Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna Lecture 140 on 17-June-2025

Full Transcript (Not Corrected)

OM JANANIM SHARADAM DEVIM RAMAKRISHNAM JAGADGURUM PAHADAPADMETAYOH SRIDHVA PRANAMAMI MUHURMUHU

ओम् जननीम् शर्दाम् देवेम् रामक्रिष्णम् जगत् गुरुम् पादपत्मे तयोस्रित्वा प्रणमामि मुहुरु मुहु

We are discussing a most useful and interesting topic. This is in the chapter Advice to Householders. I mentioned earlier, a householder need not necessarily be a married person. Anybody who thinks that I am in this house, that is I am in this body, they have himani, he is a householder. We are all householders, we are deeply attached to the body. So this advice applies to everybody. A Brahmo devotee was asking, and we already had some sort of discussions about it. Sir, has God forms or has He none? And Sri Ramakrishna's very meaningful, beautiful reply was, no one can say with finality that God is only this and nothing else. He is formless and again He has forms. What is the parallel? Whenever we try to understand the teachings or the life and teachings of Sri Ramakrishna, we have to look at them in the light of the scriptures. Is there any parallel?

Every teaching that we get of Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother, Swamiji, direct disciples and even many of the lay disciples of Sri Ramakrishna is based upon the rephrasing of the scriptural statements. Sri Ramakrishna is answering this Brahmo devotee. No one can say with finality that God is only this and nothing else. This echoes in many of the Upanishads, but especially Taittiriya Upanishad wherein it says, yato vacho nivartante aprapya manasa sahaa. Unable to pierce that depth of the infinity, the mind becomes baffled and returns. If mind itself cannot understand, how can it express? What does it mean? It means supposing you are in a vast open field and you have covered your eyes completely excepting for a small pinhole. You are looking at that huge open space only through that small pinhole and you will see something. And if you think this is all that is there outside, of course that would be one of the greatest mistakes. Why is it so? Because we see here that a limited instrument can only give us limited amount of information which we call knowledge and mind is extremely limited. It is limited by time, space and object. And we have been discussing this in our Upanishadic classes also. So to think of infinite with a finite instrument, it is not possible. We can understand something. Sir Ramakrishna's beautiful expression in original Bengali,

Iti means this much. And this is what being said here, no one can say with finality, he is formless and again he has forms. We have very interesting interpretations of what is the meaning of formless. We will come to that. And then Sir Ramakrishna assures, for the Bhakta he assumes forms but he is formless for the Gnani. That is for him who looks on the world as a mere dream. I see a vast meaning even in these casually spoken words of the Ramakrishna. For a devotee, God assumes forms. What do you mean by he assumes forms? Is it that God assumes the forms or because of our mind we look at him? That Swami Vivekananda had illustrated it beautifully. If I cow, what to be asked? What's your concept of God? He is the biggest cow in the whole world. For an ant, it will be the biggest ant. For a human being, if I have two hands, he may have four hands or even ten hands, etc., etc. What about the Gnani? So for a devotee, devotee means devotee's mind, he can only conceive and he likes to conceive of God with only a form. But even while we are talking about a form, what does the devotee really think about God? First of all, the God will be very pleased, smiling, all the Gods and Goddesses with very few exceptions like like Bhadrakali, not even Bhadrakali but Smashanakali, Chinnamasta, Dhoomahoti, etc. So Chinnamasta means without head. She is holding her own head and blood is flowing and she is enjoying. Try to think who is enjoying now with a cut off head. So but a devotee likes to think of God is my own mother, my own, rather I would say my own grandmother, my own father, grandfather, indulgent, forgiving, all-low, ever-watchful, very protective, what Ramanujacharya calls ananta kalyana guna sagara, a notion of infinite auspicious qualities. What about death? What about all the deaths that are taking place? Well, we know if we have to have spiritual outlook, he who thinks is going to kill and he who thinks is going to be killed, both are ignorant. The atman is the only thing, ekam sat.

But when there is only one truth, one reality, where is it going to kill, when is it going to kill, how is it going to kill, whom is it going to kill, these are not theories, these are really facts, the only facts, the only truth, but we are not able to understand. So a bhakta, he assumes because of his past life samskara, or we can say in the family in which he is born, usually a child born in a Vaishnava family becomes a Vaishnava, born in a Shakta family will be a Shakta, born in a Shaiva family becomes Shiva, born as a Christian, may become a Christian most of the time, though it might be changed, but the point is we are all creatures of our samskaras, habits. So what is the point? Does God assume form? From the Vedantic point of view, rational point of view, he cannot assume any form. The infinity cannot assume any form because form means separation actually. A clay cannot become formful unless there is a Triputi, there is a potter, there is clay and there is a potter's wheel and he shapes the clay. You have to understand, we have to understand the clay is limited because the potter limits the clay. The clay is limited by the potter's wheel, but that's not Brahman. Brahman can never assume forms, but because of the limitations of our mind, we are having different forms. That is the first question. So Sriram Krishna is beautifully explaining, but he is formless for the Gnani. What do you mean by? What does Sriram Krishna mean by is formless? Formless doesn't mean without form. He doesn't want to attribute anthropomorphic forms, human-like attributes or even animal-like attributes.

Interestingly, why do you think that in India so many animals including a pig, a crow is sacred, a bull is sacred, a peacock is sacred, an owl is sacred. Why are these? Is it because of the lack of intelligence in our rishis? No. He means to say do not confine that God is only for human beings or God manifests only as human beings. He can manifest as everything in this world. That's why Himalaya Mountains is a devata. River Ganges, Ganga Nadhi is a devata. Every river is a devata. Every form of water. What is water? Without which we cannot survive. That is a deity. Without food we cannot survive. That is earth. Without water we cannot survive. That is the Jala Devata, Ganga, Brahmaputra, etc. Any river in this world without heat we cannot survive. Without breathing we cannot survive. So Agni Devata, Surya Devata, Chandra Devata, Vaya Devata. Without space we cannot do any activity. Akasha Devata. Everything is a manifestation of God. So when we think of Akasha, Gnanis try to think of Brahman as Akasha. Is Akasha having a form? Yes, it is having a form.But it is a concept, conceptual form. So we have got that concept. Whatever concept, every concept that we cherish in our mind is a form. That's why Gnanis meditation on Brahman is also a type of form. But that form doesn't have anthropomorphic forms. It will have only qualities. Anasatyam, Gnanam, Anantam and he is also Srishti Stithilaya Kaaranam. He is all-pervading, all-compassionate. You see, even a Gnani, he cannot, he doesn't want to think of God in a form because he thinks, and rightly so, that he limits God. But he is a human being with a feeling. That's why he directs all his emotions towards his Guru. Guru means Guru Brahma, Guru Vishnu, Guru Devo, Maheshwaraha, Sakshat, Param Brahma. He cannot escape. So when he is looking at the Guru, he is worshipping the Sakara Brahma, Saguna Brahma, Sarupa Brahma. When he sits for meditation, what does he think? As Ramakrishna says, about Brahmas meditating on Nirakaara Brahman, he cannot think of blank. Thinking of God without form but with qualities is called the formless aspect.

But as I mentioned, we always have to remember that important point. Whatever is done through the instrumentality of the mind is absolutely limited and every thought is limited. And what the mind does is called a thought. So everything is limited. Even a person who reaches the highest pinnacle but just one step away from the highest identity, Aham Brahmasmi, that is also a thought. Aham is a thought, Brahman is a thought, I am Brahman is a thought. Instead of saying I am the body, he says I am Brahman. But that is also a thought. That's why even that has to be transcended by the grace of the God. So the Bhakta can meditate upon his concept of God with forms, with qualities. The Gnani meditates upon the same God without forms but with qualities. But there is an aspect of God. So long as we think we are separate, distinct from Brahman, we can only think with our mind whether he is with form, without form, with qualities, without qualities. But the third way is that when we become Brahman, the person who becomes once knows through experience, I am Brahman. He doesn't say I am Brahman. It is for our teaching purpose, understanding purpose, put in language, he feels I am Brahman. Just as I feel I am the body. But there are lots of defects in this idea. Even when I say I am the body, I don't say I am the body completely. As Swami Brahmanandaji explains, suppose somebody's hand is cut off. I am the body and hand is part of the body. When that hand is cut off, I am 90% of the body, that idea never comes to him. I am fully the body even if both hands go, both legs go and both eyes cannot function, both ears cannot function. All these things, do these things really happen? Yes, accidents happen, they happen. But then you know what happens when we become very old? In many of us, hand is there but not functioning. Legs are there, I want to walk, I want to talk, I want to eat, I want to do everything. Unable to do that, as good as not having, still his ahankara or her ahankara doesn't become any less at all. Sri Ramakrishna is explaining this beautifully. The Bhakta, devotee feels that he is one entity and the world is another. Therefore God reveals himself to him as a person, marvellous ideas. So long as a person thinks I am an individual, then I am separate from everybody in my family, everybody in this world, everything in this world. And therefore God also is separate from him. Therefore he has to reveal himself as an entity here, Sri Ramakrishna says, as a person.

But the Gnani, the Vedantist for instance, always reasons, applying the process of neti-neti, not this, not this. Through this discrimination he realises by his inner perception that the ego and the universe are both illusory like a dream. Notice this funny teaching of Sri Ramakrishna through discrimination. So I go on saying, no, no, no, this is not a snake, this is a rope, this is not a snake. Why does he discriminate? Because when he is terribly frightened, then somebody comes and tells, no, no, that is a rope, I only have kept it here and unfortunately it has a tremendous resemblance with the snake. And you are terribly frightened of the snake and there is not sufficient light, enough only for a mistake, for a superimposition to take place. Therefore this person thinks that it is a snake, he is frightened. At that time somebody comes and tells him and he knows this person is telling the truth. So based upon the truth, no, no, no, this is not a snake, this is a rope. But fear has not gone because he has not certified, he had no certainty of the knowledge that it is actually a rope. When the light comes, he sees and along with that two things disappear. First his idea that this is a snake disappears and along with that immediately that fear also disappears. Shankaracharya, master that he was, he says this samsara bhaiya also disappears. When the samsara disappears, when does it disappear? Even for ignorant people like us, during the deep sleep we are not afraid of anybody. Let the most ferocious tigress be caressing our head with its paws or ferocious snake coils itself around our neck. We are not frightened so long as we are not aware of it. What is my point? My point is even for a jnani to say that this world is an illusion, he must be experiencing the world because so long as the mind functions, two things are only possible. Either you know the truth or you know the other truth or mistaken truth and therefore as long as we are mistaking the truth that mistaken truth is also a knowledge. But he knows this is my mistake, mistake also is a knowledge. So he is experiencing the mistake, the illusion. Just as Swami Vivekananda says perhaps you are travelling in Rajasthan and suddenly you are thirsty in a very short time and you see huge expanse of water, beautiful vast lake and both sides are lined up. Beautiful trees, creepers and gentle wind is blowing up bubbles in that lake and it looks very cool. I don't know whether you can imagine some birds also rooting on it. So you are trying to run there, suddenly you realise, no there cannot be any water, I know it, it is a mirage. But even while seeing the mirage, knowing that it is a mirage, the mirage doesn't disappear. Why am I telling you this? Because a person who has become one with Brahman inexperientially and then for some reason God keeps his body-mind and it still functions so that such a person is called Jeevan Mukta and this world doesn't disappear from him.

But he knows whatever happens, I am seeing mirage, there is no water, there is no substance, it cannot quench my thirst, that is the point. It cannot give me any water, that is not the point. I don't require water, there is no happiness in this world, that is not the point. I don't need happiness because I am happiness, that is the idea he will give. So Sri Ramakrishna continues, then the Jnani realises Brahman in his own consciousness. As what? As I am Brahman. He cannot describe what Brahman is because description, any description is limitation. And Sri Ramakrishna is continuing, do you know what I mean? Think of Brahman, existence, knowledge, bliss, absolute. But with the rising of the sun of knowledge, the blocks of ice melt, then one doesn't feel anymore that God is a person, nor does one see God's forms. What he is cannot be described, who will describe him? He who would do so disappears. He cannot find his I anymore. Profound Advaitic Vedantic teaching. So Sri Ramakrishna is continuing, God now and then assumes various forms for his lovers. The devotee believes God has a form. It takes a long time for him to understand that I or my mind is imagining God with this particular form and there is nothing absolutely wrong with it. In fact we cannot move forward without him. I am a lover, there must be an object of my love and I would like to imagine my lover in all the glory that I can afford to imagine. So he reveals himself to them, to devotees as a person. So he is giving what is called a beautiful analogy. Imagine a shoreless ocean, so different waves, bubbles, gods, goddesses etc.

But he says he is here in some places because of the intense cold, there would be blocks of ice which Sri Ramakrishna equates with forms of God. But when the sun of knowledge rises, the blocks of ice melt, then one doesn't feel anymore. That means one knows that God is not a person, nor does one see God's forms. Then what he is cannot be described because there is no he to describe. Description always means three things, a person to describe, another object to be described and a mind which wants to describe through instrumentality of the body and the resultant description. Who will describe him? He who would do so disappears, he doesn't exist. That means he exists as Brahman. He cannot find his I anymore. So is there really an I or an Ahamkara? So this brings us to Vedantic interpretation. What is that? This is called pancha kosha prakarana or the methodology of a person covered with five dresses and Sri Ramakrishna gives a beautiful analogy. If one analyzes oneself, one doesn't find any such thing as I, then he gives this illustration. Take an onion for instance, first of all you peel off the red outer skin, then you find thick white skin, peel this one after the other and you won't find anything inside. So like that, take off these layers, Annamaya, Pranamaya, Manohamaya, Vijnanamaya, Anandamaya. What about Anandamaya? That is also called a kosha, a scabbard, a sheath and the Atman has nothing to do because anything that contains is called a container and a container as well as the contained both are limited. So in that state, in which state? In that state of a rikalpa samadhi, a man no longer finds the existence of his ego and who is there left to seek? Who can describe how he feels in that state in his own pure consciousness about the real nature of Brahman? A very beautiful analogy Sri Ramakrishna now gives. Once a salt doll went to measure the depth of the ocean. No sooner was it in the water, then it dissolved. Now who was to tell the depth?

A very beautiful, significant incident comes to my mind and it should come to your mind also. Once Sri Ramakrishna declared to some of his disciples, today I will tell you what happens when the Kundalini rises through the Sushumna and reaches one after the other the chakras.So first it goes to Anahata and then all the chakras there. Chakra means state of consciousness and it is hanging down, upside down like a closed bud and Sri Ramakrishna says beautifully, very graphically that I saw clearly a Paramahamsa resembling me. That means me. That through the Sushumna path he rose, he saw this lotus hanging upside down and he licked it. As soon as he did that, immediately it stood erect. That means it became, he became one with that state of consciousness and it is a two petalled lotus, etc., etc. And this is what happens when the mind Kundalini rises to the throat centre, after the heart centre to the throat centre, after the throat centre to the centre in between the forehead. So Vishuddha in the throat, Agna in the forehead and then I see there are no forms there. I see God as if it is the hurricane light but the glass is intervening between the mind and the Brahma. Now I am going to tell you what happens when the mind goes and merges in Sahasrara and he entered into that Nirvikalpa Samadhi and then he comes out. I will tell you now. Again he plunged, again he came out, again he plunged. Now whatever he was trying to describe, until Agna Chakra he could describe. But then that last vestige that Aham Brahmasmi, that also has been complete. There is no Aham, there is no Asmi, only that Brahman is there. And who is going to describe it and to whom? That's what Sri Ramakrishna means. So Sri Ramakrishna clearly says that this analogy like a salt doll, I will measure it. Hardly had it touched, it starts to melt and then it becomes completely one with the ocean. Who is going to describe it? Now we have to understand if this is the case with everybody, who is going to tell about that Brahman? It has to be conveyed otherwise how will we know?

So a Jeevan Mukta is one, an Avatara is one. Having experienced these things, they keep a little bit of the, or God keeps in them a little bit of the ego as Shankara kept ego of knowledge, as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, devotees, as Narada as a devotee. What for? To convey that knowledge in possible human language so that we know coming from their mouths it is authentic because how do we know it is a truth? I have discussed this point. These are all marvelous points we have to keep in mind. Supposing Sri Ramakrishna tells God exists and I have seen God. Any fool can tell. So many fools go on telling I have seen God, I have experienced God etc etc. But how do we know? They experience it. How do we know? Sri Ramakrishna experienced it. The only way we can understand, let me first give you an analogy. Supposing you know some people and you know that most people cannot be trusted but there is one person, you will stake your life on him because he has never seen to cheat, to gain advantage, to be selfish. He is honest and once he gives a word you know he keeps it. You know him as a truthful person, a trustworthy person. How did you know that he is a trustworthy person? You must have had experience of certain events in your life, in your interactions with that person. It is the same thing. Look at the character of the person and if a person's character is sthita prajna character and for all time we are all sthita prajnas when we are in deep sleep but when crisis comes, when we are about to lose something precious then our character comes out. So you look at Sri Ramakrishna, Jesus Christ, Buddha, let anything happen. They are completely immobile like Mount Sumeru, unshaken, mana, apamana, respect, insult, profit, loss, winning, losing, praise and criticism. Nothing will shape them. They will be ever the same even if you kill, try to kill or harm such a saintly person. How many times? What did Jesus reply to a person who asked, Lord how many times shall I forgive a person?

He says seven times, Jesus Christ says no, seventy-seven times. Seventy-seven doesn't mean like Krishna counting the criticism of Shishupala, keeping number of stones and the moment that Krishna gave word to Shishupala's mother, his own close relative that I will forgive your son's atrocities, hundred times. If the moment hundred one comes then I will finish him. Not like that. So Jesus said any number of times. So there is a story, it is nice to remember. Kabir Das was said to be there in Varanasi and some Muslims hated him because he was behaving more like a Hindu than a Muslim and he had tremendous devotion to Mother Ganga. Every day he goes to take bath. So once he went and a spiteful Muslim, Musalman was waiting for this opportunity and he must have been an expert of a kind. So as soon as Kabir Das came out after taking bath, this man spat fully in Kabir Das's face. Without reacting Kabir Das went, took another dip and came back. Again he spat. Like this hundred times happened. Absolutely no reaction. No, no, I am wrong. Tremendous reaction was there. Not on the part of Kabir Das but on the part of the Muslim. Immediately, immediately he fell at his feet and said, please pardon me. Why? Because I know what I am doing. It is a crime. But there is no reaction in you. That loving look and that transformed everything.

We also get in the Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's life, there were two wicked brothers, Ruffians, Jagai and Madhai and they have hurt, injured Nithyananda and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu went and embraced them. Why? Because that is the permanent solution. Once Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, once Chaitanya embraces anybody like Sri Ramakrishna's blessing, Chaitanya Ho and their spirituality was awakened. They were Hindus, Hindu Brahmins actually. They realized their mistake, they renounced their wickedness, became completely devout slaves of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. So like that the character tells. What is the subject? Subject is, a person's word can be trusted. First we have to examine his character and if what he is, as what he claims to be or we claim him to be, is a God person, man of God, God-related soul, then it is proved until the body drops off to the hilt that he behaves like a God. Not like a human being. So we have to understand this one. God assumes all these forms. So long as we have a mind and that too not very advanced mind, God is with form, with qualities and any number of forms, etc., etc. But if we become a little more advanced, we may think of only the qualities. If you remember Rupa Dhyana, Nama Dhyana, Guna Dhyana, that Guna Dhyana confirms this to this formlessness. But once a person succeeds in it, then the next, last, highest step will be Swaroop Dhyana Satyam Granam Anantam Brahma.

So, Saguna Brahma means God with names, forms, infinite names, infinite forms, infinite qualities is meant for the bhaktas. But we also have to understand, what do you mean by infinite? Only good qualities? No. Even a bad quality is a good quality if it is going to result in goodness. So if a soldier kills a wicked person, if police put a criminal behind the bars, that is great suffering for the criminal, but for the good of the society. But more importantly, for the good of that criminal himself, who should be removed of his criminality until he understands, crime is not good for me. So even killing is a wonderful quality, suffering is a wonderful quality. That is why Holy Mother says, misery is a gift of God. So you see, Saguna Brahma means any thought about God, any relationship with God, any quality we attribute to God, superimpose upon God, that is called Saguna Brahma, and it is meant for the bhaktas. Here we also have to distinguish, a bhakta is one endowed with tremendous amount of feeling, emotion, but a Jnani wants to be a little bit emotionless. Why? I make fun of them. Because this fellow had never received any love, had never been able to eat prasadam of sakre pongal and tirupati laddus in janmajan mantra, so he had become dry like a stick, cannot feel any emotion, and the only way he can escape from his own miserable self is to feel egotistically, I am not like you, I meditate on the formless aspect of God, and when you look at his face, you will see how much of misery is trying, overflowing, and yet he is not able to understand it. But true Jnanis are there, their eyes will be melting with water. Remember the explanation of Sri Ramakrishna and 64,000 rishis who are accustomed to meditate upon the nirguna aspect of Brahman. The moment they beheld Rama, who is Saguna Brahma, they never experienced until that time the joy of the Saguna Brahma. Now they understood and they said, Rama, we would like to be always in your company because this joy is inexplicable, indescribable, and we can never be away from it. Radha represents this kind of devotion to both Saguna Brahma and Nirguna Brahma. Radha is not a woman, Krishna is not a man, Radha represents the highest devotion personified. Krishna represents that unimaginable form of God, both in his Saguna and Nirguna aspects. So this Saguna Brahman is meant for the bhaktas. Now the question is, if you are brainwashed by Advaita Vedanta, Saguna Brahma cannot give liberation, then you better get a little more brainwashed.

So this second brainwashing is to remove all that mud that is stuck to our brains. What is this second brainwashing? God can be realized through bhakti, through jnanam, through yoga and through service. Bhakti bhagasya bhajanam bhava bhedakaari. But only through the grace of God, the smatva me vasaranam mama deenavandho. Then Ramakrishna proceeds. But here is my commentaries. Can Jnanis meditate on Nirguna Brahman? Because Jnanis claim, and then now and then the description comes, Jnani likes to meditate on Nirguna Brahman. That is the question raised by me. Can Jnanis really meditate on Nirguna Brahman? In other words, a bhakta believes that God has attributes is Ramakrishna's words. A bhakta believes that God has attributes and reveals himself to men as a person assuming forms. It is he who listens to our prayers. The prayers that you utter are directed to him alone. And then Ramakrishna is giving a peculiar teaching. Remember, he is talking to the Brahmo devotees. There are many. He says, you are bhaktas, not Jnanis or Vedantins. Why did Ramakrishna say so? Because you are full of emotion. If your wife cooks a nice dish, you think I am so lucky. But in the opposite experience, you think you must have committed terrible sin. With this kind of mind, which is swayed with the slightest wind of puff, a person cannot be neither a Vedantist nor a Jnani. You are bhaktas. But if you wish to think about God without forms but with qualities, you are welcome. But Ramakrishna did not correct them completely. He says, you remain with the delusion, you enter cherishing that we meditate upon the nirakara Brahman.

Ramakrishna, like Krishna, he says, He says, As long as a person thinks I am the body, it is impossible for him to think of God as nirguna Brahman because you are bhaktas. Bhakta means you are having that deep rooted idea, I am the body, I am the mind. You can never be a Jnani or a Vedantin in that sense at all. So can Jnanis meditate on nirguna Brahman? No, they also meditate. Meditation is done through what? Through the instrumentality of the mind. And what is an ordinary person's mind? Consissa, Nama, Rupa, Guna, limited by time, space and causation. With this mind, whatever he thinks, what is meditation? Deep thinking. Whatever this person thinks, it will be only name, form and qualities. Sri Ramakrishna makes fun. Even a six year old child of this Brahmo Samaj is meditating on nirakara Brahman. My God! But they did not understand even Sri Ramakrishna was making fun. That is why Keshav Chandra Sen understood. That is why in the end his life became completely, totally transformed. He became a bhakta. In the last scene we see he was suffering and Sri Ramakrishna goes on the last visit before his death. For a long time Keshav Chandra Sen was not able to come down. He became extremely weak. But he cannot but come down because Sri Ramakrishna came the beloved of his heart. So he came down holding the wall slowly. It took him long time and then he had to cough also a lot. Then he fell at the feet of Sri Ramakrishna, laid himself touching the feet of Sri Ramakrishna for a long time. Sri Ramakrishna went meanwhile into samadhi. You have to understand that Keshav Chandra Sen now was completely thinking only on the Divine Mother. Fatherly qualities now became transformed into motherly qualities.

You are all bhaktas, means emotional people. I don't know whether Sri Ramakrishna is certifying them as real bhaktas but they have some good qualities, no doubt about it. So can a Gnani meditate on Nirguna Brahman? Absolutely no. He can become one with Nirguna Brahman but not meditate on Nirguna Brahman. Sri Ramakrishna continues, it doesn't matter whether we accept God with form or not. The crux of the matter, the essence of the whole thing, whether you meditate with form, without form, with qualities, without qualities, whatever you do, it doesn't matter whether you accept God with form or not. What is important, what does really matter is enough to feel that God is a person who listens to our prayers, who creates, preserves and destroys the universe and who is endowed with infinite power. That means what? He can do the impossible possible. God can do anything. Can He give me moksha? Yes. Where does He give me moksha? Me? I don't have any sadhana. I don't have any bhakti, not to speak of much. Will He give me? Yes, absolutely. What do I need to do? Simply come to Varanasi and stay put without roaming here and there, wandering here and there, become a kutichaka, not bahudaka. So one has to stay here with the faith, without faith, doesn't matter. Simply say, I have to die somewhere. Some people ask me, should we have the idea that Shiva is going to give liberation? No. Holy Mother clarified it. Even an ant, if it dies here, it gets liberation. Does an ant is doing viveka, discrimination between the real and the unreal? What about a Muslim? What about a believer? What about a non-believer?

What about so many wicked people? Varanasi is full of expert thieves. How many people have been cheated in this city? Somebody asked me, how come in this sacred city of Shiva so many thieves, robbers, cheats are there? I said, I am revealing to you a great secret. After all Shiva is recognised by Gnanis as Salutations to the emperor of thieves, emperor of robbers. If Shiva Himself is that, what do you think the people who live will be? So will they also get liberation? Absolutely. Why does he want to give liberation? Because that is his way of establishing Dharma. These are troublesome fellows. So if I give operation, it will take long time, many lives they will go on giving trouble. Once and for all, let me give liberation for them. So you believe, you don't believe. Just stay put here, see that you will breathe your last in Varanasi and I can guarantee you that you will become mukta. But by the grace of God. This is the greatness of Varanasi. So Ram Krishna finally says it is easier to attain God by following the path of devotion. In other words, one can obtain liberation to become one with God by Brahman, by following any path. Christians will attain Him, Muslims will attain Him, Buddhists will attain Him, Hindus will attain Him, Jains, Sikhs, everybody, provided they have a modicum of devotion and a bit of good character.

We have to first become gentlemen. Then slowly we can progress. But if you want in this life itself, please come to Varanasi. I will be very happy to see you for a short time.

Om Jananim Sharadaam Devyim Ramakrishnam Jagat Gurum Pada Padme Tayosritva Pranavami Mohur Mohuhu

May Ram Krishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with bhakti.