SriRamakrishna Parables

7/30/2019 SriRamakrishna Parables

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Parables

From Gospel of

Sri Ramakrishna





MASTER: "You were talking of worshipping the

clay image. Even if the image is made of clay,

there is need for that sort of worship. GodHimself has provided different forms of worship.

He who is the Lord of the Universe has arranged

all these forms to suit different men in different

stages of knowledge. "The mother cooks

different dishes to suit the stomachs of her

different children. Suppose she has five children.

If there is a fish to cook, she prepares variousdishes from it - pilau, pickled fish,

fried fish, and so on - to suit their

different tastes and powers of digestion.

different forms of worship



"If you enter the world without first cultivating love for

God, you will be entangled more and more. You will be

overwhelmed with its danger, its grief, its sorrows. And

the more you think of worldly things, the more you will be

attached to them.

"First rub your hands with oil and then break open the

jack-fruit; otherwise they will be smeared with its sticky

milk. First secure the oil of divine love,

and then set your hands

to the duties of the world."

secure the oil of divine love



But one must go into solitude to attain this

divine love. To get butter from milk you must let

it set into curd in a secluded spot; if it is too

much disturbed, milk won't turn into curd. Next,

you must put aside all other duties, sit in a

quiet spot, and churn the curd. Only then do

you get butter.

attain divine love



MASTER: "Truthfulness in speech is the tapasya

of the Kaliyuga. It is difficult to practise other

austerities in this cycle. By adhering to truth one

attains God. Tulsidas said: 'Truthfulness,

obedience to God, and the regarding of others'

wives as one's mother, are the

greatest virtues. If one does not

realize God by practising them,

then Tulsi is a liar.'

realize God by….



"It is necessary to pray to Him with a longing

heart. The kitten knows only how to call its

mother , crying, 'Mew, mew!' It remains satisfied

wherever its mother puts it. The mother cat puts

the kitten sometimes in the kitchen, sometimes on

the floor, and sometimes on the bed. When it

suffers it cries only, 'Mew, mew!‘ That's all it

knows. As the mother hears this cry, wherever

she may be; she comes to the kitten."

pray longingly





Hearing what had happened, his teacher and his brother

disciples came to him and carried him to the hermitage.

With the help of some medicine he soon regainedconsciousness. Someone asked him, 'You knew the

elephant was coming - why didn't you leave the place?'

'But', he said, 'our teacher has told us that God Himself

has taken all these forms, of animals as well as men.

Therefore, thinking it was only the elephant God that was

coming, I didn't run away.' At this the teacher said: 'Yes,

my child, it is true that the elephant God was coming; but

the mahut God forbade you to stay there. Since all are

manifestations of God, why didn'tyou trust the mahut's words?

You should have

heeded the words of the mahut God.'

(Laughter)

see God in all



"One man may read the Bhagavata by the

light of a lamp, and another may commit

a forgery by that very light; but the lamp is

unaffected. The sun sheds its light on the wicked

as well as on the virtuous.

"You may ask, 'How, then, can one explain misery and sin

and unhappiness?‘

The answer is that these apply only to the jiva. Brahman is

unaffected by them. There is poison in a snake; but though

others may die if bitten by it, the snake itself is not affected

by the poison.

Jiva suffers, Love Siva



"Men often think they have understood Brahman fully.

Once an ant went to a hill of sugar. One grain filled its

stomach. Taking another grain in its mouth it started

homeward. On its way it thought, 'Next time I shall

carry home the whole hill.' That is the way shallow minds

think. They don't know that Brahman is beyond

one's words and thought. However great a man may be,

how much can he know of Brahman? Sukadeva and

sages like him may have been big ants; but even they

could carry at the utmost eight or ten grains of sugar!

Brahman is beyond



"As for what has been said in the Vedas and the Puranas,

do you know what it is like? Suppose a man has seen theocean, and somebody asks him, 'Well, what is the ocean

like?' The first man opens his mouth as wide as he can

and says: 'What a sight! What tremendous waves and

sounds!' The description of Brahman in the sacred books

is like that. It is said in the Vedas that Brahman is of the

nature of Bliss - It is Satchidananda.

"Suka and other sages stood on the shore of this Ocean of

Brahman and saw and touched the water. According to

one school of thought they never plunged into it. Thosewho do, cannot come back to the world again.

- It is Satchidananda



By the philanthropic activities you are really doing good to

yourself. If you can do them disinterestedly, your mind will

become pure and you will develop love of God. As soon as

you have that love you will realize Him.

"Man cannot really help the world. God alone does that -

He who has created the sun and the moon, who has put

love for their children in parents' hearts, endowed noble

souls with compassion, and holy men and devotees with

divine love. The man who works for others, without any

selfish motive, really does good to himself.

become pure develop love of God



One may enter the world after attaining discrimination and

dispassion. In the ocean of the world there are six

alligators: lust, anger, and so forth. But you need not fear

the alligators if you smear your body with turmeric before

you go into the water. Discrimination and dispassion are

the turmeric. Discrimination is the knowledge of what is real

and what is unreal. It is the realization that God alone is the

real and eternal Substance and that all else is unreal,

transitory, impermanent. And you must cultivate intense

zeal for God. You must feel love for Him and be attracted to

Him. The gopis of Vrindāvan felt the attraction of Krishna.

cultivate intense zeal for God



"If one analyses oneself, one doesn't find any such thing as

'I'. Take an onion, for instance. First of all you peel off the

red outer skin; then you find thick white skins. Peel these off

one after the other, and you won't find anything inside.

"In that state a man no longer finds the existence of his ego.

And who is there left to seek it? Who can describe how he

feels in that state-in his own Pure Consciousness-about the

real nature of Brahman? Once a salt doll went to measure

the depth of the ocean. No sooner was it in the water than it

melted. Now who was to tell the depth?

Illusoriness of "I"



"Listen to a story. Once a man entered a wood

and saw a small animal on a tree. He cameback and told another man that he had seen a

creature of a beautiful red colour on a certain

tree.

The second man replied:

'When I went into the wood, I also saw thatanimal. But why do you call it red? It is green.'

Another man who was present contradicted them both and

insisted that it was yellow. Presently others arrived and

contended that it was grey, violet, blue, and so forth and soon. At last they started quarrelling among themselves. To

settle the dispute they all went to the tree….continued

Parable of the chameleon



They saw a man sitting under it. On being

asked, he replied: 'Yes, I live under this tree

and I know the animal very well. All your descriptions are true. Sometimes it

appears red, sometimes yellow, and at other

times blue, violet, grey, and so forth. It is a chameleon.

And sometimes it has no colour at all. Now it has a colour,

and now it has none.'"In like manner, one who constantly thinks of God can

know His real nature; he alone knows that God reveals

Himself to seekers in various forms and aspects. God has

attributes; then again He has none. Only the man wholives under the tree knows that the chameleon can appear

in various colours, and he knows, further, that the animal

at times has no colour at all. It is the others who suffer

from the agony of futile argument.

Parable of the chameleon



"One cannot see God if one has even the slightest trace

of worldliness.

Match-sticks, if damp, won't strike fire

though you rub a thousand of them

against the match-box.

You only waste a heap of sticks.

The mind soaked in worldliness is sucha damp match-stick.

'Why, we don't see Him



God's nature like that of a child

"I used to see God directly with these very eyes, just as I

see you. Now I see divine visions in trance."After realizing God a man becomes like a child. One

acquires the nature of the object one meditates upon.

The nature of God is like that of a child. As a child builds up

his toy house and then breaks it down, so Godacts while creating, preserving, and destroying the

universe. Further, as the child is not under the control of

any guna, so God is beyond the three gunas-sattva, rajas,

and tamas. That is why paramahamsas keep five

or ten children with them, that they may assume their nature.“

God is like a child



Master's attitude toward the wicked

"It is God alone", he said, "who has become all this. But in

certain places- for instance, in a holy man-there is a greater

manifestation than in others. You may say, there are wicked

men also. That is true, even as

there are tigers and lions; but one need not

hug the 'tiger God'.

One should keep away from him and salute himfrom a distance. Take water, for instance. Some water may

be drunk, some may be used for worship, some for bathing,

and some only for washing dishes."

need not hug the 'tiger God'.





Indications of God-realization

"There are certain signs of God-realization. The man in

whom longing for God manifests its glories is not far from

attaining Him. What are the glories of that longing? They

are

• discrimination,

• dispassion,

• compassion for living beings,• serving holy men, loving their company,

• chanting the name and glories of God,

• telling the truth, and the like.

When you see those signs of longing in an aspirant, youcan rightly say that for him the vision of God is not far to

seek.

signs of God-realization



"The state of a servant's house will tell you

unmistakably whether his master has decided to

visit it. First, the rubbish and jungle around the

house are cleared up. Second, the soot and dirt

are removed from the rooms.

Third, the courtyard, floors, and other places areswept clean. Finally the master himself sends

various things to the house such as a carpet, a

hubble-bubble for smoking, and the like. When

you see these things arriving, you conclude thatthe master will very soon come"

signs of God-realization

P f d t



The impurity of the mind is destroyed through the

performance of duty. It is like getting rid of a disease by

means of medicine, under the instruction of a competent

physician.

Perform duty

H ill f f it



"Why doesn't God free us from the world?

Ah, He will free us when the disease is cured. He

will liberate us from the world when we are

through with the enjoyment of 'woman and gold'.Once a man registers his name in the hospital,

he cannot run away. The doctor will not let him go

away unless his illness is completely cured."

He will free us_pray for it



Parable of the elephant and the blind men

"Once some blind men chanced to comenear an animal that someone told them was

an elephant. They were asked what the

elephant was like. The blind men began to feel its

body. One of them said the elephant was like a pillar;

he had touched only its leg. Another said it was like awinnowing-fan; he had touched only its ear. In this way

the others, having touched its tail or belly, gave their

different versions of the elephant. Just

so, a man who has seen only one aspect of God limitsGod to that alone. It is his conviction that God cannot

be anything else.

vision of God

Awake to vision of God



Born with God-Consciousness.

There is the parable of the Homa bird in the Vedas.

The bird lives high up in the sky and never descends toearth. It lays its egg in the sky, and the egg begins to

fall. But the bird lives in such a high region that the egg

hatches while falling.

The fledgling comes out and continues to fall. But it isstill so high that while falling it grows wings and its

eyes open.

Then the young bird perceives that it is dashing down

toward the earth and will be instantly killed. The

moment it sees the ground, it turns and shoots uptoward its mother in the sky.

Then its one goal is to reach its mother.

Awake to vision of God

S i G d i thi



"There was a monastery in a certain place. The monks

residing there went out daily to beg their food. One

day a monk, while out for his alms, saw a landlord beating

a man mercilessly. The compassionate monk

stepped in and asked the landlord to stop. But thelandlord was filled with anger and turned his wrath against

the innocent monk. He beat the monk till he fell

unconscious on the ground. Someone reported the matter to the monastery. The monks ran to the spot and found

their brother lying there. …continued

Seeing God in everything



Four or five of them carried him back and laid him on a

bed. He was still unconscious. The other monks sat

around him sad at heart; some were fanning him. Finally

someone suggested that he should be given a little milk to

drink. When it was poured into his mouth he regainedconsciousness. He opened his eyes and looked around.

One of the monks said, 'Let us see whether he is fully

conscious and can recognize us.' Shouting into his ear, hesaid, 'Revered sir, who is giving you milk?' 'Brother,'

replied the holy man in a low voice, 'He who beat me is

now giving me milk.'

Seeing God in everything

i hi i



" 'As is a man's feeling of love, so is his gain.' Once

two friends were going along the street, when they saw

some people listening to a reading of the Bhagavata.

'Come, friend', said the one to the other. 'Let us hear

the sacred book.' So saying he went in and sat down. The

second man peeped in and went away. He entered

a house of ill fame. But very soon he felt disgusted with

the place. 'Shame on me!' he said to himself. 'My

friend has been listening to the sacred word of Hari; and

see where I am!'

… so is his gain

i hi i



But the friend who had been listening to the Bhagavata

also became disgusted. 'What a fool I am!' he said. 'I

have been listening to this fellow's blah-blah, and my

friend is having a grand time.' In course of time they both

died. The messenger of Death came for the soul of the

one who had listened to the Bhagavata and dragged it off

to hell. The messenger of God came for the soul of the

one who had been to the house of prostitution and led it

up to heaven.

… so is his gain

world is His play



MASTER: "Everything depends on the will of God. The

world is His play. He has created all these different

things - great and small, strong and weak, good and bad,

virtuous and vicious. This is all His maya, His sport.

You must have observed that all the trees in a garden are

not of the same kind. "As long as a man has not realized

God, he thinks he is free. It is God Himself who keeps this

error in man.Otherwise sin would have multiplied. Man would not have

been afraid of sin, and there would have been no

punishment for it.

world is His play



"But do you know the attitude of one who has

realized God?

He feels: 'I am the machine, and Thou, O Lord,

art the Operator.I am the house and Thou art the Indweller.

I am the chariot and Thou art the Driver.

I move as Thou movest me; I speak as Thou

makest me speak.'



" As long as God keeps the awareness of 'I' in us,

so long do sense-objects exist; and we cannot

very well speak of the world as a dream. Thereis fire in the hearth; therefore the rice and pulse

and potatoes and the other vegetables jump

about in the pot. They jump about as if to say:

'We are here! We are jumping!' This body is thepot. The mind and intelligence are the water.

The objects of the senses are the rice, potatoes,

and other vegetables. The 'I-consciousness'

identified with the senses says, 'I am jumping

about.' And Satchidananda is the fire.

The 'I-consciousness'

Oneness of God



"The Truth established in the Vedas, the Puranas, and the

Tantras is but one Satchidananda. In the Vedas It is calledBrahman, in the Puranas It is called Krishna, Rāma, andso on, and in the Tantras It is called Śiva. The one Satchidananda is called Brahman, Krishna, and

Śiva.“ A man who has seen God sometimes behaves like a

madman: he laughs, weeps, dances, and sings.

Sometimes he behaves like a child, a child five years old-

guileless, generous, without vanity, unattached to

anything, not under the control of any of the gunas,always blissful.

Oneness of God

it is God who has become



"By taking off, one by one, the sheaths of a banana tree,

one obtains the pith. The sheaths are one thing, and the

pith is another. The sheaths are not the pith, and the pith

is not the sheaths. But in the end one realizes that the

pith cannot exist apart from the sheaths, and the sheaths

cannot exist apart from the pith; they are part and parcel

of one and the same banana tree. Likewise, it is God who

has become the twenty-four cosmic principles; it is He

who has become man.

… it is God who has become

ki d f d t



"There are three kinds of devotees: superior, mediocre,

and inferior. The inferior devotee says, 'God is out

there.' According to him God is different from His

creation. The mediocre devotee says: 'God is the

Antaryami, the Inner Guide. God dwells in everyone's

heart. The mediocre devotee sees God in the heart. But

the superior devotee sees that God alone has become

everything; He alone has become the twenty-four

cosmic principles. He finds that everything, above and

below, is filled with God.

kinds of devotees

D S k & M t



"Can't you forbid people to salute you by touching your

feet?"

"Can all comprehend the Indivisible Satchidananda?"DR. SARKAR: "But shouldn't you tell people what is right?"

Different disciplines for different temperaments:

MASTER: "People have different tastes. Besides, all have

not the same fitness for spiritual life.“ DR. SARKAR: "How is that?"MASTER: "Don't you know what difference in taste is?

Some enjoy fish curry; some, fried fish; some, pickled fish;

and again, some, the rich dish of fish pilau. Then too, there

is difference in fitness. I ask people to learn to shoot at abanana tree first, then at the wick of a lamp, and then at a

flying bird."

Dr. Sarkar & Master

If U die praying to God



MASTER: "If a man practises spiritual discipline

before his death and if he gives up his body

praying to God and meditating on Him, when will

sin touch him? It is no doubt the elephant's

nature to smear his body with dust and mud,

even after his bath. But he cannot do so if the

mahut takes him into the stable immediately

after his bath."

If U die praying to God…

P t i i fi it



"Take the case of the infinite ocean. There is no limit to

its water: Suppose a pot is immersed in it: there is

water both inside and outside the pot. The Jnāni sees

that both inside and outside there is nothing but

Parmatman. Then what is this pot? It is 'I-consciousness'.

Because of the pot the water appears to be divided

into two parts; because of the pot you seem to perceive

an inside and an outside. One feels that way as longas this pot of 'I' exists. When the 'I' disappears, what is

remains. That cannot be described in words.

Parmatman is infinite ocean

'O King, I now understand.'



MASTER: "Listen to a story. There was a king who used

daily to hear the Bhagavata recited by a pundit. Every

day, after explaining the sacred book, the pundit would sayto the king, 'O King, have you understood what I

have said?' And every day the king would reply, 'You had

better understand it first yourself.' The pundit would

return home and think: 'Why does the king talk to me that

way day after day? I explain the texts to him soclearly, and he says to me, "You had better understand it

first yourself." What does he mean?' The pundit used

to practise spiritual discipline. A few days later he came to

realize that God alone is real and everything else_ house,family, wealth, friends, name, and fame-illusory. Convinced

of the unreality of the world, he renounced it. As he left

home he asked a man to take this message to the king: 'O

King, I now understand.'

g,



practice spiritual discipline C God



MASTER: "Proof? God can be seen. By practising

spiritual discipline one sees God, through His grace.

The rishis directly realized the Self. One cannot know

the truth about God through science. Science gives us

information only about things perceived by the senses,

as for instance: this material mixed with that material

gives such and such a result, and that material mixedwith this material gives such and such a result.

"For this reason a man cannot comprehend spiritual

things with his ordinary intelligence. To understand

them he must live in the company of holy persons. Youlearn to feel the pulse by living with a physician."

practice spiritual discipline, C God

reveal Thyself to me!'



MASTER: "The best path for this age is the path of bhakti:

to sing the name and glories of God and pray to Him with

a longing heart, 'O God, give me knowledge, give medevotion, and reveal Thyself to me!' The path of karma is

extremely difficult. Therefore one should pray: 'O God,

make my duties fewer and fewer; and may I, through Thy

grace, do the few duties that Thou givest me without any

attachment to their results! May I have no desire to beinvolved in many activities!'

"It is not possible to give up work altogether. Even to think

or to meditate is a kind of work.

As you develop love for God, your worldly activitiesbecome fewer and fewer of themselves. And you lose all

interest in them. Can one who has tasted a drink made of

sugar candy enjoy a drink made of ordinary molasses?"

y

take the truth



"Live in the world like an ant. The world contains a

mixture of truth and untruth, sugar and sand. Be an ant

and take the sugar."Again, the world is a mixture of milk and water, the bliss

of God-Consciousness and the pleasure of sense-

enjoyment. Be a swan and drink the milk, leaving the

water aside.

"Live in the world like a waterfowl. The water clings to the

bird, but the bird shakes it off.

Live in the world like a mudfish. The fish lives in the mud,

but its skin is always bright and shiny.

"The world is indeed a mixture of truth and make-believe.Discard the make-believe and take the truth."

Sri Ramakrishna

take the truth

Divine bliss is the highest



"Though the chatak bird is about to die of a parched

throat, and around it there are seven oceans, rivers, and

lakes overflowing with water, still it will not touch that

water. Its throat is cracking with thirst, and still it will not

drink that water. It looks up, mouth agape, for the rain to

fall when the star Svati is in the ascendant. 'To the chatak

bird all waters are mere dryness beside Swati water .‘

However much a bhakta may experience physical joy

and sorrow, he always has knowledge and the divine

love. This treasure never leaves him.

Divine bliss is the highest

wine of ecstatic love



Another day the Master was seated on the small

couch in his room, with his usual beaming

countenance. M. arrived with Kalikrishna, whodid not know where his friend M. was taking him.

He had only been told: "If you want to see a

grog-shop, then come with me. You will see a

huge jar of wine there." M. related this to SriRamakrishna, who laughed about it. The Master

said: "The bliss of worship and communion with

God is the true wine, the wine of ecstatic love.

The goal of human life is to to love God, Bhakti isthe one essential thing. To know God through

jnāna and reasoning is difficult."

wine of ecstatic love

water-pitchers on heads



MASTER: "Everybody will surely be liberated. But one

should follow the instructions of the guru; if one follows

a devious path, one will suffer in trying to retrace one's

steps. It takes a long time to achieve liberation. A man

may fail to obtain it in this life. Perhaps he will realize God

only after many births. Sages like Janaka performed worldly

duties. They performed duties, bearing God in their

minds, as a dancing-girl dances, keeping jars or trays

on her head. Haven't you seen how the women in

northwest India walk, talking and laughing while carrying

water-pitchers on their heads?“

water pitchers on heads

have faith and love



What is the significance of the Gita? It is what

you find by repeating the word ten times. It is

then reversed into 'tagi', which means a person

who has renounced everything for God. And the

lesson of. the Gita is: 'O man, renounce

everything and seek God alone.' Whether a manis a monk or a householder, he has to shake off

all attachment from his mind.

One must have faith and love. There is a popular

saying that Hanuman jumped over the seathrough his faith in Rama's name, but Rama

himself had to build a bridge.



Dakshineshwar temple



The whole symbolic world is represented in the temple

garden –

• the Trinity of the Nature Mother (Kāli),

• the Absolute (Śiva), and

• Love (Radhākānta),

• the Arch spanning heaven and earth. The terrific

Goddess of the Tantra, the soul-enthralling Flute-Player

of the Bhāgavata, and the Self -absorbed Absolute of

the Vedas live together, creating the greatest synthesis

of religions. All aspects of Reality are represented

there.

p

the temple garden



But of this divine household, Kāli is the pivot, thesovereign Mistress. She is Prakriti, the Procreatrix,

Nature, the Destroyer, the Creator. Nay, She issomething greater and deeper still for those who have

eyes to see. She is the Universal Mother, "my Mother" as

Ramakrishna would say, the All-powerful, who reveals

Herself to Her children under different aspects andDivine Incarnations, the Visible God, who leads the elect

to the Invisible Reality; and if it so pleases Her, She

takes away the last trace of ego from created beings and

merges it in the consciousness of the Absolute, the

undifferentiated God. Through Her grace "the finite egoloses itself in the illimitable Ego- Ātman-Brahman".

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SriRamakrishna Parables

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