Practice Discrimination

Together with aforesaid, you must practice discrimination. “Woman and Gold” is impermanent. God is the only Eternal Substance. What does a man get with money? Food, clothes and a dwelling place- nothing more. You can not realize God with its help. Therefore money can never be the goal of life. That is the process of discrimination. 

” Discrimination about object. Consider - what is there in money or in a beautiful body? Discriminate and you will find that even the body of a beautiful woman consists of bones, flesh, fat and other disagreeable things. Why should a man give up God and direct his attention to such things? Why should a man forget God for their sake?”

World is Water, The Mind is Milk

The world is water and the mind is milk. If you pour milk into water they become one; you can not find the pure milk any more. But turn the milk into curd and churn it into butter. Then, when the butter is placed in water, it will float. So, practice spiritual discipline in solitude and obtain the butter of knowledge and love. Even if you keep that butter in the water of the world the two will not min. The butter will float.

"Woman and Gold"

The term “Woman and Gold”, which has been used throughout in a collective sense, occurs again and again in the teaching of Sri Ramakrishna to designate the cheif impediment to spiritual progress. This Favorite expression of Master “kaminikanchan” has often been misconstrued. By it he only meant “lust and greed”, baneful influence of which retard the aspirants spiritual growth. He used the word “Kamini” or “woman” in a concrete term for the sex instinct when addressing his man devotees. He advised woman, on the other  hand to shun “man”. “Kanchan” or “Gold” symbolizes greed, which is the other obstacle to the spiritual life.

How to Live in this World ??

“Do all your duties, but keep your mind on God. Live with all - with wife and children, father and mother - and serve them. Treat them as if they were very dear to you, but know in your heart that they don’t belong to you.”

“A maidservant in the house of a rich man performs all the household duties, but her thoughts are fixed on her own home in her native village. She bring up her master’s children as if they were her own. She even speaks of them as ‘my Rama’ or ‘my Hari’. But in her own mind she knows very well that they do not belong to her at all.”

“The tortoise move about in the water. But can you guess where her thoughts are? There on the bank, where her eggs are lying. Do all your duties in the world, but keep your mind on GOD.”

” If you enter the world without first cultivating love for GOD, you will be entangled more and more. You will be overwhelmed with its danger, its grief,its sorrows. And the more you think of worldly thinks, the more you will be attached to them.”

“First rub your hands with oil and then break open the jack-fruit; otherwise they will be smeared with its sticky milk. First secure the oil of the divine love, and then set your hands to the duties of the world.”

“But one must go into solitude to attain this divine love. To get butter from the milk you must let it set into curd. Next you must put aside all other duties. sit in a quite spot, and churn the curd only then do you get butter.”

“Further, by meditating on God in solitude the mind acquires knowledge, dispassion and devotion. But the very same mind goes downward if it dwells in the world. In the world there is only one thought: woman and gold.”

How may we fix our mind on God ?

“Repeat God’s name and sing His glories and keep holy company; and now and then visit God’s devotees and holy men. The mind can not dwell on God if it is immersed day and night in worldliness, in worldly duties and responsibilities; it is most necessary to go into solitude now and then and think of God. To fix the mind on God is very difficult, in the beginning, unless one practices meditation in solitude. When a tree is young it should be fenced all around; otherwise it may be destroyed by cattle.”

“To Meditate, you should withdraw with yourself or retire to seclude corner or to the forest. And you should always discriminate between the Real and unreal. God alone is real, Eternal Substance; all else is unreal, that is, impermanent. By discriminating thus, one should shake off impermanent. By discriminating thus, one should shake off impermanent objects from the mind.”

Clay Idol !! It is an image of Spirit !!

You were talking of worshiping the clay image. Even if the image is made of clay, there is need for that sort of worship. God Himself has provided different forms of worship. He who is the Lord of Universe has arranged all these forms to suit different men in different stages of knowledge. 

“The Mother cooks different dishes to suit the stomachs of her different children. Suppose she has five children. If there is a fish to cook, she prepare various dishes from it -pilau, pickled fish, fried fish, and so on - to suit their different tastes and powers of digestion.”

Who are you to Teach ? How to Pray ??

That’s the one hobby of you Calcutta people-giving lectures and bringing others to the light! Nobody ever stop to consider how to get the light himself. Who are you to teach ?

“He is the Lord of the Universe will teach everyone. He alone teaches us, who has created this universe; who has made the sun and the moon, men and beasts, and all other beings; who has provided mean for their sustenance; who has given children parents and endowed them with love to bring them up. The Lord has done so many things - will He not show people the way to worship him? If they need teaching, then He will be the teacher. He is our inner Guide.”

“Suppose there is an error in worshiping the clay image; doesn’t God know that through it. He alone is being invoked? He will be pleased with that very worship. Why should you get a headache over it? You had better try for knowledge and devotion yourself.”