The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 6/Conversations and Dialogues/VI
VI
(Translated from Bengali)
(From the Diary of a Disciple)
(The disciple is Sharatchandra Chakravarty, who published his records in a Bengali book, Swami-Shishya-Samvâda, in two parts. The present series of "Conversations and Dialogues" is a revised translation from this book. Five dialogues of this series have already appeared in the Complete Works,Volume 5)
[Place: Baghbazar, Calcutta. Year: 1897.]
Swamiji has been staying for some days at the house of the late Balaram
Babu. At his wish, a large number of devotees of Shri Ramakrishna have
assembled at the house at 3 p.m. (on May 1, 1897). Swami Yogananda is
amongst those present here. The object of Swamiji is to form an Association.
When all present had taken their seats, Swamiji proceeded to speak as
follows:
"The conviction has grown in my mind after all my travels in various lands
that no great cause can succeed without an organisation. In a country like
ours, however, it does not seem quite practicable to me to start an
organisation at once with a democratic basis or work by general voting.
People in the West are more educated in this respect, and less jealous of
one another than ourselves. They have learnt to respect merit. Take for
instance my case. I was just an insignificant man there, and yet see how
cordially they received and entertained me. When with the spread of
education the masses in our country grow more sympathetic and liberal, when
they learn to have their thoughts expanded beyond the limits of sect or
party, then it will be possible to work; on the democratic basis of
organization. For this reason it is necessary to have a dictator for this
Society. Everybody should obey him, and then in time we may work on the
principle of general voting.
"Let this Association be named after him, in whose name indeed, we have
embraced the monastic life, with whom as your Ideal in life you all toil on
the field of work from your station in family life, within twenty years of
whose passing away a wonderful diffusion of his holy name and extraordinary
life has taken place both in the East and the West. We are the servants of
the Lord. Be you all helpers In this cause."
When Srijut Girish Chandra Ghosh and all other householder disciples present
had approved of the above proposal, the future programme of the Society of
Shri Ramakrishna was taken up for discussion. The Society was named the
Ramakrishna Mission.
Swamiji himself became the general president of the Mission and other
office-bearers also were elected. The rule was laid down that the
Association should hold meetings at the house of Balaram Babu every Sunday
at 4 p.m. Needless to say that Swamiji used to attend these meetings
whenever convenient.
When the meeting had broken up and the members departed, addressing Swami Yogananda, Swamiji said, "So the work is now begun this way; let us see how far it succeeds by the will of Shri Ramakrishna."
Swami Yogananda. You are doing these things with Western methods. Should you say Shri Ramakrishna left us any such instructions?
Swamiji: Well, how do you know that all this is not on Shri Ramakrishna's
lines? He had an infinite breadth of feeling, and dare you shut him up
within your own limited views of life. I will break down these limits and
scatter broadcast over the earth his boundless inspiration. He never
instructed me to introduce any rites of his own worship. We have to realise
the teachings he has left us about religious practice and devotion,
concentration and meditation, and such higher ideas and truths, and then
preach these to all men. The infinite number of faiths are only so many
paths. I haven't been born to found one more sect in a world already teeming
with sects. We have been blessed with obtaining refuge at the feet of the
Master, and we are born to carry his message to the dwellers of the three
worlds.
Swami Yogananda uttered no word of dissent, and so Swamiji continued: Time
and again have I received in this life marks of his grace. He stands behind
and gets all this work done by me. When lying helpless under a tree in an
agony of hunger, when I had not even a scrap of cloth for Kaupina, when I
was resolved on travelling penniless round the world, even then help came in
all ways by the grace of Shri Ramakrishna. And again when crowds jostled
with one another in the streets of Chicago to have a sight of this
Vivekananda, then also, just because I had his grace, I could digest without
difficulty all that honour — a hundredth part of which would have been
enough to turn mad any ordinary man; and by his will, victory followed
everywhere. Now I must conclude by doing something in this country. So
casting all doubt away, please help my work; and you will find everything
fulfilled by his will.
Swami Yogananda: Yes, whatever you will, shall be fulfilled; and are we not
all ever obedient to you? Now and then I do clearly see how Shri Ramakrishna
is getting all these things done through you. And yet, to speak plainly,
some misgiving rises at intervals, for as we saw it, his was of doing things
was different. So I question myself: "Are we sure that we are not going
astray from Shri Ramakrishna's teachings?" And so I take the opposing
attitude and warn you.
Swamiji: You see, the fact is that Shri Ramakrishna is not exactly what the
ordinary followers have comprehended him to be. He had infinite moods and
phases. Even if you might form an idea of the limits of Brahmajnâna, the
knowledge of the Absolute, you could not have any idea of the unfathomable
depths of his mind! Thousands of Vivekanandas may spring forth through one
gracious glance of his eyes! But instead of doing that, he has chosen to get
things done this time through me as his single instrument, and what can I do
in this matter you see?
Saying this, Swamiji left to attend to something else waiting for him, and Swami Yogananda went on praising Swamiji's versatile gifts.
Meanwhile Swamiji returned and asked the disciple, "Do the people in your part of the country know much of Shri Ramakrishna?"
Disciple: Only one man, Nâg Mahâshaya, came to Shri Ramakrishna from our
part of Bengal;[1] it is from him that many came to hear of him and had
their curiosity excited to know more. But that Shri Ramakrishna was the
Incarnation of God, the people there have not yet come to know and some
would not believe it even if told so.
Swamiji: Do you think it is an easy matter to believe so? We who had actual
dealings with him in every respect we who heard of that fact again and again
from his own lips, we who lived and stayed with him for twenty-four hours of
the day — even we off and on have doubts about it coming over us! So what to
speak of others!
Disciple: Did Shri Ramakrishna, out of his own lips ever say that he was
God, the all-perfect Brahman?
Swamiji: Yes, he did so many times. And he said this to all of us. One day
while was staying at the Cossipore garden, his body in imminent danger of
falling off for ever, by the side of his bed I was saying in my mind, "Well,
now if you can declare that you are God, then only will I believe you are
really God Himself." It was only two days before he passed away.
Immediately, he looked up towards me all on a sudden and said, "He who was
Rama, He who was Krishna, verily is He now Ramakrishna in this body. And
that not merely from the standpoint of your Vedanta!"[2] At this I was
struck dumb. Even we haven't had yet the perfect faith, after hearing it
again and again from the holy lips of our Lord himself — our minds still get
disturbed now and then with doubt and despair — and so, what shall we speak
of others being slow to believe? It is indeed a very difficult matter to be
able to declare and believe a man with a body like ours to be God Himself.
We may just go to the length of declaring him to be a "perfected one", or a
"knower of Brahman". Well, it matters nothing, whatever you may call him or
think of him, a saint, or a knower of Brahman, or anything. But take it from
me, never did come to this earth such an all-perfect man as Shri
Ramakrishna! In the utter darkness of the world, this great man is like the
shining pillar of illumination in this age! And by his light alone will man
now cross the ocean of Samsâra!
Disciple: To me it seems, sir, that true faith comes only after actually
seeing or hearing something. Mathur[3] Babu, I have heard, actually saw so
many things about Shri Ramakrishna, and thus he had that wonderful faith in
him.
Swamiji: He who believes not, believes not even after seeing, and thinks that it is all hallucination, or dream and so on. The great transfiguration of Krishna — the Vishvarupa (form universal) — was seen alike by Duryodhana and by Arjuna. But only Arjuna believed, while Duryodhana took it to be magic! Unless He makes us understand, nothing can be stated or understood. Somebody comes to the fullest faith even without seeing or hearing, while somebody else remains plunged in doubt even after witnessing with his own eyes various extraordinary powers for twelve years! The secret of it all is His grace! But then one must persevere, so that the grace may be received.
Disciple: Is there, sir, any law of graces
Swamiji: Yes and no.
Disciple: How is that ?
Swamiji: Those who are pure always in body, mind, and speech, who have strong devotion, who discriminate between the real and the unreal, who persevere in meditation and contemplation — upon them alone the grace of the Lord descends. The Lord, however, is beyond all natural laws — is not under any rules and regulations, or just as Shri Ramakrishna used to say, He has the child's nature — and that's why we find some failing to get any response even after calling on Him for millions of births, while some one else whom we regard as a sinful or penitent man or a disbeliever, would have Illumination in a flash! — On the latter the Lord perhaps lavishes His grace quite unsolicited! You may argue that this man had good merits stored up from previous life, but the mystery is really difficult to understand. Shri Ramakrishna used to say sometimes, "Do rely on Him; be like the dry leaf at the mercy of the wind"; and again he would say, "The wind of His grace is always blowing, what you need to do is to unfurl your sail."
Disciple: But, sir, this is a most tremendous statement. No reasoning, I
see, can stand here.
Swamiji: Ah, all reasoning and arguing is within the limit of the realm of
Maya; it lies within the categories of space, time, and causation. But He is
beyond these categories. We speak of His law, still He is beyond all law. He
creates, or becomes, all that we speak of as laws of nature, and yet He is
outside of them all. He on whom His grace descends, in a moment goes beyond
all law. For this reason there is no condition in grace. It is as His play
or sport. And this creation of the universe is like His play — "
लोकवक्त् लीलाकैवल्यम् — It is the pure delight of sport, as in the
case of men" (Vedanta-Sutras, II. i. 33). Is it not possible for Him who
creates and destroys the universe as if in play to grant salvation by grace
to the greatest sinner? But then it is just His pleasure, His play, to get
somebody through the practice of spiritual discipline and somebody else
without it.
Disciple: Sir, I can't understand this.
Swamiji: And you needn't. Only get your mind to cling to Him as far as you can. For then only the great magic of this world will break of itself. But then, you must persevere. You must take off your mind from lust and lucre, must discriminate always between the real and the unreal — must settle down into the mood of bodilessness with the brooding thought that you are not this body, and must always have the realisation that you are the all-pervading Atman. This persevering practice is called Purushakâra (self-exertion — as distinguished from grace). By such self-exertion will come true reliance on Him, and that is the goal of human achievement.
After a pause Swamiji resumed: Had you not been receiving His grace, why
else would you come here at all? Shri Ramakrishna used to say, "Those who
have had the grace of God cannot but come here. Wherever they might be,
whatever they might be doing, they are sure to be affected by words or
sentiments uttered from here."[4] Just take your own case — do you think
it is possible without the grace of God to have the blessed company of Nag
Mahashaya, a man who rose to spiritual perfection through the strength of
divine grace and came to know fully what this grace really means? "
अनेकजन्मसंसिद्धस्ततो याति परां गतिम् — One attains the highest stage after being
perfected by the practice of repeated births" (Gita, VI. 45). It is only by
virtue of great religious merit acquired through many births that one comes
across a great soul like him. All the characteristics of the highest type of
Bhakti, spoken of in the scriptures, have manifested themselves in Nag
Mahashaya. It is only in him that we actually see fulfilled the widely
quoted text, "तृणादपि सुनीचेन". ("Lowlier than the lowly
stalk of grass.") Blessed indeed is your East Bengal to have been hallowed
by the touch of Nag Mahashaya's feet!
While speaking thus, Swamiji rose to pay a visit to the great poet, Babu
Girish Chandra Ghosh. Swami Yogananda and the disciple followed him.
Reaching Girish Babu's place, Swamiji seated himself and said "You see, G.
C., the impulse is constantly coming nowadays to my mind to do this and to
do that, to scatter broadcast on earth the message of Shri Ramakrishna and
so on. But I pause again to reflect, lest all this give rise to another sect
in India. So I have to work with a good deal of caution. Sometimes I think,
what if a sect does grow up. But then again the thought comes! 'No. Shri
Ramakrishna never disturbed anybody's own spiritual outlook; he always
looked at the inner sameness.' Often do I restrain myself with this thought.
Now, what do you say?"
Girish Babu: What can I say to this? You are the instrument in his hand. You
have to do just what he would have you do. I don't trouble myself over the
detail. But I see that the power of the Lord is getting things done by you,
I see it clear as daylight.
Swamiji: But I think we do things according to our own will. Yet, that in
misfortunes and adversities, in times of want and poverty, he reveals
himself to us and guides us along the true path — this I have been able to
realise. But alas, I still fail to comprehend in any way the greatness of
his power.
Girish Babu: Yes, he said, "If you understand it to the full, everything will at once vanish. Who will work then or who will be made to work?"
After this the talk drifted on to America. And Swamiji grew warm on his subject and went on describing the wonderful wealth of the country, the virtues and defects of men and women there, their luxury and so on.
- ↑ This is not quite correct, for at least two more disciples, viz Nityagopal Goswami and Pundit Kaliprasad Chakravarty are known to have come from Dacca. — Ed.
- ↑ In the sense that a knower of Brahman may declare his identity with any being, such as Manu and so forth. Vide the Vedanta-Sutras I. i. 30.
- ↑ Mathura Nath Biswas, son-in-law of Rani Rasmani, the foundress of the temple at Dakshineswar.
- ↑ With his egoism perfectly merged in the consciousness of the Mother, the use of to word "here" by Shri Ramakrishna would often stand for the ordinary reference to self. By "here" is evidently meant the centre of the Mother's self-revelation.