The Divine Mother is always playful and sportive. This universe is Her play. She is self-willed and must always have Her own way. She is full of bliss. She gives freedom to one out of a hundred thousand.
A Devotee: “But, sir, if She likes, She can give freedom to all. Why, then, has She kept us bound to the world?”
Master: “That is Her will. She wants to continue playing with Her created beings. In a game of hide-and-seek the running about soon stops if in the beginning all the players touch the ‘granny’. If all touch her, then how can the game go on? That displeases her. Her pleasure is in continuing the game.
“It is as if the Divine Mother said to the human mind in confidence, with a sign from Her eye, ‘Go and enjoy the world.’ How can one blame the mind? The mind can disentangle itself from worldliness if, through Her grace, She makes it turn toward Herself. Only then does it become devoted to the Lotus Feet of the Divine Mother.”
Devotee: “Sir, can’t we realize God without complete renunciation?”
Master: “Of course you can! Why should you renounce everything? You are all right as you are, following the middle path-like molasses, partly solid and partly liquid. Do you know the game of nax? Having scored the maximum number of points, I am out of the game. I can’t enjoy it. But you are very clever. Some of you have scored ten points, some six, and some five. You have scored just the right number; so you are not out of the game like me. The game can go on. Why, that’s fine!
“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.
Bondage & liberation are of the mind
“It is all a question of the mind. Bondage and liberation are of the mind alone. The mind will take the color you dye it with. It is like white clothes just returned from the laundry. If you dip them in red dye, they will be red. If you dip them in blue or green, they will be blue or green. They will take only the color you dip them in.
Haven’t you noticed that, if you read a little English, you at once begin to utter English words: Foot fut it mit? Then you put on boots and whistle a tune, and so on. It all goes together. Or, if a scholar studies Sanskrit, he will at once rattle off Sanskrit verses. If you are in bad company, then you will talk and think like your companions. On the other hand, when you are in the company of devotees, you will think and talk only of God.
“The mind is everything. A man has his wife on one side and his daughter on the other. He shows his affection to them in different ways. But his mind is one and the same.
“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 be bound, whether I live in the world or in the forest? I am a child of God, the King of Kings. 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 free.
Ramakrishna Paramhamsa
The 177th birth anniversary of Sri Ramakrishna Paramhamsa will be celebrated on March 13.
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