[ The cottage at Dakshineswar where Sri Ramakrishna practiced
Totapuri’s Vedanta. ]
The teacher and the disciple repaired to the meditation room
near by. Totapuri began to impart to Sri Ramakrishna the great truths of
Vedanta.
“Brahman”, he said, “is the only Reality, ever pure, ever
illumined, ever free, beyond the limits of time, space, and causation.
Though apparently divided by names and forms through the inscrutable power
of maya, that enchantress who makes the impossible possible, Brahman is
really One and undivided. When a seeker merges in the beatitude of samadhi,
he does not perceive time and space or name and form, the offspring of
maya. Whatever is within the domain of maya is unreal. Give it up. Destroy
the prisonhouse of name and form and rush out of it with the strength of
a lion. Dive deep in search of the Self and realize It through samadhi.
You will find the world of name and form vanishing into void, and the puny
ego dissolving in Brahman-Consciousness. You will realize your identity
with Brahman, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute.”
Quoting the Upanishad, Totapuri said: “That knowledge
is shallow by which one sees or hears or knows another. What is shallow
is worthless and can never give real felicity. But the Knowledge by which
one does not see another or hear another or know another, which is beyond
duality, is great, and through such Knowledge one attains the Infinite
Bliss. How can the mind and senses grasp That which shines in the heart
of all as the Eternal Subject?”
The above is excerpted from:
The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
©1942 by Swami Nikhilananda
©1970, 1971 Ramakrishna-Vivekananda
Center, New York
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