THE Master (to Pratap Chandra Mazumdar): “You are an educated and intelligent man, and you are a deep thinker too. Keshab and yourself were like the two brothers, Gour and Nitai. You have had enough of this world—enough of lectures, controversies, schisms, and the rest. Do you still care for them? Now it is high time for you to collect your scattered mind and turn it towards God. Plunge into the ocean of Divinity.”
Mazumdar: “Yes, revered sir, that I ought to do; there is no doubt about it. But all this I do simply to preserve Keshab’s name and reputation.”
Sri Ramakrishna (smiling): “Let me tell you a story. A man built a house on a hill. It was only a mud hut, but he had built it with great labour. A few days after, there came a violent storm and the hut began to rock. The man became very anxious to save it and prayed to the god of winds:
‘O god of the winds, please don’t wreck the house! But the god of the winds paid no heed to his prayers. The house was about to crash. Then he thought of a trick. He remembered that Hanuman was the son of the god of the winds. At once he cried out with great earnestness: ‘O revered sir, please don’t pull down the house. It belongs to Hanuman. I beseech you to protect it.’ But still the house continued to shake violently. Nobody seemed to listen to his prayer. He repeated many times, ‘Oh, this house belongs to Hanuman!’ But the fury of the winds did not abate. Then he remembered that Hanuman was the devoted servant of Rama, whose younger brother was Lakshmana. Desperately the man cried, saying aloud, ‘Oh, this house belongs to Lakshmana!’ But that also failed to help matters. So the man cried out as a last resort: ‘This is Rama’s house. Don’t break it down, O god of winds!
I beseech you most humbly.’ But this proved futile, and the house began to crash down. Whereupon the man who had to save his own life, rushed out of it with a curse: ‘Let it go! This is devil’s own house!'”
You may now be anxious to preserve Keshab’s name: but console yourself with the thought, it was after all owing to God’s Will that the religious movement connected with his name was set on foot, and that if the movement has had its day, it is also due to that same Divine Will. Therefore dive deep into the sea of Immortality.” (42)