WRIITEN BY london swaminathan

Date : 12 September  2015

Post No. 2152

Time uploaded in London: – 19-44

(Thanks  for the pictures)

“In the Kingdom of God, reason, intellect, learning, are of no avail. There the dumb speak ,the blind see, and the deaf hear” – Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa

There was once a Sadhaka (spiritual aspirant) who aspired after God realisation.  He went to a sadhu and asked him what he should do for realising God .the sadhu said that he should repeat Gods name and think of God constantly. The young aspirant did not like this simple advice He thought poorly of the power of the name. He had the idea that one should learn Sanskrit and master the Vedas and Shastras, before he could get God realisation. So he left this sadhu and went to another sadhu who was well versed in the Vedas and Shastras so that he may gain proficiency in the same.

The teacher agreed, but added that the student should also do some service, besides pursuing his studies.  He was given the work of tending the cows in the ashram. So the young friend took up the service of the ashram cows and whenever he had spare time, he went to the teacher and took his lesson s in Sanskrit. Thus twelve years passed. He became a great Sanskrit scholar and had a good knowledge of the Vedas and Shastras. But he did not realise God. So he asked his teacher why he had not attained God even though he had become learned in the Vedas and Shastras.

The teacher then said mere scholarship and learning did not lead to God realisation. To realise God one must love him intensely and ceaselessly remember him by taking to Ramnam. Now the young aspirant realised his mistake in not listening to the advice of the first sadhu who had asked him to take god’s name twelve years ago. He regretted he had wasted many precious years in merely acquiring learning without chanting god’s name or cultivating love and devotion for God.

Parrot and the Cat Simile

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa naarates a good story:

A parrot repeats by rote the holy name of Radhakrishna, but as soon as it is caught by a cat it screams ‘Kang, kang’, betraying its natural cry worldly-wise men sometimes repeat the name of Hari and perform various pious and charitable deeds with the hope of worldly gains, but when misfortune, sorrow, poverty and death overtake them, they forget Him and all such deeds.

Barrenness of Mere Book Learning

One day the late Keshab Chandra Sen came to Sri Ramakrishna in the temple of Dakshineswar and asked him, “How is that even learned people remain so profoundly ignorant of things that truly matter in spiritual life, although they have read a whole library of religious books?”

The Master replied, “ The kite and the vulture soar up high up in the air, but all the times their eyes remain fixed on charnel houses in search of putrid carcasses; similarly the minds of the so called learned men  are attached to the things of the world, to lust and wealth,  in spite of their erudition in sacred lore, and hence they cannot attain  true Knowledge.”

“To explain God after merely reading the scriptures like explaining to a person the City of Banaras (Varanasi) after seeing it only on map”.

–subham–