Blog

July 2018

A face overflowing with inner warmth of peace and smile is a charm which none can resist. – Chinmaya

Why are we attracted towards peaceful, loving and good people?

It is because these are the characteristics of our true nature. We get drawn to anyone in whom the divine qualities of the Self are seen reflected.

It happened in RamakrishnaParamahamsa’s time.

Keshav Chandra Sen was a great intellectual genius, and he was the co-founder of Brahma Samaj – the Society of the Divine. He was known all over India.

On the other hand, Ramakrishna was not known except to a few people. He was uneducated, and people thought he was mad. But slowly slowly his influence was increasing, particularly in Calcutta. People came to see him.

Keshab Chandra Sen was worried about this uneducated, ordinary villager. Even professors of the universities were becoming his devotees; they would go to listen to him and would touch his feet. And whatever he was saying was so ordinary. The man had nothing exceptional. Keshav Chandra finally decided to go and argue with this man and finish this whole thing. He went.

Hundreds of people who knew Keshab Chandra Sen and a few who knew Ramakrishna -they all gathered to see what would transpire. Ramakrishna’s followers were very much afraid, knowing that Keshab could defeat anybody if it was a question of rationality. He had proved his mettle hundreds of times all over India. He had defeated great scholars without much effort. Now, how was poor Ramakrishna going to stand up before him?

Everybody among the followers was nervous, but Ramakrishna was not.

On the other hand, lovingly, with all his innocence, he was, again and again, asking, “Keshava has not come yet?”

Finally, Keshav Chandra arrived with his great following.

Ramakrishna just went and hugged him. Keshav Chandra was not prepared for that.

He had come to fight, and he made it clear to Ramakrishna, “These things won’t help. I have come to discuss each and every point of your philosophy. Don’t try to create a friendship. I have come as an enemy. Either you defeat me and I will be your follower, or be ready to become my follower.”

Ramakrishna said, “That we will be doing soon – hugging has nothing to do with it! I have always loved you. Whenever I have heard about you and your ideas, that you say there is no God… I know there is God, but still, I enjoy and love you. In fact, your great intelligence is proof that existence is intelligent; otherwise from where does intelligence come? You are a proof to me that God is – but that we will discuss later on. What is the hurry? And there is no need for any enmity. The discussion can be in deep friendship.

“And you know, I am a poor man. I don’t know any logic. It is going to be a very easy job for you, so you need not be so tense!

“I have prepared some sweet for you; first take the sweet. I have prepared it with much love. And then you can start your so-called discussion.”

Keshav Chandra was finding it a little difficult. The man was strange; he offered him a sweet, he hugged him. He has already destroyed the animosity, the aggressiveness – in a very subtle way, without saying a word.

After his taking sweet, Ramakrishna said, “Now you start your game!”And Keshav Chandra was arguing against whatever he had found in Ramakrishna’s small books.

These books contained the sayings, stories, anecdotes and similes from Ramakrishna’s life collected by his followers.

And Ramakrishna would enjoy it, and would say to his followers, “Look how beautifully he has criticized it!” And many times he would stand up and hug him and say, “You are a genius! Your criticism is perfect!” Keshav Chandra said, “I have not come here to get your approval; I have come to argue.”

Ramakrishna said, “I don’t see there is any question of argument. You are the proof.

I don’t need to give any other proof. I can take you to the whole world as a proof that God exists – Keshav Chandra is the proof!”

Keshav Chandra had never come across such a man, and what he was saying had immense significance; it was penetrating Keshav Chandra’s heart. And the presence of the man, the way he behaved, his lovingness… Something happened to Keshav

Chandra that his followers could not believe.

By the end of the discussion, Ramakrishna said, “You tell me who is defeated and who is victorious, and I will follow it. If you are victorious I will become your follower. But I don’t know the ways of discussion and I don’t know the judgement.

You judge; you are efficient enough to make the judgement. You can say to me, ‘You are defeated,’ and I am defeated.”

And what happened next shocked Keshav’s followers. Keshav Chandra fell at the feet of Ramakrishna. They could not believe their eyes!

When they had gone, everybody was asking, “Keshav Chandra, what happened to you?”

He said, “I don’t know. One thing is certain, that this person has experienced something about which I have only been talking. I can talk efficiently, but he has it; he radiates it. I have that much intelligence at least to see the aura of this man, to feel the radiance of his love, to see his simplicity, his sincerity, his trust… And he has not argued at all. How can you defeat a person who has not argued at all? On the contrary, he was appreciating my criticism!”

And, needless to say, Keshab Chandra Sen too became a follower of Ramakrishna!

If there is one force which is the most powerful, it is the force of love.

There is a beautiful letter written by the great scientist, Albert Einstein, to his daughter Lieserl. In the late 1980s, Lieserl donated 1,400 letters to the Hebrew University. This letter is one of them:

“Dear Lieserl! There is an extremely powerful force that, so far, science has not found a formal explanation to. It is a force that includes and governs all others, and is even behind any phenomenon operating in the universe. This universal force is Love. When scientist looked for a unified theory of the universe, they forgot this most powerful unseen force.

Love is Light that enlightens those who give and receive it. Love is Gravity, because it makes some people attracted towards others. Love is Power, because it multiplies the best we have, and allows humanity not to be extinguished in their blind selfishness. Love unfolds and reveals. For Love, we live and die. Love is God and God is Love. This force explains everything and gives meaning to life.

“Perhaps we are not yet ready to make a bomb of Love, a device powerful enough to entirely destroy hate, selfishness and greed that devastate the planet. However, each individual carries within him/her a small but powerful generator of Love whose energy is waiting to be released. When we learn to give and receive this universal energy, dear Lieserl, we will have affirmed that Love conquers all, because Love is the quintessence of life.

Your father.”

The giver of love rules all. In the history of the world, the greatest conquerors have never been the men of might, but the men of heart. Buddha, Jesus, Nanak, Mohammed, Mahaveer, Mahatma Gandhi – all were great revolutionaries who fought their war not with the weapon of steel, but with the weapon of love.

Love knows no religion, nationality, gender, caste or creed. Even animals, birds and plants understand the language of love. Love could reform even great sinners like Angulimala and Ratnakara. Above all, those who are the champions of love, even God becomes their servant!

In Tulsi Ramayana, Tulsidasji calls Hanumanji VaanaraYootha Mukhyam, ‘The king of all monkeys’. Someone objected a mahatma during Ramayana Katha, “Sir! Isn’t Sugreeva the king of monkeys?” The saint smiled and replied, “True. Sugreeva ruled only the kingdom. But Hanumanji ruled the hearts of all monkeys!”

The world is blessed and millions are transformed when such rulers of heart walk on earth.

A nice quote was seen on the wall of a charitable institute:

Urgently needed:- An Electrician to ‘restore the current’ between people who do not speak to each other anymore; An Optician, to ‘change the outlook’ of people; An Artist, to ‘draw a smile’ on everyone’s face; A Civil Engineer to ‘build a bridge’ between angry neighbours, relatives and friends; A Doctor to ‘cure us’ from the disease of ego and selfishness; A Gardener to ‘cultivate positive thoughts’; and a Maths Teacher to ‘count our blessings every day’!

Let us become all-in-one; but this is possible only when we see the One-in-all.

and when we see the One-in-all, we see one’s Self-in-all. And when we see one’s Self-in-all, we have love-for-all.

With this love-for-all, may we serve all.

O M   T A T   S A T