At Ram's House

(to M.): “Hasn’t the younger Naren arrived yet?”

“What about him?”

Kishori. Isn’t Girish Ghosh coming? What about Narendra?

(to the devotees): “It would be fine if Kedār were here. He agrees with Girish. (To Mahima, smiling) He says the same thing.”

From the Nitya to the Lila and from the Lila to the Nitya. (To Nityagopal) What is your ideal?

Is it only this? Does God exist only when the eyes are closed, and cease to exist when the eyes are opened?

The Lila belongs to Him to whom the Nitya belongs, and the Nitya belongs to Him to whom the Lila belongs. (To Mahima) My dear sir, let me tell you-

“Some people climb the seven floors of a building and cannot get down; but some climb up and then, at will, visit the lower floors.

“Uddhava said to the gopis: ‘He whom you address as your Krishna dwells in all beings. It is He alone who has become the universe and its living beings.’

“Therefore I say, does a man meditate on God only when his eyes are closed? Doesn’t he see anything of God when his eyes are open?”

“It can’t be said that bhaktas need Nirvāna.

According to some schools there is an eternal Krishna and there are also His eternal devotees. Krishna is Spirit embodied, and His Abode also is Spirit embodied.

Krishna is eternal and the devotees also are eternal.

Krishna and the devotees are like the moon and the stars-always near each other.

You yourself repeat: ‘what need is there of penance if God is seen within and without?’ Further, I have told you that the devotee who is born with an element of Vishnu cannot altogether get rid of bhakti.

Once I fell into the clutches of a Jnāni, who made me listen to Vedānta for 11 months. But he couldn’t altogether destroy the seed of bhakti in me.

No matter where my mind wandered, it would come back to the Divine Mother.

Whenever I sang of Her, Nangta would weep and say:

You see, he was such a great Jnāni and still he wept.

(To the younger Naren and the others) Remember the popular saying that if a man drinks the juice of the Ālekh creeper, a plant grows inside his stomach.

Once the seed of bhakti is sown, the effect is inevitable: it will gradually grow into a tree with flowers and fruits.

You may reason and argue a thousand times, but if you have the seed of bhakti within you, you will surely come back to Hari.

What is the thing you enjoy most?

(smiling): “All by yourself? Or do you want to share them with others?”

But do you know my attitude? I accept both, the Nitya and the Lila.

Doesn’t God exist if one looks around with eyes open? After realizing Him, one knows that He is both the Absolute and the universe.

It is He who is the Indivisible Satchidananda. Again, it is He who has become the universe and its living beings.

One needs sādhanā. Mere study of the scriptures will not do.

I noticed that though Vidyāsāgar had no doubt read a great deal, he had not realized what was inside him; he was satisfied with helping boys get their education, but had not tasted the Bliss of God.

What will mere study accomplish? How little one assimilates! The almanac may forecast twenty measures of rain; but you don’t get a drop by squeezing its pages.

“Why should you say such a thing? It is you who describe the world as illusory, like a dream.

“Rāma and Lakshmana wanted to go to Ceylon. But the ocean was before them. Lakshmana was angry. Taking his bow and arrow, he said:

Lakshmana, all that you are seeing is unreal, like a dream. The ocean is unreal.

Your anger is also unreal. It is equally unreal to think of destroying one unreal thing by means of another.