MASTER:"Wait, wait!
First of all you must go to Calcutta; then only will you know where the Maidan, the Asiatic Society, and the Bengal Bank are located. If you want to go to the brahmin quarter of Khardaha, you must first of all go to Khardaha.
"Why should it not be possible to practice the discipline of the formless God?
But it is very difficult to follow that path. One cannot follow it without renouncing 'woman and gold'. There must be complete renunciation, both inner and outer. You cannot succeed in this path if you have the slightest trace of worldliness.
"It is easy to worship God with form. But it is not easy as all that.
"One should not discuss the discipline of the Impersonal God or the path of knowledge with a bhakta.
Through great effort perhaps he is just cultivating a little devotion. You will injure it if you explain away everything as a mere dream.
"Kabir was a worshipper of the Impersonal God. He did not believe in Śiva, Kāli, or Krishna. He used to make fun of them and say that Kāli lived on the offerings of rice and banana, and that Krishna danced like a
monkey when the gopis clapped their hands. (All laugh).
"One who worships God without form perhaps sees at first the deity with ten arms, then the deity with four arms, then the Baby Krishna with two arms. At last he sees the Indivissible Light and merges in It.
"It is said that sages like Dattatreya and Jadabharata did not return to the relative plane after having the visition of Brahman. According to some people Sukadeva tasted only a drop of that Ocean of Brahman-
Consciousness. He saw and heard the rumbling of the waves of that Ocean, but did not dive into It.
"A brahmachari once said to me, 'One who goes beyond Kedār cannot keep his body alive.' Likewise, a man cannot preserve his body after attaining Brahmajnana. The body drops off in twenty-one days.
"There was an infinite field beyond a high wall. Four friends tried to find out what was beyond the wall.
Three of them, one after the other, climbed the wall, saw the field, burst into loud laughter, and dropped to the other side. These three could not give any information about the field. Only the fourth man came back and told people about it. He is like those who retain their bodies, even after attaining Brahmajnana, in order to teach others. Divine Incarnations belong to this class.
"Parvati was born as the daughter of King Himalaya. After Her birth She revealed to the king Her various divine forms.
The father said: 'Well, Daughter, You have shown me all these forms. That is nice. But You have another aspect, which is Brahman. Please show me that.'
'Father,' replied Parvati, 'if you seek the Knowledge of Brahman, then renounce the world and live in the company of holy men.' But King Himalaya insisted.
Thereupon Parvati revealed Her Brahman-form, and immediately the king fell down unconscious.
"All that I have just said belongs to the realm of reasoning. Brahman alone is real and the world illusory-that is reasoning. And everything but Brahman is like a dream. But this is an extremely difficult path. To one who follows it even the divine play in the world becomes like a dream and appears unreal; his 'I' also vanishes.
The followers of this path do not accept the Divine Incarnation. It is a very difficult path. The lovers of God should not hear much of such reasoning.
"That is why God incarnates Himself as man and teaches people the path of devotion. He exhorts people to cultivate self-surrender to God. Following the path of devotion, one realizes everything through His grace both
Knowledge and Supreme Wisdom.
- The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
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