- True Knowledge Helps One to Attain Brahman
- Divine Mother Walks Here
- Subodh’s Restlessness to See The Master
- If You Wish You Can Get Well
- Passion for God and Dispassion for The World
- “Please accept my last pranam.”
- Testing Sri Ramakrishna
- “It was the Divine Mother.”
- “I Am a Wild Horse” – Girish Gosh
- ‘I Don’t Care.’
- Swami Subodhananda’s Love for Tea
- Stop Criticizing Swamiji
- Truthfulness is The Key to God-realization
- Inner Realization Gives Greater Conviction
- Story of Shridhara Swami
- Importance of Spiritual Practices
As he grew closer and closer to the Master, his conviction in Sri Ramakrishna’s divinity gradually gained strength. One day when the Master advised Subodh to practise meditation, he replied: “Sir, I won’t be able to do that. If I have to practise meditation, why should I come to you? I may as well go to some other guru.” Understanding his inner feeling, the Master said: “All right, you will not have to practise meditation. But think of me in the morning and evening.”
Subodh learned from Ramakrishna various aspects of spiritual life, which he later related to the devotees: “One day I asked the Master: ‘I have read about gods and goddesses in books and heard about them from various people. Can one really see them?’ Sri Ramakrishna replied: ‘One can see God as one sees two persons talking together or walking. But one should call on God from the bottom of one’s heart. Pray and cry for Him. Demand His vision from Him as children demand toys from their parents with loud cries. Remove all worldly desires from the mind. Always remember: I have a Mother and I am Her son.’” On another occasion the Master said: “Those who shall attain spiritual experience will feel comfortable with my ideas and teachings… . He who has faith in me, has faith in God; and, again, he who does not have faith in me, does not have faith in God either.”
Although Subodh did not live with Sri Ramakrishna all the time like some of the other disciples, he observed the Master’s life minutely and served him whenever he got the opportunity. He later narrated the following:
- The Master had special devotion for Mother Ganges. He used to say, “Ganga-vari Brahma-vari” (The water of the Ganges is as pure as Brahman). If anybody was overwhelmed with grief or affliction or delusion, he would tell him, “Go and drink a little Ganges water, and you will be all right.” It was amazing to find that the person would get the desired result.
- I have seen something wonderful in the Master. His room would be packed with people, and they would have many questions in their minds. Yet in a single talk he would answer all of their unspoken questions.
- Once Keshab Chandra Sen invited the Master to his house, and secretly offered flowers with sandalpaste at his feet. Then he said, “Sir, please don’t tell this to anybody, otherwise people will say that I have worshipped a human being.” The Master’s nature was like that of a child. He told Vijaykrishna Goswami and an official of the temple: “Look, Keshab has offered flowers at my feet and requested me not to tell anyone. Please don’t tell it to others.”
- Sometimes the Master would say, “The Divine Mother Herself has come to visit the world in human form [meaning himself]; when people of all sects assemble here, this body will not last.”
- One day while walking in the Panchavati at Dakshineswar, the Master went into ecstasy. Then, facing the northwest, he pointed to himself and said, “Look, the Mother is saying that the more a person thinks of me, the more quickly he will understand the highest truths of religion.” Again, pointing to the northwest, he said, “I shall be born again in that direction, then many people will attain knowledge.”
- On another occasion the Master told me about himself: “This body is a cage of flesh and bone, but the Mother is playing inside it… . He who was Rama and Krishna is living in this body.”
One day at Cossipore Subodh privately asked the Master to bless him so that he could realize God. Ramakrishna affectionately patted his back thrice and said: “Yes, yes, you will realize God; and in the future many people will learn from you.”
During his stay in Vrindaban, Subodhananda circumambulated the playground of Krishna — a distance of 168 miles. He covered this long journey alone without any belongings. One day a woman saw him, and inflamed by lust, attacked him from behind. Frightened, he prayed to the Master aloud for protection. Immediately, the woman fell on the ground, unconscious.
Subodhananda’s love and respect for Swamiji was phenomenal. Once in Varanasi, Swami Raghavananda asked him: “Maharaj, who is greater — Trailanga Swami or Swamiji?” Subodhananda replied: “Trailanga Swami is the greatest among men, but Swamiji is Shiva Himself. If anybody criticized Swamiji before the Master, he would say, ‘Here the Lord Shiva has been criticized, please sprinkle a little Ganges water.’”
When someone asked him how to control lust, he replied: “The more you go towards the east, the farther you are from the west. Don’t pay any attention to lustful thoughts; just move towards God. After some days you will see that lust has unconsciously disappeared from your mind. Without the will of the Divine Mother nothing will happen. Surrender to Her. Out of mercy She will remove your weakness, and you will be freed from lust.”
One day he talked about the efficacy of japam: “All power belongs to God. If anyone repeats the mantram, he will definitely get the result. For instance, when a farmer sows seeds, no matter whether they are placed in the ground straight or upside down, they shoot up all the same. He is everything — it is He who gives pain and again He who gives peace. One can overcome all obstacles by repeating the mantram.”
Subodhananda came from a well-to-do family. Once his relatives proposed sharing some of their family income with him, but he declined to accept it. He told them: “I am an all-renouncing monk; I don’t need any money. Please serve the poor and the mendicants with that money.”
One day Subodhananda performed the worship in the shrine. While he was offering the fruits and sweets, the Master appeared before him and pointing to the sliced cucumber, said, “Please add a little salt to it.”
One day Swami Subodhananda said to a devotee: “Do you expect anything when you present some gifts to your little brothers and sisters? One should love God like that. Say: ‘Master, I offer my body and mind, my life, and everything to you. Give me shelter at your blessed feet. I don’t want anything else.’”