Ramakrishna never preached a belief - Part 1

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Ramakrishna never preached a belief - Part 1

 

(p.130) I did not know him personally, but what I heard of him all those years

endeared him to me. So it was natural that I should be deeply elated when I came

upon Premananda's written testimony about Ramakrishna. I hastened to translate

it. It is necessary to mention that Premananda was no lukewarm believer. He

believed Ramakrishna to be an incarnation of God and placed him on the same

level with Jesus and Buddha. Yet he was fully aware of the difference between

his Master and the other two. For he says:

 

The present incarnation of God radiates renunciation in every shape and form.

Each one of God's incarnations has its peculiarity. Think of feeding the five

thousand souls to repletion with five loaves of bread, walking on water,

ascending to heaven, making trees bear fruit to feed multitudes.

 

But strange characteristics I fail to see in the new incarnation: Ramakrishna

does no miracle.

 

(p.131) Then behold this: almost all previous incarnations shed a glow of beauty

that filled the world. But Ramakrishna lacks even that. When Girish asked the

Master, " Why no glory of form this time? " The Blessed One answered, " In my days

of prayer and penance I prayed:

 

I want no physical beauty or glory, O Mother,

Give me only illumination of the soul! "

 

He lacked beauty of form; also beauty of mind, for he was no scholar. Other

incarnations before him confounded the learned men of their time at a very early

age. Buddha exhausted all the learning of his time only to despair of salvation,

and that he milked the udders of the Upanishads there is no doubt. Lo! Our

incarnation--by straining all his intellect and gasping with the last breath of

his mind--all he could do was to read and write a little. Yet scholars used to

crawl away from him to hide their scholarship. His effect on them was that of

the sun on owls. Why did they crawl away like earthworms into the darkness of

the earth? Because he came from where their discussions could not reach. You

cannot conceive all of the holy city, Benares, by looking at its map. Only he

who is the citizen of the eternal--Benares the timeless--knows it. Ramakrishna

knew how to unlock every door of the Timeless for he held the key of Immortality

in his hands.

 

Ramakrishna had another peculiarity. Other incarnations preached their

respective beliefs. But he never preached a belief. One night, long past the

middle of it, I heard him walk up and down the veranda, spitting. I went out to

find what was happening to him. He was spitting, and praying thus: " O Mother, do

not bring me honor by bringing me creed-believers. Propound no creed through

me. " Then he said to me, " Don't run after name and fame. Go across the dirty

waters of all fame and all names--reach the shore of the Nameless. (p.132) Let

people come to get what they want from you; then they must go away. Be like a

flower--blossom to your fullness. Let the bees rifle your heart. May the world

be enchanted; but hold none captive by the beauty of your soul. "

 

Other incarnations have insisted on their own light, and there have been some

who held theirs to be the only light. But our Lord says, " As many lights as

there are devoted pilgrims! If he is infinite, the roads to him must be infinite

also. " Ramakrishna lived so that he elicited the inner truth of every religion.

And we are here not to quarrel about our differences, but to find God. If we

lose him, we shall sink in a sea of torture, sin, and pain. Therefore find him

by all means. Why bother about roads?

 

Enter the garden, eat its sweet mangoes, and depart. You did not enter the

garden to count the leaves on the mango tree. Why waste time discussing whether

worship of God should be through idols or without idols? Is he with form or

without it? It does not matter whether the theory of reincarnation is all sound.

 

If you want to know of the eternal city, then ask those who have been to

Benares. Having heard all they have to say, go forth, enter, and be its citizen.

But if you stay at home and discourse, " The sacred city is thus. Oh! No, it is

not thus, " you may go on that way for a thousand times, yet it will bring you

not even a hair's breadth nearer Benares. Whether I was born here before or not

has no relation to the resolve that I will see him here and now in this life.

Rigid belief in a creed is not helpful, but may do harm to your soul. If you

know him you won't be bothered by religious doctrines! You may read and believe

all the scriptures and revealed words of all the sons of God, yet you will not

be able to find God. You must rise above books and teachers; and behold him whom

they beheld. Then all the mysteries will suddenly unlock their secrets to you!

 

Sri Ramakrishna, The Face of Silence

Swami Nikhilananda and Dhan Gopal Mukerji

Edited and with an Introduction by Swami Adiswarananda

Foreword by Dhan Gopal Mukerji II

Holy Man or Incarnation of God, p.130-132

SkyLight Paths Publishing, Woodstock, Vermont

ISBN 1-59473-115-2