1.

M. (to the devotees) ­ Aha, as one sits in the Brahmo Samaj, one feels as if Thakur is speaking. There, one hears all the words of Thakur. Oh, what they talked about Keshab Sen today ­ ‘I feel like taking only rice with vegetables for Him.’ Aha! What a thing to say! The Gita also has the same thing ­ yadicchanto brahmacharyam charanti […they lead a life of continence: (Gita 8:11)] Eating rice with vegetables means to live a hard life, to observe brahmacharya, to take to tapasya. How fine! What yearning!

"It is never too much to do anything for God! Only when one has a deep love for Him, such words come out of the mind. Narendra also said, ‘Going to west (that is United Provinces of Punjab, that region), I shall fast unto death for Him.’ Brahmacharyamahimsa cha shariram tapa uchyate [...continence and non-injury are said to be the austerity of the body ­ (Gita 17:14)]. This too is said in the Gita. One observes continence to attain God.

"They, the Brahmo devotees have taken all from Thakur. What an impression Thakur had left on their minds! What a long time has passed, yet they have not been able to forget him. The same ‘Mother, O Mother, Lakshmi, Sarasvati, Jagadhatri, Durga ­ the Dispeller of all misfortunes’ that we heard there today, are all from Thakur. Didn’t he inject all this into their leaders. It is the same which is filtering down within them."

The Elder Amulya ­ The younger generation does not accept that they got this ‘Mother, Mother’ from Thakur.

M. (sharply reprimanding him) ­ We are not talking of this. What they are is for Him to think over. We are able to hear only Thakur’s words there. When we go to them, our mind says that they are talking of him (Thakur) ­ the narration, song, emotion, all these are his.

"What do they say that one gets the genial heat when one is on the orbit. Instead of doing so, to fly at a tangent! (Tracing a circle on the blanket with his finger) Here is an orbit. Instead of living within it, to shoot out at tangent!"

The Elder Amulya ­ They disagree...

M. (strongly interrupting) ­ No Sir, don’t talk of it any more.

M. (to the devotees) ­ Some people call him irrelevant. I feel very hurt on hearing such words.

"Where is the time to be offensive? One is always restless with the fire of pain, grief, slavery and then the senses. Does it behave to the offensive in such a state? One should always be on the defensive to protect oneself.

"What do you say ­ ‘There is such a tyrannical enemy within and without’. Within, one’s senses; without, pain and grief, all these. Their fire always keeps the mind unbalanced.

"If there are any defects in them, it is for Him to see. Is He not there? He Himself will take them all in their own way. Everything is happening by His will.

"Just see, how did the formless (God) come out from the middle of the desert from Mohammed’s mouth. And then, there is Christianity. It is He, who has created them all.

"(Loudly) No leisure, no time to be critical. Simply, you cannot afford to be critical."

M. (to a devotee) ­ A pundit used to read out Bhagavata to a raja. He would often says to the raja, ‘You understand?’ And the raja would say, ‘Please understand yourself first.’ There is a saying: One does not see that one’s own house is burning. But pity, one goes to see another’s house burning.

"So Christ also said, ‘Why beholdest then the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye (Mathew 7:3).’ Have I time to see all that?"

M. (to all present) ­ Just see how a single bereavement upsets! Besides, one illness makes you forget all.

M. (to all present while referring to Elder Jiten) ­ Thakur said, ‘You Calcutta people have this one disease. You only lecture to others. Reading a page or two, they think they have attained all knowledge.’ He said this to me on the second day. (Laughing) You only le..c..tu..re.

M. (to the devotees) ­ The babus were going by boat, chewing betel leaves. Thakur saw them and said, ‘Just see, see this, they are going to slave and how happy they are.’

"Oh, what an affair of the Mahamaya! On one hand the aim of human life is to realise God, instead of that they are going to slave and then so happy about it.

"It is a different story with the avatara, with a perfected spiritual man. We have seen Thakur, the one man who always lived in joy. Didn’t he recognise himself as a child of the Ever-blissful? Anybody who realises that he is the child of the Ever-blissful is ever in joy, isn’t it?"

M. (to himself) ­ How do people see the fault of others? Isn’t this body a world in itself, the abode of all defects? Taking up a body is in itself a great fault. Take up a body and then carry the burden of slavery! Besides, there is the fire of grief, pain, want, poverty, disease and illness.

"The body is itself a cauldron of fire. The doors to the mind ­ the enemies desire, anger are always awake therein. The Lord has clearly said so in the Gita. Where one should have been trying to save oneself from them, one takes to the criticism of others instead! What do they say ­ ‘The mother who serves so devotedly is called the evil spirit.’

"God looks after everybody, the whole world. And it is He who takes us on our paths."

M. (to the young man) ­ Buddha Deva realised that this body itself is a cauldron of fire. Thakur too said: The world is a blazing fire. And this body is the world, the macrocosm. So Buddha Deva sat under the Banyan tree and he said, ‘ihaiva shushyatu me shariram’ ­ let the fire cool down here.

"The sadhus also take to tapasya for the same reason ­ to subjugate the enemies of desire, anger and so on. Why do they put up so many troubles, so many insults, so much bad name? To cool down this blazing fire. God-realisation is only possible then.

"Once two sadhus of our Math went with a Vaishnava group during the days of the circumambulation of the region of Braja. At a particular place there was arrangement for food. They all sat in a row. Both the sadhus of the Math also joined. The Vaishnavas seeing them flew into rage. They said, ‘Why are they among the diners? Drive them away.’ The fanatical Vaishnavas call sannyasis irreligious. So, they were so angry. They were afraid that their touch would defile the dinner ­ their sight would defile the food. So, they (sannyasis) left. Later on, when the dinner was over, a person came and said to them, ‘Please take something.’ They replied, ‘No, there is no need to have our meals today.’ (Laughing) What need of food after the insult we have had?

"This insult ­ why do they put up with it? For His sake, so as to attain Him. That’s why they say, ‘He is the real man who is dead while living.’ "

Surpati’s companion ­ Where is the need then to preserve the body?

M. ­ But we are not talking of preserving the body. One rises supporting oneself with the same earth on which one falls. This body which has to undergo so much is also the means to attain Him. Tapasya keeps subjugated all these enemies of desire, anger and so on. Otherwise, so much of the mind is wasted. The senses pull the mind out and harati prasabham manah (kidnap the mind forcibly). Tapasya makes the senses go inward. The mind then goes to God. Tapasya means just this ­ to turn the mind towards God, to concentrate it.

"The mind gets concentrated in external matters, for example, the scientists keeps their minds fixed on their investigations. Swami Abhedananda had seen Edison. He is the inventor of the electric bulb and the Gramophone. He saw him fully concentrated ­ the whole mind absorbed in that idea. His food was lying uneaten close-by on the table ­ two meals, but he was not aware of it.

"This too is tapasya but it does not bring param shantim (ultimate peace). But if this ready mind is turned towards God, one can have His darshan through it.

"Thakur went to Vidyasagar to say the same. He said, ‘If you do these acts of charity for God, you will be able to realise God thereby.’ "

M. (to the devotees) ­ Do all attain only in one birth? No, some are born ten times, some twenty times and others any number of times. One should only pray to God, ‘Don’t delude me Mother, don’t delude me, Mother, do not delude me with your world-enchanting Maya.

"What are hundred lives in eternity? Very ordinary. So, one should pray, always pray. There is no other way than this."

M. (to a bhakta) ­ He is not in the scriptures. He is not to be found in the Veda or the Vedanta. These holy books, the reading of Bhagavata and so on, they are all apara (worldly) knowledge. What I am saying is also all apara vidya. They all belong to the outer quarters. You see, the house has the outer quarters and the inner quarters. These are all of the outer quarters. Even so, some can enter the inner quarters through the outer quarters ­ when they are intimately known to the members of the family.

"Some live absolutely within the inner quarters, for example, Thakur. Inner quarter means to always to live joined with God.

"The Veda is also apara vidya. If it does not lead to God-realisation, why should one have so much pride on having read some two pages of it? There would have been no rescue if one could attain Him thereby. Did Thakur read anything?

"Paravidya ­ yaya tadaksharamadhigamyate (Paravidya is that by which you know the imperishable) ­ jnana and bhakti. When you know how to use it, even apara vidya can help to gain para vidya. Worship, reading of holy texts, repetition of the holy name and meditation, though, they are a part of worldly vidya, if they are taken up in a selfless manner, for the attainment of God one can gain para vidya through them. If they are for that aim, they are good. Otherwise, they become the cause of harder bonds.

"The company of sadhus is also the same, strictly speaking, in the region of apara vidya. But, if the ideal is attainment of God, they are all a help.

"Hearing is better than reading and seeing is better than hearing, so said Thakur. Reading and hearing both come in the category of shravana (hearing). Then, there is manana, deep thinking; then nididhyasana, concentrated meditation. Thereafter, comes darshan, the attainment of the object. They are respectively better than the other."

M. (to the devotees) ­ Man wants to understand God’s work with this intelligence. How amazing! Simply foolhardiness! He is invisible to the sensory intellect but visible to the purified intellect. Devotions, reading, repetition of the name, meditation, company of the sadhus and service of the sadhus, when undertaken in a selfless manner, purify the mind and He shows Himself to a purified mind by His grace. Thakur used to say, ‘The pure water reflects.’

"Just see, how difficult it is to solve a single mathematical problem. Is it so easy to solve His work?"

M. (to Buddhiram) ­ Have you not solved mathematical problems? Well, let me see, what is it to multiply three and four?

Buddhiram ­ No sir, I have done nothing.

M. (happily) ­ Well son, you are a good receptacle. If a white paper has broken zigzag lines, can one write on it? The man is full of such broken zigzag lines.

Sunday, 9th November, 1924,

23rd of Kartik, 1331 (B.Y.),

The 13th day of the bright fortnight,

23 Dandas/25 Palas