After God-realization illumined souls are carried along by the momentum of their past karma, but they cease to be affected by it. They behave like a witness, completely unattached to the world. They continue their daily routine, and they also help other people towards realization. Gopal-ma also followed her old routine. But from time to time she would visit the Master, and whatever visions she had during meditation she would relate to him. Once he said to her, “One should not disclose one’s visions to others, because it stops further visions.”
One day, however, Gopal-ma and Narendranath (later Swami Vivekananda) chanced to be present at Dakshineswar at the same time. Gopal-ma was uneducated, unsophisticated, simple, and a devout worshipper of God with form; Narendranath, on the other hand, was learned, sophisticated, intelligent, and a staunch believer in the formless God. As a member of the Brahmo Samaj, he looked down on worship of God with form. Sri Ramakrishna had a tremendous sense of humour, so he engaged these two devotees, with their opposing points of view, in a discussion by requesting Gopal-ma to relate her visions to Narendranath.
“But will there not be harm in telling them?” she asked. Assured by him that it would be all right, she related all her visions in detail to Narendranath with overwhelming joy and tears.
Devotion is contagious. Narendranath, in spite of his masculine exterior and faith in rationalism, could not control his tears. His heart was filled with love and religious fervour. The elderly lady now and then interrupted her story to say: “My son, you are learned and intelligent, and I am a poor, illiterate widow. I don’t understand anything. Please tell me, are these visions true?”
“Yes, Mother, whatever you have seen is all true,” Narendranath assured her. (Source: They Lived with God)
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Modern men and women, inclined to be sceptical and scientific, have great difficulty in accepting as real such experiences as Gopal-ma’s. However, from the traditional Hindu point of view, there are much finer states of consciousness than the one in which we experience the sense world. This has been substantiated again and again by the experiences of saints and seers. When the mind is pure and saturated with Spirit, such high states of consciousness are possible. Gopal-ma meditated on her beloved Gopala so much that her mind became very pure. As a result, she entered the superconscious realm, and she saw Gopala wherever her eyes fell. In this realm of mystical experience, verbal expression, mental cognition, and intellectual reasoning do not function. The only consciousness is the direct consciousness of God. (Source: They Lived with God)
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In 1897 Swami Vivekananda returned to India from his first visit to the West. Later he sent three of his Western disciples—Sister Nivedita, Mrs. Ole Bull, and Miss Josephine MacLeod — to Kamarhati to meet Gopal-ma. She received them cordially and kissed them. As she had no other furniture in her room, they sat on her bed. She then served them some puffed rice and sweet coconut balls and shared some of her spiritual experiences with them. When they returned to Calcutta, Swami Vivekananda said: “Ah! This is the old India that you have seen, the India of prayers and tears, of vigils and fasts, that is passing away.”
Once two women devotees came to Swami Vivekananda at Balaram’s house requesting initiation, but he sent them to Gopal-ma. She was reluctant, however, and said to Swamiji: “My son, what do I know about initiation? I am a poor widow.”
Swamiji replied with a smile: “Are you an ordinary person? You have attained perfection through japa. If you cannot give initiation then who can? Let me tell you, why don’t you give your own Ishta-mantra to them? It will serve their purpose. Moreover, what will you do with your mantra anymore?”
Gopal-ma initiated the women, but she was unwilling to accept any gift or offering from them. When she was persuaded, she followed the custom and accepted two rupees from them so that the disciples might not be hurt. She had no greed or desire for worldly objects. Her simple instruction was:
Listen, offer your body and mind to God. Initiation is not an insignificant thing. Do not leave your seat without repeating ten thousand japa in each sitting. While practising spiritual disciplines disconnect yourself from thoughts of the world. Start your japa at 3:00 in the morning so that nobody is aware of it; and again practise in the evening. (Source: They Lived with God)