Turiyananda Memories

Days in Dakshineswar

Once a monk came to live in the Panchavati in Dakshineswar. Gossip spread about his character, and eventually it reached the ears of the Master. When he rebuked the monk, the monk said, “If the world is unreal, are my character slips only real?” Sri Ramakrishna replied, “I spit on knowledge like yours!” Falsehood should never flourish. Knowledge arises when discrimination is perfect.
How hard it is to keep the mind above the world! It wants to come down. It is indeed very difficult to escape the clutches of desires. As the Master would say, “Even the one who has no one to call his own will raise a cat and create attachment.”
Love and lust are very closely related. Sri Ramakrishna used to say, “Lust is blind, but love is pure and beautiful.”
It is lust if you have the idea of husband and wife, and love if you have the idea of God in your lover. One must analyze one’s mind very carefully. The Master asked me to increase my lust infinitely. I was surprised he would ask this.
Then he explained: ” What is lust? It is the desire to get. So desire to get God and greatly strengthen this desire. Through discernment and devotion to God one can be free from lust. With the gradual increase of love for God, decrease lust, anger, etc.
As I go to visit the Master and enter the gate of the Dakshineswar temple garden, I feel a throbbing sensation in the heart. Many others would feel the same way because the thought of coming into the presence of a most sacred presence would create a sense of awe.
When one approaches a holy presence, evil samskaras within begin to tremble. For who was as pure as Sri Ramakrishna? Even the purest among us was insignificant in connection with the Master. Whenever an opposite came to mind, he immediately noticed it and said, “Why are you looking this way? Perhaps this is the reason.” And to my surprise, he said the right thing.
How fearless is he who can say with a clear conscience that he has done no wrong!
One day in Dakshineswar, the Master said to me, “Go to the Panchavati. Some devotees have picnicked there. See if they left anything there. If you find anything, bring it here.” I went and found an umbrella in one place, a knife in another, and some other articles.
I collected them and brought them to the Master. The knife was borrowed from him. I was just about to put it on the shelf when he said, “Where do you put it? No, not there. Put it under this little crib. That’s where it belongs. You have to put everything in its right place. Suppose I need knife at night If you put it somewhere the way he wants it, I’ll have to go around the room in the dark, stretching out my arms to look for it, wondering where you put it Is such a service a service No! You do things the way you want and only cause trouble.
If you want to serve, you must completely forget yourself.”
Swamiji used to say, “BE READY TO ATTACH AND DETACH YOURSELF AT ANY TIME!” We take a job and get attached to it—-we can’t get rid of it. But this shouldn’t be. Look at Sri Ramakrishna. Hriday was ordered to leave Dakshineswar. The temple guard came and said to the Master, “You will have to leave this place.” “What do you mean? It’s Hriday, not me,” replied Sri Ramakrishna. The Man said, “No, my master has ordered that you both go.” Sri Ramakrishna put on his slippers and moved towards the gate. Trailokya Babu (grandson of Rani Rasmani, the founder of the Dakshineswar temple) saw this from the kuthi (mansion), ran and fell at the feet of the Master, saying, “Sir, why are you going? I have not asked to leave .” Without saying a word, the Master went back to his room. Imagine! There was not an ounce of pride in his renunciation. And how we make a stir about our deeds!
If we were in his place, we would certainly have given Trailokya Babu a piece of our mind. But the Master said nothing. HE WAS AS WILLING TO LEAVE AS TO COME BACK.
The Master used to be shabbily dressed, so much so that one day he mistook him for a gardener, and ordered him to pluck a rose for him.

collected and presented by

Mary Saaleman