Sri Ramakrishna on Paramahamsa

This stage of a Paramahamsa is attained only when one is freed from grief and desires.
In the case of a paramahamsa like Sukadeva and others, all work falls off – such actions as worship, repetition of the name, offering of water to the deities, and daily evening prayer. In this state there is union with God in the mind alone.
The Divine Mother has kept me in the state of seeing God in everything. That is why I return your salutations. I can’t exclude even a wicked person. A tulsi leaf may be dry or small, but it can still be used for the worship of God.
In the state of a paramahamsa one becomes like a child. A five-year-old does not distinguish between a man and a woman. Even so, the paramahamsa has to be careful to set a good example.
The nature of a paramahamsa is just like that of a five year old child. He sees everything full of consciousness.
A paramahamsa is like a child. He doesn’t see the difference between a relative and a stranger. He doesn’t have ties of worldly relationships.
Like a child, a paramahamsa isn’t aware of his whereabouts. He sees everything as Brahman. He doesn’t know where he is going or on what path he is proceeding.
According to Shaktas, a perfected soul is called a kaul. In the Vedanta, he is called a paramahamsa. The Vaishnava bauls call him a sai. ‘There is none greater than a sai.’ When a baul attains perfection, he is known as a sai.
I wept for three days, and He showed me what the Vedas, the Puranas, the Tantras, and other holy books contain. He showed it all to me.
My mother and my father knew what is here within. My father had a dream in Gaya in which Raghuvir said, ‘I will be born as your son.’ It is He who resides here within. As for such renunciation of ‘lust and greed,’ could I have brought it about myself? He who dwells within tells me in advance what kind of devotees will come to me. As soon as I see the form of Gauranga before my eyes, I immediately know that the devotees of Gaur will be coming. And if a Shakta comes, I have the vision of Divine Energy, Kali, before my eyes.
I used to shout from the roof of the kuthi at the time of the evening service, ‘O all of you, where are you? Please come!’ Now they all are gathering one by one. God Himself dwells within this. As if He Himself is working with the devotees.
The sword is separate from the sheath. That’s why I can’t ask the Divine Mother to cure the disease of my body.
Long ago I (Sri Ramakrishna) was very ill. I was sitting in the Kali Temple. I felt like praying to the Divine Mother for help, but I couldn’t do it for myself. I said, ‘Mother, Hriday asked me to speak to you about my illness.’ I couldn’t say more. While I was saying it, I suddenly remembered the Asiatic Society Museum. It had a skeleton of human bones tied together with wires. Immediately I said, ‘Mother, please tie this body with wires like the skeleton so I can go around chanting your name and glories.’ I couldn’t ask for any occult powers.
In the beginning Hriday said to me – you see, in those days I was under Hriday’s care – ‘Ask the Divine Mother for some power.’ And what a sight I saw when I went to the Kali temple to ask for power! I saw a widow prostitute thirty or thirty-five years old shamelessly opening her cloth and excreting. I became angry with Hriday because he told me to pray for occult powers.
Do you know why I love these boys so much? They are like pure milk that only needs to be brought to a boil to be offered to the deity. Watery milk has to be boiled quite a bit. A lot of firewood is wasted.
These boys are like unused earthen pots – they are good receptacles. Milk can be put in them without a care. Talk to them just a little about spiritual knowledge and their consciousness is awakened. Worldly people are not easily awakened. It is always risky to keep milk in a pot that’s been used for curds. It might go bad.
At the time of arati, I would climb up to the roof of the Kuthi and cry out from there, ‘Come, O devotees! Wherever you may be!’ I would stop breathing when I met worldly people. I told English-educated men and they said, ‘All this is delusion of the mind.’ I became peaceful, thinking to myself, that may be so. But all this is being confirmed now. All the devotees are gathering.
The five providers were revealed to me. First I saw Mathur Babu and then Sambhu Mallick – I had never seen him before, but I had seen in ecstasy a fair-complexioned man wearing a crown. When I met Sambhu many days later, I remembered that it was this very man I had seen in ecstasy. The other three providers I have not yet been able to spot clearly. But they were all fair- skinned. Surendra might very well be one of the providers.
I was shown beforehand what kind of person would visit me. I saw with these physical eyes, not in a vision, a kirtan party led by Chaitanya Deva, going from the banyan tree to the bakultala. I saw Balaram in it and, I think, yourself [M.]. The regular visits of Chuni and yourself to me have awakened spiritual consciousness [in both of you]. I also saw Sashi and Sarat. They were in the group of the rishi Christ.
I saw a boy under the banyan tree. Hriday said that a son would be born to me. For me every woman is the Mother. How could I have a son? That boy is Rakhal.
The Paramahamsa of Dakshineswar is no ordinary man. There is no one as great as he on earth. He is so beautiful, so extraordinary, he must be preserved with the greatest care. If this is not done he will not survive – he must be preserved the way a beautiful and valuable article is kept in a glass case.
A paramahamsa is beyond the three gunas. The three gunas, though within him, are almost non-existent. He’s like a child, not subject to them. That’s why a paramahamsa lets young children come around – to adopt their attitude.
A paramahamsa cannot save for the future. This is not for householders – they have to save for their families.
What is sin and what is virtue? In the state of a paramahamsa, a person sees that it is God Himself who grants good behavior – and also bad. There are sweet as well as bitter fruits. Some trees bear sweet fruits, others bitter or sour. He has created the tree of sweet mangoes as well as sour hog-plum.
A paramahamsa sees that it is all the splendour of His maya: real and unreal, good and bad, sin and virtue. But this is a very advanced stage. In this stage a person can’t maintain an organization.
He [Sri Ramakrishna] says, “Mother, worship has left me and also japa. Look Mother, don’t make me so inert. Let my attitude be that of a servant of God. Mother, I should be able to talk, and chant Your name, and sing. And please, Mother, give some strength to this body so I can walk a little on my own. And be able to go to all the places where they talk about You and where Your devotees are.”
Sri Ramakrishna had said to him that Vedic injunctions did not suit the Kaliyuga because people have to work hard for food, are short lived and their body and sense consciousness can’t be completely given up. He asked Ishan to carry out spiritual disciplines according to the Tantras instead, in the filial attitude. And he also said, “The Mother is none other than Brahman and Brahman is also the Primal Power.”
Sri Ramakrishna sings while he sits on the platform of the Kali temple, “O Mother, O Mother, You, the embodiment of Omkar. Mother, how much these people talk. I understand nothing, Mother. I know nothing. I take refuge in You, in You I take refuge! I pray only that I may have pure love at Your lotus feet. Please do not bewitch me with Your world-enchanting maya, Mother. I take refuge in You, in You I take refuge.”
I [Sri Ramakrishna] said to Keshab Sen, ‘There is the greatest manifestation of God in man. There are small holes in the ridges on the edge of a [rice] field. They’re called ghutis. Small fish and crab gather there. If you want to find them, you have to look in these holes. If you’re looking for God, look for Him in an incarnation of God.
A person can gain a lot by going to exhibits. Seeing such valuable articles and other belongings of the rajas and maharajas, you develop repulsion for them. This in itself is a great gain.
Once I [Sri Ramakrishna] went to the museum. I saw that everything there had turned into brick or stone – animals had become transformed into fossils. I saw what can happen as the result of company. Like that, by keeping the company of holy people, a person becomes like them.
I’d [Sri Ramakrishna] like to have two pictures – one of a yogi sitting near a sacred fire. And the other of a yogi pulling deeply on a chillum of hemp, with the coals of his pipe blazing up. Such images are very inspiring. Like an imitation custard apple. Seeing it, you’re reminded of a real one.
I [Sri Ramakrishna] think about these things sometimes, and then I don’t like all that. In the beginning you can talk about sin and how to be free from it. But, if by God’s grace, you begin to feel love for Him, you develop devotion, you forget all about sin and virtue. Then you go beyond injunctions and scriptures. You no longer feel you have to bother about penance and repentance.
It’s like reaching your destination by a winding river, taking a long time and with great difficulty. But if the water rises in flood, you reach your destination by a straight path, without difficulty and in a short time. Then there is pole-deep water even on dry land.
You are devotees. I’m [Sri Ramakrishna] not afraid to tell you. These days I don’t see the spirit-form of God. Now I only see Him in the concrete form of a human being. It’s my nature to see, touch and embrace Him. But now He says to me, ‘You have assumed a body. Enjoy Me in human forms, in a concrete form.’
To tell you the truth, I [Sri Ramakrishna] haven’t studied Vedanta or other scriptures, but I’m not a bit sorry about it. I know the essence of Vedanta: Brahman is real and the world is an illusion. And what is the essence of the Gita? That when you go on repeating the word Gita ten times, you get tyagi, tyagi.
I [Sri Ramakrishna] can’t eat food brought by a miser. Their money is squandered in a number of ways: first, in law-suits; second, in robbery or theft; third, in medical expenses; and then by the extravagance of bad children. This is how their money goes.
A paramahamsa always has the awareness that God is real and everything else is transitory. Only a swan can separate milk from water. If milk is mixed with water, the acid on its tongue can separate the milk from the water. A paramahamsa also has a similar acid, that of ecstatic love for God. Having such love, he can discriminate between the eternal and the transitory. He can experience God and see Him.
I [Sri Ramakrishna] can’t ask the Divine Mother to cure me. And the attitude of master and servant is diminishing. Sometimes I say, ‘Mother, please repair the scabbard of the sword a little.’ But I can make such a prayer less and less now. These days even when I’m looking for ‘I,’ it can’t be found. I see that She Herself is dwelling inside this scabbard.
There is no outsider here. I’m [Sri Ramakrishna] telling you a secret. The other day I saw Sat-chit-ananda come out from inside me and take a form. It said, ‘I do incarnate from age to age.’ I saw the fullest manifestation, but with the glorious quality of sattva.
One day when Thakur was restless in the Cossipore garden house because of the pain from the cancer, when he could not even swallow rice gruel, Narendra, sitting near him, thought to himself, “If, in such a pain as this, he says that he is an incarnation of God, I will believe it.” The same moment Thakur said, “He who was Rama, He who was Krishna, has manifested Himself in the form of Ramakrishna for the sake of His devotees.” Hearing it, Narendra was speechless.
Listen to how nice the music is. One person is playing a monotone and another is raising many waves of other modes. I’m like that. Why should I blow only one note when there are seven available to me? Why should I only say, ‘So ‘ham, So ‘ham?’ I like to call on Him in all attitudes – of shanta (serenity), of dasya (servant toward his master), of vatsalya (mother toward her child), of sakhya (friend) and of madhura (beloved). I’ll call on Him in all these attitudes, I’ll be happy and enjoy myself in all these moods.
I’m the lowest of the low, poorest of the poor. I am servant to his servants. Only Krishna is great.

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