Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

From Chapter 6

Mr. Viswas had been sitting in the room a long time; he now left. He had once been wealthy but had squandered everything in an immoral life. Finally he had become indifferent to his wife and children. Referring to Mr. Viswas, the Master said: “He is an unfortunate wretch. A householder has his duties to discharge, his debts to pay: his debt to the gods, his debt to his ancestors, his debt to the rishis, and his debt to wife and children. If a wife is chaste, then her husband should support her; he should also bring up their children until they are of age. Only a monk must not save; the bird and the monk do not provide for the morrow. But even a bird provides when it has young. It brings food in its bill for its chicks.”

From Chapter 14

The Avadhuta accepted a bee as another teacher. Bees accumulate their honey by days of hard labour. But they cannot enjoy their honey, for a man soon breaks the comb and takes it away. The Avadhuta learnt this lesson from the bees, that one should not lay things up. Sadhus should depend one hundred per cent on God. They must not gather for the morrow. But this does not apply to the householder. He must bring up his family; therefore it is necessary for him to provide. Birds and monks do not hoard. Yet birds also hoard after their chicks are hatched: they collect food in their beaks for their young ones.

From Chapter 18

“But no spiritual progress is possible without the renunciation of ‘woman and gold’. I renounced these three: land, wife, and wealth. Once I went to the Registry Office to register some land, the title of which was in the name of Raghuvir. The officer asked me to sign my name; but I didn’t do it, because I couldn’t feel that it was ‘my’ land. I was shown much respect as the guru of Keshab Sen. They presented me with mangoes, but I couldn’t carry them home. A sannyasi cannot lay things up.

“How can one expect to attain God without renunciation? Suppose one thing is placed upon another; how can you get the second without removing the first?

From Chapter 32

SUB-JUDGE: “Sir, we are householders. How long should we perform our worldly duties?”

MASTER: “Surely you have duties to perform. You must bring up your children, support your wife, and provide for her in case of your death. If you don’t, then I shall call you unkind. Sages like Sukadeva had compassion. He who has no compassion is no man.”

SUB-JUDGE: “How long should one support one’s children?”

MASTER: “As long as they have not reached their majority. When the chick becomes a full-grown bird and can look after itself, then the mother bird pecks it and doesn’t allow it to come near her.” (All laugh.)

SUB-JUDGE: “What is a householder’s duty to his wife?”

MASTER: “You should give her spiritual advice and support her during your lifetime and provide for her livelihood after your death, if she is a chaste wife.

“But if you are intoxicated with the Knowledge of God, then you have no more duties to perform. Then God Himself will think about your morrow if you yourself cannot do so. God Himself will think about your family if you are intoxicated with Him. If a landlord dies leaving behind a minor son, then a guardian appointed by the court takes charge of the son. These are all points of law; you know them.”

…The Master noticed that M. had brought some cloths for him. M. had with him two pieces of unbleached and two pieces of washed cloth. But the Master had asked him only for the unbleached ones. He said to M.: “Give me the unbleached ones. You may keep the others. All right. You may give me one of them.”

M: “Then shall I take back one piece?”

MASTER: “Then take both.”

M: “As you please, sir.”

MASTER: “You can give me those when I need them. You see, yesterday Beni Pal wanted me to carry away some food for Ramlal. I told him I couldn’t. It is impossible for me to lay up for the future.

From Chapter 10

Sri Ramakrishna had been invited to visit the homes of his devotees Balaram, Adhar, and Ram in Calcutta. Devotional music had been arranged by Adhar and Ram. The Master was accompanied in the carriage by Rakhal, M., and others.

As they drove along, Sri Ramakrishna said to the devotees: “You see, sin flies away when love of God grows in a man’s heart, even as the water of the reservoir dug in a meadow dries up under the heat of the sun. But one cannot love God if one feels attracted to worldly things, to ‘woman and gold’. Merely taking the vow of monastic life will not help a man if he is attached to the world. It is like swallowing your own spittle after spitting it out on the ground.”

From Chapter 11

“One should constantly repeat the name of God. The name of God is highly effective in the Kaliyuga. The practice of yoga is not possible in this age, for the life of a man depends on food. Clap your hands while repeating God’s name, and the birds of your sin will fly away.

“One should always seek the company of holy men. The nearer you approach the Ganges, the cooler the breeze will feel. Again, the nearer you go to a fire, the hotter the air will feel.

“But one cannot achieve anything through laziness and procrastination. People who desire worldly enjoyment say about spiritual progress: ‘Well, it will all happen in time. We shall realize God some time or other.’

From Chapter 13

M: “You once said that one who constantly talks of his sin really becomes a sinner; he cannot extricate himself from sin. But if a man has firm faith that he is the son of God, then he makes rapid strides in spiritual life.”

MASTER: “Yes, faith. What tremendous faith Krishnakishore had! He used to say: ‘I have spoken the name of God once. That is enough. How can I remain a sinner? I have become pure and stainless.’

From Chapter 18

“It is God alone who has planted in man’s mind what the ‘Englishman’ calls free will. People who have not realized God would become engaged in more and more sinful actions if God had not planted in them the notion of free will. Sin would have increased if God had not made the sinner feel that he alone was responsible for his sin.

“Those who have realized God are aware that free will is a mere appearance. In reality man is the machine and God its Operator, man is the carriage and God its Driver.”

From Chapter 32

SUB-JUDGE: “Sir, I am a sinner. How can I say that God dwells in me?”         

MASTER: “That’s the one trouble with you Brahmos. With you it is always sin and sin! That’s the Christian view, isn’t it? Once a man gave me a Bible.A part of it was read to me, and it was full of that one thing-sin and sin! One must have such faith that one can say: ‘I have uttered the name of God; I have repeated the name of Rama or Hari. How can I be a sinner?’ One must have faith in the glory of God’s  name.”

SUB-JUDGE: “Sir, how can one have such faith?”

MASTER: “Have passionate love for God. One of your Brahmo songs says:

O Lord, is it ever possible to know Thee without love,
However much one may perform worship and sacrifice?

Pray to God in secret and with yearning, that you may have that passionate attachment and devotion to Him. Shed tears for Him. A man sheds a jugful of tears because his wife is sick or because he is losing money or because he is worrying about getting a job. But tell me, who ever weeps for God?’

From Chapter 3 MASTER: “Brahman is beyond vidya and avidya, knowledge and ignorance. It is beyond maya, the illusion of duality. “The world consists of the illusory duality of knowledge and ignorance. It contains knowledge and devotion, and also attachment to ‘Woman and gold’; righteousness and unrighteousness; good and evil. But Brahman is unattached to these. Good and evil apply to the jiva, the individual soul, as do righteousness and unrighteousness; but Brahman is not at all affected by them. “One man may read the Bhagavata by the light of a lamp, and another may commit a forgery by that very light; but the lamp is unaffected. The sun sheds its light on the wicked as well as on the virtuous. “You may ask, ‘How, then, can one explain misery and sin and unhappiness?’ The answer is that these apply only to the jiva. Brahman is unaffected by them. There is poison in a snake; but though others may die if bitten by it, the snake itself is not affected by the poison. From Chapter 5 “Bondage is of the mind, and freedom is also of the mind. A man is free if he constantly thinks: ‘I am a free soul. How can I he bound, whether I live in the world or in the forest? I am a child of God, the King of Kings. Who can bind me?’ If bitten by a snake, a man may get rid of its venom by saying emphatically, ‘There is no poison in me.’ In the same way, by repeating with grit and determination, ‘I am not bound, I am free’, one really becomes so-one really becomes free. “Once someone gave me a book of the Christians. I asked him to read it to me. It talked about nothing but sin. (To Keshab) Sin is the only thing one hears of at your Brahmo Samaj, too. The wretch who constantly says, ‘I am bound, I am bound’ only succeeds in being bound. He who says day and night, ‘I am a sinner, I am a sinner’ verily becomes a sinner. “One should have such burning faith in God that one can say: ‘What? I have repeated the name of God, and can sin still cling to me? How can I be a sinner any more? How can I be in bondage any more?’ “If a man repeats the name of God, his body, mind, and everything become pure. Why should one talk only about sin and hell, and such things? Say but once, ‘O Lord, I have undoubtedly done wicked things, but I won’t repeat them.’ And have faith in His name.” From Chapter 8 NEIGHBOUR: “Sir, we are sinners. What will happen to us?” MASTER: “All the sins of the body flyaway if one chants the name of God and sings His glories. The birds of sin dwell in the tree of the body. Singing the name of God is like clapping your hands. As, at a clap of the hands, the birds in the tree flyaway, so do our sins disappear at the chanting of God’s name and glories. “Again, you find that the water of a reservoir dug in a meadow is evaporated by the heat of the sun. Likewise, the water of the reservoir of sin is dried up by the singing of the name and glories of God. From Chapter 9 MASTER: “Everything depends on the will of God. The world is His play. He has created all these different things-great and small, strong and weak, good and bad, virtuous and vicious. This is all His maya, His sport. You must have observed that all the trees in a garden are not of the same kind. “As long as a man has not realized God, he thinks he is free. It is God Himself who keeps this error in man. Otherwise sin would have multiplied. Man would not have been afraid of sin, and there would have been no punishment for it. “But do you know the attitude of one who has realized God? He feels: ‘I am the machine, and Thou, O Lord, art the Operator. I am the house and Thou art the Indweller. I am the chariot and Thou art the Driver. I move as Thou movest me; I speak as Thou makest me speak.’

From Chapter 20

MANI MALLICK (to the Master): “What a big electric light they have at the exhibition! It makes us think how great He must be who has made such an electric light.”

MASTER. (to Mani): “But according to one view it is He Himself who has become everything. Even those who say that are He. It is Satchidananda Itself that has become all-the Creator, maya, the universe, and living beings.”…

The Master rested awhile. A devotee sat on the end of the small couch and gently stroked his feet. The Master said to him softly: “That which is formless again has form. One should believe in the forms of God also. By meditating on Kali the aspirant realizes God as Kali. Next he finds that the form merges in the Indivisible Absolute. That which is the Indivisible Satchidananda is verily Kali.”

From Chapter 32

“Three words-’master’, ‘teacher’, and ‘father’-prick me like thorns. I am the son of God, His eternal child. How can I be a ‘father’? God alone is the Master and I am His instrument. He is the Operator and I am the machine.  “If somebody addresses me as guru, I say to him: ‘Go away, you fool! How can I be a teacher?’ There is no teacher except Satchidananda. There is no refuge except Him. He alone is the Ferryman to take one across the ocean of the world….

From Chapter 39

Sri Ramakrishna became silent. Resuming his reminiscences, he said:  “How many other visions I saw! But I am not permitted to tell them. Someone is shutting my mouth, as it were. I used to find no distinction between the sacred tulsi and the insignificant sajina leaf. The feeling of distinction was entirely destroyed. Once I was meditating under the banyan when I was shown a Musslman with a long beard. He came to me with rice in an earthen plate. He fed some other Musslmans with the rice and also gave me a few grains to eat. The Mother showed me that there exists only One, and not two. It is Satchidananda alone that has taken all these various forms; He alone has become the world and its living beings. Again, it is He who has become food.

From Chapter 44

MASTER (to M.): “Every now and then I think that the body is a mere pillow-case. The only real substance is the Indivisible Satchidananda.

From Chapter 47

“What Brahman is cannot be described in words. Somebody once said that everything in the world has been made impure, like food that has touched the tongue, and that Brahman alone remains undefiled. The meaning is this: All scriptures and holy books-the Vedas, the Puranas, the Tantras, and so forth-may be said to have been defiled because their contents have been uttered by the tongues of men; but what Brahman is no tongue has yet been able to describe. Therefore Brahman is still undefiled. One cannot describe in words the joy of play and communion with Satchidananda. He alone knows, who has realized it.”

From Chapter 51

Do you know what I see now? I see my body as a frame made of bamboo strips and covered with a cloth. The frame moves. And it moves because someone dwells inside it.

“Again, I see the body to be like a pumpkin with the seeds scooped out. Inside this body there is no trace of passion or worldly attachment. It is all very clean inside, and- ”

It became very painful for Sri Ramakrishna to talk further. He felt very weak. M. quickly guessed what the Master wanted to tell the devotees, and said, “And you are seeing God inside yourself.”

MASTER: “Both inside and outside. The Indivisible Satchidananda-I see It both inside and outside. It has merely assumed this sheath [meaning his body] for a support and exists both inside and outside. I clearly perceive this.”

From Chapter 12

MASTER: “God has covered all with His maya. He doesn’t let us know anything. Maya is ‘woman and gold’. He who puts maya aside to see God, can see Him. Once, when I was explaining God’s actions to someone, God suddenly showed me the lake at Kamarpukur. I saw a man removing the green scum and drinking the water. The water was clear as crystal. God revealed to me that Satchidananda is covered by the scum of maya. He who puts the green scum aside can drink the water.

From Chapter 13

“God’s play on earth as an Incarnation is the manifestation of the glory of the Chitsakti, the Divine Power. That which is Brahman is also Rama, Krishna, and Siva.”

ISHAN: “Yes, sir. Both Hari and Hara are derived from the same root. The difference lies only in the pratyaya.”

MASTER: “Yes, there is only One without a second. The Vedas speak of It as ‘Om Satchidananda Brahma’, the Puranas as ‘Om Satchidananda Krishna,’ and the Tantra as ‘Om Satchidananda Siva’.

From Chapter 14

“All religions and all paths call upon their followers to pray to one and the same God. Therefore one should not show disrespect to any religion or religious opinion. It is God alone who is called Satchidananda Brahman in the Vedas, Satchidananda Krishna in the Puranas, and Satchidananda Siva in the Tantras. It is one and the same Satchidananda.

From Chapter 16

MASTER: “If a man is able to weep for God, he will see Him. He will go into samadhi. Perfection in yoga is samadhi. A man achieves kumbhaka without any yogic exercise if he but weeps for God. The next stage is samadhi.

“There is another method -that of meditation. In the Sahasrara, Siva manifests Himself in a special manner. The aspirant should meditate on Him. The body is like a tray; the mind and buddhi are like water. The Sun of Satchidananda is reflected in this water. Meditating on the reflected sun, one sees the Real Sun through the grace of God.

From Chapter 17

    MASTER: “The formless God is real, and equally real is God with form. Nangta used to instruct me about the nature of Satchidananda Brahman. He would say that it is like an infinite ocean-water everywhere, to the right, left, above, and below. Water enveloped in water. It is the Water of the Great Cause, motionless. Waves spring up when it becomes active. Its activities are creation, preservation, and destruction.

    “Again, he used to say that Brahman is where reason comes to a stop. There is the instance of camphor. Nothing remains after it is burnt-not even a trace of ash.

    “Brahman is beyond mind and speech. A salt doll entered the ocean to measure its depth; but it did not return to tell others how deep the ocean was. It melted in the ocean itself.

    “The rishis once said to Rama: ‘O Rama sages like Bharadvaja may very well call you an Incarnation of God, but we cannot do that. We adore the Word-Brahman. We do not want the human form of God.’ Rama smiled and went away, pleased with their adoration.

    “But the Nitya and the Lila are the two aspects of the same Reality. As I have said before, it is like the roof and the steps leading to it. The Absolute plays in many ways: as Isvara, as the gods, as man, and as the universe. The Incarnation is the play of the Absolute as man. Do you know how the Absolute plays as man? It is like the rushing down of water from a big roof through a pipe; the power of Satchidananda-nay, Satchidananda Itself-descends through the conduit of a human form as water descends through the pipe. Only twelve sages, Bharadvaja and the others, recognized Rama as an Incarnation of God. Not everyone can recognize an Incarnation.

From Chapter 19

MASTER (to the devotees): “It will avail you nothing unless you realize Satchidananda. There is nothing like discrimination and renunciation. The worldly man’s devotion to God is momentary―like a drop of water on a redhot frying-pan. Perchance he looks at a flower and exclaims, ‘Ah, what a wonderful creation of God!’

From Chapter 2

NEIGHBOUR: “You just referred to the instructions of the guru. How shall we find him?”

MASTER: “Anyone and everyone cannot be a guru. A huge timber floats on the water and can carry animals as well. But a piece of worthless wood sinks, if a man sits on it, and drowns him. Therefore in every age God incarnates Himself as the guru, to teach humanity. Satchidananda alone is the guru.

From Chapter 3

“As for what has been said in the Vedas and the Puranas, do you know what it is like? Suppose a man has seen the ocean, and somebody asks him, ‘Well, what is the ocean like?’ The first man opens his mouth as wide as he can and says: ‘What a sight! What tremendous waves and sounds!’ The description of Brahman in the sacred books is like that. It is said in the Vedas that Brahman is of the nature of Bliss – It is Satchidananda.

From Chapter 4

The Master explained to the devotees the secret of communion with God.

MASTER: “With the realization of Satchidananda one goes into samadhi. Then duties drop away. Suppose I have been talking about the ostad and he arrives. What need is there of talking about him then? How long does the bee buzz around? So long as it isn’t sitting on a flower. But it will not do for the sadhaka to renounce duties. He should perform his duties, such as worship, japa, meditation, prayer, and pilgrimage.

From Chapter 7

MASTER: “How is it ever possible for one man to liberate another from the bondage of the world? God alone, the Creator of this world-bewitching maya, can save men from maya. There is no other refuge but that great Teacher, Satchidananda. How is it ever possible for men who have not realized God or received His command, and who are not strengthened with divine strength, to save others from the prison-house of the world?

From Chapter 8

MR. CHOUDHURY: “Sir, is it not possible to have the vision of God without the help of a guru?”

MASTER: “Satchidananda Himself is the Guru. At the end of the savasadhana, just when the vision of the Ishta is about to take place, the guru appears before the aspirant and says to him, ‘Behold! There is your Ishta.’ Saying this, the guru merges in the Ishta. He who is the guru is also the Ishta. The guru is the thread that leads to God. Women perform a ritualistic worship known as the ‘Ananta-vrata’, the object of worship being the Infinite. But actually the Deity worshipped is Vishnu. In Him are the ‘infinite’ forms of God.

From Chapter 10

BRAHMO: “Is spiritual knowledge impossible without a guru?”

MASTER: “Satchidananda alone is the Guru. If a man in the form of a guru awakens spiritual consciousness in you, then know for certain that it is God the Absolute who has assumed that human form for your sake. The guru is like a companion who leads you by the hand. After the realization of God, one loses the distinction between the guru and the disciple. ‘That creates a very difficult situation; there the guru and the disciple do not see each other.’ It was for this reason that Janaka said to Sukadeva, ‘Give me first my teacher’s fee if you want me to initiate you into the Knowledge of Brahman.’ For the distinction between the teacher and the disciple ceases to exist after the disciple attains to Brahman. The relationship between them remains as long as the disciple does not see God.”

From Chapter 11

“There are two schools of thought: the Vedanta and the Purana. According to the Vedanta this world is a ‘framework of illusion’, that is to say, it is all illusory, like a dream. But according to the Purana, the books of devotion, God Himself has become the twenty-four cosmic principles. Worship God both within and without.

“As long as God keeps the awareness of ‘I’ in us, so long do sense-objects exist; and we cannot very well speak of the world as a dream. There is fire in the hearth; therefore the rice and pulse and potatoes and the other vegetables jump about in the pot. They jump about as if to say: ‘We are here! We are jumping!’ This body is the pot. The mind and intelligence are the water. The objects of the senses are the rice, potatoes, and other vegetables. The ‘I-consciousness’ identified with the senses says, ‘I am jumping about.’ And Satchidananda is the fire.

From Chapter 32

A BRAMO DEVOTEE: “Sir, suppose a man has thought of God at other times during his life, but at the time of his death forgets Him. Would he, on that account, come back to this world of sorrow and suffering? Why should it be so? He certainly thought of God some time during his life.”

MASTER: “A man thinks of God, no doubt, but he has no faith in Him. Again and again he forgets God and becomes attached to the world. It is like giving the elephant a bath; afterwards he covers his body with mud and dirt again. ‘The mind is a mad elephant.’ But if you can make the elephant go into the stable immediately after bathing him, then he stays clean. Just so, if a man thinks of God in the hour of death, then his mind becomes pure and it gets no more opportunity to become attached to ‘woman and gold’.

“Man has no faith in God. That is the reason he suffers so much. They say that when you plunge into the holy waters of the Ganges your sins perch on a tree on the bank. No sooner do you come out of the water after the bath than the sins jump back on your shoulders. (All laugh.) A man must prepare the way beforehand, so that he may think of God in the hour of death. The way lies through constant practice. If a man practises meditation on God, he will remember God even on the last day of his life.”

From Chapter 36

SURENDRA: “I cannot meditate well. I repeat the Divine Mother’s name now and then. Lying in bed, I repeat Her name and fall asleep.”

MASTER: “That is enough. You remember Her, don’t you?

“There are two kinds of yoga: manoyega and- karmayoga. To perform, following the guru’s instructions, such pious acts as worship, pilgrimage, and service to living beings is called karmayoga. The duties that Janaka performed are also called karmayoga. The meditation and contemplation of the yogis is called manoyoga.  .

From Chapter 39

MASTER: “During my sadhana, when I meditated, I would actually see a person sitting neat me with a trident in his hand. He would threaten to strike me with the weapon unless I fixed my mind on the Lotus Feet of God, warning me that it would pierce my breast if my mind strayed from God.

“The Divine Mother would put me in such a state that sometimes my mind would come down from the Nitya to the Lila, and sometimes go up from the Lila to the Nitya.

“Sometimes, when the mind descended to the Lila, I would meditate day and night on Sita and Rama. At those times I would constantly behold the forms of Sita and Rama. Ramlala was my constant companion. Sometimes I would bathe Him and sometimes feed Him.

“Again, I used to be absorbed in the ideal of Radha and Krishna and would constantly see their forms. Or again, I would be absorbed in Gauranga. He is the harmonization of two ideals: the Purusha and the Prakriti. At such times I would always see the form of Gauranga.

“Then a change came over me. The mind left the plane of the Lila and ascended to the Nitya. I found no distinction between the sacred tulsi and the ordinary sajina plant. I no longer enjoyed seeing the forms of God; I said to myself, ‘They come and go.’ I lifted my mind above them. I removed all the pictures of gods and goddesses from my room and began to meditate on the Primal Purusha, the Indivisible Satchidananda, regarding myself as His handmaid.

From Chapter 43

“You ask about the after-life. According to the Gita you will become in the next life what you think of in the hour of death. King Bharata was very much grieved over his pet deer; he died repeating the word ‘deer’; therefore he was reborn as a deer. That is why day and night a man should practise worship, japa, meditation, and other spiritual exercises. Only then, by virtue of practice, will he be able to think of God in the hour of death. If one dies thus, thinking of God, one will acquire God’s nature.

From Chapter 45

Sri Ramakrishna was talking aside to Amrita. He asked him, “Do you meditate?” He further said to him: “Do you know!” what one feels in meditation? The mind becomes like a continuous flow of oil-it thinks of one object only, and that is God. It does not think of anything else.”

From Chapter 1

M. (humbly): “Yes, sir. How, sir, may we fix our minds on God?”

MASTER: “Repeat God’s name and sing His glories, and keep holy company; and now and then visit God’s devotees and holy men. The mind cannot dwell on God if it is immersed day and night in worldliness, in worldly duties and responsibilities; it is most necessary to go into solitude now and then and think of God. To fix the mind on God is very difficult, in the beginning, unless one practises meditation in solitude. When a tree is young it should be fenced all around; otherwise it may be destroyed by cattle.

“To meditate, you should withdraw within yourself or retire to a secluded corner or to the forest. And you should always discriminate between the Real and the unreal. God alone is real, the Eternal Substance; all else is unreal, that is, impermanent. By discriminating thus, one should shake off impermanent objects from the mind.”

From Chapter 11

“The jnanis follow the path of discrimination. Sometimes it happens that, discriminating between the Real and the unreal, a man loses his faith in the existence of God. But a devotee who sincerely yearns for God does not give up his meditation even though he is invaded by atheistic ideas. A man whose father and. grandfather have been farmers continues his farming even though he doesn’t get any crop in a year of drought.”

From Chapter 14

“At the beginning of spiritual life the devotee should observe such rites as pilgrimage, putting a string of beads around his neck, and so forth. But outward ceremonies gradually drop off as he attains the goal, the vision of God.  Then his only activity is the repetition of God’s name, and contemplation and meditation on Him.

From Chapter 16

MASTER: “If a man is able to weep for God, he will see Him. He will go into samadhi. Perfection in yoga is samadhi. A man achieves kumbhaka without any yogic exercise if he but weeps for God. The next stage is samadhi.

“There is another method -that of meditation. In the Sahasrara, Siva manifests Himself in a special manner. The aspirant should meditate on Him. The body is like a tray; the mind and buddhi are like water. The Sun of Satchidananda is reflected in this water. Meditating on the reflected sun, one sees the Real Sun through the grace of God.

From Chapter 20

MANILAL (to the Master): “Well, what is the rule for concentration? Where should one concentrate?”

MASTER: “The heart is a splendid place. One can meditate there or in the Sahasrara. These are rules for meditation given in the scriptures. But you may meditate wherever you like. Every place is filled with Brahman-Consciousness. Is there any place where  It does not exist? Narayana, in Vali’s presence, covered with two steps the heavens, the earth, and the interspaces. Is there then any place left uncovered by God? A dirty place is as holy as the bank of the Ganges. It is said that the whole creation is the Virat, the Universal Form of God.

“There are two kinds of meditation, one on the formless God and the other on God with form. But meditation on the formless God is extremely difficult. In that meditation you must wipe out all that you see or hear. You contemplate only the nature of your Inner Self. Meditating on His Inner Self, Siva dances about. He exclaims, ‘What am I! What am I!’ This is called the Siva yoga’. While practising this form of meditation, one directs one’s look to the forehead. It is meditation on the nature of one’s Inner Self after negating the world, following the Vedantic method of ‘Neti, neti’.

“There is another form of meditation, known as the ‘Vishnu yoga’, The eyes are fixed on the tip of the nose. Half the look is directed inward and the other half outward. This is how one meditates on God with form. Sometimes Siva meditates on God with form, and dances. At that time he exclaims, ‘Rama! Rama!’ and dances about.”