GOSPEL OF RAMAKRISHNA
crimination of the Real from the unreal, and the finding of the real Guru, or true spiritual master. If your family depends upon you, perhaps your brother will assume its responsibility for you. Perhaps your wife will not hinder you in your spiritual life, but will rather help you; or perhaps you will not marry at all and will not be attached to the world in any way. When such conditions become absolutely favorable, the realization of God becomes easy. Once a man's son lay at the point of death and none could help him. Some one, however, Parable of the father and his diving son. said: "There is but one hope. If you can get the venom of a cobra mixed with a few drops of rain-water fallen under the constellation of Swdti in a human skull, by it your son's life will be saved." The father looked and found that the constellation of Swati would be in the ascendant on the morrow; so he prayed, saying: "O Lord, do Thou make possible all these conditions and spare the life of my son." With extreme earnestness and longing in his heart he set out on the following evening and searched diligently in a deserted spot for a human skull. At last he found one under a tree and watched, praying. Suddenly a shower came up and a few drops of
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