GOSPEL OF RAMAKRISHNA
knowledge of darkness, but Brahman the Abso- lute is beyond knowledge and ignorance and above virtue and vice, merit and demerit, purity and impurity." Syam Babu: Sir, may I ask what remains after both thorns are thrown away? Sri Ramakrishna: What remains is the Abso- lute, called in the Vedas Nityasuddha-bodha- The Absolute Brahman. rupam (the unchangeable, the abso- lately pure source of all knowledge). But how shall I explain it to you? Suppose some one asks you what is the taste of Ghee (clarified butter) like ? Is it possible to define it? The utmost that you can say is that it is pre- cisely like the taste of Ghee. A young girl once asked a friend: "Your husband is come: tell me what sort of joy you feel when you meet him?" Thereupon the married friend replied: "My dear, you will know everything when you have got a husband of your own; how can I explain it to you?" In the Puranas we are told that the Mother of the Universe incarnated Herself as the daughter of the presiding god of the Himalayas. Just after she was born, the king of the moun- tains was blessed with a vision of the various manifestations of the Omnipotent Mother.
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