Saturday, December 29, 2012

FOR MAN PROPOSES AND GOD DISPOSES

THE Master (to Pratab Chandra Mazumdar14):
"You are an educated and intelligent man, and
you are a deep thinker too. Keshab and yourself
were like the two brothers, Gour and Nitai. You
have had enough of this world—enough of
lectures, controversies, schisms, and the rest. Do
you still care for them? Now it is high time for you
to collect your scattered mind and turn it towards
God. Plunge into the ocean of Divinity."
Mazumdar: "Yes, revered sir, that 1 ought to do;
there is no doubt about it. But all this I do simply
to preserve Keshab's name and reputation."
Sri Ramakrishna (smiling): "Let me tell you a story.
A man built a house on a hill. It was only a mud
hut, but he had built it with great labour. A few
days after, there came a violent storm and the hut
began to rock. The man became very anxious to
save it and prayed to the god of winds

:'O god of the winds, please don't wreck the house!
But the god of the winds paid no heed to his
prayers. The house was about to crash. Then he
thought of a trick. He remembered that Hanuman
was the son of the god of the winds. At once he
cried out with great earnestness: 'O revered sir,
please don't pull down the house. It belongs to
Hamiman. I beseech you to protect it.' But still the
house continued to shake violently. Nobody
seemed to listen to his prayer. He repeated many
times,
 'Oh, this house belongs to Hanuman!' But
the fury of the winds did not abate. Then he
remembered that Harm man was the devoted
servant of Rama, whose younger brother was
Lakshmana. Desperately the man cried, saying
aloud, 'Oh, this house belongs to Lakshmana!' But
that also failed to help matters. So the man cried
out as a last resort: 'This is Rama's house. Don't
break it down, O god of winds!
I beseech you most humbly.' But this proved futile,
and the house began to crash down. Whereupon
the man who had to save his own life, rushed out
of it with a curse: 'Let it go! This is devil's own
house!'"You may now be anxious to preserve Keshab's
name: but console yourself with the thought, it was
after all owing to God's Will that the religious
movement connected with his name was set on
foot, and that if the movement has had its day, it is
also due to that same Divine Will. Therefore dive
deep into the sea of Immortality."

No comments:

Post a Comment