1.

M. (to the Doctor) – While living in the household you have to do such things, even though they may be disagreeable. Otherwise, leave the home and go and stand under a tree. There is no need of these there. He does wrong again and again before your eyes. It is a sin not to oppose it when you have the power to do so. Had it not been so why was the battle of Kurukshetra fought? Sri Krishna tried in so many ways to avoid the battle. He just asked for five villages to provide the Pandavas with food and clothing, for them who had the right to the whole kingdom. These villages were Paniprastha, Soniprastha, Indraprastha, Vyagraprastha and Tiliprastha. All these are situated around Delhi within a radius of fifty miles. But Duryodhana said, ‘Without a battle I shall not give a piece of ground even as small as a point of a needle.’ Seeing that the ultimate limit of patience and justice were being trespassed, Sri Krishna said: The battle is mandatory. Not taking resort to it is a sin. If you do not oppose this wrong act by fighting a battle, you will destroy the value of justice and community. This battle will lead to so much of massacre, loss of wealth, disturbances in the country and other complications. But it will not do to think in this way. You will have to fight for truth and justice.

M. – If a work comes your way unasked you have to do it. By attending to it without any selfish motive you purify the mind. When the mind is purified, there is no fear then. The mind then remains stable in every condition. Reason? Gain and loss both belong to God. I am only His instrument, His servant — this feeling firmly takes hold of the mind. On the other hand, if anybody expects some profit for himself, he can fear a loss too. It brings restlessness to the mind. He who has a pure mind, pure chit (conscience) is a man of steady wisdom. He can maintain the same peaceful disposition in pleasure and pain.

"The household is the place for nishkama karma (selfless activity). If one lives in the household in a nishkama way, one attains liberation in it. God alone is the Master of this ashrama and I am working for Him as the maidservant — with this feeling always awake in the mind one should attend to all work.

"Sakama karma (work with a selfish motive) is also good but it does not give such high results. Sakama karma has also been called ‘high and generous’ by Sri Krishna. Why? Because such a worker also has faith in God.

"Nishkama karma is difficult indeed but even a little of it leads to the attainment of the fruit of liberation. Says the Gita, ‘Svalpam api asya dharmasya trayate mahatah bhayat’ (2:40). (The practice of a little of this dharma protects one from great fear). Even a little of it leads to success. God Himself comes to raise the devotee. By Himself performing selfless work, He teaches the bhaktas.

"Don’t worry. Just take to it with determination. Otherwise, the same mistake will persist in the mind. Laziness will prevail on justice and truth. Laziness is the great enemy on the path of dharma, on the path of karma. One has to slay this demon of tamas.

"This tamas cannot be forgiven. Not to file a lawsuit fearing botheration, in other words, is accepting defeat from tamas. It is accepting the power of tamas and yielding to it. With such a mind one cannot attain God.

"The function of sattva guna is to protect the values of justice, to proclaim the victory of dharma. By your going to law the value of dharma and justice shall be protected. What a great relative value it has!. It raises the mind, it firms one’s faith in God."

M. (to Swami Sadbhavananda) – Just see, what a flood of the new mood has arrived! All this is the nectarine result of the advent of Thakur. How many moonlike beautiful boys have come to the math for God realization having forsaken their home, their parents, their all. In this state (Bengal) almost no sannyasin could be found. Now all are embracing sannyasa.

"When God’s power is at work it all begins to happen in a new way. One begins to feel a special unknown attraction. The devotees begin to gather together because of this attraction. They form the messengers of the avatara. No work resulting from man’s intellect has any such divine attraction.

"On the one hand, there is a rustic, almost illiterate brahmin. And on the other, there is a worldwide religious movement in his name. Even the learned of the world have taken shelter under him. It proves what he was. If the movement had been man made it could not have spread so far.

"On one side Europe and America, on the other Kamarpukur and Dakshineswar — so far away from each other! And the movement has just started. It will spread for a long time. The impossible will become possible in his name; wonders will happen."

Swami Sadbhavananda – Tulasi Maharaj had a discussion with the pundits of Shakti Hospital in Dhaka. The pundits put some questions to Tulasi Maharaj. He asked other pundits to answer them. A battle of arguments started among the pundits and he sat enjoying it. One of the pundits defeated the opponent pundits in the battle of arguments by taking his side.

M. (happily) – Just note — God Himself, Thakur himself, made the pundit speak that way.

"It was long ago. Thakur was then perhaps alive. I went to Kamarpukur. The puja of the Kali was to take place there. An old Bbrahmin was the assistant priest (one who recites the scriptures) — he was over eighty. Knowing me to be a devotee of Thakur, he contemptuously began to utter, ‘Gadai Gadai!’ Said he, ‘So you are a bhakta of Gadai! How have you become his devotee after studying so much? He had read no scriptures — a fool!’

"What did I do then? A thing or two I had learnt from Thakur, I hurled at him. I said, ‘The vultures and kites fly quite high but their sight remains fixed at the charnel-pits or to the spot where the carcasses of cows and oxen lie. The pundits are like them. They may talk big but their concern is only with woman and gold, sensory enjoyments.’

"And I said a particular thing too, I am remembering it now. I said, ‘It is within the almanac that this time it will rain twenty addas (a unit of measurement) but by squeezing the almanac not a drop of water falls. In the same way, the pundits utter any number of slokas. But they have not imbibed them. An ordinary sorrow overwhelms them with pain. What does it avail to talk long? The heart remains filled with jealousy and enmity.’

"And I said, ‘It is easy to commit the musical notation to memory but it is very difficult to play on fingers. Giving up sensory desires if one calls on God, it can be imbibed, it comes to the fingers. The pundits only say the slokas they have memorized.’

"I heard later that after I had left, that pundit regretted. He said, ‘He indeed said the right thing.’

"One should say all this at such places."

M. (to the bhaktas) – He who is the creator of avidya (nescience) can free one from the hands of the alligator of avidya. And none else has the capacity to do so. Howsoever big a man may be, he is nothing more than a puppet in the hands of the Mahamaya. Ego is the elephant. So long as it survives we are subject to avidya. Thakur prescribed that we should tie it at the feet of God. Then avidya gives way. So the constant prayer, ‘Mother, don’t enchantbewitch me by Your world bewitcenchantinghing maya.’ "

2.

"Sri Krishna says in the Gita that God taking up a human body comes down to the earth in every age. He is called an avatara. He has three main functions. First, to protect the sadhus. Second, to destroy the wicked and third, to establish righteousness and dharma.

"If you consider the incidents of the life of Sri Ramachandra, you will see that all his actions conform to the above measure. Thus Rama is an avatara, in other words God in a human body.

"Man’s intellect alone is incapable of deciding who is an avatara. Only the spiritually great, the other avataras are capable of it. How difficult it is to establish avatarahood can be fully realized by comparing the different sayings of the present day avatara, Sri Ramakrishna.

"Sri Ramakrishna has propounded the following great sayings to give in proof of his avatarahood. ‘Achina gachh’ (the unrecognized tree), ‘the troupe of bauls,’ ‘one who roams about in the homes of people in the garb of a humble poor,’ ‘one who goes to eat with the bhaktas at their invitation,’ ‘Sachchidananda coming out of within (his body) said: I come as avatara age after age.’ (To Narendra he said) ‘The whole of this (universe) has come out of him (Thakur).’ ‘One day the Mother showed the forms of various avataras. Among them this (his form) was also seen.’ ‘O mind you are thinking of Him. But it is like roaming about like a mad person in a dark room. One cannot find Him even in the six systems of philosophy.’ And then, there is a very clear statement. He said to Narendra, ‘He who was Rama, He who was Krishna is now Ramakrishna.’

"The above sayings convey us that it is not within the reach of man to recognize the avatara by himself. Only ifwhen the avatara makes one recognize, only then one can know him.

"Ravana was the enemy of Rama but he was a jnani. He said (1) If one meditates on the form of Rama in the heart, lust and anger are destroyed. Then even Rambha and Tilottama look like the funeral ash. That is why, I do not go near Sita assuming the form of Rama. (2) At the time of his death, Ravana sang a hymn of praise to Rama knowing him as an avatara. (3) Nikasha was Ravana’s mother. The whole of her family was killed by Rama in the battle. Even then she had the strong desire of saving herself. When she was asked about this strange conduct of hers, Nikasha replied, ‘I want to see more of Rama’s leela as a human being. That’s why, I wish to live. So, I am running away.’ (4) Vibhishana forsook his wife, son and the rest and took refuge at Rama’s feet knowing him to be God. (5) Narada and Hanuman sang hymns of praise to Rama calling him as avatara. (6) In the Dwapara Yuga, Sri Krishna assumed Rama’s form before Vibhishana and Hanuman during the Rajasuya Yajna of the Pandavas. Both of them worshipped Rama calling him avatara. (7) Guru Nanak and Chaitanya Deva proclaimed Rama as avatara. One of the bearer of Sri Chaitanya Deva’s proclamation of Harinam (the name of Hari) is the name of Rama. ‘Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare!’ (8) Sri Ramakrishna saw Ramalala (baby Rama) as living and awakened. He used to walk with him, sleep with him, he bathed him, fed him and even gave him a blow — not in bhava but in fully conscious state. (9) Bhardwaj and others worshipped Rama knowing him to be avatara.

"All these words and conduct of the great spiritual personalities are a proof of Sri Ramachandra’s avatarahood. The greatest proof is Sri Ramachandra’s own words, ‘I am the avatara.’

"Sri Krishna’s own words are also an another proof of the difficulty of recognizing the avatara. ‘Avajananti mam mudhah manushin tanum ashritam’ (Gita 9:11). (Fools disregard Me as one clad in human form). Man cannot know Me by reading the Vedas and other scriptures (Gita 11:48). Arjuna said, ‘Asitah Devalah Vyasah svayam ca eva bravishi mae’ (Gita 10:13). (Asita, Devala and Vyasa say so, and now You Yourself say it to me). You Yourself say that You are the avatara. And the rishis also have said that you are avatara. Your own words are the biggest proof.

"Because oOf all these reasons, the highest proof that Rama was an avatara is Rama’s own words — ‘I am avatara.’

"The rishis and the tapasvis in the Dandak forest called Rama as the highest of mean. They said, ‘We accept you as a jnani, not as an avatara. You are the best of men of numerous parts.’ This is not an obstacle in the way of his avatarahood. The avataras are, of course, the best of men.

"Whatever he may be, whether an avatara or the best of men all can learn a lot from Rama’s life — bhakti for the father, love for the brother, care of the subjects, determination to be truthful, filial dependence, firmness in duty, heroism, self control, renunciation, dispassion and all such qualities."

Morton School, Calcutta

Sunday, 7 September 1924

22nd of Bhadra, 1331 (B.Y.)

The 9th day of the bright fortnight

43 Dandas / 20 Palas.