:) Kathamrita , 100th Visit of M. 7-Sept-1884 Vol 4, Section 18, Chap 5
* V e n u *
Chaitanya Deva, Sri Ramakrishna and name and fame
Adhar: “Chaitanya also enjoyed worldly plea-sures.”
Sri Ramakrishna (surprised): “What did he enjoy?”
Adhar: “Such a big pundit! What name and fame he enjoyed!”
Sri Ramakrishna: “It may have been name and fame according to others – for him it was nothing.
“You have respect for me and so has Niranjan. It’s just the same for me. I tell you the truth. It’s not my desire to have a wealthy man under my control. Manomohan told me that Surendra said, ‘It isn’t correct that Rakhal should live with him. His family complained about it.’ I said to him, ‘Who is this Surendra? He has kept this carpet and pillow here and gives some money.’”
Adhar: “He gives ten rupees a month, doesn’t he?”
Sri Ramakrishna: “Ten rupees meet expenses for two months. Some devotees live here. He gives for their support, the virtue accrues to him. What is it to me? I love Rakhal and Narendra. Do I derive any benefit from it?”
M.: “It is like a mother’s love.”
Sri Ramakrishna: “Even a mother does so much for her child, hoping that he will provide for her after getting a job. I love them because I see them as living Narayana – I don’t just say this.”
God takes on the burden of an all-renouncing devotee – ‘who, precluding all else, meditates on Me
Sri Ramakrishna (to Adhar): “Listen. When you light a lamp, there is no scarcity of moths. When you realize God, He provides everything. There is no dearth of anything. When He resides in the heart, many people arrive to serve.
“A young sannyasin went to beg alms at a householder’s home. He was a sannyasin from birth. He knew nothing about the world. A young woman came to the door to offer him alms. The sannyasin asked, ‘Mother, does this girl have an abscess on her chest?’ The mother of the girl said, ‘No, my child. She will bear an infant. God has given her breasts, so that the baby can drink milk from them.’ The sannyasin then said, ‘Why do I need to worry then? Why should I beg for alms? He who has created me will provide me with food.’
“Listen, she who has given up her all for the sake of her paramour can say, ‘O rascal, I‘ll sit on your chest and eat.’”
Story of Totapuri – king’s service to sadhus – Thakur meets the leader of Nanak’s followers in their math near the Durga Temple in Kashi, in 1868
“The Naked One (Totapuri) told me that a king served food to sadhus using gold plates and tumblers. I saw in Kashi what reverence the head of the math was given. A number of very rich and wealthy Hindustani men stood there with folded hands, saying, ‘At your command.’
“The right kind of sadhu, a true holy man, does not want gold plates, nor reverence. But God does not let him lack anything. He provides for everything that is necessary for realizing Him. (Everybody keeps silent.)
“You are a magistrate. What can I tell you? Do what you think is right. I am a fool.”
Adhar (laughing, to the devotees): “He is examining me.”
Sri Ramakrishna (smiling, to the devotees): “Dispassion is better. Just see, I didn’t sign [for receiving a salary]. God indeed is the Reality, everything else is unreal.”
Hazra comes in and sits on the floor near the devotees. Hazra sometimes repeats, “So ’ham, so ’ham (I am He).” He says to Latu and other devotees, “What is the use in making offerings to God in worship – giving His own thing back to Him? One day he said the same to Narendra.”
Sri Ramakrishna (to Hazra): “I explained to Latu. Who is it the devotee worships?”
Hazra: “The devotee calls upon his own self.”
Sri Ramakrishna: “That is a very elevated idea. Vrindavalli said to King Bali, ‘What wealth can you give to Brahman?’
“All spiritual practices, all chanting of His name and glories are done to realize what you are saying.
“When you see your Self within yourself you have attained the goal. It is to attain this that all spiritual practices are undertaken. The body is also to carry out spiritual practice. As long as a gold image is not cast, one needs a clay mould. When the image is made, the clay mould is thrown away. One can give up the body after God-realization.
“He is not only within – He is both within and without. The Divine Mother showed me in the Kali Temple that everything is filled with divine consciousness. The Divine Mother Herself has become everything – the deity, myself, the worship vessels, the door sill, the marble floor. All is consciousness.
“It is to experience this that one calls upon Him, carries out spiritual practices – chanting His name and glories, and so on. It is for this that one practices devotion to God. These people (Latu and others) are like this – they have not yet reached such a high state. They practice love of God. Don’t say ‘I am He’ (So ’ham) and such things to them.”
The compassionate Gurudeva, Sri Ramakrishna, is protecting the devotees like a mother bird sheltering its young ones under its wings.
Adhar and Niranjan go to the verandah for refreshments, then they return. M. is sitting on the floor near Thakur.
A Brahmo boy with four university degrees – discussing and reasoning with him
Adhar (smiling): “We talked so much, but he (M.) didn’t say even one word.”
Sri Ramakrishna: “A boy of Keshab’s group with four university degrees (named Varda?) laughed when he saw people arguing with me. ‘What?’ he said, ‘To reason even with him!’ I saw him again at one of Keshab’s gatherings. Somehow his appearance had changed.”
Ram Chakravarty, the priest of Vishnu temple, enters the room. Thakur says, “Look here, Ram. Did you talk about sugar candy with Dayal? No, there is no need for it. There have already been many discussions.”
Thakur’s evening meal – ‘I can’t eat food offered by everybody’
Thakur’s evening meal is the prasad from Mother Kali – one or two luchis and a little farina pudding. He is seated on the floor to eat. M. is sitting near him. Latu is also in the room. The devotees have brought some sandesh and other sweets. Touching one piece of sandesh with his hand, Thakur says to Latu, “What rascal has brought this sandesh?” He drops it from the plate of pudding. (To M. and Latu) I know about it all. It was brought by one of the boys of the Anand Chatterji family, the one who visits the Ghoshpara woman.”
Latu: “Shall I give you this sweet?”
Sri Ramakrishna: “Did Kishori bring it?”
Latu: “Will it be agreeable to you?”
Sri Ramakrishna (smiling): “Yes.”
M. is an English-educated man. Thakur says to him, “I can’t eat food offered by everybody. Do you believe this?”
M.: “Sir, I shall gradually have to believe in everything.”
Sri Ramakrishna: “Yes.”
Thakur goes to the western verandah to wash his hands. M. pours water on them.
It is winter. As the moon rises, the clear sky and the water of the Ganges begin to sparkle. It is ebb tide and the Ganges is flowing south. Washing his face, Thakur says to M., “So will you give a rupee to Narayan?”
M.: “Yes, of course. Would I not?”