Mahimacharan: “What must we do to attain Him?”

Sri Ramakrishna: “It’s not that you can attain Him by doing this and not by doing that. It depends on His grace. Yet you have to take to some action with a yearning heart. Longing for Him brings His grace.

“One needs the opportunity – the company of holy people, discrimination, finding a true preceptor. Perhaps one’s elder brother takes up the responsibility of the household, or the wife is spiritual and very virtuous; or maybe one is not married and has not become entangled in household life. It comes about when there are situations such as these.

“A person was very ill in a man’s house, in critical condition. Someone said, ‘When it begins to rain when the Svati star is in the ascendant and the rainwater falls into a skull, and if a poisonous snake, while chasing a frog, pounces upon it and, in the process, the frog jumps away and the snake’s poison falls into the skull, then if a medicine prepared with this poison is given to the patient, the patient can be cured.’ Now, after astrological consultation on the right day, time, and conjunction of the stars, a member of the family of the patient set out with a yearning heart to look for the above conditions. He prayed to God in his heart: ‘Lord, only if You let me procure all these will my objective be fulfilled.’ Roaming around in this way, he actually saw a human skull, and then, in no time, a rain shower came. The man then said, ‘Oh Lord, I have found the skull of a dead person, and it has also rained during the ascendancy of Svati, and the rainwater has also fallen into the skull. Now, Oh Lord, bestow Your grace and procure the rest of the articles.’ He was reflecting with a longing heart when he saw a poisonous snake approach. The man was extremely happy. He was so excited that his heart began to thump. He said, ‘Oh Lord, now the snake has come and so many articles have been procured. Please get me the remaining articles too!’ While he was praying thus, lo! there came a frog. And the snake began to chase it. As soon as it approached the skull to pounce on the frog, the frog jumped over the skull and and the snake’s poison fell into the skull. The man then began to clap his hands and dance in joy.

“So, I say that anything can happen if one has the longing for it.”

SRI SRI RAMAKRISHNA KATHAMRITA: 1.13.3.5, 26 October 1884

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