ALL ELSE IS UNREAL

THE truth is that God alone is real and all else is
unreal. Men, universe, house, children—all these
are like the magic of the magician. The magician
strikes his wand and says: "Come delusion! Come
confusion!" Then he says to the audience, "Open
the lid of the pot; see the birds fly into the sky."
But the magician alone is real and his magic unreal.
The unreal exists for a second and then vanishes.
Siva was seated in Kailas. His companion Nandi
was near Him. Suddenly a terrific noise arose.
"Revered sir," asked Nandi "what does that mean?"
Siva said: "Havana is born. That is the meaning!" A
few moments later another terrific noise
was heard. "Now what is this noise?" Nandi
asked. Siva said with a smile, "Ravana is dead."
Birth and death are like magic. You see the magic
for a second and then it disappears. God alone is
real and all else unreal. Water alone is real; its
bubbles appear and disappear. They disappear into
the very water from which they rise.

GOD IS UNDER THE CONTROL OF HTS DEVOTEES

 SOME Sikhs said to me in front of the Kali
temple, "God is compassionate". I said, "To
whom is he compassionate?" '"Why revered sir, to
all of us", said the Sikhs. I said: "We are His
children. Does compassion to one's own children
mean much? A father must look after his children;
or do you expect the people of the neighbourhood
to bring them up? Well, won't those who say that
God is compassionate ever understand that we are
God's children and not someone else's?"
Should we not, then, address God as
compassionate? Of course we should, as long as
we practise sadhana. After realizing God, one
rightly feels that God is our Father or Mother. As
long as we ha\e not realized God, we feel that we
are far away from Him, children of someone else.
During the stage of sadhana one should describe
God by all His attributes. One day Hazra said to
Narendra: "God is Infinity. Infinite is His
splendour. Do you think He will accept your
offerings of sweets and bananas or listen to your
 music? This is a mistaken notion of yours."
Narendra at once sank ten fathom. So I said to
Hazra, "You villain! Where will these youngsters be
if you talk to them like that?" How can a man live
if he gives up devotion? No doubt God has infinite
splendour; yet He is under the control of His
devotees. A rich man's gate keeper comes to the
parlour where his master is seated with his friends.
He stands on one side of the room. In his hand he
has something covered with a cloth. He is very
hesitant, The master asks him, "Well, gatekeeper,
what have you in your hand?" Very hesitantly the
servant takes out a custard-apple from under the
cover, places it in front of his master, and says,
"Sir, it is my desire that you eat this," The master is
impressed by his servant's devotion. With great
love he takes the fruit in his hand and says: "Ah!
This is a very nice custard-apple. Where did you
pick it? You must have taken a great deal of
trouble to get it."
God is under the control of His devotees. King
Duryodhana was very attentive to Krishna and said
to Him, "Please have your meal here." But the
Lord went to Vidura's hut. He was very fond of
His devotee. He ate Vidura's simple rice and greens
as if they were celestial food.

NATURE OF GOD

GOD has the nature of a child.
A child is sitting with gems in the skirt of his cloth.
Many a person passes by him along the road. Many
of them pray to him for gems. But he hides the
gems with his hands and says turning away his face,
"No I will not give any away." But another man
comes along. He does not ask for the gems, and
yet the child runs after him and offers him the
gems, begging him to accept them.

TO HIM THESE ARE MERE DUST AND STRAW

ONCE a thief broke into the temple of Vishnu and
robbed the image of its jewels. Mathur Babu and I
went to the temple to sec what was the matter.
Addressing the image, Mathur said bitterly: "What
a shame, Lord! You are so worthless! The thief
took all the ornaments from your body, and You
couldn't do a thing about it?"
Thereupon I said to Mathur: "Shame on you! How
improper your words are! To God, the jewels you
talk so much about are only lumps of clay,
Lakshmi, the goddess of Fortune, is His consort.
Do you mean to say that He should spend
sleepless nights because a thief has taken your few

NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR HIM

ONE day in course of a conversation about God,
Mathur Babu observed, "God too must abide by
his own laws, He has no power to transcend
them." "What an absurd proposition!", I exclaimed,
"One who has made a law can repeal it at pleasure
or make a new law in its place."
'"How can that be?" said Mathur. "A plant that
produces only red flowers cannot produce flowers
of any other colour,—white, for instance, for such
is the law.
1 should like to see God produce white flowers
from a plant bearing only red flowers," "That too
He can do," answered I "for everything depends
on His will." Mathur was not convinced. The next
day, while taking a stroll in the temple garden I
came across a china-rose plant with two flowers on
the same stalk, one of which was red and the other
snow-white. I broke off the branch to show it to
Mathur, who felt highly surprised at the sight of it
and exclaimed, "Father, I will never more argue a
point with thee!"

THUS SAW ARJUNA

ACCORDING to the Jnani there is no Incarnation
of God, Krishna said to Arjuna, "You speak of Me
as an Incarnation of God. Let Me show you
something. Come with Me." Arjuna had followed
Sri Krishna a short distance, when Sri Krishna
asked him, "What do you see there?" Arjuna
replied, "A big tree with black berries hanging in
bunches." Krishna said, "Those are not black
berries. Go nearer and look at them." Arjuna went
nearer and saw that they were Krishnas hanging in
bunches. "Do you see now", said Krishna "how
many Krishnas like Me have grown there?"

SHE CAME AND WENT AWAY

BY the roadside on the way to Kamarpukur is
Ranjit Raya's lake. Bhagavati the Divine Mother,
was born as his daughter. Even now people hold
an annual festival there in the month of Chaitra, in
honour of this divine daughter.
Ranjit Raya was the landlord of that part of the
country. Through the power of his tapasya he
obtained the Divine Mother as his daughter. He
was very fond of her, and she too was much
attached to him; she hardly left his presence. One
day Ranjit Raya was engaged in the duties of his
estate. He was very busy. The girl, with her
childlike nature, was constantly interrupting him,
saying: "Father, what is this? What is that?" Ranjit
Raya tried, with sweet words, to persuade her not
to disturb him, and said: "My child, please leave me
alone. I have much work to do." But the girl
would not go away. At last absent-mindedly, the
father said, "Get out of here!" On this pretext she
left home. A pedlar of conch-shell articles was
going along the road. From him she took a pair of
bracelets for her wrists. When he asked for the
price, she said that he could get the money from a
certain box in her home. Then she disappeared.
Nobody saw her again. In the meantime the pedlar
came to the house and asked for the price of his
bracelets. When she was not to be found at home,
her relatives began to run about looking for her.
Ranjit Raya sent people in all directions to search
for her. The money owed to the pedlar was found
in the box, as she had indicated. Ranjit Raya was
weeping bitterly, when people came running to him
and said that they had noticed something in the
lake. They all ran there and saw an arm, with
conch-shell bracelets on the wrist, being waved
above the water. A moment afterwards it
disappeared. Even now people worship her as the
Divine Mother at the time of the annual festival
By dint of austerity, a man may obtain God as his
son. God reveals Himself in many ways;
sometimes as man, sometimes in other divine
forms made of spirit.