[Sri Ramakrishna] News article.

[Guest guest]

Dear Srikanth,

It is easy to make snap judgments, as the article author appears to have done.

Such decisions in the Math and Mission are taken after much consideration

and discussion in the Trustees' meetings. Outsiders rarely know all the

implications of the major decisions made. Moreover, it is well understood

among the monks that Sri Ramakrishna's life and personality are inimicable.

So extraordinary and beyond conventions! Will it do to have an Order of

some 2000 members behave with such abandon?

Very likely if the house had been accepted, a journalist would have written

critically, just the opposite.

There is a nice story about this. A wandering monk was lying on the ground

at siesta time, his head on a flat stone. A party of housewives came by,

jugs on their heads on the way to the river. Their leader laughed, saying,

" See, see! This sadhu has left the world but still he has to have a

pillow! " The monk got worried and thought he should set a better example,

so threw aside the stone. On their way back the leader of the ladies

laughed again. " Oho! This is a great sadhu! He cares so much about what

others think! "

The man then got up and swore to God that henceforth he would try to please

only HIm--not man.

Yours, Yogeshananda