Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna Lecture 148 on 07-October-2025
Full Transcript (Not Corrected)
Opening Invocation
OM JANANIM SHARADAM DEVIM RAMAKRISHNAM JAGADGURUM PAHADAPADMETAYOH SRIDHVA PRANAMAMI MUHURMUHU
ओम् जननीम् शर्दाम् देवेम् रामक्रिष्णम् जगत् गुरुम् पादपत्मे तयोस्रित्वा प्रणमामि मुहुरु मुहु
The Master and Keshab
October 27, 1882
Introduction: The Festival Season in Bengal
This month is full of festivals in India, especially in Bengal. Just now Durga Puja is over. Before Durga Puja, 15 days is considered very auspicious for offering respects to the dead ancestors, Pitṛ Puruṣas. That's why it is called Pitṛ Pakṣa, the auspicious time for offering Śrāddha etc. to the ancestors. Then Durga Puja came.
It is called Navarātri. Every night the Divine Mother is worshipped with a particular name, form, meditation and result also. And then yesterday, we had this Kojāgarī Lakṣmī Pūjā. It is full moon night. It is a very famous pūjā, especially in Bengal. And people believe that Divine Mother, like any other presiding deities, they are all real.
The Reality of Perception
It depends upon the mind of the person. If a person thinks something is, then it is. If a person thinks it is not, then it is not. That's why Swami Vivekananda had declared a person, every person, as a perception, an idea: "I am so and so." And his concept of everything else—about you, about me, about the world, about the trees, about the birds, everything, including the so-called non-living—will also be exactly that.
Most of us are body-oriented. "I am the body." So therefore, a rock is a body, a tree is a body, a bird is a body, an animal is a body, every human being is a body, including gods and goddesses—everything has got a body. That's what Swami Vivekananda wanted to illustrate.
If someone were to ask a cow, "What's your idea of God?" It says, "It is a huge, most powerful cow in the whole world." And a cow cannot see God in any other form, except in a cow's form, because its identity is only with the cow's form, cow's shape. And if an ant were to be asked, it will say, "The most powerful ant in the world is called God."
If you ask a human being, same thing. That's why we ask: Is Jesus a Jew? Is he an African? Is he an Indian? Or is he an American? Because the painters—there is no photograph or anything, and not even an accurate description of Jesus Christ. But people presume, because he was born in a Jewish race, he will have an aquiline nose, and be a tall person, and like any average Jew, Jesus Christ will be like that, but with infinite softness, love, compassion, power, and beautiful speech. This is human conception.
The Many Forms of the Divine Mother
So when we conceive of the Divine Mother, also we conceive—that is how nine nights, every night, in a different form, the Divine Mother is worshipped. Now Lakṣmī Pūjā is there. That was over yesterday.
Why am I talking about, in the Gospel class, about these pūjās? Because in our last class, we have seen how Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa had mentioned several aspects of the Divine Mother, like Bhadrakālī, Śmaśānakālī, etc. Are they real? Yes, absolutely real.
What is the difference? Reality imagined in the form of a human being, female. Why female? Because Sṛṣṭi, or creation, is always associated, and never associated with a male, only with a female. That is why she is the Divine Mother.
And even when we call—Vedānta calls Īśvara—He is called Saguṇa Brahma. Saguṇa Brahma means only Śakti. We cannot conceive of Nirguṇa Brahma. Even the word Nirguṇa Brahma is a misnomer. That is what Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa said, that nobody could utter, even think of that supreme reality, which is conventionally called Nirguṇa Brahma. Even if you use Saguṇa Brahma, Nirguṇa Brahma, both are Saguṇa Brahma only.
Why? Because it is conceived in the mind, it is uttered by the mouth. So whatever is conceived—limited, conceived means limited—by the mind, can never be the highest reality.
The Freedom to Conceive of God
So what does it show us? Every person has a freedom to think of God in any name, in any form, with any quality. And the way one conceives of God with any particular quality also makes the same person become stronger in that quality.
So that is what Śaṅkarācārya, when we were discussing the Taittirīya Upaniṣad, said: "Yad guṇakaṃ upāsate tadvā deva bhavati"—In whichever way we intensely contemplate any aspect of God, we are likely to become that. Slowly we are going to become that.
That is the way. Upa means nearing, as we near. And my favourite example is: if somebody is nearing the fire, he gets less and less cold, more and more heat, and then if he approaches very near, he himself becomes one with fire, and he acquires the quality of burning anything that falls into him. So if a corpse is burning, and if you throw anything on that corpse, on a burning corpse, the corpse also becomes equally ashes, because it is not a corpse any longer—it is fire only. This is the beautiful concept about contemplation or Upāsanā. And these are the preparations.
Kojāgarī: The Night of Vigilance
Now, on this Kojāgarī—Kojāgarī means whoever is alert, awake and sees everything with an intelligent mind—no doubt he will become prosperous, he will become happier. Lakṣmī doesn't mean only wealth. Usually Lakṣmī is associated with wealth, but that is a very wrong concept.
Every form of the Divine Mother is none other than Divine Mother. Durgā is not confined only to the aspect of protecting people. Durgā Devī—Sṛṣṭi, Sthiti, Vināśa, as we chant every day, especially the devotees of Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa at Vesper service: "Sṛṣṭi, Sthiti, Vināśa, Śakti, Bhūti, Sanātanī, Guṇaśrī, Guṇamayī"—that Guṇaśrī and Guṇamayī is called Īśvara.
The Divine Mother as the Easier Path
But to conceive of the Divine as Mother is very ennobling and very helpful. How is it helpful? Because a baby, maybe there is a prince, and his father is a very ferocious person, personality. But the prince, a baby prince, is never afraid of neither the father much less the mother. Simply he will run, jump into the lap of the mother, and so long as we are not grown up, we are much closer to our mother than anybody else. And mother also reciprocates that aspect.
So to obtain the grace of God much more easily, we obtain pardon for whatever wrong things that we had done, will be much sooner, much quicker, much greater through the mother than through the father. That is why in Christianity or even in Islam, where there is a stern judge—that is the concept of God, He will punish and He will reward like an impartial judge—No, She is an infinitely compassionate mother.
And even if we commit—Hindu philosophy is wonderful. If we are committing something wrong, whose fault is it? Even though knowing, most of the time we commit what we should not do. Why do we do that? We know inside ourselves that we should not do it, and yet we do it. And why do we do it? Because there is a power which is moving us like a puppet.
So we are not to be blamed, really speaking, but God wants to play with us. So He gave us a very special sense that we are free. He implanted an idea: we are free. And that is the mischief maker. But the root cause of this mischief is the Divine Mother Herself. That is Her play.
Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa's Test of Reality
Anyway, there are higher worlds, there are higher beings—all these are absolutely true. Rāmakṛṣṇa's life proved it. Rāmakṛṣṇa wanted to test: is this idol that I am worshipping, is it really alive? Is there Divine Mother? So he was not a fool. He was more rational than even Swami Vivekananda, Narendranāth, or anybody put together.
So he went—he had a metal image, and then put his finger across her nose, whether she is breathing. If she is alive, she must breathe. That was his concept at the earlier stage of his spiritual development. And he found Mother was breathing.
Then he made a strange remark. Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa made a strange remark. When we are in the presence of a lamp, inevitably, there will be a shadow at the back side. If we are walking in the sun, there will be a shadow behind us. So Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa said, "I observed many times, but I could not find any shadow."
Now I can't understand it even today. If she is breathing, then she should have a definite form. And she should have a physical body. And that body should cast in the lamp some shadows. But these are Divine Mysteries. But what is important is that the Divine Mother responds to our earnest prayers, and she answers our doubts, removes our doubts, and enlightens us. She feeds us. Everything that needs to be done, she will do. There is no doubt about it.
Candramaṇi Devī's Vision of Mahālakṣmī
Now coming back to this special Lakṣmī Pūjā, Candramaṇi Devī, almost at midnight, she had a vision of the Mahālakṣmī. That is the point. She could not imagine. She was not expecting. She was only looking for her son who was late in returning. So she became very anxious. Every now and then she used to move forward towards the direction from which he is supposed to return.
And then suddenly she saw this most gorgeous, beautiful, young lady with unsurpassing beauty. And with all the ornaments. It did not occur to her—Who dares to walk in those days, even these days, with such a beautiful, ravishingly beautiful lady at almost midnight, and with so many costly ornaments adorning her?
It is only later on she realised, "Did I have the darśan of Mahālakṣmī?" So she ran to her husband and he said, "Yes. Tonight is a special Pūjā. Mother Lakṣmī will be moving around. Where does she want to go? Ko jāgarī—whoever is intelligently looking."
The Symbolism of the Owl
What does it mean? Not open your eyes like an owl and go on looking forward. By the way, the vehicle of the Divine Mother, Mahālakṣmī is called owl. Owl, you know, huge eyeballs are there and it will be staring. They say whole night it doesn't sleep.
So what is the symbolism? There are many symbolisms. First meaning is the Divine is present in everything in this world. So as a representation, some birds, some animals, some special rocks, stones, like Śāligrāma, for example, or Śiva Liṅga—Liṅga, these are chosen so that we can look upon them, we can develop a spiritual vision. "This is nothing but Lord Śiva." But we can assume this form. But later on, cover everything—living, non-living. Everything that is existing is God. And whatever is coming to us in the form of knowledge is also God.
That is the idea—not only human beings. So that is how we see so many forms.
The Many Aspects of Mother Kālī
Why so many forms of the Mother Kālī? Because Mother Kālī's pūjā is going to come in another—in less than two weeks' time. And that is a grand affair, especially in North India, especially in Bengal. Kālī Pūjā. Rāmakṛṣṇa used to go into ecstasy on every Saturday, Tuesday, and especially on days associated with Mother Kālī.
So coming back, there are so many aspects of Mother Kālī. So the question that can arise in our minds if we are capable of thinking is: why so many aspects of the Mother Kālī? And for that the answer is: as many ways of looking at her by infinite number of minds. That is the reality.
The Parable of the Chameleon
That is to say, supposing we are looking at the sky. If somebody had put on green-coloured, green-tinted specs, the sky will appear green. If it is blue, it will be blue.
Rāmakṛṣṇa had illustrated it through a very beautiful parable. There was a village and there was some wooded area. One day a man was passing and he saw a very strange-looking animal and it was completely blue. So he came and excitedly announced, "Today I have seen a strange animal. It is completely blue."
Immediately somebody answered him, "No, you have seen—I also have seen. But why do you say it is blue? It is red, completely red."
Someone else came and said it is yellow. Like that arguments were going on. They couldn't decide.
So they knew there is a man who will be always sitting under that tree, living under that tree. So they went to him. What is that tree? Tree of knowledge. What is that bird? That is God. Who is sitting under that tree? It is only a realised soul.
So they went to him and asked him. "So I saw it as blue. Somebody said, I saw it as green, as yellow." So the man said, "All of you are right because this animal is capable of assuming any colour, any form and sometimes it doesn't have any colour at all." And that is the greatest teaching of Vedānta or Upaniṣads.
By the way, Vedānta is another name for Upaniṣads.
The Nature of God According to the Realized Soul
So who is the person who can tell? Only after the realisation of God, one can tell God is everything. He is with form, without form, beyond both form and formlessness. He is with name, without name, beyond any name. So He can be anything. Whatever our mind can conceive, it is all included in our concept of God and yet He transcends everything. And that is what beautifully is described in the Nārāyaṇa Sūkta as well as Devī Sūkta.
Same concept about Mother Kālī. If somebody thinks she is ferocious, she is called Śmaśāna Kālī. If she is very, very pleasing, Suprasannā, then she can be called Bhadra Kālī. If she is not having any head, only continuous smoke is arising from her neck—so different concepts.
God Responds According to Our Approach
And God also says, especially in the Bhagavad Gītā, which is the very essence of the Upaniṣads, says: "Whichever way people are approaching me, but with love, with faith, with sincerity, I also respond."
A Rāma Bhakta will get vision of Rāma. A Kṛṣṇa Bhakta will get the vision of Kṛṣṇa. But let no one be a fanatic and say God can be only this. God cannot be that. Because whatever we conceive, we conceive only in the form of idea. Idea is a thought. Thought is a function of the mind or a form of the mind and mind is absolutely limited.
Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa and Mother Kālī
So this Mother Kālī, she is going to be worshipped I think on 20th of this month. Today is 7th, another 13 days. So this Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa attained to the highest peak of realisations of God only by the grace of the Divine Mother.
Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa is not a Kālī Bhakta. It would be wrong to say he is a Kālī Bhakta. Why would it be wrong? Because the moment we say he is a Kālī Bhakta, the idea comes that he is not a Kṛṣṇa Bhakta, Rāma Bhakta, Christ Bhakta, etc. No.
Kālī—Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa himself clarified—"I chose to call her Kālī," rather it is already being named as Dakṣiṇeśvara Kālī by the people who constructed that temple. But at the beginning only Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa used to consider her as Mother Kālī. Very soon he broke the bonds of all limitations. Then pure consciousness—he realised Divine Mother is pure consciousness because any concept of body is a severe limitation and that is not a true spirituality. As a beginning, as an aid, it is fine but very soon we cross that boundary and we enter into that concept of infinity at least in the realm of the ideas.
The Auspiciousness of the Divine Mother
So we all believe if we can also pray like Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa, Divine Mother will grace us. "Sarva maṅgalā māṅgalye"—She is the embodiment of all auspiciousness. That means everything, not only what we consider to be happy, positive, beneficial event. Anything that happens, either a war, millions died—very auspicious. Either an earthquake, thousands died—very auspicious.
How can we call it auspicious when so much of suffering is there in the world? Because we are short sighted, highly myopic. We only see what is happening in front of our eyes. We never see what has happened before. We don't know what happened in our past births. We don't know what is going to happen in future births. We don't know anything about it. Our judgement is purely limited.
The Parable of the Thief
That's why my illustration to make this point very clear is this. One day a man was returning from office and near his house suddenly he encountered a group of people beating one man black and blue. So he thought it was very unjustified. It is pure injustice. So he started shouting, "You stop! Why are you beating this poor man?"
So many people gathered together and then somebody explained, "Don't shout. This man entered into your house. He wanted to kill one of your sons."
Now this person knows why these people have gathered and are trying to punish him. But before that his idea was purely from what he saw in front of his eyes. Like that we are blind in our past lives. What all we did, we do not know. And what is going to happen even the next millisecond we have absolutely no idea. Neither memory of the past nor an inkling of the future.
So we have to be very careful when we are talking about God, why things are happening. Everything happens for good. That is what we need to understand, accept, be grateful and move forward.
Kālī as the Deification of Time
This is just by way of introduction why we have been talking about different aspects of the mother Kālī in our last class and also what is going to happen. In fact Kālī means Kāla just to remind ourselves. So deification of time is called Kālī. That means if we can use our time the way we are supposed to use, then we will feel blessed.
And how do we know that how we have to use our time? The scriptures are there for that only. If you do this, this would be the result. If you do the other thing, this would be the result. If you don't do this thing, then this would be the result. That is why the scripture is nothing but Vidhi and Niṣedha. Do this and do not do this.
The Journey to Meet Keśava Candra Sen
So October 27, 1882. It was Friday, the day of the Lakṣmī Pūjā. Keśava Candra Sen had arranged a boat trip on the Ganges for Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa and a small boat came and then took Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa.
Before that, Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa was talking with another former Brahmo devotee called Vijayakṛṣṇa Goswāmī. Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa awakened in Vijayakṛṣṇa Goswāmī the truth that he has joined an organisation which would hinder his spiritual growth rather than help him. And then Vijayakṛṣṇa Goswāmī was quite intelligent. God's grace in the form of Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa's awakening came upon him. He understood. He accepted. He renounced the Brahmo Samāj.
And after that this event had happened and Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa was talking and then some devotees came with a small boat because they had quite a large ship. The idea is to have the holy company of Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa with lot of Brahmo devotees because Keśava Candra Sen sincerely believed Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa was one of the greatest spiritual personalities. That much he understood by the grace of the Divine Mother.
Keśava Candra Sen's Role
So he started preaching during his sermons and he was an extraordinarily great orator. Very popular everywhere especially in Bengal. So he understood by the grace of the Divine Mother that he was really a great spiritual personality and wholeheartedly accepted Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa as a great spiritual personality though he did not accept every teaching of Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa because lot of kinks were still there in Keśava Candra Sen and he had some desires also.
"I want to become very famous person. Everybody must respect me. If not more at least equal into Jesus Christ in this 19th century. I would like to be revered as a great spiritual personality."
Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa later on pointed out all these things but he was a very sincere person and he used to be absorbed in contemplation. Otherwise Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa would not accept him as a true seeker, and he had some special power by the grace of the Divine Mother.
And I also mentioned how Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa knew through the grace of the Divine Mother: Keśava Candra Sen is also part of this incarnation's mission on earth because it was Keśava Candra Sen or rather his organisation called Brahmo Samāj where he could attract all the modern English educated youth and some of them had become attracted by Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa and they become the future sannyāsins, monks and also devotees of the Rāmakṛṣṇa order. So Keśava Candra Sen had played quite a good role in the drama of Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa's life.
The Journey to the Steamer
Now it was arranged. Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa knew it. A small boat was to carry the master to the steamer. No sooner did he get into the boat then he lost all outer consciousness in samādhi. And because Vijaya Kṛṣṇa Goswāmī was there, the Brahmo devotees—most of them knew him very well—so they could not ignore him. And it was Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa's intention that there should not be any quarrel between Keśava Candra Sen and Vijaya Kṛṣṇa Goswāmī.
And incidentally Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa must have been intuitively grasping the point that Keśava Candra Sen must have become hurt. "My follower, my disciple and he has seceded from me, separated away from me"—must be quite a painful event though he did not express it outward. So the Brahmo devotees did not know that that day Vijaya Kṛṣṇa Goswāmī would be there so they had no choice. Along with Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa he must have insisted also and M entered into the boat.
And Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa lost all outward consciousness. With great difficulty he was taken to the ship and slowly he was assisted in entering into that big boat. And then Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa again and again was talking about the highest truths and some of them we discussed in our last class.
M also was there. Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa wanted M because he is going to be the future chronicler of the Gospel of Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa. The Divine Mother informed Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa and it would be so.
Kṛṣṇa Consciousness
Now gaining partial outward consciousness, Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa started talking:
"A person in Kṛṣṇa consciousness certainly sees Lord Kṛṣṇa everywhere and he sees everything in Kṛṣṇa. So a developed devotee will see Kṛṣṇa everywhere and everything in Kṛṣṇa. That means there is no difference. Such a person may appear to see all separate manifestations of the material nature but in each and every instance he is conscious of Kṛṣṇa knowing that everything is the manifestation of Kṛṣṇa."
Even in the simplest teachings of Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa, words of Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa, the highest Upaniṣadic truths come out: "Sarvaṃ khalvidaṃ Brahma"—only instead of using the word Brahma here, Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa is using the word Kṛṣṇa. It could be Rāma, it could be Kālī, it doesn't matter. It means the same thing. And nothing can exist without Kṛṣṇa and Kṛṣṇa is the lord of everything. This is the basic principle of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
That means Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa is telling, making it clear: anybody who worships God, he must see only pure consciousness. But at the beginning, what is called the primary steps is Kṛṣṇa, Rāma, Kālī etc., Śiva etc. But Kṛṣṇa consciousness means it is not Kṛṣṇa's consciousness—Kṛṣṇa is the consciousness.
The Vision of the Devotee
The qualification for seeing Kṛṣṇa everywhere is stated in the Brahma Saṃhitā. There is a beautiful scripture called Brahma Saṃhitā and Caitanya Mahāprabhu during his wanderings came to know about it, probably in South India, I am not sure, and he liked it so much he specially requested someone to make a copy of it. Though the name is Brahma Saṃhitā, it is full of devotion and especially for Kṛṣṇa. So that is what Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa is quoting here.
Interestingly there is a beautiful bhajan especially created by this Hare Kṛṣṇa movement: "Govindaṃ ādi puruṣaṃ tamahaṃ bhajāmi." It starts like that. "I worship the primaeval lord Govinda who is always seen by the devotee whose eyes are anointed with the pulp of love. He is seen in his eternal form of Śyāma Sundara situated within the heart of the devotee." Very interesting formation of words.
So it says Bhakti means devotion, Vilochana means the eyes, and what are the eyes covered with? Premāñjana, the collyrium of infinite devotion. We also have it in our "Khaṇḍanā bhava bandhana," the fourth line: "Jnananjana vimalanayana viksane moha jai"—so if anybody has put on the collyrium of Śyāma Sundara, and what type of Śyāma Sundara? Acintya guṇa svarūpaṃ—unimaginable qualities. Every quality a human being can even think of as a remotest possibility. I worship that Govinda and he is Adipuruṣa—is the origin of everything in this world. I surrender myself to him.
The Attitude of a Lover of God
Hence Rāmakṛṣṇa is putting a question: "Do you know how a lover of God feels?" Because Rāmakṛṣṇa was a lover of God, he knows. So he is putting but he doesn't expect any answer because very few are devotees of God even in front of him, not to speak of now, and they can never answer.
"Do you know how a lover of God feels? His attitude is: O God, thou art the master and I am thy servant. Thou art the mother and I am thy child. Or again, thou art my father and mother. Thou art the whole and I am a part."
He doesn't like to say, "I am Brahma." A devotee, this is the difference between a devotee and one who is treading the path of knowledge. A devotee of God, however much knowledge he has, he would not like to feel, "I am God," because he wants to enjoy.
Interestingly, how long does he want to enjoy? So long as God keeps him in this world. If there is a body, there would be a mind. And if there is a body-mind, there is the sense of duality. And a devotee, if he wishes—a realised devotee—he can transcend it at any time. But by the will of the Lord, he doesn't want to become one with God. He wants to keep the separations as long as possible.
The Five Attitudes of a Devotee
And then he will assume five attitudes: Śānta, Dāsya, Sākhya, Vātsalya and Madhura. But sometimes he also wants to become one and again he wants to go deep and he wants to come out again, dive deep. He wants to have infinite sports, sport with God. So that is what he is saying:
"Tvam eva mātā ca pitā tvam eva, Tvam eva sarvaṃ mama deva deva."
So:
- Deha buddhyā tu dāsoham
- Jīva buddhyā tu aṃśakāhaḥ
- Atma buddhyā tvam evaham
- At the beginning for ordinary devotees like us, we have no choice but to ascend nearer and nearer to God. That is called Upāsanā and we start with Śāntabhāva, develop absolute serenity, unaffectedness by any circumstances. And that is called Śāntabhāva.
- Then I am the servant, you are my master.
- Then I am your friend, you are my friend.
- Then I am a child, you are my parent.
- And I am the parent, you are the child.
- I am your beloved.
Thus like a five storey building, he wants to go up and down because everything is full of divine bliss for him and he wants to enjoy bliss in different ways. Ātma buddhyā tu tvam eva aham—sometimes he assumes, even though he can remain completely one with the Brahman.
Different Paths to the Same Goal
"The yogi seeks to realise the Paramātman, the supreme Soul. His ideal is the union of the embodied soul and the supreme soul. But whereas those who tread the paths of yoga or jñāna, then they don't want any duality. Because they are like people—somehow or other we have to reach the goal. They are frightened, they are cowards. They cannot realise, they cannot enjoy the divine līlā. Somehow by hook by crook they want to become one with God."
What do I mean by hook and crook? There are people who know that we are in no way able to attain liberation, so the only way we can attain liberation is to go to Kāśī and die there and Śiva will give us inevitably mukti. There is no doubt about it. So by hook or crook—by japa, by dhyāna, by meditation, by living in a holy place—but guaranteed mukti is available in Vārāṇasī, Kāśī.
Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa continues: "He is Brahman to the followers of the path of knowledge, Paramātman to the yogis and Bhagavān to the lovers of God."
Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa was talking in this manner. The steamer had been going toward Calcutta but the passengers with their eyes fixed on the master and their ears given to these nectar-like words were oblivious of its motion.
The Question About Śakti and Māyā
Master: "The jñānīs who adhere to the non-dualistic philosophy of Vedānta say that the acts of creation, preservation and destruction—sṛṣṭi, sthiti and laya—the universe itself, the creation itself and all its living beings are the manifestations of Śakti, the Divine Mother. If you reason it out you will realise that all these are as illusory as a dream. Brahman alone is the reality and all else is unreal. Even this very Śakti is unsubstantial like a dream."
Why was Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa talking this way? Ordinarily he would not talk with his intimate devotees and disciples in this way, but he is talking keeping in mind he is talking with Brahmo devotees. Their concept of God is very, very poor. So he says that the whole world is illusion.
Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa's Unique Philosophy
Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa's unique philosophy is that nothing is an illusion from the beginning to the end. It is nothing but pure Brahman. Brahman with name and form is called creation. Creation without name and form is called Brahman. So whatever any created being is enjoying, all this enjoyment falls into three categories only: the waking, the dream and then the deep sleep.
So many times I also told you: does a mosquito dream? Yes, a young male mosquito will be dreaming of Miss Universe, dreaming of a ravishing female mosquito because that is embedded in the very creation. If you see animals, male and female running towards each other, why not you presume that the same thing also is true of mosquito also? In fact that is what scientists had discovered.
But the queen has had her own ideas. She wants the best husband, mate. So she instinctively developed certain tests. The male who can compete with her in rising to the highest—that mosquito, male mosquito which can rise to the highest alone is fit. Instinctively nature wants the very best so that strong offspring will be there, so that they have better chance of survival and propagation, spreading.
Understanding Mithyā (Illusion)
Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa is telling that everything is nothing but Śakti. Brahman alone is the only reality, everything is unreal. What does Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa mean by the word unreal? Does he mean unreal? No, I explained in my last class we should never cherish a wrong idea about what is called Mithyā.
Mithyā is not unreal. Mithyā is not non-existent. Mithyā is limitedness. And what do you mean by limitedness? Is there something really limited outside or we are perceiving everything as limited because of the limitation of our mind? That is the correct answer.
A Brahma jñānī, knower of Brahman, sees Brahman only everywhere. You have to understand, or I will put it in a plain language: a knower of Brahman sees God. A God-realised soul sees God everywhere.
What do you mean by that? Everywhere, there is a table—that is also manifestation of God. There is a tree—that is also manifestation of God. No, that is not what is meant, because God cannot be a table.
Then what is meant? What is meant is: what we call table, tree, mosquito is limited perception by the limited mind. When our mind really becomes unlimited by becoming purer, same object totally changes.
The Vision of the Infinite
That is why in Bhagavad Gītā there are marvellous ślokas are there. We have to understand this point very clearly. "I see Rāmu going, oh he is also manifestation of Brahman. I see a tree, a dog, they are also manifestation of Brahman." Now is that manifestation of Brahman outside or is it my understanding of that person and that animal and that tree as limited?
Inevitably we understand, as we progress in spiritual life, as our mind expands, our idea of a person, of a tree, of a mosquito, of a dog, everything also expands. Then Brahman—oh this dog is Brahman with a name and form, this person is a Brahman with a name and form—but they are not limited. That is the idea.
So we have to understand it: the infinite can never become finite, neither finite can become the infinite. They will ever remain completely opposed to each other. But like a person mistaking a rope for a snake, we can mistake the infinite for the finite and that is because of the finiteness of the instrument through which we are experiencing.
That is why as soon as light is brought, then the snake disappears. What does the person see? Rope. What does this illustration really want to tell us? When we have jñānāñjana, jñāna dṛṣṭi—Sarvaṃ jñānamayam, Sarvaṃ Brahmamayam.
Where is Sarvaṃ Brahmamayam? There is a beautiful kīrtan by Sadāśiva Brahmendra: "Everything is nothing but pure Brahman." Pure Brahman is not limited Brahman.
The Illusion is in Our Mind
So what Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa wants to tell: when or so long as we are perceiving, experiencing everything through the instrumentality of the mind and thinking that what I am seeing is the reality—of course that would be the reality for that particular person, for each one of us—but that's not true reality. That is why illusion is in our mind, not outside.
The whole world is an illusion. As soon as you hear this statement, you get the idea the whole universe is an illusion. That's not the idea. "I see Brahman with name and form and that perception of the infinite as finite with name and form"—means finite—that is called illusion.
So the illusion or delusion, they do not exist outside our mind. The mind itself is a product of this delusion and illusion in the form of time, space and causation. That is the simple truth.
Beyond the Jurisdiction of Śakti
Rāmakṛṣṇa says: "If anybody thought like this, how to perceive truth as it is?" Rāmakṛṣṇa says, "You cannot go beyond the jurisdiction of the Śakti."
And then we have to remember, Rāmakṛṣṇa's vision of Śiva along with Mother Kālī at Maṇikarṇikā Ghāṭ, so marvellous. We have to understand, it is not written in the Purāṇas like Liṅga Purāṇa, Kāśī Khaṇḍa. There it is written only Śiva utters the mantra and the individual becomes free.
No, Rāmakṛṣṇa, what he saw was that Śiva comes and tells the soul, "You are none other than Śiva." But our old saṃskāras will be there. That is when Mother Kālī—Kālī means Kāla, Kāla means limitation, past, present and future—so she comes and cuts the bonds, makes the person go beyond time.
Once a person goes beyond the time, he goes beyond space, he goes beyond causation. And then he knows, "I was never bound and I never even thought that I was bound." This is the beauty of this teaching of Vedānta.
The Nature of Liberation
Usually when you have an experience and then the time, the event passes, then you wake up and then you remember, "Oh I had a dream. Oh yesterday I saw this incident." The incident is not present now but nonetheless it is there in the form of memory.
But when a person attains Brahma jñāna, then he will not have the memory, "Oh I was under the delusion all this time. By the grace of my Guru and my Iṣṭa Devatā I became free." No, that is not going to happen.
These are very beautiful thoughts. We will talk further in our next class.
Closing Prayer
OM JANANIM SHARADAM DEVIM RAMAKRISHNAM JAGADGURUM PAHADAPADMETAYOH SRIDHVA PRANAMAMI MUHURMUHU
ओम् जननीम् शर्दाम् देवेम् रामक्रिष्णम् जगत् गुरुम् पादपत्मे तयोस्रित्वा प्रणमामि मुहुरु मुहु
May Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with Bhakti. Jai Ramakrishna!