Knowing three sides of the coin called God
[2nd President and Spiritual Head: the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa]
[now a Centre of the international Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission]
DAILY READINGS
Day 1024
In this modern age when Swami Vivekananda [spiritual heir to Sri Ramakrishna] said Sri Ramakrishna is a commentary on the Upanishads [Hindu philosophical treatises], I think he made a mistake. [Swamiji chuckles] It's very funny, you know. I think like this, therefore I'm telling you. I think he should say that Ramakrishna is a commentary on all aspects, not only on the Upanishads. Any part. Ramakrishna's life gives you sampling of spiritual life and worldly life. Sampling. How? When you've got a big pot of atchar – pickle – you don't want to eat all of the pickle. You sample it. So Ramakrishna's life is sampled out. What is it?…[devotees answer] sampled out. So, you see how beautiful it is. He was a bhakta of the first order. Not only bhakta. Apparently at that time he was a bhakta. Who? Sri Ramakrishna.
Then came Tota Puri [pictured], jnani [or gyani] – and he also made the same mistake [of pigeon-holing or 'defining' Sri Ramakrishna], he said, 'everything is illusion – that Mother [Kali] in the shrine is illusion.' [Swamiji chuckling] 'That Krishna there is illusion'. Ramakrishna you must understand – he spoke what he thought. What did he do? [devotees answer] he spoke what he thought – he didn't polish his language. If he thought you were a 'g', he told you that you were a 'g'. Now you can understand by 'g' whether dog or God. That's your business. So Ramakrishna, what he thought, he said.
So Tota Puri comes along after attaining Nirvikalpa samadhi, above 'kalpa', above any experiences, which is super conscious experience. After going there, when he came back he still found Ramakrishna saying, [Swamiji clapping and chanting] 'Hari AUM [or OM], Hari AUM, Hari AUM'. Hari AUM is a great mantra, awakened by Ramakrishna. By whom? Ramakrishna. 'Hari AUM, Hari AUM, Hari AUM'. Tota Puri said, what 
is this 'Hari AUM?' You're making chapati [pictured][the dough gets shaped by patting it between the hands]. Chapati means Roti, Indians make Roti.
And Ramakrishna thought, 'Sala loke!' You know what sala means? Your brother-in-law. [devotees laugh] You got married to my sister, in the olden days the king used to call brother-in-law meaning 'the favoured one'. If I kill you, my sister will suffer. But Ramakrishna couldn't kill his own guru [spiritual preceptor]. So sala loke means 'you favoured one from me'. I have favoured you. Ramakrishna said, 'what do you know? My Mother exists.' Tota Puri said, 'all this is lies'. Sri Ramakrishna goes to his [Divine] Mother and says, 'Ma, he's not believing what I'm saying.' He [Sri Ramakrishna] is the Mother – he gives the secret. God and bhakta in the scripture, are One. He gives the secret. He says, 'No Ma, this Tota Puri, Nangta – nangta means naked, the naked one – Nangta doesn't want to believe.'
I always imagine you know, when Ramakrishna went and told Mother, 'Ma, Ma, Nangta is making a fool of me.' I actually imagine Mother saying, 'Don't worry, please don't worry. Don't worry – we'll fix him up. Don't worry, I'll fix him up.'
Nangta was very proud, he said, 'I'm a jnani'. Jnani of the first order he was because he guru-enlightened Ramakrishna. So at night-time he went and slept near the Ganga [river Ganges]. And from God-consciousness, from the state of nirvikalpa samadhi, he was reduced to having stomach cramps. And his stomach is moving and twisting, like he just fell pregnant. [devotees laughing merrily] The pain was moving. What is moving? The child of Maya [God's power of illusion/delusion] is moving inside him. And he gets so cross – look at him, look at the deep belief in him. He says, 'we jnanis – before he said 'I' – now at least he made it, 'we' jnanis. We used the 'Royal' we – he became a little higher. He said, 'we jnanis, after realising God, what more must we do with the body?' But that itself means something – if he's a jnani and he's realised God, where does 'the body' come in? He says, 'I shall go and dump it in the Ganga'.
So he goes with the idea of consciously giving up his body in the water. That is called 'jal [water] samadhi' – not suicide. Suicide is to give up the body unconsciously. So he said, 'I'll give it up.' He goes in the Ganga where the ships used to go, he walks out – thinking just now it's going to become deeper – he saw many ships passing. He gets right to the other side of the river Ganga's bank and what happened? The water barely reached knee-deep. He said, 'what is this?' And he now says from inside his own mind, 'this is Maya. This is Maya – illusion – of course it must be illusion.' And suddenly he sees Mother Rajeshwari, standing there, Bhuvaneshwari – in all her glory. Smiling and laughing. She laughed and laughed. She just laughed and laughed and laughed. That laugh was what enlightened him. What happened? Mother's laugh just enlightened him. We have to argue and speak at conferences about God realisation. She just laughed. And he was enlightened, like lightning [instantly]. And then he said, 'Ah! Ma! Ma, you exist, you do exist'.
For the first time in my life, I realised it was this child denying its own mother. He was the child of Mother – who was? [devotees answer, 'Tota Puri'] Tota Puri was denying his own mother. What audacity! What ignorance. A jnani in this Kali Yuga – in this modern age – was brought to naught. Again and again it is proved in the scripture – even [Adi] Shankaracharya, the great Jnani, had to write hymns on God with form. She exists, but she does not reveal Her Absolute Truth. What's the meaning of that? She exists but she does not reveal Her Absolute Truth. That's what we call 'Maya'. It means, 'it's covered' – not altogether. A portion of it only, is revealed. Maya does not mean 'not' – it means a portion of it, 'is' – and I can see, but the complete, the Absolute, I don't know. So, Maya… For the first time, he realised, she exists. Shankaracharya himself realised that. He writes volume after volume on God with form.
Ramakrishna looks at Tota Puri, 'Aaah!' His face is glowing. You can see knowledge manifested. Benign, calm, peace. The ego of, 'I am a jnani,' is gone. The ego of realisation of beyond-nirguna, is gone. What is that? Neither guna nor nirguna. Above it, below it. Inside, 'Isa vasyam idagung sarvam.' [1st verse of Isa Upanishad,literal translation: All this – whatsoever moves on the earth, should be covered by the Lord.] God permeates God. Not God permeates the world. God, permeating God. H₂0 permeating H₂0 – in the form of ice. His 'false' jnani-knowledge vanished and Ramakrishna said, 'Aaah! Now you are complete.' You know the coin in the obverse, reverse, and in the circumference, too. Now you've got it. He is a real guru who knows inside-out, outside-in and whatever there is to be known. And this kind of guru never denies any aspect of God.
1) Care should be taken by the reader to understand and take Swamiji's words in these postings, in context. Every teaching or instruction that he gave was specific to the people who were with Swamiji at the time.
2) Mouse-over the words highlighted in red in the posting for further explanation or links.
There are currently available, 150 different CDs or DVDs with mp3 files, of Swamiji speaking. Please email timhoare@webmail.co.za to order.
For more about the Holy Trinity, and also the founding Swamis of the Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa, please mouse over their names below:
Sri Ramakrishna Sri Sarada Devi Swami Vivekananda
Swami Nischalananda Swami Shivapadananda
The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna - read online
Reference websites – please mouse over the name and click to connect:
Ramakrishna Math and Mission Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa Ramakrishna Dham