Sri Ramakrishna Math : The Vedanta Kesari, Editorial: The Defective Dice

Girish Chandra Ghosh was the fore most Bengali dramatist of his time, owning and directing the Star Theatre in Calcutta. A dyed-in-the-wool materialist and a confirmed sceptic, he led a dissipated life. But somehow he became drawn to Sri Ramakrishna. Although he was sometimes abusive when he was in a drunken state, Sri Ramakrishna could see underneath it his sincerity and potential. Once being disturbed by Girish's abuse Sri Ramakrishna prayed to Mother Kali, `O Mother, make him peaceful so he won't abuse me.'¹ And Girish would repeat the serpent Kaliya's words to Sri Krishna, `O Lord, it is you who have put venom and not nectar in me. How could I give out anything other than venom?'

The instance of Girish has a great significance to a sincere devotee who is trying to forge his way ahead against all odds. It immediately prompts the devotee to wonder: has He then created us with defects! Underlying this cry of protest is a worthwhile feeling of discontent that whatever spiritual practices he may perform, they are not sufficient for the realization of God. Many of his inabilities, both physical and mental, stare him hard in the face, and at times he suffers from temporary setbacks in the intensity of his yearnings. He feels dejected about them. At such a moment of disappointment he articulates the agony of his heart in the above words. The ever-increasing fight that goes on within him against the disgusting forces and factors which impede spiritual advancement, surfaces at the moment of despair. What to speak of ordinary devotees, even well-advanced aspirants experience great pains on this score. That is why Swami Shivananda used to term his body as `the defective dice'² or `a broken vessel'³ ; Sri Ramakrishna used to call his weak body `a drum with holes'⁴ ; and Saint Francis of Assisi would address his body as `Brother Ass'.

The creation is God's divine leela or sport; He likes to play with His creation. That is how the devotional literature accounts for the disparity in the phenomenal world. This is the only way to explain the anomalies in creation while looking upon God as the All-powerful Creator. Sri Ramakrishna cites the example of a game that children in rural India play. It indirectly confirms the devotee's doubt about the defective creation. The game is like this : A child acts as a post and stands at a place; he is called the budi or the granny. Blindfolded players are then guided into the playing arena. At the whistle of granny the players start moving in his direction in order to touch him. The child who touches the granny wins and goes out of the play. Similarly, God has engaged us in this worldly game. Our sight has been temporarily blinded and we have to struggle with this handicap.

With this idea, the devotee proceeds a few steps further to examine his Lord's play. The first ever game that God has played is the creation of the universe; and the primordial dice with which He played is prakriti or maya, or His sweet will. However, in each case, the dice selected is perhaps a defective one. Otherwise, how could a creation full of inconsistency come into being ? Swami Vivekananda once quipped, `The plan of the universe is devilish. I could have created a better world.'⁵ Dejectedly he remarked, `God has left the world a dirty hole, and you are going to make it a beautiful place!'⁶ If we try to know about maya or prakriti, the cause of this world, we won't be able to elucidate it satisfactorily. It is not real, for it is sublated by knowledge; it cannot be called unreal because it is the genesis of the universe; nor can it be dubbed as simultaneously real and unreal because such a conception, like the coexistence of light and darkness, is a contradiction in terms. It consists of three gunas - sattwa, rajas and tamas; and that which is a compound cannot be without deficiencies. Each of the three gunas has the power to bind. Yet God has chosen this primeval imperfect dice to begin His play.

Take for instance the story of another creation of His. God created Adam and Eve who were the first human beings. He also created and chose a dice called Lucifer to set in motion His play on earth. But what did Lucifer do? In the form of desire, he took root in the hearts of Adam and Eve and their successive generations. The game goes on unceasingly because there is no end to desire. It lures its victims to their doom, both here and hereafter. It is recorded in the Bhagavatam that after creating man God felt contented and joyous because He could create the being who has been bestowed the dhi or intellect by which he would realize Him.⁷ At the same time, man has also been endowed with senses which betray the defects in him. The Kathopanishad observes:

The Self-existent Lord destroyed the outgoing senses. Therefore, one sees the outer things and not the inner self.⁸

The despondency on the part of the devotee may seem justified, because his mind has been confused by the doubts of a sceptic. This is not unnatural for an aspirant. The Yoga Sutras⁹ calls it an obstacle to yoga. Among many items of obstacles, disease (vyadhi), doubt (samshaya) and mental distress (daurmanasya) have been included. It is natural that our defects, both physical and mental, afflict us and we get perturbed by them. It is also natural that we complain to God, our beloved, about our helplessness. But it is wrong if, in his distress, the devotee suffers within himself and turns his heart into a desert. However, before long, the devotee realizes his foolishness in judging his Lord. His conscience which has been blessed by constant remembrance of God will intervene. `It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do.'¹⁰ A voice, as it were, from within will tell him that outer appearance should not mislead him about God though sometimes God's deeds may seem unintelligible or even bizarre. We may remember here the following incident. Keshav Chandra Sen was the renowned leader of the Brahmo faith. Brahmos do not believe in ritualistic worship of God, rather they are averse to it. On the other hand, Sri Ramakrishna was a worshipper of Mother Kali, or, as they would say, `an idolater'; he was a devotee par excellence. There was ostensibly no point of agreement between Keshav and Sri Ramakrishna. Yet, when Keshav fell ill Sri Ramakrishna promised offerings to Mother Kali with the prayer that Keshav might get well soon. Why did he do so? Because in Keshav he discovered the heart of a devotee. This truth about Keshav's inner dimension was not unknown to Sri Ramakrishna.

Moreover, it is not a usual game that God plays with His creation. He plays like a child. The peculiarity and fun of His play is that He may pick out wrong or defective dice. In a worldly game there is nothing that can be called perfect. Only God is perfect. For Him what is important is not the dice, but the call. When the call comes from the Master Caller, it is never failing. He is special in this respect. The dice, even though they are defective, have nothing to complain about. If they do, they suffer more, until finally they complain no more and acquiesce in His dispensation. `The Eternally Perfect knows how to play games,' says Sri Ramakrishna.¹¹ Out of His boundless grace He has called us to come on to His path; His will must be done. But no sincere aspirant does ever feel that the quality of his sadhana (religious practices) is up to the high watermark. A sense of divine discontent engulfs him. In his prayer he confesses and confides his deficiency to his Lord and prays for His grace. The Holy Mother says that no amount of japa or meditation will be enough for the purpose of reaching God. Everything depends on His grace. Echoing Mother's words Swami Premananda used to say, `You cannot realize Him by doing anything. Through His grace only everything is possible.'¹² That is exactly what a devotee strives for, knowingly or unknowingly.

`God is the only saviour man has ever known,'¹³ Swamiji observed. He can transmute the bad karma of those who take refuge in Him. Like a magician He can work all sorts of metamorphoses. Extraordinary sinners like Angulimala, Jagai-Madhai, Girish Ghosh and others have been redeemed by a touch of God. Even the lot of a whole race has been reversed by His grace. So, when God picks out a seemingly defective dice, it should be remembered that it is well within His power that He can make good the defects. Outward defects do not and cannot trammel the blossoming of spiritual insight and awakening. Then how will one describe themas defective or true dice ? The answer is obvious. The legends of a few defective yet true dice are given below. Each case is unique in itself. But they have a common element: they all acted as directed by the Lord.

(i) Ratnakara was a notorious sinner, a unrepentant dacoit and an unlettered rogue. Him the Lord hand-picked as His dice to author the Ramayana, the great epic of the Hindus. Ratnakara was seized, put to severe acid tests, and was made pure. He was finally metamorphosed into a great sage, Valmiki. But the initial choice of the Lord was a disappointing one. A rogue to write the life of an Incarnation of God ! God's will was done.

(ii) Maricha and Subahu were demon brothers. They confronted Sri Rama in the Dandaka forest. Subahu died fighting and Sri Rama's arrow hurled Maricha thousands of miles away. Maricha fell on the bank of a river. He realized that Sri Rama was no common mortal, he was God. He lived by the river meditating on Sri Rama. One day Ravana, the demon king, presented himself before him. He ordered Maricha to act as a golden deer in order to tempt away Sri Rama into the forest, and thus help him to abduct Sita. Maricha unsuccessfully tried to convince Ravana that Sri Rama was not an ordinary man; and if he acted as a tempter he would certainly be killed. Ravana threatened him with a similar fate in case he disobeyed his (Ravana's) command. Maricha, naturally, preferred death at Sri Rama's hand. In addition, in his meditation he came to know that it was Sri Rama's will that he played the golden deer. Maricha, who had already resigned himself to the will of Sri Rama, followed Ravana's order, met with death in the hands of Sri Rama and was liberated.

(iii)Duryodhana, the villain of the Maha- bharata story, did not hesitate to perpetrate the many heinous crimes that are recorded against his name. His adamant rejection of Sri Krishna's peace proposals occasioned the Mahabharata war which almost wiped out the Kauravas; he also was killed. But what was his assessment of himself? He confessed :

Janami dharmam na cha me pravrittih
janamyadharmam na cha me nivrittih
Kenapi devena hridisthitena
yatha niyuktosmi tatha karomi

I know what is virtue, but I have no inclination to follow it; I know what is vice, but I don't desist from it. I do as I am prompted by some God who dwells in my heart.¹⁴

His profound awareness about his being but an agent made him, like the serpent Kaliya, a true dice in God's hand.

There are various types of dice according to their advancement in the spiritual path. They are of course all made by the same Lord. Broadly speaking, they are divided into two types: ordinary and true. Two typical examples of these two types of dice have been cited by the great Bharata, the brother of Sri Rama, to illustrate the type of agent he was for his elder brother. Bharata tells us that there are two types of dancers who dance to the rhythm of an invisible director: the monkey and the puppet. When directed to perform a dance what does a monkey do? First, he dances to the extent of his training. Secondly, he cannot perform for a long time; he gets tired. Thirdly, he collects the tips for the instructor. But in the case of the other one, the puppet, things are totally different. First, there is no limit to its performances because it is the unseen puppeteer who produces the show through the puppet. Secondly, there is no question of its getting tired or exhausted. Thirdly, when the tips are given they are directly received by the puppeteer and not by the puppet. The great Bharata chose to equate himself with a puppet in the hands of Sri Rama. The example is an extreme case of a true dice. In the beginning, when God picks out a dice it may be like a monkey, but in the end it comes out as a puppet in His hand. Sri Ramakrishna used to repeat the instances of a baby monkey who clings to its mother by its own hands, and of a kitten who leaves everything to its mother and only mews when she is wanted.

Before going to the West for the first time, Swami Vivekananda completely surrendered himself to God's will and waited for a Divine direction. It did come in two forms: (i) One night as he lay half-asleep, the command came, in a symbolic dream. He saw the figure of his Master, Sri Ramakrishna, walking from the seashore into the waters of the ocean, and beckoning him to follow. (ii) Swamiji wrote a letter to Holy Mother yearning for her blessings on the long journey. She did not delay in sending the blessings to her beloved son. Receiving the Holy Mother's letter, his joy knew no bounds; he alternately danced and wept. He said to himself, `Ah! it is all right now. It is the will of the Mother.'¹⁵

The measure of God's testing the aspirant differs from case to case. But He tests everyone nevertheless. The costlier the thing, the more severe will be the tests to satisfy the customer. `Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.' A seeker after truth voluntarily embraces a responsible life, the process of which is expedited for the purpose of a higher goal. As a result, happiness and misery come in rapid succession to him. But, since a devotee is indifferent to worldly pleasures, he is afflicted with pains. Swami Vivekananda echoes the same experience when he says, `The nobler your heart, know it for certain, the more must be your share of misery.'¹⁶ Inspiringly he would add, `Then the loving soul is able to say, if pain comes, "Welcome pain." If misery comes, it will say, "Welcome misery, you are also from the beloved."^'17 An exactly similar attitude of `blessed suffering' has been expressed in the celebrated book The Way of a Pilgrim in the following words: `The cane taught the Prayer to the boy ... Are not our own sorrows and trials which we meet with on the road of prayer in the same way the rod in God's hand? Why then are we so frightened and troubled when our heavenly Father in fullness of His boundless love lets us see them, and when these rods teach us to be more earnest in learning to pray, and lead us on to consolation which is beyond words?'¹⁸

In spite of all his defects the chosen aspirant must develop faith in himself. Swamiji says, `He who does not believe in himself is an atheist.' The faith we are talking about is a different kind of faith. Here the aspirant compares his opportunities with those of others. In doing so, he comes across inspiring aspirants whose capitals are insignificant and conditions worse than his. On the auspicious day of Guru Purnima in the year 1989, a host of pilgrims went to visit the holy cave of Amaranth in Kashmir. All but one got exhausted on the last lap of the arduous trekking. That one was a one-legged man who was happily trekking along on a crutch! A living example of the scriptural saying: God can make the lame cross the mountain. Seeing the lame man's sense of adventure all the pilgrims felt ashamed, got inspired, and moved on with renewed vigour. A devotee of the Lord once confessed in the following elevating terms: `I was complaining that I had no shoes until I saw a man who had no legs!'

1. The Gospel, p. 702
2. Mahapurush Shivananda (Bengali), p. 148
3. For Seekers of God, p. 85
4. The Great Master II, p. 957
5. The Gospel, p. 966, also p. 257
6. CW IV, p. 239
7. The Bhagavatam, 11.9.28
8. Katha Upanishad, 2.1.1
9. The Yoga Sutras, 1/30 & 31
10. The Way of a Pilgrim, p. 75
11. The Gospel, p. 689
12. Spiritual Talks, p. 57
13. CW VII, p. 8
14. Prapanna Gita (Also Panchadashi,6/176)
15. The Life I, p. 380 & 383
16. CW IV, p. 493
17. CW III, p. 82
18. The Way of a Pilgrim, p. 118