the real and the unreal, gets spiritual illumination and goes beyond life and death. God is realized in spirit. How else can one see God? Has God talked to anybody devoid of ecstatic fervour? One sees God in spiritual vision, talks to Him, and establishes relationship with Him in Spirit."
Disciple: No, Mother. There is something else besides. One gets a direct vision of the Atman.
Mother: That Naren (Swami Vivekananda) alone had. The Master kept with himself the key to Naren's liberation. What else is spiritual life besides praying to the Master, repeating his Name, and contemplating on him? (
With a smile) And the Master? What is there after all in him? He is our own eternally!
Disciple: Mother, please see that I realize the right thing — Just that Sri Ramakrishna is
our own!
Mother: Must I repeat it? (
Firmly) You will certainly realize it. Certainly.
* * * *
19th December 1909
I was talking to the Mother in her room. She was lying on her bed. The conversation drifted to the Vedanta. I said to her, "Nothing exists in the world except name and form. It cannot be proved that matter exists. Therefore the conclusion is that God and such other things do not exist."
My idea was that such things as the Master and the Holy Mother were also illusory. She at once understood my thought and said, "Narendra once said to me, 'Mother, the knowledge that disregards the lotus feet of the Guru is nothing but ignorance. What is the validity of knowledge if it proves that the Guru is naught? Give up this dry discussion, this hodgepodge of philosophy: Who has been able to know God by reasoning? Even Siva and sages like Suka and Vyasa are like big ants at the most."
1
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1 The reference is to an illustration given by Sri Ramakrishna: "Men often think they have understood Brahman fully. Once an ant went to a hill of sugar. One grain filled its stomach. Taking another grain in its mouth, it started homeward. On its way it thought, 'Next time I shall carry home the whole hill.' That is the way shallow minds think. They don't know that Brahman is beyond one's words and thought. However great a man may be, how much can he know of Brahman? Sukadeva and sages like him may have been big ants; but even they could carry at the utmost eight or ten grains of sugar!" —
The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, (Madras: Sri Ramakrishna Math, 1980) Vol. I, p.102.