Experiencing freedom

Ramakrishna:

He who has attained God keeps only an appearance of ego... He becomes like a child... He becomes as quickly detached from a thing as he becomes attached to it... All persons are the same to a child. He has no feeling of high and low in regard to persons. So he doesn't discriminate about caste. The child doesn't know hate or what is holy or unholy.

Even after attaining samadhi some retain the "servant ego" or the "devotee ego." The bhakta keeps this "I-consciousness." He says, "O God, Thou art the Master and I am Thy servant; Thou are the Lord and I am Thy devotee" He feels that way even after the realization of God. His "I" is not completely effaced. Again, by constantly practising this kind of "I-consciousness," one ultimately attains God. This is called bhaktiyoga.

One can attain the Knowledge of Brahman, too, by following the path of bhakti. God is all-powerful. He may give His devotee Brahmajnana also, if He so wills. But the devotee generally doesn't seek the Knowledge of the Absolute. He would rather have the consciousness that God is the Master and he the servant, or that God is the Divine Mother and he the child.
(pp. 229-230)

Ramakrishna, in prayer to God:

Om! Om! Om! Mother, what is this that I am saying? Don't make me unconscious, Mother, with the Knowledge of Brahman. Don't give me Brahmajnana. I am but Thy child. I am easily worried and frightened. I want a Mother. A million salutations to the Knowledge of Brahman! Give it to those who seek it... O Blissful Mother!
(p. 282)

Ramakrishna:

Vaidhi-bhakti is like moving a fan to make a breeze. One needs the fan to make the breeze. Similarly, one practices japa, austerity, and fasting, in order to acquire love of God. But the fan is set aside when the sourthern breeze blows of itself. Such actions as japa and austerity drop away when one spontaneously feels love of God. Who indeed will perform the ceremonies enjoined in the scriptures, when mad with love of God?
(pp. 231-232)

Ramakrishna:

A perfect soul, even after attaining Knowledge, practises devotions or observes religious ceremonies to set an example to others. I go to the Kali temple and I bow before the holy pictures in my room; therefore others do the same...
(p. 331)

Ramakrishna:

Did you have any conversation with Bhaskarananda?

Manilal:

Yes, sir. We had a long talk. Among other things we discussed the problem of good and evil. He said to me: "Don't follow the path of evil. Give up sinful thoughts. That is how God wants us to act. Perform only those duties that are virtuous.

Ramakrishna:

Yes, that is also a path, meant for the worldly-minded. But those whose spiritual consciousness has been awakened, who have realized that God alone is real and all else is illusory, cherish a different ideal. They are aware that God alone is the Doer and others are His instruments.

Those whose spiritual consciousness has been awakened never make a false step. They do not have to reason in order to shun evil. They are so full of love of God that whatever action they undertake is a good action. They are fully conscious that they are not the doers of their actions, but mere servants of God.

Fully awakened souls are beyond virtue and vice. They realize that it is God who does everything.
(pp. 243-244)

Ramakrishna:

The body and the soul! The body was born and it will die. But for the soul there is no death. It is like the betel-nut. When the nut is ripe it does not stick to the shell. But when it is green it is difficult to separate it from the shell. After realizing God one does not identify oneself any more with the body. Then one knows that body and soul are two different things.
(p. 274)

Ramakrishna:

When one has such love for God, one doesn't feel any physical attraction to wife, children, relatives, and friends. One retains only compassion for them. To such a man the world appears as a foreign land, a place where he has merely to perform duties. It is like a man's having his real home in the country, but coming to Calcutta for work; he has to rent a house in Calcutta for the sake of his duties. When one develops love of God, one completely gets rid of one's attachment to the world and worldly wisdom.
(p. 232)

Ramakrishna:

I said to Haladhari: "Krishnakishore and I are going to see a holy man. Will you come with us?"

Haladhari replied: "What is the use of seeing a mere human body, which is no better than a cage of clay?"

I repeated this to Krishnakishore. With great anger he said: "How impudent of Haladhari to make such a remark! How can he ridicule as a cage of clay the body of a man who constantly thinks of God, who meditates on Rama and has renounced all for the sake of the Lord? Doesn't he know that such a man is the embodiment of Spirit?"
(p. 173)

Ramakrishna:

(Keshab) is the only one who has dropped his tail (Laugher.)

Keshab:

Don't laugh. There must be some meaning in his words. Let us ask him.

Ramakrishna:

The tadpole, so long as it has not dropped its tail, lives only in the water. It cannot move about on dry land. Bus as soon as it drops its tail it hops out on the bank; then it can live both on land and in water. Likewise, as long as a man has not dropped his tail of ignorance, he can live only in the water of the world. But when he drops his tail, that is to say, when he attains the Knowledge of God, then he can roam about as a free soul or live as a householder if he likes.
(pp. 355-356)

©1999 by Deb Platt