RELIGION AND REALIZATION
MARCH --1882
Place : - Temple of Dakshineswar
(Henceforth Shri Ramkrishna will be spoken of as Thakur” when required as it is so done in the Gospel )
409.
“An unknown man whom the child has never seen before, appears and says, ‘Well,
come along with me, I shall be taking you to your mother’. The child will
accompany him and the child will be taken on shoulder by the unknown man”.
It
is an instance of a child who in his play has forgotten everything. After
sometime, the child is satiated with his play, nay, he becomes disgusted with
his play. He feels a keen yearning to go to his mother.
Mother
– God – the Absolute.
Child
– I or ego.
God-the-Preceptor
– God with form (Saguna Brahma).
Child
represents any and every man in the world. Being forgetful of his real self he
keeps on holding a chase after illusion. He seeks and runs after something but
he does not know what it is. He gets himself disgusted. Then he turns towards
God and feels a great yearning for Him. At this turning point God, out of
grace, appears before the man as God-the-Preceptor. This God-the-Preceptor is
an unknown man and he will take the man on His shoulder.
“The
father has taken the child on his shoulder”.
–
Sri Ramkrishna
It
is seen.
The
Master with Sri ‘M’ and other devotees
At
Dakshineswar Temple
August
19, 1883
410.
“It relates about Knowledge of the Self”.
Knowledge
of the Self is divided into two parts. One is Ascent and the other is Descent.
Ascent has two aspects:–
(1)
God with attributes.
(2)
God without attributes.
A
devotee in the process of transformation of Life Power becomes identical with
Atman. This is the first aspect of Ascent. The second aspect is the state of
no-ego-consciousness. A devotee of an ordinary type (Jivakoty) does not come
down. He gets Maha Nirvana or melts into the First Cause. It is called
liberation in the true sense of the term.
In
spite of getting melted in the First Cause if a devotee comes down in Descent
then starts ‘Grand force of Life Power’ – Mahavayu and ‘Grand transformation of
Life Power – Mahayoga. This is the stage which has been described and compared
by Thakur as a paddy-field from where crops have been harvested and ‘a locality
which is flooded with deep water’. At this stage a devotee sees Param (Grand)
Atman. This seeing of Paramatman happens long before realization of Divine
Consciousness (Chaitanya) which flares up in a brilliant red light in the
seventh plane. But all these realizations happen with Avatars only.
411.
“I am Grand Atman or Paramatman”.
There
is a certain sect who repeats this thing; not that they have attained this
stage but they simply keep on repeating. On their part it is pure and simple
imagination. Because the man who is blessed with this realization gets his
angle of vision changed and becomes a right royal devotee in these five forms
viz.: –
(i)
a servant to God;
(ii)
a friend to God;
(iii)
father or mother to God;
(iv)
a lady-love of God; or,
(v)
absolute quietness.
But
mere repetition ‘I am Paramatman’ does not help one to attain this state.
412.
“They are Vedantists”.
Vedantists
are they who realize God in the seventh plane in five different sportive forms,
viz.: –
(1)
God as shown by God-the-Preceptor.
(2)
God holding the Universe within Him.
(3)
God-the-Universe changed into a Seed.
(4)
Seed in its turn changed into a Dream.
(5)
Dream Vanishes.
...
What remains nobody knows and the ego-consciousness has been merged into the
Great Cause. These Vedantists are seekers of liberation or Maha Nirvana. They
get only realizations of Ascent and they do not know anything of Descent.
413.
“This is the idea entertained by the sanyasis or monks”.
Who
is a Sanyasi?
Sanyasi
– means one who has given up everything. In short, this human body is the only
property which a man has got. To give up everything means that he will realize
that he is identical and one with God. To have this stage there will be an
emanation of God in full measure from the body. It means separation of body and
God. Its manifestation will come physically.
This
transformation of Life Power has got its own singular sign. No sooner
separation of God from the body will be heard by him, his neck will keep on
moving from right to left and left to right and in its course it will be making
sound like that of a dried betel-nut in a shell or a dried coconut in a shell.
Without this special yogic sign a man cannot be a true Sanyasi or ‘given up-of
all’.
