THOSE FASCINATING OBSTRUCTIONS

ADDRESSING a devotee named Mahendra
Mukherjee, said Sri Ramakrishna: "You have no
children. You do not serve anybody. And still you
have no leisure! Goodness gracious!"
"You have no children to divert your mind. I know
a deputy magistrate who draws a salary of eight
hundred rupees a month. He went to Keshab's
house to see a performance. I was there too.
Rakhal16 and a few other devotees were with me
and sat beside me. After a while Rakhal went out
for a few minutes. The deputy magistrate came
over and made his young son take Rakhal's seat. 1
said, 'He can't sit there.' At that time I was in such
a slate of mind that I had to do whatever the
person next to me would ask me to do; so I had
seated Rakhal beside me. As long as the
performance lasted the deputy did nothing but
gibber with his son. The rascal didn't look at the
performance even once. I heard, too, that he is a
slave to his wife; he gets up and sits down as she
tells him to. And he didn't see the performance for
that snub-nosed monkey of a boy."