Sri Ramakrishna Tells Stories

Sri Ramakrishna Tells Stories

1. 'Not I But Thou'

All our sufferings is due to this 'I'. 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 bows used in carding cotton. Then it no longer says, 'Hamba! Hamba!', 'I! I!' but 'Tuhu! Tuhu!', 'Thou! Thou!'. Only then are its troubles over.

2. All is Possible for God.

Nothing is imossible for God. Nobody can describe His nature in words. Everything is possible for Him. There lived at certain place two yogis who were practising spiritual discipline. The sage Narada was passing that way one day. Realising who he was, one of the yogis said: 'You hae just come from God HImself. What is He doing now?' Narada replied, 'Why, I saw Him making camles and elephants pass and repass through the eye of a needle.' At this the yogi said: 'Is that anything to wonder at? Everything is possible for God.' But the other yogi said: 'What? Mking elephants pass through the eye of a needle -- is that ever possible? You have never been to the Lord's dwelling-place.'

3. Setting up the Inner Shrine

There lived in a village a young man named Padmalochan. People used to call him 'Podo', for short. In this village there was a temple in a very dilapidated condition. It contained no image of God. Aswattha and other plants sprang up on the ruins of its walls. Bats lived inside, and the floor was covered with dust and the droppings of the bats. The people of the village had stopped visiting the temple. One day after dusk the villagers head the sound of a conch-shell from the direction of the temple. They thought perhaps someone had installed an image in the shrine and was performing the evening worship. One of them softly opened the door and saw Padmalochan standing in a corner, blowing the conch. No image had been set up. The temple had not been swept or washed. And filth and dirt lay everywhere. Then he shouted to Podo:

You have set up no image here,

Within the shrine, O fool!

Blowing the conch, you simply make

Confusion worse confounded.

Day and night elevel bats

Scream there incessantly.   ....

(Taken from the monthly magazine or Sri Ramakrishna Mission, The Vedanta Kesari, March 2011)