Section XVII 

Sri Ramakrishna with
Bhaktas in Shyampukur House

Chapter One

Sri Ramakrishna with Girish, M., the Younger Narendra, Kali, Sarat, Rakhal, Doctor Sarkar and other bhaktas

The next day Monday, 26 October 1885, 11th of Kartik, the third day of the dark fortnight of Aswin.  Sri Sri Paramahansa Deva is staying in the same Shyampukur house in Calcutta for treatment.
Doctor Sarkar is his physician.  He visits almost every day.  Bhaktas go to him regularly to inform him of his (Thakur’s) painful condition.

Winter season. The Saradiya Durga Puja has been celebrated a few days ago. Sri Ramakrishna’s bhaktas have celebrated this festival with joy mixed with sadness for their Gurudeva has been suffering from a serious disease for the last three months. He has cancer of the throat.  ‘It is an incurable disease’ ­ hearing this the unfortunate devotees shed tears sitting silently alone in a corner. These days they are living in this very Shyampukur house. They are nursing Sri Ramakrishna with their heart and soul.  With this great service Narendra and other unmarried young disciples, full of dispassion, are learning to climb the steps of renunciation of ‘woman and gold’.

Sri Ramakrishna has so much pain, yet crowds are coming for his darshan.  They feel peace and joy while coming to Sri Ramakrishna.  He is the sea of motiveless grace.  No end to his compassion.  He talks to all so that they may somehow be elevated.  Later on the doctors, particularly Doctor Sarkar, told him not to talk at all.  But the Doctor himself stays there for six or seven hours.  He says, “You will not talk with anybody, you will talk only with me.”

The Doctor is simply enchanted by drinking the nectar of the words of Sri Ramakrishna. So he remains there for such a long period.

M. will go to the Doctor at ten o’clock to inform him of Sri Ramakrishna’s condition, so he is talking to Sri Ramakrishna.

Sri Ramakrishna (to M.) — I have much less pain. 
I feel much better.  Well is it because of the medicine? Then why should I not take the same medicine?

M. — I am going to the Doctor.  I shall tell him everything. He will prescribe whatever is right.

 Sri Ramakrishna — Look here, Purna[1] has not been here for two or three days. My mind is not at ease!

M. — Kali Babu, why don’t you go and call Purna.

Kali — I leave immediately.

Sri Ramakrishna (to M.) — The Doctor’s son is a very good boy.  Ask him to come here once. 

Chapter Two

Conversation between M. and the Doctor

Reaching the Doctor’s house M. found him seated with two or three friends.

The Doctor (to M.) — I was just talking of you a minute ago.  You said that you would come at ten o’clock.  I have been sitting here for an hour and a half.  I was wondering what had happened?  How he (Thakur) must be doing! (To a friend)  Brother, do please sing that song.

The friend sings ­

As long as there is life, sing His name and glories whose splendour illumines the universe, O brother!

The stream of the nectar of love is flowing, which brings joy to all, O brother!

The moment you remember His compassion, the hair of the body stand on end. What can words express It
whose grace ends all sorrows in an instant!

O brother, He dwells in the upper and lower regions ­ in water and in sky. Brother, where is His limit, where is His end? This everybody is ever asking.

He is the dwelling of consciousness, He is the philosopher’s stone, He is the ever-wakeful eye,
He is the stainless One whose glimpse leaves not a trace of sorrow.

The Doctor (to M.) — Isn’t it a beautiful song? Particularly at this point, ‘Where is His limit, where is His end? This every body is ever asking.’

M. — Yes sir. It is indeed very beautiful here!  A beautiful conception of the Limitless!

The Doctor  (affectionately) — It is quite late.  Have you taken your meals?  I take my meals by ten o’clock and then I come out to give consultation.  I fall ill if I go to work without taking meals.  O yes, I was thinking of inviting you all to a meal.

M. — It is good, sir.

The Doctor — Well, should it be here or there? As you prefer.

M. — Sir, whether it is here or there, everyone would partake it with loving joy.

Now the topic of conversation is Mother Kali.

The Doctor — Kali is just a Santhali[2] woman. (M. laughs loudly.)

M. — Sir, where did you get it from?

The Doctor — I have heard so. (M. laughs.)

The previous day Vijaykrishna and other devotees were in bhava samadhi (ecstasy).  The Doctor was also present there.  The conversation is about this.

The Doctor — I have seen bhava.  Is it right to have so much of bhava?

M. — Paramahansa Deva says that the bhava that comes by meditation on God does not do any harm even if it is very deep.  He says, ‘The gem that gives light and soothes the body does not burn the body.’

The Doctor — The lustre of the gem ­ it is but the reflected light.

M. — He also says, ‘By drowning into the sea of immortality the man does not die. God is the lake of immortality. Drowning in it does not do any harm to man. He surely becomes immortal provided he has faith in God.’

The Doctor — Yes, that of course is true.

The Doctor gets into his carriage.  After examining three or four patients he will go to see the Paramahansa Deva. On the way he talks to M. on different matters. The Doctor takes up the topic of ‘Egotism of Chakraborty.’

M. — He visits the Paramahansa Deva. Even if he has egotism, it will fall off in a few days. One’s egotism vanishes when one sits beside him ­ it gets crushed. He has no egotism, you see, that is why.  If you come to a non-egotist, your pride flees away.  Just see, what a great person Vidyasagar Mahashay is! What modesty and humility he showed to him. The Paramahansa Deva went to see him. It was 9 p.m. when Thakur said goodbye to him in his Badurbagan house. Vidyasagar himself showed him the way with a light in his hand from the library room till Thakur sat in the carriage. And he kept standing there with folded hands till the carriage left.

The Doctor — Well, what does Vidyasagar think of him?

M. — That day he met him with great devotion.  Even so, we have felt from his talk that he does not like what the Vaishnavas call bhava ­ just like you think.

The Doctor — I don’t like folding hands, or touching somebody’s feet with one’s head.  There is no difference between the head and the foot.  Yet if one considers feet as something different, one may do so.

M. — You do not like bhava or anything like that. The Paramahansa sometimes calls you ‘gambhir atman’ (a deep soul). Perhaps you remember this. Yesterday he told you that when an elephant goes into a small pond its water shakes violently.  But when it goes into a lake, its water shows no movement.  When the elephant of bhava enters into a gambhir atman, it cannot affect him in any way.  He says that you are a gambhir atman.

The Doctor — I don’t deserve the compliment. What is bhava?  It is a feeling, bhakti.  And then there are other feelings too.  When they are deep some can suppress them, others cannot.

M. — Some can give an explanation in one way or the other and the others cannot. But sir, bhava or bhakti is something different, something unique.  I have seen in your library Stebbing’s book on ‘Darwinism’.  Stebbing says, whether the human mind is the result of evolution or God Himself has created him sitting aside, it is equally wonderful.  He has illustrated it with the theory of light.  Whether you know the undulatory theory of light or not, light in either case is equally wonderful.

The Doctor — Yes. And did you see that Stebbing accepts ‘Darwinism’ as well as God?

They again talk of the Paramahansa Deva.

The Doctor — I see that he (the Paramahansa Deva) is a worshipper of Kali.

M. — He means something different for Kali. He who is described as Param Brahman (the Supreme Brahman) in the Vedas, he calls Him Kali. Whom the Mohammedans call Allah, the Christians as God, he calls Him Kali.  He does not see many Gods ­ he sees only One. Whom the ancient knowers of the Absolute called Brahman, whom the yogis call Atman, or the bhaktas call Bhagavan, Him the Paramahansa Deva calls Kali.

“We have heard this from him. A person had a tub of colour.  Anybody who wanted his cloth to be dyed would go to him.  He would ask which colour the fellow wanted.  If the latter said green colour, he would dip the cloth in the tub and return it to him, saying, ‘Here is your cloth dyed green.’  If anybody asked him for red colour, he would dye his cloth in the same tub and say, ‘Here is your cloth dyed red.’  He would dye the cloth green, blue, yellow ­ all colours in the same tub.  Seeing this amazing affair a person said to him, ‘Babu, do you know which colour I want? Please give me the colour in which you yourself are dyed.’ It is the same with the Paramahansa Deva ­ he has all the bhavas in him.  People of all religions gain peace and joy from him.  Who can comprehend what is his bhava or what deep state he is in?”

The Doctor — All things to all men!  This too is not right although Saint Paul says it.

M. — Who can fathom the state of the Paramahansa Deva?  We have heard from him that unless you deal in thread, you cannot distinguish between thread number 40 and thread number 41. Unless you are a painter, you cannot appreciate the painter’s art. Highly spiritual persons are men of deep bhava.  Unless you become like Christ, you cannot understand wholly the bhava of Christ.  Perhaps the Paramahansa Deva has the same deep bhava as Christ would tell: ‘Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.’

The Doctor — Well, how do you look after him in his illness?

M. — At present an elderly person supervises his nursing everyday.  On someday it is Girish Babu, someday Rama Babu, some day Balaram Babu, some day Suresh Babu, some day Nava Gopal and some other day Kali Babu.  It is this way.

                                                                                    Chapter Three

With bhaktas ­ what can mere learning do?

While they were talking thus the Doctor’s carriage comes and stops before the Shyampukur House where Thakur Paramahansa Deva is staying for treatment.  It is one o’clock.  Thakur is sitting in a room on the first floor.  Many bhaktas are sitting in front of him including Girish Ghosh, the Younger Narendra, Sarat and others.  They are all gazing at this everjoyful great yogi.  They are all seated like the snake spellbound before its charmer or like the guests in a marriage procession making merry with the bridegroom.  The Doctor and M. come in, offer pranam and take their seats.

Seeing the Doctor, Sri Ramakrishna laughs and says, “I am feeling much better today.”

In due course there is conversation with the devotees on God.

 

The earlier story ­ Doctor Rama Narayana ­ conversation with Bankim

Sri Ramakrishna — What can mere learning do if one has no discrimination and dispassion?  I go into a particular state when I meditate at the lotus feet of the Lord.  Then even the cloth on my body drops down. And I feel something climbing up with a hiss from my feet to the head.  Then everything appears to me like a straw (insignificant).  When I see that a pundit is without discrimination and that he has no love for God, he appears to me just like a dry piece of straw.

“Doctor Rama Narayana was reasoning with me when I suddenly went into that state. Thereupon I said to him, ‘What are you saying?  What can you understand of Him with your reason?  Or what can you understand of His creation?  You have the intelligence a lot similar to that of a weaver.’  Seeing me in that state he began to cry and stroke my feet.”

The Doctor — You see, Doctor Rama Narayana is a Hindu.  Besides, he believes in sandal-paste and flowers.  A true Hindu he is!

M. (to himself) — The Doctor had said earlier that he had nothing to do with the gong and conch-shell.

Sri Ramakrishna (to the Doctor) — Bankim[3] is one of your pundits.  I met him once.  I asked him, ‘What is the duty of a man?’  He replied, ‘Eating, sleeping and procreating.’ Hearing him say so he fell in my estimation.  I then said, ‘What are you saying?  You are so knave!  Whatever you think night and day, whatever you do all the time is coming out of your mouth. One belches radish when one eats radish.’  Then there was a long conversation on God and sankirtan (community singing of hymns) was also held in the house.  And I danced.  Bankim then said to me,  ‘Sir, please once visit me in my house too.’  I replied, ‘If God so wills.’ Then he said, ‘You will find devotees there too. You may meet them.’  I laughed and said, ‘My dear, what kind of devotees do you have there? Are they like him who said, ‘Gopal, Gopal?’

The Doctor — ‘Gopal, Gopal!’ What does it mean?

Sri Ramakrishna  — There was a goldsmith’s shop.  The proprietor and others were great devotees ­ true Vaishnavas with rosary round their neck, holy mark on their forehead and a rosary of the name of the Lord in their hand.  Everybody would go to that shop with a lot of trust thinking that the people there were great devotees and would not cheat.  Seeing a party of customers one craftsman would say, ‘Keshab, Keshab’ and after a while the other would recite the name, ‘Gopal, Gopal.’  After sometime the third one would say ‘Hari, Hari!’  And then some other would utter ‘Har-Har.’  Hearing so many names of God in the course of work the customer would naturally say to himself, ‘This goldsmith is a man of very high character.’  But do you know what was the reality?  The fellow who said, ‘Keshab, Keshab’ meant to ask what are they like?  He who said, ‘Gopal, Gopal’ would mean that he had examined them and found that they were a herd of cows (fools). (Laughter.) He who said, ‘Hari, Hari’ meant to ask whether he should rob them if they were just a herd of cows. (Laughter.) He who said, ‘Har, Har’ would mean ‘Yes, yes, do so ­ they are indeed a herd of cows.’ (Laughter.)

“I went with Sejo Babu (Mathur) at some other place.  A number of pundits had come to reason with me. And I a fool! (All laugh.) Seeing me in that very state and after having a talk with me, they said, ‘Mahashay, all we read earlier, all we learnt or wrote, all knowledge etc. have gone waste after talking to you.  We now understand that when God’s grace is granted, there is no lack of jnana.  A fool becomes learned and the dumb begins to speak.’ This is the reason why I say that one does not become a pundit just by reading books.”

 

The earlier story ­ first instance of samadhi ­ avirbhava[4] and Saraswati[5] seated in the throat of a fool

“Yes, when you have His grace can there be any lack of knowledge? Just see, I am a fool. I know nothing then who speaks all this?  Besides, the stock of this jnana is inexhaustible.  The other day I saw them weigh heaps of paddy in Kamarpukur (the birth place of Thakur). As they did so, they uttered, ‘Rame Rama, Rame Rama.’ One person was weighing and the other was pushing the heap of paddy towards him when the first heap was about to exhaust. His job was to push more of heap before it got exhausted. It is the same in my case when I am talking. Before I finish, my Mother pushes more of it from Her inexhaustible store of jnana.

‘‘During my boyhood I experienced avirbhava of God. I was eleven and I was going across a field.  What I saw something above! They say I was completely unconscious, not aware of anything.  I became a different person ever since.  I began seeing another person within me.  When I went to worship the deity, the hand instead of going on the deity would come to my own head and I would offer flowers at my head.  The boy who was living with me stopped coming to me.  He would say, ‘I see a strange light on your face.  I am afraid of coming nearer to you.’ ’’                                                                      

Chapter Four

Free will or God’s will

Yantra rudanni mayaya. (Gita 18:6)

[All beings revolve as though mounted on a machine by His Maya.]

Sri Ramakrishna — I am a fool, I know nothing.  Then who speaks all this?  I say, ‘Mother, I am a machine, You are the machine man; I am the house, You are the dweller; I am the chariot, You are the charioteer; I do what You make me do;  I speak what You make me speak;  I move the way You make me move.’  ‘Not I, not I. You, only You.’ She is ever victorious. I am merely an instrument.  When Srimati was carrying a pitcher with a thousand holes and not a drop of water was flowing out of it, everybody began to praise her saying that such a sati (faithful wife, pure woman) is rare to come across. Then Srimati said, ‘Why do you praise me?  Instead you say: Victory to Krishna, victory to Krishna! I am merely His maidservant.’ In that very state I had put my foot on Vijay’s chest.  Though I have such great respect and reverence for him, I put my foot on his chest!  What would you call it?

The Doctor — You should be careful after that.

Sri Ramakrishna (folding his hands) — How can I help it? In that particular state I become unaware of everything.  I don’t know at all what I am doing.

The Doctor — You must be careful.  It is no use folding your hands.

Sri Ramakrishna — Can I do anything in that state? But what do you think of this state of mine?  If you think it as pretence then all your science is less than nothing.

The Doctor — Mahashay, if I think that way why do I come so often? Just see, I come here leaving all my work behind. I miss so many visits to the patients and here I stay for six or seven hours.

 

I shall not fight ­ the Bhagavata Gita ­ only God is the doer, Arjuna an instrument

Sri Ramakrishna — I said to Sejo Babu, ‘Don’t think that I feel blessed that though a big man you believe me and show me regard.’  You may believe it or not but this is certainly a fact that man cannot do anything.  Only He makes one believe the other. Before God’s power man is merely a straw.

The Doctor — Do you think that I accept you because some fisherman[6] believes you?  I have respect and regard for you in the manner men regard others.

Sri Ramakrishna — Am I asking you to have regard for me, brother?

Girish Ghosh — Is he asking you to have regard for him?

The Doctor (to Sri Ramakrishna) — Are you saying that it is all God’s will?

Sri Ramakrishna — What else am I saying?  What can man do before God’s power?  Arjuna said in the battle of Kurukshetra, ‘I shall not fight the battle, I shall not kill my kith and kin.’  Sri Krishna said, ‘Arjuna, you will have to fight.  Your nature will compel you[7].’  Sri Krishna showed him everything, that these persons had already been slain[8] (by Him).  Some Sikhs came to the temple.  They believe that even the leaf of a peepal tree shakes by the will of God; not a single leaf can flutter without His will.

 

Liberty or necessity ­ influence of motives

The Doctor — If it is the will of God, why do you talk?  Why do you talk so much to impart jnana to others?

Sri Ramakrishna — He makes me talk, so I talk.  I am an instrument, He is the Person who uses the instrument.

The Doctor — You say that you are the instrument.  Say so if you are thus, otherwise keep quiet. Everybody is God.

Girish — I say brother, do what you like. But it is He who makes you do.  Can one take a single step against the Almighty?

The Doctor — But He Himself has given free will.  If I like, I can meditate on God and if I don’t like, I cannot.

Girish — If you like meditation on God or any other good work, you take to it.  It is not you who do it, the likeness for it makes you do it.

The Doctor — Why? I do it as a duty.

Girish — You do it because you like to do your duty.

The Doctor — Suppose a boy is burning.  One goes to save him with the sense of duty.

Girish — You feel pleasure in saving the boy.  That is why you enter the fire.  It is that feeling of joy that takes you there.  You take a bitter pill in the hope of having chat (spiced food) later. (All laugh.)

 

 

Knowledge, the object of knowledge and the knower are the threefold impulse to action

Sri Ramakrishna — You must have a special kind of faith before you take up some work.  You remember your object and derive pleasure out of it.  Then you take to work.  There is an earthen pot full of gold coins hidden under the earth.  You must first have this knowledge and this assurance.  When you think of the pot, you feel pleasure.  Then you begin to dig the earth.  As you dig, the metallic sound (of the pot) makes you happy.  Then the side of the pitcher becomes visible.  You are now happier.  In this way your happiness goes on increasing gradually.  I myself have seen while standing on the verandah in the temple sadhus enjoying as they prepare their smoke of hemp.

The Doctor — But the fire emits both heat and light.  Though you are able to see in light but your feet burn in the heat. When you do your duty, it is not that you only have pleasure out of it.  It also brings some trouble.

M. (to Girish) — When your stomach is filled with food, your back can bear the load.  There is pleasure even in trouble.

Girish (to the Doctor) — Duty is something dry.

The Doctor — Why?

Girish — Then it must be pleasant. (All laugh.)

M. — Very good!  Beautiful!  One has to take the bitter pill in the hope of something sweet.

Girish (to the Doctor) — You feel it sweet, otherwise why should you do your duty?

The Doctor — For such is the inclination of mind.

M. (to Girish) — ‘My nature pulls me to it.’ (Laughter.) If it is the inclination, where does free will come in?

The Doctor — I don’t say that one is absolutely free.  A cow tied to a post is free only as far as the cord allows. The pull of the cord …

 

Sri Ramakrishna and free will

Sri Ramakrishna — Yadu Mullick also gave this illustration. (To the Younger Narendra) Is it available in English?

(To the Doctor) “Look here, it is God who is doing everything.  ‘He is the operator and I am the instrument’; if one has this faith, one becomes jivanmukta (liberated in this very life).  ‘You are doing Your work, people say that they are doing.’  Do you know how it is? There is a beautiful illustration in the Vedanta.  Rice is being cooked in a cooking pot.  Potatoes and brinjals have been put in the same rice.  After some time potatoes and brinjals begin to jump up as if feeling proud of themselves ­ ‘I am moving, I am jumping up and down.’ Young children when they see it think, ‘Potatoes, rice and brinjals are as if alive, so they are jumping up and down.’  But they who know explain that potatoes, brinjals, rice etc. are not animate ­ they are not jumping up and down by themselves.  The moment you pull out the (burning) log, they no longer move.  ‘I am the doer’ ­ this pride of man is the result of his ignorance.  All are powerful by God’s power.  Pull the burning log and it is all quiet. Marionettes dance beautifully when the string is in the hands of the marionette master.  The moment the string falls from his hands, they can’t move and jump a bit.

‘‘So long as you do not have God’s vision, so long as you do not touch the philosopher’s stone, you remain under the delusion that you are the doer ­ that you are doing right or that you are not doing right. Such awareness persists. This feeling of distinction is God’s maya. He has made it this way to run His world of maya. By taking refuge in vidya maya, by taking the road of truth you can attain Him. He who attains God, he who gets His vision, can alone cross His maya. ‘Only He is the doer and I am non-doer,’ he who has this faith becomes jivanmukta (liberated in this very life) ­ I said it to Keshab Sen.”

Girish (to the Doctor) — Free will, how do you know this?

The Doctor — Not by reason.  I feel it.

Girish — Then others and I feel it otherwise. (All laugh.)

The Doctor — There are two elements in duty. One, I go to work because of duty. Two, because I find pleasure in it. But in the initial stage one doesn’t perform one’s duty in the hope of pleasure.  When I was a child, I used to notice that the priest felt greatly worried on seeing ants on sandesh (a sweetmeat). The priest did not feel any pleasure initially just by thinking of the sandesh. (Smiling) On the other hand, it worried him a lot initially.

M. (to himself) — It is very difficult to say whether pleasure comes later on or it starts at the very thought of it.  Where is ‘Free Will’ when pleasure forces action?

Chapter Five

Ahetuki bhakti (selfless devotion) ­ earlier story of his life: Sri Ramakrishna’s bhava of being a servant of God

Sri Ramakrishna — What he (the Doctor) is saying is called ahetuki bhakti (devotion without motive).  I do not want anything from Mahendra Sarkar ­ I want nothing, I only like to meet him.  This is indeed called ahetuki bhakti.  If I derive some pleasure out of it, then what shall I do?

“Ahalya said, ‘Rama, even if I am born a pig I do not mind. But what I wish for is that I may have pure bhakti at Your lotus feet.  I want nothing else.’

“Narada went to see Sri Ramachandra at the holy Ayodhya to remind him of his slaying of Ravana.  Having had the darshan of Sita and Rama he began to chant their praise.  Being happy with the praise Ramachandra said, ‘Narada, I am happy with your chant, please ask for a boon.’  Narada said, ‘Rama, if you must grant me a boon, pray, grant that I may have pure devotion at your lotus feet.  May your world-bewitching maya not enchant me.’ Rama said, ‘Ask for another boon.’ Narada replied, ‘I want nothing more. I only want pure love at Your lotus feet.’

“It is just the same with him (the Doctor). He only wants to see God.  He doesn’t want wealth, honour and bodily comforts ­ he wants nothing at all.  This alone is called pure devotion.

“It does give some pleasure but it is not the pleasure of the senses. It is the pleasure of bhakti, of prema. Shambhu Mullick said when I visited him occasionally, ‘You come here and surely you feel pleasure in talking to me. That’s why you come.’ Just this much happiness one gets.

“But there is a state higher than this ­ one moves about aimlessly like a child perhaps just to catch a moth.

(To the bhaktas) “Do you know what is his (the Doctor’s) bhava? Praying to God, ‘O God, grant me the right desire so that my intellect may not be tempted into any unjust act.’

“I also had exactly this state.  It is called the attitude of a servant. I used to cry uttering, ‘Mother, Mother’ in such a way that people would stand to watch me.  At this state of mine someone brought a prostitute and made her sit in my room to tempt me and to cure me of my madness. She was a pretty woman with attractive eyes. I ran out of the room uttering, ‘Mother, Mother.’ And shouting for Haladhari, I said, ‘Brother, come and see who has entered in my room.’ I told about it to Haladhari and all others.  In this state I used to weep uttering, ‘Mother, Mother’ and say to Her crying, ‘Mother, save me.  Mother, purify me so that my mind may not go from the right to the wrong.’ (To the Doctor) This bhava of yours is good.  It is exactly the bhakti-bhava (feeling of bhakti), the bhava of a servant.”

 

Doing good to mankind and the ordinary man ­ selfless work and pure sattva

“If somebody has pure sattva, he only meditates on God.  He likes nothing else.  Some people are born with pure sattva as a result of their prarabdha, by trying to act with a motiveless mind one attains pure sattva at the end.  When the sattva is mixed with rajas, the mind runs gradually in different directions.  Then one is possessed by the vanity of doing good to mankind.  But doing good to mankind is very difficult for the ordinary man. However, if one takes to selfless work just to do good, there is no harm in it. This is called nishkama karma (motiveless, selfless work).  It is very good if one tries to work in this way but it is not possible for all.  It is very difficult.  Everybody indeed has to do some work.  Only a few can renounce altogether. It is in very few that one finds pure sattva.  When one takes to selfless work, one’s sattva mixed with rajas gradually gets transformed into pure sattva.

“It is only when one has pure sattva that one realizes God by His grace.

“An ordinary man cannot appreciate the state of pure sattva. Hema said to me, ‘I say, Bhattacharya Mahashay, isn’t it the aim of life to earn name and fame in the world?  Don’t you think so?’ ”

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