GOSPEL OF RAMAKRISHNA
to enjoy His company and taste Divine Bliss is another. No one can set a limit to the various aspects of God which a Bhakta can realize. They rise ever higher and higher. A devotee: Bhagavan, why can some attain to realization more quickly than others?
Ramakrishna: It depends upon the Sam-skaras or impressions of previous lives. Nothing happens suddenly or by accident. A certain man drank an ounce of wine in the morning and began to act like a drunkard. People, seeing him, wondered why he should be drunk after taking one small glass of wine. Hearing them, however, another man replied: "Because he has been drinking all night." There have Sudden conversion. been many instances of sudden con-version. People living in the midst of wealth and luxury have suddenly renounced the world. Such sudden changes are the re-sults of spiritual impressions acquired in the previous life. In the final incarnation of a Jiva, Sattwa qualities prevail: his heart and soul long for realization, the mind becomes un-attached to worldly pleasures and constantly remains fixed upon the Supreme Being. These people here believe in and worship God without form; that is right. (Addressing the
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