GOSPEL OF RAMAKRISHNA
the individual souls and the phenomenal world. First, when a person is discriminating by saying: "Not this, not this," he leaves the individual egos and the phenomenal world aside; then after reaching the Absolute, when he returns, he realizes that the Absolute appears as the phe- The Absolute and the phe-nomenal. nomenal world. In a wood-apple there are seeds, pulp and the shell. When I take the pulp, I leave out the seeds and the shell; but when I speak of the weight of the wood-apple, the weight of the pulp alone would not be equal to it. You will have to weigh the pulp, seeds, shell and everything. That which has pulp has also seeds and shell. Similarly, that which is the Absolute has also all phenomena. Therefore I take both the Absolute Reality and the phenomenal reality. I do not blow away the phenomenal world by calling it a dream, because then the weight will be less. Mahima: This is a wonderful harmony. From the Absolute to the phenomenal and from the phenomenal to the Absolute. Ramakrishna: Those who are Jnanis (monists) look at the world as a dream, but the realistic Bhaktas take every state as real. There are some cows who pick only certain tufts of grass
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