rendered pure as the result of many austerities. God who is purity itself cannot be attained without spiritual practices.
What else does a man obtain by the realization of God? Does he grow two horns? No, his mind becomes pure, and through such a pure mind one attains knowledge and spiritual awakening.
Disciple: There are devotees who surrender themselves to God fully and do not practise austerities. How do they attain to this state?
Mother: That they surrender themselves to God, that they live placing implicit trust in Him, is their spiritual discipline. Ah! Naren said, "Let me have millions of births, what do I fear?" It is true. Does a man of knowledge ever fear rebirth? He does not commit any sin. It is the ignorant person who is always seized with fear. He alone gets entangled and becomes polluted by sin. For millions of births he suffers from endless miseries, he undergoes infinite pains, and at last he craves for God.
Disciple: Yes, through experience he gets his lessons and then attains knowledge.
Mother: Yes, the calf makes the sound of 'Hamba, Hamba.' It makes the same sound even after drums and other instruments are made from its hide and entrails. At last it goes into the hand of a carder, and then comes the sound 'Tuhu, Tuhu.'
1
JAYRAMBATI
18th September, 1913
In the course of a letter to a devotee the Mother wrote: "There is no happiness whatever in human birth. The world is verily filled with misery. Happiness here is only a name. He
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1 The reference is to a parable often related by Sri Ramakrishna: "The cow cries, 'Hamba!', which means 'I'. That is why it suffers so much. It is yoked to the plough and made to work in rain and sun. Then it may be killed by the butcher. From its hide shoes are made, and also drums, which are mercilessly beaten. Still it does not escape suffering. At last strings are made out of its entrails for the bow used in carding cotton. Then it no longer says, 'Hamba! Hamba!', 'I! I!', but 'Tuhu! Tuhu!', 'Thou! Thou!' Only then are its troubles over."
-The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (Madras: Sri Ramakrishna Math, 1980), vol. I, p.l05.