Sri Ramakrishna often taught using parables and folk tales to illustrate his points. Readers of this blog will have already encountered my rather cheeky take on the Master's story "The Swami and the Naga" in Part 11. Here follow some of his other teachings culled from Mahendranath Gupta's book, The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, that have had a great effect on my own spiritual life. I have added brief personal commentary to some of these topics.
The Gospel's author (aka "M"), had a family and a regular job. He usually saw Ramakrishna only on weekends, or when the Master visited a devotee's house in Calcutta for a satsang. Ramakrishna's remarks on such occasions were largely aimed at householders. He is said to have given different advice to the young men who were planning lives as monks and usually visited Ramakrishna during mid-week when M wasn't around. Some of these teachings are found in Sri Ramakrishna and His Divine Play by Swami Saradananda, a monk the master personally trained.
Ramakrishna also had female devotees, though by Indian custom of the time they did not mix with the men. On some household visits by the master, M specifically mentions that the Ramakrishna spent time talking with the ladies in their separate quarters. Since only the Master was allowed to be with the women, there is little record of what he taught them.
ON GOD'S MANY NAMES AND FORMS:
When Ramakrishna asked M if he believed in God with form or without, his new disciple replied that he liked to think of God as formless. The Master replied, "Very good. It is enough to have faith in either aspect . . . . But never for a moment think that this alone is true and all else is false. Remember that God with form is just as true as God without form. But hold hold fast to your own convictions." [p. 80]
"The mother cooks different dishes to suit the stomachs of her different children. If there is a fish to cook, she prepares various dishes from it -- pilau, pickled fish, fried fish, and so on to suit their different tastes and powers of digestion." [p. 81] One might interpret this passage to mean that God mercifully takes on various forms to meet the needs and culture of His/Her devotees. Thus there is a deity/form to suit everyone.
Swami Satchidananda once answered this question by saying the various Hindu deities were conceptualizations by sages who had mystical encounters with divinity and needed a way to describe their experiences to others. Naturally, the sages put their experiences into the common language and ideas of their culture. On a sociological level, this suggests that concepts of God are strongly colored by the culture in which they arise, and at the same time set the pattern for how others in that culture will later interpret their own experiences. In a way this validates the cynic's reversal of the text in Genesis to "Man created God. In his own image he created Him."
For example, some Native Americans will refer in English to God as the "Great Spirit", yet in their art and tales He/She will be depicted in their particular tribe's traditional dress, and the deity or deities will be concerned with the same worldly needs as the tribe. For instance, many tribes that depended on agriculture feature a corn deity in their creation legends.
Is this wrong? God is God, and how He/She is perceived and culturally clothed does not matter (especially to the Divine). As Vedanta, the highest form of Hindu thought says, "God is ultimately beyond 'name and form'."
ON THE CENTRAL TRUTHS IN ALL RELIGIONS:
"A lake has several ghats [steps]. At one the Hindus take water in pitchers and call it 'jal'; at another the Massalmans [Muslims] take water in leather bags and call it 'pani'. At a third the Christians call it 'water'. Can we imagine that it is not 'jal', but only 'pani' or 'water'? How ridiculous! The substance is one under different names, and everyone is seeking the same substance . . . . Let each man follow his own path. If he sincerely and ardently wishes to know God, peace be unto him. He will surely realize Him." [p. 35]
In another take on this theme, Ramakrishna said, "You may say that there are many errors and superstitions in another religion. Every religion has errors. Everyone thinks that his watch alone gives the correct time." [p. 112] The bit about the watch was one of Ramakrishna's favorite observations.
The validity of all religions was another major theme in Swami Satchidananda's teachings. During the partition of India, and later during the Tamil uprisings in Sri Lankha, he saw first-hand how dangerous religious hatred could become. In America, Swami-ji was probably preaching to the choir. Few of his followers from the 1960s "peace and love" generation would have joined his organization had he taught prejudice against other faiths. Not so for some of Yogaville's neighbors, who feared and distrusted the community in its early days. When someone pitched a brick through the windshield of one of the group's vehicles on the road that passes the ahsram, the community learned a lesson in the sort of hatred that existed just outside of Yogaville's tolerant "bubble".
Sadly, America is not free from religious prejudice, and in fact has a rather nasty history of discrimination especially against Catholics and Jews, and in general against any other beliefs at variance to the established male-dominated fundamentalist authority. In recent years in our country smoldering religious prejudice has again been fanned into flame by certain demagogues to mobilize their supporters, sometimes exploding into shocking and deadly violence.
ON THE BEST WAY TO FIND GOD:
On meeting Ramakrishna for the first time, many household seekers asked what was the best way to realize God. The Master's usual answer was, "Repeat God's name and sing his glories." [p. 81]
Later a devotee asked The Master, "How can I develop love for God?"
Ramakrishna answered, "Repeat His name and sins will disappear. Thus you will destroy lust, anger, the desire for creature comforts, and so on."
"How can I take delight in God's name?" continued the devotee.
"Pray to God with a yearning heart that you may take delight in His name," the Master explained. "He will certainly fulfill your heart's desire." [p. 203]
This may be the most common question asked of spiritual teachers. Krishna Das, the famous American kirtan singer, gets this question in some form at almost every satsang he gives. Krishna Das' reply is always, "Take refuge in The Name" or some variant thereof. His guru, Neem Karoli Baba, also recommended this approach with "Ram nam, Ram nam!" (Praise Rama) and "Sab ek, sab ek!" (All one).
This means the devotee should repeat the names of the deity or deities which resonate with him or her, as japa during meditation, during daily activities such as shopping or cleaning toilets, and while sing joyous kirtan alone or with others. The intent is to fill the mind/heart with spiritual vibrations. Some teachers say this allows the deity that lives within to become manifest through us. Others claim this creates a place within us where the deity can enter our minds/hearts and reside. Whether you are a spiritual "innie" or an "outie", the end result is the same ("Sab ek, sab ek!")
ON OBSTACLES AS MANIFESTATIONS OF GOD:
Here I will summarize one of Ramakrishna's favorite parables, since the story is a rather wordy one. A guru taught his disciples to see God in all beings, and bow before them all. Later while walking along the road a disciple heard warning cries from an elephant driver, "Get out of the way! A mad elephant is coming." Thinking that the elephant was a manifestation of God, the disciple ignored the warnings. The elephant seized the disciple in his trunk and bashed him against a tree. Fellow disciples brought the badly injured man back to the ashram. When the disciple awoke, the guru asked his disciple why he didn't get out of the elephant's way. The disciple replied, "You told us everything was God, so I believed that the elephant was God and wouldn't hurt me." The guru countered, "Yes, the elephant is God, but you should have listened to God as the elephant driver warning you to get out of the way." [p. 84]
This tale dovetails nicely with the story "The Swami and the Naga". We face many obstacles in life and also on the spiritual path. If one believes that everything is God, or everything happens according to God's will, it still doesn't mean that we have to be stupid or act like a doormat for the world. Part of a spiritual path involves using the wisdom given us to make intelligent choices, as well as having the backbone to stand up for ourselves against adversity.
ON DEVOTIONAL MOODS:
"But in order to realize God, one must assume one of these attitudes: shānta, dāsya sakhya, vātsalya or madhur.
"Shānta is the serene attitude. The rishis of olden times had this attitude toward God. They did not desire any worldly enjoyment. It is like the single-minded devotion of a wife to her husband. She knows that her husband is the embodiment of beauty and love, a veritable Madan.
"Dāsya is the attitude of a servant toward his master. Hanuman had this attitude toward Rama. He felt the strength of a lion when he worked for Rama . . . . A mother has a little of this attitude, as Yashoda [Krishna's foster mother] had toward Krishna.
"Sakya is the attitude of friendship. Friends say to one another, 'Come here and sit near me.' Sridama and other friends sometimes fed Krishna with fruit . . . and sometimes climbed on his shoulders.
"Vātsalya [is] the attitude of a mother toward her child. This was Yashoda's attitude toward Krishna . . . . The mother eats only when the child has eaten to his heart's content. Yashoda would roam about with butter in her hand, in order to feed Krishna.
"Madhur, [is] the attitude of a woman toward her paramour. Radha had this attitude toward Krishna . . . . This attitude includes all the other four." [p. 115]
In classic Hinduism these are known as the five bhāvas. Some spiritual teachers expanded this list to include the attitude of a student to teacher, parent to child, child to parent, and even God as one's enemy.
The last may sound strange, but even hatred against God is thought have a positive karmic effect, since the hater is still thinking about the deity. It is sometimes claimed that great demons in some Hindu tales who were fatally trounced by a ticked-off deity achieved grace in a future incarnation through this sort of good karma. Personally, I don't buy into the notion that karma is some record of our good and bad deeds that decides a future birth. I still hold the Budda's view that karma is the natural operative outcome of our choices and deeds, and is manifested in our lifetimes.
Ramakrishna is said to have practiced all five of the classic bhāvas, however his most common attitude towards God was that of a child to its mother. He saw God as Kali, whom he viewed as the Mother of the Universe. He also expressed his relationship as "I am the machine, God. You are the operator." Neither are traditional bhāvas, but they worked for the Master.
My own attitude has usually been "The deity is my best friend", which is similar to sakya bhāva.
ON SIN:
"The fool who says only, 'I am a sinner. I am a sinner', verily drowns himself in worldliness. On the other hand say, 'I have chanted the name of God. How can I be a sinner?'" [p. 274]
Even though I agree with Ramakrishna here, this has to be the toughest of his lessons for me. Comic Garrison Keillor observed that everyone from the midwest has a "healthy sense of guilt". When you are born in Iowa, and told for years that you were unworthy by Iowa-born parents who had been taught that they too were unworthy, it is awfully hard to believe you are a not miserable sinner. Plus, I have done some pretty naughty or stupid things in my life (WHICH I WILL NOT DETAIL HERE!). Though I now know bettter and won't repeat those mistakes, I cannot easily shed their burden. But the Master is right, and maybe so are the Catholics who lighten their guilt-load through confession. Some sort of spiritual enema for emotional constipation seems to be the needed remedy. For me that is holy kirtan.
ON THE NATURE OF THE WORLD:
"The aspirant, while practicing spiritual discipline, looks upon the world as a 'framework of illusion'. Again, after the attainment of knowledge, the vision of God, the very world becomes a 'mansion of mirth'." [p. 310]
Could this be why my Zen master laughed after everything he said? The Dali Lama laughs a lot too, despite of all the suffering he and the Tibetan people continue to endure. As I said in the Introduction to this blog, to me life is "open mic night at God's big comedy club".
ON "WOMAN AND GOLD":
In The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna "woman and gold" is a theme to which Ramakrishna frequently returns. When the Master said "woman and gold" in the Bengali language, he used the words kamini and kanchan. What Ramakrishna was talking about were lust and greed, temptations that stalk all humans and can be huge distractions to spiritual life. It is unfortunate that when Swami Nikhilananda translated The Gospel from Bengali to English that he chose to use the usual English meaning of these two words.
Critics have claimed this phrase shows that the Master hated women. Nothing could be farther from the truth. He held women in the highest regard, and believed all women were manifestations of the Divine Mother Kali herself.
