Evolution of love

Swami Turiyananda

An hour of kirtan in the company of the Master would fill us with such exuberant joy, that we would feel transported into an ethereal region.
But now even meditation fails to evoke that celestial Bliss, or even a semblance of it.
That Bliss would stay with us continuously for a week. we used to feel intoxicated, though we did not know why or how. ...

One day I arrived at Dakshineswar when the Master was having his dinner.
A number of bowls containing various cooked items were placed before him.
Someone might have thought this an unbecoming luxury, fit only for a rajasic (worldly) life.
The Master said at once: "Well, the tendency of my mind is always towards the Infinite.
It is by such rajasic devices that I hold it down to the lower planes.
Otherwise I could not talk with you".

On another day, when I went to see Sri Ramakrishna, there were many other visitors.
Among them was a great Vedantic scholar.
The Master said to him: "Let us hear some Vedanta from you".
The scholar with a great deference expounded on Vedanta for more than an hour.
Sri Ramakrishna was very pleased.
The people around were surprised by this, but after eulogizing the scholar, the Master said: "As far as I am concerned, I do not like all those details.
There is nothing but my Mother and I.
To you Knowledge, knower, and known - the one, who meditates, Meditation, and the object of Meditation - this sort of triple division is very good.
But for me "Mother and I" - that is all and nothing else".
These words "Mother and I" were said in such a way, that it made a very deep impression on all present.
At that moment all ideas of Vedanta paled into insignificance.
The Master's "Mother and I" seemed easier, simpler, and more pleasing to the mind than three divisions of Vedanta. I realized then that "Mother and I" was the ideal attitude to adopt. ...

Love and lust are very much allied.
Sri Ramakrishna used to say: "Lust is blind, but love is pure and resplendent".
It is lust, if you have an idea of man or woman, and love - if you have the idea of God in your beloved.
One must analyze one's mind very carefully.
The Master asked me to increase my lust infinitely.
I was amazed that he would say this. Then he explained:
"What is lust? It is the desire to possess.
So desire to possess God and strengthen this desire greatly".
Through discrimination and devotion to God one can be free from lust.
With the gradual increase of love for God, lust, anger, and so on, lessen. ...

When I used to meditate in the Master's presence,
I would experience a sensation in my spine and feel energy rising.
The body was like a desert.
Then the guru provided the holy Name of God, and through its power the desert was transformed into a beautiful flower garden.
My life had previously been aimless, but after I received the touch of my guru, I gained my life's ideal. ...

The Master disliked a happy-go-lucky attitude.
He used to say of Swamiji(Swami Vivekananda): "See what a heroic temperament he has!
As soon as he sets his mind on something, he apples himself heart and soul to it".
Circumstances may or may not be favorable, but who cares?
We must strain every nerve to accomplish what we set out to do.
If one is determined to do it at any cost, one finds that great obstacles, that appear to be overpowering ultimately turn out to be a great help.
But one must struggle sincerely. ... The Master said again and again:
"You must try a little. only then will the guru reveal the Truth".

According to Indian custom, a monk begs for his food from door to door.
Turiyananda had to beg from nearly thirty houses to get one meal.
One day he thought: “What I am doing? I am a vagabond.
Everybody is working, producing something, whereas I am doing nothing”.
He was hungry and exhausted, and fell asleep under a tree in the Keshi ghat of Vrindaban.
There he had a vision. He saw himself outside of his body, and he was looking at himself while he slept.
He saw his body expanding and expanding, until there was no end to it.
The body became so large, that it covered the entire world.
Then he addressed himself: “Oh, you are not a vagabond. You are one with the universe. You are the all-pervading Atman”.
So thinking, he jumped up and felt very happy. His despondency was at an end. …

In this Himalayan region (Rishikesh), he became ill.
Day by day his sickness grew worse.
Finally he thought it wise to consult a doctor and started towards a village to find one.
On the way he suddenly remembered a verse … “For the sick monk, the medicine is the Ganges water and Lord Narayana is the doctor”.
He felt ashamed to seek an ordinary doctor; it was as if he had lost faith in God. Instead of going to the doctor, he went to the riverside.
He sipped a little Ganges water, repeated the Lord’s name, and returned to the cottage.
Sure enough, soon after that he was cured.

Turiyananda later recalled: “…Oh, those days are coming to my mind. While I lived at Srinagar ghat, I used to rise very early and bathe. Then I would sit in meditation and afterwards read.
At eleven, I would rise and procure some food in an hour.
Then I would again begin meditation and japam.
And thus I spent every day. It was there, that I committed eight Upanishads to memory.
I would meditate on every verse I read, and what an indescribable joy it was!”…

After one lecture, a timid young woman told Turiyananda, that she could not understand how the soul could be God and the world unreal.
“It took me many years to realize this”, - replied the swami:
“but once it is realized, the work is done”.
Then the lady began to speak in praise of Christianity as being so much easier to grasp.
“Yes”, - the swami admitted:
“Vedanta is not an easy, comfortable religion.
Truth is never cheap.
So long as we are satisfied with glass beads, we don’t search for diamonds.
It is hard work to delve into the earth, remove the stones and rocks,
and go to great depths to find the precious stone.
Vedanta is the jewel among religions”. …

In Nangol, his spiritual adventure reached its climax.
Transcending the body idea and forgetting food and clothing, he remained absorbed in the thought of God.
His clothes were completely worn-out, yet he did not ask for a cloth from anyone. Mostly, he stayed in his hut naked. …
One early morning Turiyananda went out for his morning ablutions.
He saw a big tiger seated above a rock looking around.
From a distance they looked at each other, and then after a while the tiger left. Turiyananda’s burning renunciation made him fearless.
Hunger and thirst, disease and death, cannot overpower a knower of Brahman. …

Gurudas (Swami Atulananda) wrote …:
“I spoke about Lady Minto’s visit to Belur Math.
She had asked the monks there, what Sri Ramakrishna taught.
One had answered: “He taught from the Hindu scriptures”.
When the swami heard this, he said:
“His words were scripture. He taught more even than the scriptures.
But he himself used to say, that everything he taught could be found in our scriptures”.
“Did not his teachings differ somewhat from Shankaracharya’s Maya theory?” – I asked. “Yes”, - he replied:
“Shankara taught only one phase, how to get freedom, Nirvana.
Our Master first made one free and then taught how one should live in the world.
His touch would make one free.
But those, who follow his instructions also get free.
His words have such shakti (power).
Be free first.
Do away with name and fame and the entire universe.
Then see Mother in all. Then be Her playfellow”.
When I came to his room again, he began at once:
“What we know, we must bring into practice, at least once.
But Sri Ramakrishna practiced everything three times.
Through practice new knowledge comes.
Do something, practice!
Bondage and freedom are both in the mind. Atman is beyond mind”. …

One day Turiyananda went to the Jagannath Temple.
As he was going up the entrance, he suddenly saw Sri Ramakrishna, with a garland of flowers around his neck, coming down the steps towards him.
Turiyananda rushed forward and prostrated.
But when he stretched out his hands to touch the Master’s feet, he could not see him anymore.
Then he remembered, that the Master was no longer living in the body.
Turiyananda concluded, that Sri Ramakrishna, whom he believed was an incarnation of Lord Jagannath, had graciously appeared before him in a vision.
He had many kinds of mystical experiences in Puri.
He later said: “In the Jagannath Temple at Puri, suddenly a sound came to my ears and my heart was filled with a great joy – so much so that felt like I was walking on air.
The sound continued in various strains.
My whole mind felt attracted. I then remembered, what I had read of Anahata dhvani (music of the spheres as it is called), and I thought it must be that”.
Another day he had a vision of Swamiji merging into the ocean. …

Swami Turiyananda passed away on 21 July 1922.
The night before his death, he said to his attendants:
“Tomorrow is the last day”.
Towards the end, he chanted:
“Om Ramakrishna, Om Ramakrishna”.
Then he asked an attendant to help him sit up.
With folded hands he saluted the Master, and then drank a little holy water.
He then summed up his life’s experience:
“Everything is real. Brahman is real.
The world is real.
The world is Brahman.
The life force is established in Truth.
Hail Ramakrishna! Hail Ramakrishna! Say, that he is the embodiment of Truth, and embodiment of Knowledge”.
He then recited an Upanishadic mantram along with Akhandananda:
“Satyam jnanam anantam Brahma” (Brahman is Truth, Knowledge, and Infinity).
Slowly he closed his eyes, as if merging into Brahman.

Sri Ramakrishna had once remarked about Turiyananda:
“He comes of that transcendent region, whence name and form are manufactured”. …

He was a true mystic, and silently transformed many lives in the East and the West. Turiyananda was indeed an awakener of souls.
His fiery words to his students were:
“Clench your fists and say: “I will conquer!
Now or never – make that your motto, even in this life I must see God.
That is the only way.
Never postpone”.