ramakrishna paramhansaย (18 feb 1836 โ 16 aug 1886) is one of the most famous enlightened mystic from west bengal, india. if ramakrishna chief disciple swami vivekananda had not gone in to west and preached about universal brotherhood, then the world would have greatly missed the teachings of ramakrishna. it is because of swami vivekananda, that world came to know about this great mystic.
ramakrishna paramhansa advocated the path of devotion or bhakti marg to people. according to him, in kaliyug the path of devotion is best suited to mankind. he himself was a great devotee of ma kali. he was totally mad in his devotion to goddess kali. onceย he wanted to have darshan (glimpse) of ma kali and decided that he will cut his head, if kali ma does not give him darshan by the end of the day. many people came to watch this and was wondering what this mad men will do. it often happens that during their life time we don’t realized the greatness of god-intoxicated souls.
that day, as usual ramakrishna paramhansa sang and danced madly in devotion to ma kali. by evening when he still not got darshan of goddess kali. he became restless and picked up the sword to cut his head.ย suddenly the blessed mother revealed herself to him.
about this experience, laterย ramakrishna Paramhansa said thatย “the buildings with their different parts, the temple, and everything else vanished from my sight, leaving no trace whatsoever, and in their stead i saw a limitless, infinite, effulgent ocean of consciousness. as far as the eye could see, the shining billows were madly rushing at me from all sides with a terrific noise, to swallow me up! i was panting for breath. i was caught in the rush and collapsed, unconscious. what was happening in the outside world I did not know; but within me there was a steady flow of undiluted bliss, altogether new, and I felt the presence of the divine mother.” on his lips when he regained consciousness of the world was the word “mother”.
ramakrishna is one of those rarest of rare enlightened person who tried to reach god by different paths. ramakrishna tried many paths likeย islam, christianity or hindu paths likeย vaishnava bhakti, tantra sadhana (with the help of bhairavi brahmani), worshipping lord rama or formless meditation (with the help of totapuri). with each path he reached to same state of godliness. so ramakrishna paramhansa said that each path leads to god and lets not waste in arguing which path is greatest.
if you want to know about ramakrishna paramhansa teachings then do read this book “gospel of sri ramakrishna”. the book is filled with gems from ramakrishna. you don’t need to be a scholar or advanced sadhak to understand this book. ramakrishna was a pure and innocent person from a village, who spoke in simple every day language. i have selected all these quotations from this book only. it is one of my favorite book and i recommend it stronglyย to every spiritual sadhak. in this book, there is something to learn for everybody regardless of the sect or path you are following.
ramakrishna paramhansa quotes and sayings:
1.ย take shelter in god.
2.ย be mad! be mad with love of god!
3.ย the body has, indeed, only a momentary existence. god alone is real. now the body exists, and now it does not.
4.ย the traits of a worldly man endowed with tamas are sleep, lust, anger, egotism, and the like.
5.ย pray to Him with a yearning heart, and weep. that will purify your heart. you see the reflection of the sun in clear water.
6.ย you do not see god because you busy yourself with such things as name and fame and scholarship.’ the mother does not come to the child as long as it sucks its toy โ a red toy. but when, after a few minutes, it throws the toy away and cries, then the mother takes down the rice-pot from the hearth and comes running to the child.
7.ย one must have for god the yearning of a child. the child sees nothing but confusion when his mother is away. you may try to cajole him by putting a sweetmeat in his hand; but he will not be fooled. he only says, ‘no, I want to go to my mother.’ one must feel such yearning for god. ah, what yearning! how restless a child feels for his mother! nothing can make him forget his mother. he to whom the enjoyment of worldly happiness appears tasteless, he who takes no delight in anything of the worldโmoney, name, creature comforts, sense pleasureโ, becomes sincerely grief-stricken for the vision of the mother. and to him alone the Mother comes running, leaving all her other duties.
8.ย add your tears to your yearning. and if you can renounce everything through discrimination and dispassion, then you will be able to see god. that yearning brings about god-intoxication, whether you follow the path of knowledge or the path of devotion.
9.ย all sins vanish if one only remembers god. his name breaks the fetters of death. you must dive; otherwise you can’t get the gem.
10.ย a householder, of course, needs money, for he has a wife and children. he should save up to feed them. they say that the bird and the sannyasi should not provide for the future. but the mother bird brings food in her mouth for her chicks; so she too provides. a householder needs money. he has to support his family.
11.ย i tell you the truth: there is nothing wrong in your being in the world. but you must direct your mind toward god; otherwise you will not succeed. do your duty with one hand and with the other hold to god. after the duty is over, you will hold to god with both hands.
12.ย what need is there of renouncing the world altogether? it is enough if you can rid yourself of attachment. but you must have sadhana (spiritual practice) you have to fight the sense-organs.
13.ย if a householder is a genuine devotee he performs his duties without attachment; he surrenders the fruit of his work to godโhis gain or loss, his pleasure or painโand day and night he prays for devotion and for nothing else. this is called motiveless work, the performance of duty without attachment. a sannyasi, too, must do all his work in that spirit of detachment; but he has no worldly duties to attend to, like a householder.
14.ย you should renounce mentally. live the life of a house holder in a spirit of detachment.
15.ย the nearer you approach to god, the less you reason and argue. when you attain him, then all soundsโall reasoning and disputingโcome to an end. then you go into samadhiโsleepโ, into communion with god in silence.”
16.ย it is good to keep pictures of sannyasis and holy men in one’s room. when you get up in the morning you should see the faces of holy persons rather than the faces of other men.
17.ย a jnani (self-realized soul) loves to talk only about god. he feels pained if one talks about worldly things. but a worldly man belongs to a different class. he always has the turban of ignorance on his head. he always comes back to worldly topics.
18.ย what will you achieve by mere reasoning? be restless for god and learn to love him. reason, mere intellectual knowledge, is like a man who can go only as far as the outer court of the house. but bhakti (devotion) is like a woman who goes into the inner court.
19.ย in our part of the country i have seen peasants bringing water into their paddy-fields. the fields have low ridges on all sides to prevent the water from leaking out; but these are made of mud and often have holes here and there. the peasants work themselves to death to bring the water, which, however, leaks out through the holes. desires are the holes. you practise japa and austerities, no doubt, but they all leak out through the holes of your desires.
20.ย it is good to help those who yearn for god. thus one makes good use of one’s money.
21.ย there is no harm in disobeying your elders for the sake of god.
22.ย the aim of life is the attainment of god.
23.ย by being guileless one can speedily realize god. there are several kinds of people who do not attain divine knowledge. first, a man with a perverse mind; he is not guileless. second, one who is very fastidious about outer purity. third, a doubting person.
24.ย god cannot be realized by a mind that is hypocritical, calculating, or argumentative. one must have faith and sincerity. hypocrisy will not do. to the sincere, god is very near; but he is far, far away from the hypocrite.
25.ย he who has realized god has obtained the fruit of immortality โ not a common fruit like a gourd or a pumpkin. he is free from rebirth. he is not born anywhereโon earth, in the solar world, or in the lunar world.
26.ย i see rama (hindu hod) in all things. you are all sitting here, but I see only rama in everyone of you.
27.ย those who have money should give in charity. the miser’s wealth is spirited away, but the money of the charitable person is saved. he spends it for a righteous purpose.
28.ย you may learn a great deal from books; but it is all futile if you have no love for god and no desire to realize Him. a mere pundit, without discrimination and renunciation, has his attention fixed on ‘woman and gold’.
29.ย if i see that a scholar has no discrimination and renunciation, i regard him as worthless straw. i see that he is like a vulture, which soars high but fixes its look on a charnel-pit down below.
30.ย a fakir came to visit akbar (emperor). the emperor was saying his prayers. in his prayers he was asking god to give him wealth and riches. thereupon the fakir was about to leave the room quietly. later, when the emperor asked him about it, the fakir said, ‘if I must beg, why should i beg of a beggar?'”
31.ย people of small intellect seek occult powersโpowers to cure disease, win a lawsuit, walk on water, and such things. but the genuine devotees of god don’t want anything except his lotus feet.
32.ย unless, the soul is pure, it cannot have genuine love of god and single-minded devotion to the ideal. the mind wanders away to various objects.
33.ย a man achieves neither knowledge nor liberation as long as he has egotism. he comes back again and again to the world.
34.ย through restlessnessโthe restlessness a child feels for his mother. the child feels bewildered when he is separated from his mother, and weeps longingly for her. if a man can weep like that for god he can even see Him. at the approach of dawn the eastern horizon becomes red. then one knows it will soon be sunrise. likewise, if you see a person restless for god, you can be pretty certain that he hasn’t long to wait for his vision.
35.ย pray to God with a longing heart. he will surely listen to your prayer if it is sincere.
36.ย spend a few days thinking of god. you have seen that there is nothing to the world.
37.ย all trouble and botheration come to an end when the ‘I’ dies.
38.ย one can realize god through intense renunciation. but the soul must be restless for him, as restless as one feels for a breath of air when one’s head is pressed under water.
39.ย devotion as described by narada (sage) is suited to the kaliyuga. it means to chant constantly the name and glories of god. let those who have no leisure worship god at least morning and evening by whole-heartedly chanting his name and clapping their hands.
40.ย god has put you in the world. what can you do about it? resign everything to him. surrender yourself at his feet. then there will be no more confusion. then you will realize that it is god who does everything. all depends on ‘the will of rama’.
41.ย a man can see God if he unites in himself the force of these three attractions: the attraction of worldly possessions for the worldly man, the husband’s attraction for the chaste wife, and the child’s attraction for its mother. if you can unite these three forms of love and give it all to god, then you can see him at once.
42.ย you are no doubt in the world. what if you are? you must durrender the fruit of your action to god. you must not seek any result for yourself. but mark one thing. the desire for bhakti (devotion) cannot be called a desire. you may desire bhakti and pray for it. practise the tamas of bhakti and force your demand upon the divine mother.
43.ย why shouldn’t a man be able to realize god in the world? but he must have discrimination and dispassion; he must have the unshakable awareness that god alone is real and all else is unreal and has but a two days’ existence. it will not do to float on the surface. you must dive deep.
44.ย man cannot see god on account of his ego. you cannot see the sun when a cloud rises in the sky. but that doesn’t mean there is no sun; the sun is there just the same.
45.ย if you please god, everyone will be pleased. it is God alone that exists in the heart of the holy man.
46.ย as without strong determination the farmer cannot bring water to his field, so also without intense yearning a man cannot realize god.
47.ย the swan are those who think of god, who pray day and night to get rid of their attachment to worldly things and their love for ‘woman and gold’, who do not enjoy anything except the nectar of the lotus feet of the lord, and to whom worldly pleasures taste bitter. if you put a mixture of milk and water before the swan, it will leave the water and drink only the milk. and haven’t you noticed the gait of a swan? it goes straight ahead in one direction. so it is with genuine devotees: they go toward god alone. they seek nothing else; they enjoy nothing else.
48.ย in the scriptures you will find the way to realize god. but after getting all the information about the path, you must begin to work, only then can you attain your goal.
49.ย be firm in one idealโeither in god with form or in the formless god. then alone will you realize god; otherwise not. with firm and unwavering belief the followers of god with form will realize him, as will those who speak of him as formless. you may eat a cake with icing either straight or sidewise; it will taste sweet either way.
50.ย how much of the scriptures can you read? what will you gain by mere reasoning? try to realize God before anything else. have faith in the guru’s words, and work. if you have no guru, then pray to god with a longing heart. he will let you know what He is like.
51.ย the time is ripe for you to devote your mind to the lotus feet of god. if you realize god, you will get everything else. first god, then charity, doing good to others, doing good to the world, and redeeming people.