One of the five Niyamas is CONTENTMENT. Be content with what you have; be content with the way the world treats you.

In this life, I don’t have much craving for material things. More than enough has always been my lot so far. I was born in a prosperous family, and there was always plenty.

However, I was born under Leo, and it seems one of my character defects that goes with that sign is a desire for praise. I want people to notice how smart I am. I am proud of my intelligence. I feel frustrated if I don’t get a chance to shine.

To realize God, we must renounce the things of the outer world, and praise is definitely one of those things. So here is a question for me: What do I want, praise or prema? It’s a clear choice. I can’t have both. As Sri Ramakrishna says, “God’s grace runs down the high mound of ego”, and valuing praise when it comes only builds it up higher.

Why do I covet praise? To build up the false ego. I can feel that it is somehow lacking (since it in fact doesn’t exist), and thus it calls to be built up.

It reminds me of a story I read somewhere. A king was praising a holy man about his great renunciation. The holy man replied, “No king, you are the greater renouncer. For the sake of a petty kingdom you have renounced infinite bliss.” I am like that king. For the sake of this petty I, I am loving this contemptible praise instead of God’s infinite love.

Lord, let praise taste bitter so that I might throw off my yearning for it.

On the other hand, praise from a spiritual person is a hopeful indication that one is indeed on the path that leads to God. May I consider praise from such a person as good encouragement.

As I recall Alice in Wonderland, she finds herself in a room, and adjacent is a wonderful garden. The only problem is that the door leading to this garden is very tiny. She lies down and can see the wonderful garden through the door, but she is way too big to go through. Fortunately for her, she comes to possess a magic mushroom. Eating one side will make her shrink; the other will make her grow. Eventually, after various mishaps, she gets through into that special garden.

We are in a similar dilemma. We’ve heard about a wonderful transcendental realm very close by, but the question is how to get access to it? Our natural tendency is to do things that will enhance our ego -- that will build ourselves up. We want to gain success, to get praise, we want to be noticed, we want people to think well of us, we want to be loved. All these things inflate the drooping ego. Building up this ego is the primary goal for most people. Most people in America have achievement as their primary goal. Perhaps most people in the world. This is a factoid I learned in the study of personality in psychology graduate school.

HOWEVER, we are told that to pass into that transcendental realm, the big ego must go. Sri Ramakrishna says, “Who then is a devotee? He whose mind dwells on God. But this is not possible as long as one has egotism and vanity. The water of God’s grace cannot collect on the high mound of egotism. It runs down.” (THE GOSPEL OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA, p. 111). Thus, to become a devotee -- one who can pass into that divine realm -- one must become humble. One must strive in exactly the opposite direction of the natural tendency to enhance the ego. We need to become small enough to pass through that tiny door into the garden of “ananda,” of bliss.

Sri Ramakrishna says that we should think, “I am a mere machine.” It is God who operates the machine; thus, all credit goes to God and not to this puny “I.” In practice, we should be thankful to God when we are able to accomplish something, and not proud of our achievement. Instead of being jealous of the accomplishments of others, see the good in them. Accept correction in a cheerful spirit.

Try to think, “I am God’s child.” Or, “I am God’s servant.” Or, “I am God’s devotee.” Or, “God is infinite, and I am an infinitesimal part of Her.”

I can’t vouch from my own experience that these practices will make us small enough to get through that tiny door, BUT I have faith that they will, and this is my project in this life.

I have received a holy divine name that I repeat with faith. I am told that this name will purify my mind. What does this mean that it will “purify” my mind? The six passions will eventually be removed: lust, greed, pride, anger, envy, and delusion. These are all the all the things for which we build up the ego to enjoy. With them finally reduced to nothing, I will be small enough to get through that hole into the blissful garden of realization.

Sri Ramakrishna said, “God is the operator, and we are machines. We act as She makes us act.” But it seems that God is an overindulgent mother, fulfilling all our wishes to act one way or another, whether good or bad. She enables us to act as we wish, whether righteous or unrighteous. Sri Ramakrishna says that although God is the doer, we think we are the doers. If we want to get something by stealing, God seconds this and enables us to carry out that wish. If the wish is to work hard to get something by the sweat of our brow, He also gives us the grit and fortitude to do that.

If you sit under the legendary Kalpataru tree and think of a wish, the legend has it that it will be immediately fulfilled. If God is the Kalpataru, that tree is all-pervading, and thus we are all under the tree all the time. But it seems that the legend, like most legends, is a bit of an exaggeration. Our wishes will be eventually fulfilled, but usually not immediately. My 82-year-old friend told me that he wishes he could go to Harvard Law School, become an international lawyer, and prosecute war criminals at the Hague. I told him this will happen in his next life. He didn’t like the idea that he would first have to die before this wish could be fulfilled.

I once met a person named Ted who belonged to a group called Agni Yoga, a branch of Theosophy. BTW, it was his teacher, Ralph Houston, who connected me to my guru, Swami Pavitrananda of the New York Vedanta Society. Ted told me that as people are getting close to the goal of God realization, their karma fructifies immediately. Do a good deed and the reward will come right away. Do a bad thing and the punishment will be immediate. This is a bit like the legendary Kalpataru.

Why does God enable us to act on all our intentions, whether good or bad? I think Her plan is to let Her amazing dollies, that is us, learn the hard way. There is an old Greek saying: “The Gods punish men by granting their prayers.” So, by tasting all those things we want, we eventually, after long and hard experience, perceive their hollowness and turn for that infinite fulfillment that only God can give.

In my morning meditation yesterday, it occurred to me that this life is like a bullring and God is the matador. Like the bull, we want to get at the matador but run after the red cape -- something entirely empty. What is the red cape? For most men, it’s women, wealth, praise, acclaim, revenge, friends, gossip, and other worldly things. For most women, it’s children, a husband, security, gossip, recognition, affection, and other worldly things. We all want bliss, the matador. The matador skillfully waves the red cape of these various things, and we run after them instead of the matador. Just like the red cape, they are empty. Finally, in each bullfight, the Matador puts an end to each bull body. But we’re reborn for another fight, and so it goes.

At a bullfight in Malaga in the summer of 1965, one bull was not at all fooled by the red cape and had the satisfaction of goring the matador, throwing him up like a weightless hanky. A rare few who enter this bullring of the world are not fooled by any of the red capes and go straight for the Matador. These win that incredible bliss.

For reasons of Her own, She enjoys this game. After endlessly running after the empty capes, we bulls finally wise up and seek the matador Herself. She loves that moment. Of course, She is not only the matador, She is also each of the bulls created with this delusion that it is the red cape that will make each of us happy.

Why do I say the things of the world are an empty red cape? They are paltry compared to the infinite bliss of God, which we intuitively seek; they are at best temporary; they are always mixed with pain.

The Infinite, painted by Scott Williams

Bill Youmans wrote in response to my post, The Implications of Prayer https://billdavisoframakrishna.substack.com/p/implications-of-prayer,

“It’s all beyond human comprehension.”

True, true. People, full of intellectual pride, demand that God be comprehensible. Either they finally abandon this demand or conclude that God does not exist because of the endless contradictions in this world. The good suffer. The bad prosper. I think it’s an important step on the path to God to accept that the INFINITE is beyond comprehension. This humbles us. As Thakur says, we must have childlike faith. A child doesn’t’ reason. It knows its safety is with the mother. God is our mother. God loves us dearly without any regard to our faults or virtues. Does a mother stop loving a child who has soiled itself? We children of God are constantly soiling ourselves with moral transgressions. But finally, we get the urge to reform and seek that which lasts and which is not finite. Our Divine Mother seems to enjoy this sport and waits patiently life after life for this eventual turn, which delights Her,.

Those familiar with the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna know that on M.’s second meeting with Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Ramakrishna asked M. if he believed in God with form or without form. M. reports that he wondered how it was possible for these contradictory things to simultaneously be true. In terms of logic, they can’t be. M. surrendered right then and there that God was incomprehensible and took refuge in this Godman. In the Infinite, contradictory things can be true. On another occasion, Sri Ramakrishna, hearing of an atrocity, said, “ God creates, preserves and She destroys. Can we ever understand why She destroys? I say to the Divine Mother, “O Mother, I do not need to understand. Please give me love for Thy Lotus Feet. THE AIM OF HUMAN LIFE IS TO ATTAIN BHAKTI (my emphasis). As for other things, the Mother knows best. I have come to the garden to eat the mangoes (i.e. realize God = attain Bhakti). What is the use of my calculating the number of trees, branches, and leaves? I only eat the mangoes; I don’t need to know the number of trees.” (Gospel, p.161).

In another place Sri Ramakrishna says that the aim of human life is to realize God. So attaining Bhakti and realizing God must be the same thing. And this makes perfect sense to me. If one has one-pointed love for God one has realized God.

However, THE INFINITE doesn’t imply a Giant King or Queen in the far beyond. That infinite Reality is “Larger than the largest. Smaller than the smallest.” (Upanishad). As Sri Ramakrishna says (To his great householder devotee, Balaram): “There is none more intimate and affectionate than God.” (Life of Sri Ramakrishna, p. 312.)

Thus, God is both Infinite and Intimate. She is within each of us. How is that possible. “It is beyond human comprehension.” Before Swamiji was seated at the Parliament of Religions in Chicago, he said at Kate Sanborn’s farm near Boston, “God is a circle whose circumference is nowhere, and whose center is everywhere. Every point in that circle is living, conscious, active, and equally working. The universe is a power composed of the Great Infinite. With our limited souls only one point is conscious. When we can get out of the limited center of body, we shall realize God, our true Self.” Hearing this Kate Sanborn became dizzy and had to lie down. Again, “It is beyond human comprehension.” It is mind boggling. But there it is for us to realize.

But not only present. God is our loving Mother /Father always there beside us helping us invisibly. As Swami Ramakrishnananda says, “God is all-auspicious and all powerful. Whatever He does is for the good of all beings. . . . If God allots sorrow and suffering to anyone, then know for certain that it is His blessing in disguise. We forget God in our greed for transient pleasures. So He makes us remember Him by these little miseries. His kindness is expressed through both favorable and unfavorable circumstances.” (God Lived With Them, p. 299.)

Thus, we should surrender to God and have faith in God’s dispensation.

Jai Ma!

The following conversation took place at Belur Math in February of 2001.

Me: I feel I have no faith.

Swami Smarananda (At that time General Secretary of the Ramakrishna Math and Mision): Do you pray?

Me: Yes.

Swami Smarananda: One cannot pray without faith.

Thus, one of the implications of prayer is that the person who prays has at least a little faith that God exists. Sri Ramakrishna advised an atheist to pray with an “if.” “O Lord, if You exist, then reveal Yourself to me.” A person uttering that prayer is at least open to the possibility that God exists. It is said that the person to whom he gave that advice became a staunch believer.

Next, we pray, assuming that God hears our prayer. Sri Ramakrishna said that God hears even the footfall of an ant. Thus, a second implication is that God is all-knowing. How could Shay (Bengali for he or she) be aware of our prayer if Shay were not all-knowing. Moreover, Shay must know what’s going on in every cell of every being – in every atom in the universe. Mind boggling!

A third implication is that God must be all-pervading. At least God’s awareness is all-pervasive. Could there be a difference between God’s awareness and God’s presence? Well, someone could think that Shay is far away, but has very keen sight and hearing. To me, this is an anthropomorphized conception of God. Shay is like us. Shay is limited. But how can God be limited? God would not be God if Shay were limited.

A fourth implication is the belief that God is omnipotent. How could God grant the prayer unless Shay had the power to do so? Thus, in praying, there is the tacit belief in Shay’s omnipotence. Not only is God aware of what is going on in every cell of every being, Shay is also controlling what is going on there. Shay is controlling every atom in the universe and even the dark matter we now hear about.

A fifth implication (perhaps the most important) is that God can be seen! Most people never think about this possibility. But if God is indeed omnipotent, God could, if Shay wished, grant this also. Sri Ramakrishna came to earth to let us know that this and this alone is really what we should be praying for. This is, in fact, the best favor that can be bestowed.

I think the person who has the most access to the heart of our president is his oldest daughter, Ivanka. I imagine this conversation took place about a year ago.

Ivanka: Daddy?

DT: Yes, darling. What is it?

Ivanka: Jared has convinced me that the greatest threat to the existence of Israel is Iran.

DT: Yes, say more.

Ivanka: It’s the religious belief of those in power in Iran that Israel must be destroyed. They were behind the Oct 7 massacre by Hamas. They support Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis both financially and with weapons. They are building a thermonuclear bomb to wipe out Israel. If they are not stopped, eventually they will succeed. The leaders of Iran don’t care that 10’s of millions of their people will be wiped out in Israel’s retaliation.

DT: All true. But what do you want me to do?

Ivanka: Daddy, we know that their nuclear facilities are deep beneath mountains. Can our bombs penetrate that far to destroy those facilities?

DT: I think so, but I would have to check with our generals.

Ivanka: If it turns out that they can, would you be willing to order that action?

DT: For you, I would do it in a heartbeat.

Ivanka: What a wonderful daddy you are. Jared will be thrilled when I share this with him.

DT: I love you, Ivanka, very much. Tomorrow I will speak to my generals.

Ivanka: What about Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis?

DT: Yes, what about them?

Ivanka: How can we get Iran to stop supporting them?

DT: I think there would have to be a change of regime in Iran.

Ivanka: Is that something that we could make happen?

DT: It wouldn’t be easy. Perhaps if we wiped out their leadership, the people would rise up and install a new government.

Ivanka: Is there any plan to do that?

DT: Let me talk to Bibi and see what they’re cooking up.

An imaginary recent conversation between Ivanka and Jared:

Ivanka: Well, we did wipe out much of Itan’s leadership, but regime change certainly doesn’t seem imminent.

Jared: True, true. However, the threat from Iran against Israel is, at least for the time being, much reduced. You know the expression in Israel, “Mowing the grass.”

Ivanka: What does it mean?

Jared: The grass represents threats to Israel. This action against Iran has greatly reduced the threat from Iran. But the grass is still there and will have to be mowed again.

Ivanka: It’s a shame that gas prices have soared.

Jared: Yes, this is painful. But you know how I take this?

Ivanka: No.

Jared: The world is suffering somewhat now because of this action, which protects Israel. I feel the world deserves it as a kind of partial karmic payment for the abandonment of the Jewish people during WWII. Not one country would let Jews in, although they were aware that they were being severely persecuted in Germany. Not even this country.

Ivanka: When I read about that episode in world history, I feel very ashamed.

Jared: The fact that you could marry me is part of a great change in this country. Although antisemitism is popping up now here and in other countries, it is much, much less than at the time of WWII. I feel grateful for this. This country is Israel’s greatest supporter, and it was Truman who enabled Israel to come into being.

For earlier posts go to bill davis of ramakrishna.

Sri Ramakrishna: Let me assure you that a man can realize his Inner Self through sincere prayer. But to the extent that he has a desire to enjoy worldly objects, his vision of the Self becomes obstructed. THE GOSPEL OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA, p. 256.

Sri Ramakrishna: None can taste divine bliss without giving up his animal feeling. A devotee should pray to God to help him get rid of this feeling. It must be a sincere prayer. THE GOSPEL OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA, p. 670.

On the one hand, the first above seems like a hopeful declaration: we do sincerely wish to realize the inner self. But on the other there still remains worldly desire: the animal feeling mentioned in the second quote above. Also, the desire for material security, and the desire for praise. If it weren’t so, realization would be an accomplished fact.

God sees the inner desires clear as day, and God knows full well about these longings. Inner longings are like prayers, even if they are not clearly formulated and said as prayers. Thus, we are before God with two contradictory prayers: 1.”Give me the realization of the Inner Self and let me experience divine bliss.” And 2. “Give me sex enjoyment, money, and praise.” Which prayer should God answer? They are contradictory. To the extent that we long for the latter, the former is obstructed. OK, but we do want to advance toward the Inner Realization. How can we advance? It can’t be hopeless. Many have had the realization. What is the way out of the apparent contradiction?

It seems to me the answer is that it is usually a gradual process, one which God happily fosters. This is a critical supposition that gives me hope. Let’s say that we are 50% longing for God and 50% still longing for worldly satisfactions. Even though the prayer for God is only 50% sincere. God is pleased by that very half-sincere attempt to reach the Inner Reality, to reach divine bliss. God imperceptibly gives the devotee a boost and say, after a day of calling on God, God increases the devotee’s longing to 51%. Thus, the next day, the longing for God is slightly stronger, and the desire for worldly things has diminished to 49%. The devotee may not even perceive the change, but it is there, carrying the devotee relentlessly toward the goal. Gradually, the devotee becomes more and more sincere as the worldly side gradually diminishes. When the sincerity percentage gets to 75, you can easily see the sincerity and the force of it increases.

Another way to look at it is as a quantity rather than a percent. Take a bank account that earns 5% interest. In just a little over 14 years, your money will double. Let’s say I begin with a mere one mustard seed worth of longing for God. In about 71,000 years, I’ll have a million mustard seeds. That will take about a thousand lifetimes at 71 years per life. Surely with a million mustard seeds of longing, God will reveal the Inner Realty. Hopefully, that many will not be required. Thus, this is a project taking many lifetimes. Anyone reading this probably already has been at it for many lives and already has a good quantity of mustard seeds’ worth of longing. We’re getting close.

In Hinduism, they speak of four aims of life: Kama (pleasure), Artha (success), Dharma (virtue), and Moksha (liberation). Kama is the most self-centered. Things have to be enjoyable for me. In Artha, there may be intense competition and rivalry but one usually must also please others to gain success. If one does these two tasks well enough, (beating down competition and pleasing customers) one will achieve success. So, Artha has the selfish goal of rising up and aggrandizing the self, but one must please some others to accomplish this. In Dharma, one is only thinking of others. How can I help others, is the question. If one wants fame for one’s charitable works, one is still on the path of Artha, but there is an important element of Dharma. Finally, in Moksha, the question is how to free oneself from the false sense of I. It is clear that Dharma is a stepping stone to Moksha, and that’s why Swami Vivekananda initiated an order of monks where service is central. In the path of Moksha one is more eager to help others than oneself.

Recently, a person on retreat here at Ridgely wanted to play chess, and I did play with him, but I felt that chess is really about Artha, not my current goal. I wondered if there could be a game that was more about Moksha? I thought about the game that Sri Ramakrishna played with his devotees, when Hazra kept falling into Hell, and Latu went straight to Heaven. I came up with the following game using a chessboard and the chess pieces.

A chessboard is eight by eight, 64 squares. It has four concentric squares of squares. The outside circle of squares all around the board is the outermost path of squares: there are eight on each side of the board. That is the path of Kama. It has 28 squares. Perhaps the longest path. Inside that, there is a circle of squares with six squares on each side, for a total of 20 squares. This is the path of Artha. Inside that is a circle of squares with four squares on each side, for a total of 12 squares. This is the path of Dharma. Finally, in the very middle is a 2X2 square, consisting of four squares, the path of Moksha.

Two to four people can play. The goal is to reach Realization, the culmination of the path of Moksha. Each player has to first make two circuits of the path of Kama, then two of the path of Artha, then two of the path of Dharma, and finally, three circuits of the path of Moksha. The final square of Moksha on the third circuit is Realization. One advances according to the roll of a pair of dice for the first two paths, but one die for the inner two paths. At the beginning, each rolls a pair of dice, and the person with the highest number goes first. Each starts the path of Kama as a pawn. One corner of the board is the first square. After one circuit, you become a knight. After completing the second circuit of Kama, the knight enters onto the path of Artha. After a full circuit, the knight becomes a bishop. After the second circuit, the bishop enters onto the path of Dharma. After a full circuit, the bishop becomes a rook. After the second round in Dharma, the rook enters Moksha, but always on the first square of Moksha, regardless of what was thrown. After a circuit, the rook advances to a queen and then finally to a king. To enter the square of Realization, the throw must be exact, otherwise one remains where one is.

If you land on someone else in the first path, the path of Kama, you go back double what you just threw. You may have to go into negative territory below the start square. If you are in Artha and land on someone who is in his (or her) first round of Artha, you go back triple what you just threw. If the person is on the second round of Artha, you go back only the amount you threw. If three or four people are playing and when you go back you land on another person in either Kama or Artha you go back additionally just the amount you threw. On the path of Dharma, you share the square with the person you landed on. In the path of Moksha, you advance two squares if you land on someone. If they were on the penultimate square and you land on them, you advance to Realization! If you reach realization and someone is sitting on that square but on a previous round, you are still at realization, you needn’t advance. You “won.”

Of course, one could easily draw the 8 by 8 grid (as in the picture above) and use anything as pieces. For instance, I could be a dime and my opponent a nickel. On the first round of each path, we could be tails and on the second heads. On the third round of Moksha, I could be a yellow paper clip, my opponent, a blue one.

I tried this with two guys on retreat and we had a lot of Kama. Also, they thought it would be a good and fun teaching tool for kids.

For previous posts, go to billdavisoframakrishna.

I think most people are in search of worldly happiness. Our Declaration of Independence speaks of “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” as an inalienable right of all people. Of course, for many, religion is part of that pursuit, but often it’s a kind of spiritual materialism. Worship God and God will reward you with a pleasant, happy life. However, in current times, the importance of religion seems to be fading, particularly in Europe and among the educated elite in America. So that leaves the search for worldly happiness, which may include benevolent activities.

Here’s a quote from Swami Budhananda (Joy of the Illumined, p. 11): “The happiness of unillumined persons, no matter how great it may be, is always shadowed by the fear of the loss of that happiness.” And with good reason, since anything can happen in this always-changing world. One may have everything, and yet one fears that at any moment things could change and go “south.” Look at the Jews in Germany. One day, they are living a happy life, and the next, they are being carted off to a concentration camp. We like to think of this as an exception and not the rule, but even in good times, at any moment one’s health can go bad, one’s partner has become unfaithful, one can lose one’s job, one’s child becomes a drug addict. The list goes on and on.

Despite these worries, I believe most people are seeking happiness on the material level. Most are searching to have a happy marriage with a good connection both day and night, good, affectionate, healthy, and achieving children and grandchildren. A good income, enjoyable work. Success at work. A good reputation. Good friends, enjoyable free time activities. A nice place to live. A sense of security. Plentiful, good-quality food. Good health and an absence of bodily pain. A long life for self, partner, and children. If unselfishness has begun to grow, it also includes helping others outside of one’s own circle. It is said that most religious people pray to God that He may provide these things. Most people believe that this is what constitutes a happy life.

I mentioned this in a previous post that my sister Carolyn told me once that our father said to her that the Holocaust was proof that God did not exist. How could God, if there was a God, allow it to happen? It seems to me that his comment is based on the assumption that God would want his children to have a more or less happy life – that is, happy with the usual things mentioned above. In a word, the project of seeking worldly happiness.

However, according to Vedanta, God exists, but has a very different plan for humanity. God wants each of us to realize Him (or Her). It’s a giant game of hide and seek. To succeed at this game, one must abandon the project of seeking worldly happiness and seek Him alone. As I said in a previous post, this world is a school of hard knocks. As long as one is deficient in some worldly area, we strive to achieve it, thinking that in getting it, we will at last be happy. However, we find that in getting it, it didn’t give the joy we had anticipated. Let’s say we are looking for happiness in a good marriage. Most find that it didn’t live up to our heartfelt expectations. Look at the divorce rate. Even those who seem to have everything, even apart from the worry of losing it, the joy is at best moderate. Wealth didn’t bring the joy one hoped for, nor did fame, nor did an active sex life.

According to Vedanta, we come back to this world over and over again, trying to get it right. If only we had the right partner, or occupation or children or . . . . . We try over and over again until we harken to the inner voice of religion, which says there is a higher joy, and begin to search for that. We need to give up the project of seeking worldly happiness and start a new project: Seeking to free oneself from looking outward and try to look inward, where God resides. This new project may take many lives. Who cares. Let’s get on with it.

In Hinduism, they speak of four aims of life: Kama (pleasure), Artha (success), Dharma (virtue), and Moksha (liberation). Kama is the most self-centered. Things have to be enjoyable for me. In Artha, one usually must please others to gain success. If one does this well enough, one will achieve success. So Artha has the selfish goal of rising up and aggrandizing the self, but one must please others to accomplish this. In Dharma, one is only thinking of others. How can I help others, is the question. If one wants fame for one’s charitable works, one is still on the path of Artha, but there is an important element of Dharma. Finally, in Moksha, the question is how to free oneself from the false sense of I. It is clear that Dharma is a stepping stone to Moksha, and that’s why Swami Vivekananda initiated an order of monks where service is central.

Recently, a person on retreat here at Ridgely wanted to play chess, and I did play with him, but I felt that chess is really about Artha, not my current goal. I wondered if there could be a game that was more about Moksha? I thought about the game that Sri Ramakrishna played with his devotees, when Hazra kept falling into Hell, and Latu went straight to Heaven. I came up with the following game using a chessboard and the chess pieces.

A chessboard is eight by eight, 64 squares. It has four concentric squares of squares. The outside circle of squares all around the board is the outermost path of squares: there are eight on each side of the board. That is the path of Kama. It has 28 squares. Perhaps the longest path. Inside that, there is a circle of squares with six squares on each side, for a total of 20 squares. This is the path of Artha. Inside that is a circle of squares with four squares on each side, for a total of 12 squares. This is the path of Dharma. Finally, in the very middle is a 2X2 square, consisting of four squares, the path of Moksha.

Two to four people can play. The goal is to reach Realization, the culmination of the path of Moksha. Each player has to first make two circuits of the path of Kama, then two of the path of Artha, then two of the path of Dharma, and finally, three circuits of the path of Moksha. The final square of Moksha on the third circuit is Realization. One advances according to the roll of a pair of dice for the first two paths, but one die for the inner two paths. At the beginning, each rolls a pair of dice, and the person with the highest number goes first. Each starts the path of Kama as a pawn. One corner of the board is the first square. After one circuit, you become a knight. After completing the second circuit of Kama, the knight enters onto the path of Artha. After a full circuit, the knight becomes a bishop. After the second circuit, the bishop enters onto the path of Dharma. After a full circuit, the bishop becomes a rook. After the second round in Dharma, the rook enters Moksha, but always on the first square of Moksha, regardless of what was thrown. After a circuit, the rook advances to a queen and then finally to a king. To enter the square of Realization, the throw must be exact, otherwise one remains where one is.

If you land on someone else in the first two paths, you go back double what you just threw. On the path of Dharma, you share the square with the person you landed on. In the path of Moksha, you advance two squares if you land on someone. If they were on the penultimate square and you land on them, you advance to Realization!

Of course, one could easily draw the 8 by 8 grid and use anything as pieces. For instance, I could be a penny and my opponent a nickel. On the first round of each path, we could be heads and on the second tails. On the third round of Moksha, I could be a yellow paper clip, my opponent, a blue one.

Have some Kama playing this.

An aspect of my personality is that I often take risks. I’m not what you would call a cautious person. This often gets me into trouble, and it’s a bit of an adventure getting out of the mess. About five years ago, I was a bit reckless in the way I was cutting off sections of the trunk of a fallen tree resting about 10 feet up. This resulted in a broken ankle bone when the moving trunk knocked me off the ladder I was on. I just got into trouble again because of a lack of caution.

I had placed a pile of branches in the wagon of an old tractor. This was wood that had been gathered up and put at the bottom of trees. I was taking it to a new place in a wooded area between two fields. Gitaprana had warned me to make sure the field wasn’t too wet so that the tractor wouldn’t get stuck. The field itself was fine, but I foolishly drove into the wooded section between the two fields without first making sure that it was dry enough. Being there made it easy to unload the wagon. But when I tried to back up, the wheels just spun in the mud. Naturally, Gitaprana was very angry at me. We tried various things, such as gravel, plastic gizmos with bumps for the tires to get traction on, a plywood sheet, and chains for both large rear drive wheels. Nothing worked, but in the process of trying, the tractor was now at right angles to the exit. Would this help or hurt? I wasn’t sure. This might make it hard for a tow truck to pull it out. It had become dark. I covered the tractor with a tarp and finally gave up for the day.

That night I prayed to God for help. I got into this mess. Please, Lord, help me get out of it. I felt confident that somehow this prayer would be answered, and I slept pretty well. After all He had helped me out of messes enumerable times.

In the morning, I made sure the tractor was running. It needed more gas, and after filling the tank, it started up. I then called a local tow guy. He was a bit skeptical about being able to help. I told him the field was fine for our pickup truck, but he said his truck was much heavier than a pickup and he would walk the field first to make sure it was solid enough for him to not get stuck. He had a few jobs first, and would come in a few hours.

I got the urge to call my son, Adam, and called him. I told him about my predicament. He said, “Why don’t you use a Come-along? It gives tremendous mechanical advantage. When I was in Alaska, I had one to get me or others back onto the road. The roads there were very icy. I would anchor it to a tree and pull the car out of the ditch.” I recalled that there was something on a shelf in the tool room that I had never used but sounded like Adam’s description of a Come-along. Sure enough. It had a cable on a wheel and a long handle to crank the wheel. I couldn’t get the wheel to turn. I called Adam again, and he suggested WD40. That did the trick. However, along with a Come-along, one needs chains to anchor it to the tree and to add length if the cable on the Come-along is not long enough. Chains were hanging from hooks in the tool room. Just what I needed. Clearly, this tool was a part of life for the caretaker who was there before me. Something country people know all about.

Because the tractor was at right angles to the field, by luck, the back of the tractor was pointing just to the left of a substantial tree. I put a chain around it and hooked that to another chain. I unwound the wheel on the Come-along and hooked the cable to the back of the tractor. There was still a small gap, but a small chain bridged this gap. I turned the front wheels on the tractor so that the tractor would turn toward the tree as it backed up. There was fairly solid ground near the tree. Then I began to work the Come-along.

It was very hard to crank, and each crank moved the cable about a cm. With the first five cranks, it looked like nothing was happening, and I felt a little discouraged. After about ten cranks, I could see that the back wheels were now sitting behind the deep grooves they had made while spinning in place. I felt a stab of joy. Now the cranking became much easier. I pulled the cable all the way in, and the big back wheels were now sitting on fairly firm ground. I was glad that there were chains on these wheels to give extra traction.

I removed the Come-along and the chains. I started up the tractor and easily drove out of the muddy area into the field. Great Relief. The tow guy was also relieved that this job was cancelled.

Lord, you rescued me out of this mess. Now perform the same miracle with my attachment to the mud of worldliness. With each prayer and repetition of Thy name, it’s hard to see the progress. And You do say, repeat the prayer day and night to be free of attachment to worldliness (GOSPEL, p. 670). So clearly, one has to be very patient. Watching the tractor break free of the mud, slow as it was, was a great inspiration to me. May it be also likewise for my readers.

For previous posts, go to bill davis of ramakrishna.

The story of Passover, really the book of Exodus, can be seen as a metaphor for the whole spiritual journey: the state of bondage, embarking on the path, the sadhana (spiritual practice), and, finally, realization of God. Of course, not every detail, but the general story. It is God Himself that begins the process. God speaks to Moses from the burning bush, commanding him to lead the people-Israel, who are suffering in bondage in Egypt, out of Egypt. Being in Egypt can represent the state of spiritual bondage. There we are slaves to sense objects, money and prestige. Pharaoh represents our egoistic self who presides over this state of mind and always seeks to perpetuate it. The misery of slavery to these things is represented in the Passover story (and Exodus) by the misery of physical slavery. God responds to this misery and begins the process of leaving Egypt, leaving slavery to sense pleasure, to money seeking, and the seeking of high self-esteem. Moses is the satvika part of ourselves confronting the egoistic part (Pharaoh) and leading us carefully to the promised land. The satvika part of ourseves, somehow develops the desire for something higher and that part comes to predominate. How does that happen? It’s a miracle.

We are both the Israelites and the Egyptians. These are warring parts of ourselves. The plagues visited upon the Egyptians represent the continued and mounting miseries that prompt us to embark on the search for something transcendental, for God. Pharoah (the egoistic part) relents. Finally, he can’t take it anymore. He permits the start of this departure, but he changes his mind over and over again. Then, finally, he truly allows the departure. He allows Moses to take over. The unleavened bread, matzah, symbolizes the austerity of this choice. The crossing of the Red Sea means that the self has truly made a commitment to him or herself to begin the spiritual journey. “Yes,” the soul says to herself, “God-realization is the goal of my life.” Various desires assail him as the soul makes this choice (the pursuing Egyptian army) but by God’s grace (the parting of the sea) the soul remains steadfast in this decision. The decision is made and that is that.

Then the Israelites enter into the Sinai desert, where they spend 40 difficult years. This symbolizes the soul doing the spiritual practice it has committed itself to do. This period surely entails many setbacks symbolized by the worshiping of the golden calf and Moses being berated for bringing them into such a difficult situation. Also, during this period, ethical commandments guiding our spiritual practice are enjoined. Many precepts are given. To me the Shemah (Hear!) commanding us to love God with all our heart, soul, and might and the Ten Commandments are central and correspond to the yamas and niyamas. During this period of sadhana, of spiritual practice, God is there helping us. In the Exodus story He is leading as a pillar of smoke by day and a pillar of fire by night. Finally, after many years of sadhana, the Israelites arrive at the Promised Land. The generation that left Egypt has died. This symbolizes that our old illusory predilections, associated with the lower self, have died. But still, we must fight to enter. This corresponds to our being at God’s door but still, it is only by God’s grace that we enter. Joshua conquered Jericho, we read, only by the grace of God. The milk and honey of the Promised Land corresponds to the bliss of God-Realization. Some wonder why Moses was not permitted to enter the Promised Land. Sri Ramakrishna explains that even satva is a thief, although one with a tender heart. Satva shows us the way to Realization, but it is of the mind, and thus cannot go beyond the mind. God Realization is beyond the mind.

May the Passover spirit quicken our spiritual striving! May we arrive at and enter the Promised Land!

I am sure that you, the leaders of Iran, are right now beside yourselves with fury toward Israel and the US, particularly Israel. You are occupied with the question, “How can we fend off this attack and TAKE REVENGE?”

However, the way to peace is open right now if you can practice a central teaching of Islam: Forgiveness! As I understand it, forgiveness is supposed to be, in Islam, the moral high road. After all, your religion teaches the brotherhood of all humanity. Are the people of Israel not included in the human family?

But not just forgiveness for the current attack. (You know perfectly well how your past aggressions against Israel precipitated this attack.) It would have to be forgiveness for there being a Jewish state on land recently mainly occupied by people of the Muslim faith. If, in the spirit of forgiveness, you could abandon your intention of wiping out Israel, there could be peace immediately. You would have to give up your project of building a thermonuclear bomb that could level Israel. And would have to stop supporting groups that have the intention of destroying Israel, such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis in Yemen. You would have to abandon your project of destroying Israel one way or another. Even better, you could make friends with Israel. After all, they are people of the Book. They would love to be friends. If you became friends, I’m sure Israel and the US would be happy to help you rebuild.

There needn’t be regime change, but you of the current regime should change. For the sake of peace, embrace forgiveness.

For earlier posts, go to billdavisoframakrishna.substack.com. There they are listed from most recent to earliest. Or just click “restack,” and you will find them in random order.

I wrote in my post “How I came to Vedanta” that I have a theory that I had, for religious reasons, taken a vow of celibacy in my previous life, but violated these vows with a woman, maybe more than one. In this life, I was born with the desire to marry so that I could enjoy intimacy with a woman and not be a hypocrite. I believe that in that previous life, I, as a person practicing continence, was tormented by lust and finally gave in to it. In this life, I was born with the plan that I would enjoy without being a hypocrite. But not only for the sake of enjoyment. I believe that this plan to marry was also research. It was, I believe, an experiment to evaluate, for myself, the truth of the teaching that sex life is inherently painful and a barrier to the realization of God. Is this teaching really true?

Thus, I believe a search for God was behind this desire to marry. So, it’s not surprising that at the same time, I was also born with a burning question: “What is the meaning of life?” My parents were atheists, and so God was not offered as an answer to this question.

When I first laid my eyes on my future wife in my second year of college, I had the thought, “I will marry her.” It wasn’t love at first sight, but rather knowledge at first sight. And it happened. I pursued her assiduously, began to love her madly, and she became my sweetheart. I now believe that this was a practice run for chasing after God, also not easy to win. We married just after we both graduated.

Although we had so much in common, by God’s will, it was not a happy marriage for either of us. After six years of marriage, I was considering divorce, but we had already had a son, and I couldn’t bear the thought of being separated from him. Also, I loved my wife dearly, even though we didn’t get along that well. Moreover, no one in my family had divorced. They were not necessarily happy, but they put up with it. So, divorce seemed foreign.

And then, a couple of years after this, I found Vedanta. Sri Ramakrishna, beside himself with Divine Joy, taught that the meaning of life was to realize God, the mine of Infinite Bliss. He taught that the pleasure of sex life was trivial compared to that joy; that sex life brought along with it pain as a built-in companion, and it was momentary, in bold contrast to the eternity of God realization. I fell hard for this teaching. It seemed to echo what I was experiencing in this life. My research was confirming what he taught (and perhaps what I had been taught in my previous life).

He also taught sha, sha, sha. That is forebear, forebear, forebear. This teaching helped me accept the ups and downs of my marriage. And he taught that one should live like a maid servant whose home is in the country. Treat all as your own, but know in your heart of hearts that they are not really your own. God alone is your own – your real home.

I was now finally ready to admit to myself that sex life had not lived up to the ardent expectations I had had for it. The teaching that it is a spiritual obstacle was beginning to make sense. If I am focused on the physical plane where sex pleasure abides, how can I raise my eyes to a transcendental plane where God exists in His glory? If I’m gazing to the West, how can I see something that abides in the East?

But the animal side of my nature was still craving sex. My career was, as a psychologist, treating substance abuse – alcohol and drugs. When a person wants to detox from methadone, which he or she has been using as a safe replacement for heroin (most don’t want to), the detox is very slow. Say a person is taking 70 mg. of methadone a day. A safe and successful way to detox off of methadone is to drop one’s dose by, say, one mg. per week. It will take seventy weeks, but it’s worth it. I think alcohol and drug addiction is not that different from sex addiction. Probably, sex addiction is deeper. Sri Ramakrishna labels it, after all, as one of the two main obstacles to God realization. To men, he said, “Woman and Gold” are the main impediments. Thus, to overcome this profound addiction, I needed a slow detox from sex life. Or I should say this is what happened. My wife and I remained together for another thirty-five years. Vedanta was not her cup of tea, but eventually she began to practice Vipassana.

Since my retirement, she and I have now been separated for 18 years, and I have been living at the Vivekananda Retreat, Ridgely, as a resident/volunteer. Swami Tathagatananda exclaimed happily, when this happened, that I was now “free.” Well, outwardly yes, but the inner demon is still there. Now and then, I still get lust attacks. I try to use these as springboards to call on God desperately. If God would only show Himself, that would certainly satisfy me. Swami Sarvagatananda instructs in Being Spiritual, Staying Practical that if one is tormented by bad thoughts, one should look at Thakur and Holy Mother for help. It will come, he says. I find this to be true. The Gita states: “He who can withstand the impulse of lust and anger. He is steadfast in yoga. He is a happy man.” (5:23). Ah, when will the day come when I am firmly established in this? I am doing fairly well, but I’m definitely still in danger.

I post this with the thought that there are others struggling like me.

For earlier posts, go to billdavisoframakrishna.substack.com. There they are listed from most recent to earliest. Or just click “restack,” and you will find them in random order.

On M’s fourth visit, he finds that “the Master was having great fun with the boys (the young male disciples), treating them as if they were his most intimate friends. Peals of side-splitting laughter filled the room as if it were a mart of joy.” (GOSPEL, p.90). This came as a revelation to M. The day before he saw him in samadhi, and here he was behaving like an “ordinary man.” I don’t see anything ordinary about this: A 46-year-old man behaving like a youngster. But it’s certainly not solemn and serious. I feel it’s unfortunate that none of these jokes were recorded by M. I would love to hear them. At least M didn’t write them down in the Kathamrita. Could there be a secret oral tradition in the Ramakrishna Order preserving these jokes? Who knows. I can understand that they wouldn’t want the avatar of this age to be remembered for his off-color humor, the usual kind of jokes made by boys.

At least we do know that Sri Ramakrishna answered the call of nature. He’s the first avatar reported to have done this. He was having terrible, persistent indigestion for a while. Bengali culture is so accepting of this aspect of human nature.

A few days ago, I was having a problem with gas. This reminded me of a ditty I learned in Boy Scouts at the age of 10 or so (about 1951). It was probably made up centuries ago and has been passed down among English speakers from one generation of boys to the next. Let’s pretend that we are with Thakur in his boyish mood and he’s indulging in off-color humor, having fun with the child in all of us. Here is that ditty:

Beans, beans the musical fruit.

The more you eat, the more you toot.

The more you toot, the better you feel.

So let’s have beans for every meal.

I like to make up doggerel verse. And so, I respond to Thakur with the following verse:

Beans, Beans, they go down fast.

Eat, and then let out a blast.

That blast creates a happy mood.

Beans, the pyrotechnic food.

I hope he appreciated my contribution.

One day, Thakur says to his disciples something like, “I can’t give the boys a pure vegetarian diet.” That is, not all high philosophy. He hated things to be boring. But, aside from this, was there a spiritual teaching in his being childlike? I think so. At one place, he says, call on God like a child demanding toys and “pice” (money to purchase something). He condemned a calculating intellect. This is something that a child doesn’t have. He wanted devotees to be guileless like a child. He said, “When one realizes God, he or she becomes childlike because God is childlike.” Also, “If God holds your hand (like a parent holding the hand of a child), you won’t fall.” Thus, it seems that Sri Ramakrishna is saying that the “child-mind” is an important mental set that helps as one approaches God.

Here’s another ditty I made up in the same meter and rhyme scheme to please Thakur:

Thy Name, Thy Name, a priceless food.

By it grows the Spiritual mood.

Enough, enough of boyish fun.

I will now seek Thee, delicious One.

For earlier posts, go to billdavisoframakrishna.substack.com. There they are listed from most recent to earliest. Or just click “restack,” and you will find them in random order.

Sri Ramakrishna said, describing his state of mind before his realization, “I knew that the Mother, full of infinite bliss, compared with which all earthly possessions were as nothing, was there, quite close to me. How could I be satisfied with anything else? I had to seek Her. I became mad for Her.” (Life of Sri Ramakrishna, Advaita Ashrama, p. 58.)

I have a kind of faith that God is incredible bliss. I’m not skeptical about M’s descriptions in the Gospel. There, Sri Ramakrishna is described as sometimes beside himself with joy – often dancing in ecstasy. God, as Sri Ramakrishna, came to earth as a human being to show us humans that to know God is to experience incredible bliss. He declared that the purpose of human life is to realize that bliss. (So THAT’s what it’s all about.) I feel very fortunate to have come to know about him. I don’t say “infinite” bliss, since I can’t conceive of what infinite means. “Incredible” is big enough.

But I don’t really have faith. How do I know? I’m not mad for God. How could I not be mad for God if I truly believed God was a nearby ocean of bliss? God is, to me, a kind of a luxury, not a necessity. Yes, it would be nice to possess God, but I’m not miserable that I don’t possess Her. At lunch a few days ago, Swami Sarvapriyananda said that tears shed at separation from Krishna are said to be sweeter than anything imaginable. Ah, if only I could feel that sweet misery at separation from God.

Sri Ramakrishna knew he could not find satisfaction in anything other than the Mother. Everything else was utterly empty to him. His urge to realize God filled him to the brim. There was no room for anything else.

I have the nerve, lowly creature that I am, to presume to seek the highest bliss. Even though my faith is still weak, I am venturing forth anyway. Sri Ramakrishna said, “Everyone has the right to call on God.” I have taken this to heart. My faith is strong enough to get me onto and keep me on the path (kinna hora – Yiddish for I don’t wish to tempt the evil one by my bragging – similar to “knock on wood”). Bit by bit, I am getting closer. Who knows how far ahead the goal is? Never mind. Let me keep on truckin’. Krishna reassures us in the Gita, that if we don’t make it in this life, we will take up the journey in the next life where we left off. Although death now looms ahead (after all, I’m 84) that doesn’t concern me much. My next death will be a minor event in the long trek to God. I hope I’m getting close. O Lord, REVEAL THYSELF!!!

A baby cannot get its own food. And we are equally unable to see God by our own wish. We are totally helpless in this regard. A baby bawls lustily when it is hungry, and this cry pulls the heartstrings of its mother. She cannot stay away. She comes running to feed it. A baby never thinks, “Am I worthy to be fed by Mother?” It is hungry and cries loudly. It feels totally entitled to be fed. And its mother agrees. It needs urgently to be fed and “It’s my job to feed it.”

We need to pluck the heartstrings of our Divine Mother with our loud yearning cries. This, we are told, will evoke Her grace. Never mind whether we’ve been good children. If we truly want Mother, we are good enough. The catch is that we are still enamored of our red toys and are busy playing with them. If we pray at all it is for help making our lives in the world better. When we finally tire of this play, we will throw them away and then lustily call for Mother to come. Then She will come running. Sri Ramakrishna has named the red toys. They are (for us men) woman and gold, name and fame, friends and family. We must no doubt enjoy them for many a life before we can finally truly say, “Enough already!!! Too much pain. Here today. Gone tomorrow. And really, the pleasure is rather paltry. Why settle for this when there is a realm of bliss?”

Thakur (Sri Ramakrishna) has come to tell us about that sublime blissful realm beyond the things of this world, a transcendental realm. Not only tell us. He showed us in his ecstasy. His disciple, Vivekananda, entranced the people in America the way he pulled them into a higher realm as he spoke. These were not merely words. People in his presence experienced the transcendental. This started a wave that has circled the world. It drenched me.

Once we have heard about that blissful realm, the petty joys of those red toys begin to pale. Then we begin to want Mother.

Mother COME!!!

An amazing incident took place in Puri in 1906. Particularly amazing to Sri Ramakrishna devotees. Outside the Jaganath temple, before a crowd, a Christian missionary was denouncing Hinduism. This had already been going on for some days. This was unbearable to Swami Premananda, who was visiting the temple. In a loud voice, he began to repeat “Hari Bol! Hari Bol!” The crowd there enthusiastically joined in, and the missionary was drowned out. The priests of the temple expressed their gratitude to him. They came to him and said,” We had been fearful of taking any action to stop the missionary.” (God Lived with Them, p 206). This, after all, was a time when India was under British rule, and an English missionary would be thought to be under the protection of the British government. Later that day, Swami Premananda had some qualms about what he had done.

That night, in a dream, Sri Ramakrishna appeared to him and said, “Why did you break up that gathering? That man was also spreading my name and teachings. Tomorrow you must find the missionary and apologize.” (Ibid). The next day, after an exhaustive search, he finally found the missionary and asked for his forgiveness.

What makes this amazing to me is that while Sri Ramakrishna taught that all religions are paths to the goal of God realization, he is supporting the missionary who loudly declared that Hinduism is not a path to the truth. Amazing to me. This seems like a contradiction.

Here’s the way I understand this: Many religions teach that they are alone the valid path to God. This is (or at least was) an aspect of almost all the religions of the world. This belief is still causing war. Sri Ramakrishna, in his universality, accepts this. The Mother prepares dishes for her children to suit their tastes and powers of digestion. It must be that many people need to believe, to bolster their faith, that only the path they are on is the right path. When Sri Ramakrishna says that all religions are paths to God, he doesn’t exclude religions that say that they alone are true. He declares that all religions are a mixture of sugar and sand. “We alone have truth” is sand. A holy person can separate the sugar from the sand. We need such holy people. When one is on the home stretch of any religion – passionately approaching – getting close to -- God or the Truth, the need to look down on other religions fades from sight, I’m sure.

Sri Ramakrishna’s idea that all religions are paths to God is spreading all over the world. His name is not known (at least not outside India), but this idea is spreading all over. Three examples: 1. I heard a story that a Christian fundamentalist preacher confided recently at an ecumenical conference that the young people in his congregation are no longer willing to accept that their way is the only way. 2. Back in the 70’s, I supervised a student of pastoral psychology who gave up his position as a minister of a fundamentalist sect when he could no longer bring himself to sign the annual affidavit that their religion was the only true religion in the world. 3. Right now, I’m reading a translation of a Hassidic classic called The Practical Tanya, Part One. written in 1795. In chapter two, the author, Rabbi Shneur Zalman-Liadi, declares that Judaism is the only true religion in the world. The translator, Chaim Miller, apologizes for this. He says this was the prevailing belief in Judaism at the time Rabbi Zalman-Liadi wrote this book. Then Miller points out that it is a very small part of the work, and we can pass over it. From this, I understand that at least some modern Hassids accept the idea that other religions have validity.

Part of the source of the current liberality toward all religions comes from the many people who don’t have any religious belief. To such people, they are all equally untrue. The real test of religious liberality is for people who do have a religious belief. Sri Ramakrishna would say, “Cling to your own religion and be friendly to the followers of all other religions.”

The missionary was “also spreading my name.” What name was that? Jesus. One of the many names of God. When Sri Ramakrishna saw Jesus, Jesus merged into his body. I take this to mean that they were one and the same – both incarnations of God.

Swamiji expressed the hope that all religions would merge someday into a friendly conglomeration. However, if holding the belief that one’s religion is alone true is going to remain a perennial aspect of some religions, this may never fully happen. Sri Ramakrishna giving support to the bigoted missionary makes me feel that the all-embracing, friendly conglomeration is unlikely.

In the presence of Sri Ramakrishna, Swamiji loved to sing the song which starts, “In dense darkness, O Mother, Thy formless beauty sparkles.” (E.g. Gospel, p.692). This got me thinking, “How can that which has no form also have beauty?” In my experience, beauty is always connected to some form I am experiencing. It could be a visual experience such as a landscape, a woman, a flower, a painting, the sky. A sound experience, such as a piece of music, a bird call, a waterfall, or someone’s voice. Olfactory: A wonderful smell. Taste: a delicious meal. Touch: a wonderful massage, intoxication from a drug. But what brings about the experience of beauty is, I think, impossible to say. There is no formula for beauty. It’s very mysterious.

I asked Swami Sarvapriyananda about Swamiji’s song noted above. I asked, “How can that which has no form have beauty?” He answered simply that everything, starting with Brahman, has “rasa.”

I know the word “rasa” from the word “Rasalila,” Krishna’s moonlight dance with the Gopis. So I assumed it meant something very sweet. Today I asked Google. It answered that in terms of spirituality it is

“the essence of human experience, the “juice” of life, or the ultimate bliss of the soul (Atman), representing pure delight and spiritual unity.”

Thus, rasa seems to equal, to be another name for “ananda” (ineffable bliss). When we have the experience of beauty here in this world, it is not the “pleasure center” in the brain firing; it is the ananda in our soul that is aroused, but in a relatively pale way. When Mother’s formless beauty sparkles (in the mountain cave) for the meditating yogi, it’s another way of saying that ananda is experienced but gushing in full measure, not pale at all. Thus, beauty is a form of ananda. Men are beguiled by the beauty of women, thinking that there will be much greater joy in a beautiful woman than in a plain woman. Insects are beguiled by beautiful-looking and smelling flowers, thinking they will find great joy in such flowers. Well, they are rewarded with nectar. Does it live up to their expectation? Who knows. But Sri Ramakrishna teaches that for one who has experienced the beauty of God, even the position of Brahma, the creator, is insignificant. (Gospel, p.710). So beauty is not merely an external sign of joy to come; it is the essence of joy when experienced in full measure. It is, know it or not, the very thing we are all striving for.

Just as consciousness is a total mystery, beauty is likewise a mystery on the same level. They are the same mystery. Neither is a by-product of matter. God is consciousness. God is beauty.

May we be able to realize that mysterious beauty in full measure.