to His grace? Its ever raining on us. How did this Math (the Belur Math) came into existence? It is by His grace that He has made it so that the devotees may go and keep company of sadhus.

"You see, I cannot always go to the Math, old man as I am. So my friends go there and on their return tell about the sadhus. Such is His limitless grace.

"One day on returning from the Math a person told me that a certain Mmaharaj (monk) reads the tenth chapter of the Bhagavata in the Mother’s shrine. Such and such mMaharaj brings water on a bamboo sling from the Ganga. Another grinds sandalwood for Thakur’s puja. Yet another sweeps the courtyard with the broom. The Paramahansa Deva also used to sweep with a broom. One day I went and saw that Thakur was sweeping the path to the north of his room. Seeing me, he said, ‘The Mother walks here so I sweep this path.’ Hearing all this about the Math I gain a lot. One can compare what they do for the Lord and what we do for Him.? It awakens us. The sadhus do everything for God, always, renouncing their home and everything."

The Pundit (to M.) – Where do you stay, in Dakshineswar?

M. – To stop the current of this irrelevant talk of the pundit, M. does not answer him and encourages the man from Bankura to go to the Math.

M. (to the man from Bankura) – So when are you going to the Math? You have only to spend six or seven pice to go there. And you may not stay there for long. Just two hours are sufficient. What is theno need to talk to people? Just go and first offer pranam in Thakur’s shrine. Then take some charanamrita (holy water). After that offer your pranam to the sadhus when you meet them. Whether you take jugs full of nectar or just a little of it from the top edge of the durva grass, you become immortal. (Laughter). You have had so much of acquaintance, so much of reading and hearing. Now if you don’t meet them, it won’t matter. You will gain just by the darshan of sadhus. Their darshan alone can bring an awakening. Who are sadhus? They who always call on God with a yearning for Him in their heart.

The Man from Bankura (humbly) – Sir, I shall try.

M. – Just see this. The Paramahansa Deva when asked a person (Paltu) to go in the company of sadhus, he said, ‘I shall try.’ Replying to it, the Paramahansa Deva said, ‘What is it, I shall try?’ He said, ‘If I am not able to do so, it shall entail telling a lie.’

M. – There is no harm if you tell a lie concerning a good work. You should say, ‘I shall certainly go.’

"Lord Krishna said to Arjuna, ‘Kshudram kridaya daurbalyam tyaktva uttishtha paramtapa’ (Gita 2:3). (Cast off this petty faint-heartedness. Wake up, O vanquisher of foes) — give up faint-heartedness. Arise, what is this?

"The superior bhakta has a strong determination. He resolves to himself that he is definitely going to do it. ‘Klaibyam ma sma gamah partha na etat tvayi upapadyate’ (Gita 2:3). (Yield not, O Arjuna, to feebleness. It does not befit you)."

The Pundit – My elder son, thirteen years old, has embraced sannyasa and left.

M. – Nice indeed, why don’t you say so? You are indeed a big man. They say that one finds a pearl gajamukta (gajamukta, fabled to be found in the elephant’s head) in the loion’s cave. What a great family you belong to! A sadhu has been born in your lineage!

M. (to Doctor Bakshi) – I say Doctor Babu, how will it be if you take to homeopathy? If you do so, it will greatly benefit many poor persons. Mahendra Sarcar seeing that allopathy could be more harmful learnt homeopathy at an advanced age.

"And there is another thing. Ornaments were stolen, the bag was stolen from your home even when you were there. This is not right. How can it go on if you remain so lax? One must have strong determination. If you have the strength of ten thousand elephants in your mind you may take to household. While living in the world one has to be careful in all matters. One has to live like all others. If you cannot do so, then go and live under the tree. The path is straight. How will it do to say that you will live in the household and yet not conduct yourself according to the rules forof the ashrama?

"A bhakta said to Thakur, ‘The cat took away the fish from my plate, yet I could not stop it.’ The bhakta had thought that Thakur would say, ‘Well done, well done.’ My mother! On the contrary, he said excitedly, ‘Why, you could have given it a slap. This would not have killed the cat.’

"You cannot run the household if you are lax. People will deceive you. A bhakta must have two eyes on his back too, and he has to be, ‘Dhriti utsaha samanvitah’ (Gita 18:26). (Endued with firmness and zeal).

"When you are living in the household you have to accept all this. Thakur did not have a family life but he knew all about the household matters. That is how, he was able to take the bhaktas on the right path.

"He used to prepare the mind. You must keep this passive and negligent mind vigilant. How can he who is so indifferent in such ordinary matters of family life meditate on Brahman? By effort this weak mind becomes hard like a thunderbolt, it becomes sharvata tanmay (one-pointed like an arrow). It can then shoot down the bird of ignorance.

"It is for preparing the mind that all these sadhan and bhajan are there. You can prepare such a mind even while attending to the household work. So it was that Thakur said, ‘He who can keep an account of salt can also account for sugarcandy.’

"First, one has to prepare to the mind. Thereafter, fix it on Him. Then you are carefree. You can then live in the household becoming His own — like a maidservant.

‘ThisSo much you have to do by your own effort. The rest of the burden He takes upon Himself. Why has He given man intellect and endeavour? By making a good use of these, one does not have to worry about the rest. He sees, He makes one do it by granting the right intellect and power. Hold the horse from the front and the back, and then rise on it."

Morton School, Calcutta

Wednesday, 3 December 1924

18th of Bhadra, 1331(B.Y.)

The fourth day of the bright fortnight

11 Dandas / 37 Palas.