Sri Ramakrishna
Sermons
Differences between worldly men and the monk
However much you may wash the pot where garlic has been kept, still some smell will linger. The boys are pure. They are as yet uncontaminated by any idea of lust and gold. You have seen mangoes that have been pecked by crows. Such mangoes cannot be offered to God or eaten by man. The devotees who have tasted worldly pleasure belong to another group.
A group of monks was seated together thinking of God. Some women passed by. One of the monks opened his eyes wider and cast oblique glances at them: he had renounced the world after being the father of three children. You cannot expect figs from thistles. Worldly men have no leisure to think of God; but do you think I hate them? No, not at all. I find God has become all these. I look upon all women as my Mother. So I find no difference between a chaste woman and a girl of ill fame. . . . I find everyone seeks glass beads: no one wants diamonds. Man is enchanted by lust; he is caught by the glamour of riches; but to one who has seen God, these are worthless trifles. Someone said to Ravana, "You go to Sita assuming all sorts of forms in order to intimidate or seduce her. Why don't you take the form of Rama so that she may take you for her husband?" Ravana replied, "If I meditate on Rama, even the moat exquisite beauty of the world appears as mere straw."
Devotion to God is impossible without purity of heart. An impure man cannot have single-minded devotion. His mind is diverted to various things. You cannot expect anything when you are attached to lust and gold. It is extremely difficult for a worldly man to be perfectly unattached. He is a slave to his wife, slave to his money, and slave to his master.
Then looking at Naren, he said, "My dear boy, you will never attain your goal if you are attached to lust and gold."
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- www.vivekananda.net edited by Frank Parlato Jr.
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