Thought: Nine Hundred Fifty-Three ……………………………………………………… 1. What was meant to happen, has happened. What is meant to happen, will happen. To waste the beautiful moments of life fretting over these things—that is foolishness. 2. Learn to work not only with your heart, but with your head too. Sometimes your heart is just a piece of shit. 3. A girl whose face is plain, whose father has no money, who was a mediocre student and barely scraped through with an undergraduate and master's degree—why does she expect to marry a refined, accomplished, educated boy from a cultivated, well-mannered family of genuine distinction? What causes girls to be so stupid? The reason is simple: in childhood, her parents did not feed her well—no butter, no nourishment—and so her mind has grown stunted. She understands less. If you want to marry an educated, brilliant, successful boy from a refined, cultured, educated family, then your own family must also maintain that standard. From childhood, you and yours must practice courtesy and manners, you must cultivate education and refinement in yourself and every member of your household, you must transform the atmosphere of your home, you must earn a respectable name in your neighborhood—only then can you harbour such hopes. In a situation where you yourself are uneducated, where the other members of your family are in the same condition—such hopes are nothing but fantasy. Yes, that is what reality tells you. 4. In the attempt to maintain good relations with everyone, a person sometimes ends up spoiling his relation with himself. Does that even make sense? 5. One person's nature does not corrupt from want, want, want, Another's corrupts from having, having, having. Nature corrodes in two ways alike: From the scarcity of what is needful, From the excess of what is surplus. Scarcity corrupts nature, But excess corrupts it far more. 6. When someone persistently misunderstands you, there are moments when you grow desperately tired. You wish, instead of explaining your position again and again, to simply let the relationship break. Let them think what they will—it doesn't concern me. Let them be right, let me be wrong. How much more can one convince oneself? A stranger, perhaps, you can make understand; someone you know, you cannot make understand for anything in the world. 7. Perhaps you will not reach where you wish to go; but wherever you've arrived that was never meant for you, yet somehow found yourself there—surely you can leave that place, can't you? If you can, then you have not failed at all, your time has not been wasted, nor has your journey been a thing of ugliness. If you can cast off what need not be kept, you travel a considerable distance. Before it all comes to ruin, begin now—the work of casting away. Sooner or later, what must be discarded will be discarded, and there is only one way to do it: throw it away without thinking. 8. If you are always busy with what others should have become, you can never become what you should become. 9. You must suffer, you must endure suffering... that is simply natural. 10. Work is that which does not bind us to ever-new chains, Knowledge is that which shows light upon the path to freedom's gain; But what is mere labor—only fleeting ease from strain, And what is mere learning—only craft's perfection, vain! 11. When you wash your hands with soap, if you wash both hands together, the work becomes easier and both hands get properly clean. If you wash only one hand, the work doesn't go as well. When both hands clean themselves and each other at once, the task becomes comfortable and even joyful. In the same way, when you purify your own conscience, if you can also purify the conscience of those beside you—or, if fortune allows, those around you—the work of purifying your own conscience becomes relatively easier and better. Light, when shared, only grows brighter.
Yet in undertaking this work, one must hold constantly in mind: each person’s conscience, consciousness, soul—awakens by a different path. Bound up with this are their beliefs or disbeliefs, habits or want of habit, experience or inexperience, opportunity or deprivation, willingness or reluctance. Each path brings its own perspective, its own beauty.
When both hands are washed together, if dirt lodges beneath the nail of the left forefinger, that nail must be cleaned; but there is no necessity to clean the right forefinger’s nail in the same manner. The purpose is to wash both hands together as easily and perfectly as possible; cleaning them in identical ways is not the imperative here.
Let the destination be one, yet the paths diverge—why not? Among the most beautiful utterances of this world stands one: “As many minds, so many paths.” The great soul Sri Ramakrishna who spoke these words—his greatest disciple Swami Vivekananda walked his own path (nirvikalpa samadhi) and became a mahatma, yet it was not the same as the path his guru had followed (savikalpa samadhi). Vivekananda’s consciousness awakened through contact with Sri Ramakrishna, and from that awakening he became great; yet Ramakrishna never compelled his disciple to walk precisely in his own footsteps. Here lies the beauty of dharma.
12. The girl dreamed her boyfriend was kissing a girl from their own class.
At once she woke, and it struck her: she had not brushed her teeth before bed the night before.
Brush regularly, for the foul odor of your breath may render your beloved unconscious!
Brush. Save a life.
13. When I am dead, will the moonlight still drip down drop by drop?
Will the evening star burn alone, seated beside the moon, by the same old rule?
Will my name arise suddenly in friends’ gatherings, or in meetings of the beloved—or will I simply be forgotten?
That secret person so dear to me, whose name I have never spoken to a soul—will they weep alone at midnight, thinking of me?
Will flowers bloom in the courtyard? Will new guests come to the sparrow couple’s nest by the window?
Even without me, the sun will rise each day, night will fall, the melody of separation will play on.
With or without me, sorrows will remain precious.
14. Love or marriage cannot be a license for giving pain. Where there is peace, there is love, even if there is no love.
Do not make a cage for your partner. If you make, they will just pretend to love you. It’s not love, it’s just fear.
Peace is love, love is peace. Period.
15. Some people cannot be brought back, no matter how hard you try.
Let them go their own way.
Do not dwell overmuch on the sentence above, if you wish not to compound your sorrow. Overthinking kills.
16. Between logic and humanity, I always choose humanity.
17. Once I thought that after sixty, a person grows old. Now I am past sixty myself. Even at this age I consider myself a young man, because I can still work from eight in the morning to ten at night. Now I think I was wrong before.
(The moment I heard this, a wicked thought crept into my sinful mind: …but whether you can work after ten at night—surely that’s the true parameter of youth!
I wish I could become good.)
18. Tsk, tsk, tsk! Today’s weather is just the kind of weather to…I mean, official training weather; and that’s exactly what I’m doing!
19. The more one is cheated at the start,
The more one wins in the end.
20. Staying with yourself is much better than staying with an irresponsible person.
# 21. A government official and the mother of a marriageable daughter—these two kinds of people must be as cunning as a fox and as calculating as a chimpanzee.
Reflection: Nine Hundred Fifty-Four
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1. Plants reproduce through flowers, don’t they? So flowers are a plant’s reproductive organ! No, wait—I was just thinking: how strange that humans use a plant’s reproductive organ to declare their love to someone else!
Isn’t that bizarre?
Thank goodness plants can’t speak! Or they’d say, “Hey! Give back my reproductive organ!”
You can imagine how ridiculous it is!
P.S. Give me a beautiful reproductive organ, and I’ll gift you a heart overflowing with love.
2. A small piece of advice. Never share your spiritual journey on Facebook. It’ll increase your mental power. We must always remember what Lalon sang: Speak not your prayer-words carelessly to every soul you meet.
3. Life
gives on one side,
takes on the other.
4. What such joy did you find in destroying me?
I was already ruined from the start!
5. Some live in dreams,
others in memory.
6. Why did you want to stay like that?
If you hadn’t wanted to stay, would I have let you go?
7. Knowing I would never have you, I still wanted you;
having gotten you, I let you go.
8. The one you dismiss today with such cruel indifference,
one day you will beg to return to when it is too late.
9. A mistake made once,
pains suffered forever.
10. Siddhartha: Deepa, why do you want the sky so much?
Deepa: What do you mean?
Siddhartha: Sometimes I wonder—why does anyone want anyone? Why do you want him?
Deepa: I don’t know… I just want him.
Siddhartha: Even though you know the sky…
Deepa: Doesn’t want me? …Yes, but still…
Tell me, which film’s dialogue is this?
11. Don’t call her stupid; maybe this is the reason she is still with you.
12. I wish I could ask how you are.
13. Respect is the most important sign of love. If someone doesn’t respect you, never believe that they love you. Respect is love, love is respect.
14. There’s still time—go ahead and become wicked.
15. Boys have one common problem: when someone at home tells them to do something or forbids them from doing something, they won’t listen; yet if an outsider says the exact same thing, they obey readily enough.
16. In Italy, Spain, France and other countries, there was once a practice of keeping criminals imprisoned on ships, and they would row small warships called “galleys,” made to sit in rows at the oars.
One day, a royal representative of Naples was traveling on one such galley. Out of curiosity, he asked the prisoners why they had been sentenced to work on the galley and what crimes they had committed.
All of them claimed innocence. Some said enemies had imprisoned them through false testimony; others said corrupt judges had taken bribes and sentenced them unfairly. Everyone was desperately trying to appear innocent in hopes of winning the royal representative’s favor.
But one prisoner said he had been forced to steal because he could not bear the pangs of hunger.
The royal representative grew angry, struck the prisoner’s shoulder with his cane, and said, “You scoundrel! What business do you have being a thief among all these honorable men? Get out of here at once!”
The thief was set free because he spoke the truth.
17. In Bihar, there is the tomb of Makhdum Shah. He used to perform penance in a cave in the hills at Rajgir.
# The Plaster of Thought-Walls
On his way to Bihar from there, one day the fakir stepped off the path to relieve himself. Right ahead lay a field of beans. The farmer thought a wanderer was trying to steal them. So without a word, he struck the fakir on the head with his staff.
The fakir said nothing to the one who had beaten him. Instead, he spoke to himself: “Why did you go astray, Sarfa? Why did you get beaten?” (Sarfuddin was his nickname.) The meaning: Why did Sarfa walk into the wrong place and take a beating?
He spoke as though all the fault lay with himself! If only he had sat by some fallow ground or near a thicket, the farmer would have made no mistake.
This is life’s greatest lesson—to blame not others, but oneself. Through the practice of this habit, conscience gradually purifies itself. The path of self-inquiry is the path of worship.
18. When Sikander Shah, having conquered the Punjab, was reveling in his victory, he heard everyone praising a certain Hindu ascetic and expressed a wish to see him. Sikander Shah’s official went to the holy man and mentioned his master’s conquest of kingdoms, saying, “Come and see the victorious one.”
The ascetic replied, “Ask your master whether he has conquered himself. If he has, then I will certainly come.”
Sikander Shah, astonished by this response, came to the ascetic himself and announced that he would fulfill any prayer the sage made. When people visit ascetics, they all wish to hear something good, seeking sustenance for their own lives.
The ascetic said: Do not take what you cannot give.
The conqueror Sikander Shah could not even fathom what there was that he could not give, and yet he had taken!
Then the ascetic spoke: You cannot give life to anyone, so do not take it from people. You cannot give me the sun, so do not rob me of shade by standing in my way. Let me be plain. There is no valor in murdering people—do not do it anymore. Here is another counsel: whenever you hear the one thing most necessary for you spoken somewhere, leave that place at once. If you linger in hope of hearing more, you may hear something that harms you.
19. Whoever has surrendered everything to God has nothing impossible. Not only his own fate, but he is even capable of changing another’s destiny.
20. The tree that the woodcutter has come to fell does not withdraw its shade from him.
In our eyes, this is the tree’s magnanimity.
In truth, it is the tree’s powerlessness.
When we forcibly dress the tree’s helplessness in the garments of greatness, it becomes easy to fell the tree.
21. When man can no longer bear a little suffering, it is precisely then that he marries.
22. The Bengali does the work of the policeman and the judge at the same time—he does it whether there is work or not. The Bengali alone cannot do his own work properly. Everything else, he can do.
23. If the person you love decides to leave you for the one wrong thing you’ve done to them ignoring the hundred right things you’ve done for them, let them leave. Don’t keep such an asshole in your life if you are not an asshole as well. Leave and move on. Leave to live.
Reflections: Nine Hundred Fifty-Five
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1. It is said that once, in a temple in Varanasi, a golden plate fell from heaven. Written on that plate were the words: For the one whose love is greatest, a heavenly reward.
# The Plaster of Thought-Walls
The temple priests of Kashi beat their drums and announced on all sides that the next day at noon, all those seeking reward would come to the temple and demonstrate their virtues.
The following day, people from every class arrived and began recounting their merits.
A wealthy man came to Kashi after giving away his vast riches for the welfare of the poor. The priests gave him the golden plate. But it turned to lead in that very instant. The recipient, ashamed, set down the plate—and it became gold again.
The reward-seekers began distributing money freely among the poor gathered near the temple. Yet scattering coins is not always the mark of compassion.
Not far from the temple lay an elderly, ailing man. No one paid him any attention. A farmer came to the temple to offer worship, and on his way he saw this man. His heart flooded with pity. He gave the old man water, fanned him, bought a little milk and fed him to him, and through devoted care restored him considerably to health. Then, having settled the weakened elder in a room at the rest-house, he went to the temple to pray.
The chief priest observed all this from a distance. On sudden impulse, he placed the golden plate directly into the farmer’s hands. Everyone watched as it blazed with doubled brightness!
It bears mention that the Ramakrishna Service Mission in Kashi was established to serve all, regardless of faith, caste, or creed. Whenever they learn of a destitute pilgrim, a person in distress, a sick patient, or an ascetic lying abandoned anywhere, they seek them out and care for them with genuine devotion.
Across the world, the Ramakrishna Service Mission continues such works of public welfare. Should your heart incline, it is good to give through them—cloth, blankets, food, aid of every kind. The money donated to the Mission is never misused. There are other such institutions too, laboring ceaselessly for humanity. And by humanity, I mean people—of all faiths, all paths, all beliefs.
The capacity to give and the act of giving are not one thing. Many possess the means yet cannot bring themselves to give. To give requires not wealth’s abundance, but the magnanimity of heart. I have seen people amass fortunes like mountains, yet give nothing; and if they do, what they give, measured against their capacity, is as if they gave nothing at all. And many I have known who give nowhere if their name will not be broadcast, who will not help those of different faiths—I have seen such people in multitudes. Many do offer service, yet how few know how to serve in the way that earns the “golden plate” of the story above?
2. Let us now learn of a poor Brahmin scholar possessed of infinite self-respect.
In ancient India, the ruler of the Maratha empire was called the Peshwa. There was a time when their influence and authority were legendary. During the Peshwas’ ascendancy, every year in the month of Shravan, a grand assembly of Brahmins was held in the city of Pune. Eminent scholars and learned Pandits were invited to judge which Brahmin present in that assembly was the greatest. The Brahmin most learned in the various scriptures would be declared the victor, and the Peshwa would reward him with one lakh coins. Not only that—the Peshwa himself would place his shoulders beneath the victor’s palanquin and walk three paces, considering both himself and the honored Pandit greatly exalted.
Raghunath Rao, the Peshwa, maintained this custom as his predecessors had, yet his heart harbored less reverent devotion toward Brahmin scholars than theirs did. In his reign, a Mithila Pandit won recognition at such an assembly. But Peshwa Raghunath Rao, somewhat displeased with the scholar’s bearing and manner, declared: “This Pandit lacks humility, therefore he shall be given one coin less.”
The Pundit said, “If I were given a hundred thousand coins, I would willingly distribute every last one of them here for the welfare of mankind. But if someone, finding fault with me, were to offer even a single coin less than the prescribed amount, I would not accept such a demeaning reward. I have come this far for honor. I will not compromise the slightest iota of it.”
The Peshwa said, “Pundit! Once I have spoken the words and committed myself, I will not reverse my decision under any circumstances. You must accept one coin less. Where else will you find someone to give you so much money?”
The Pundit replied, “Your Majesty! There is no fault in revoking any unjust order regarding the arrangement for a Brahmin. Furthermore, Your Majesty, while there may indeed be few wealthy men in India capable of giving a hundred thousand coins minus one, is it not equally true—or perhaps even more so—that there are few poor men who would refuse to accept that very sum?”
The Peshwa did not revoke his own order. The Brahmin accepted nothing from him.
—
Postscript. In my first tutoring engagement, after teaching for three and a half months, when insulting false comments were made and I was asked to accept a reduced fee, I left that house without taking a single coin. The student was a candidate for the engineering entrance examination. Though I did not receive the reward for such arduous and sincere effort that day, I received far more in the time that followed. Setting aside matters of love and recognition, as far as I know, no one from BUET earned more money from tutoring than I did during that period.
Those interested may read my essay titled “The Story of My First Tutoring.”
3. Going to buy milk, he peeks at the liquor shop,
Sitting to study, he fidgets on Facebook’s lap.
4. It was long ago. A young American man, fresh from university and now in dire financial straits, approached the owner of a construction firm seeking work.
The owner, learning about the young man’s education, said, “There are no suitable positions available.” Hearing this, the young man said, “Give me any work. I am in terrible hardship—I cannot even afford to buy food.” The firm owner then replied, “Everyone says such things at first; later, when given work they don’t like, they abandon it and leave.”
The young man answered, “I no longer have that ego. What good is a university certificate to me if I cannot fill my belly? Give me any job, sir. Whatever work you assign me, I will accept it as what God has destined for me.”
The owner thought this was mere talk—the boy, driven by hunger and desperation, was speaking out of emotion. A university graduate would never willingly do just any work. Yet, to test the young man’s mettle, he said, “Mind you, the laborers out front are digging to repair the path leading into the office. Can you do that digging work with them?”
To his astonishment, the young man said, “Yes, sir, I will do exactly that.” The owner instructed the gatekeeper to give the boy a hammer, shovel, and pickaxe, and to show him how the work was done.
That young man marked out a stretch of road and began digging. When the work was done, he neatly arranged the stones to one side and, using the shovel and his hands, cleared the excavated area clean.
# The Plaster of Thought-Walls
Where the other laborers had dug, scattered gravel lay as it always did. That evening, returning home from the office, the owner felt his car jolt over the rough patches—but when the vehicle passed through the section where the young man had worked, there was no jolt at all.
The owner was deeply pleased by this particular care the young man had shown. Here was something he had not expected, something the youth need not have done, something that would have earned him his wages regardless; yet in doing it, the young man had carved out a place of sympathy in his employer’s heart.
Enchanted by this extra effort, the owner, as a reward for such sincerity and conscientiousness toward his work, appointed the youth as foreman of the laborers the very next day. His daily wages rose accordingly.
The road turned out to be prepared so flawlessly that the others looked shabby beside it. The newly appointed foreman had smoothed every unevenness with his own hands—every ridge, every dip, every slope. There was no fault in his care or his labor.
By degrees, the owner entrusted him with inspecting other work. All of it became flawless. Through his trustworthiness and skill, the young man eventually became a partner in the owner’s business and his chief executive officer.
Everyone works, yes—but only he who brings something distinctly remarkable to his labor receives the reward.
—
Reflections: Nine Hundred Fifty-Six
………………………………………………………
**1.** A master once asked his craftsman: How do you spend your wages? The craftsman replied: I spend half, lend out a quarter, and pay off debts with the remaining quarter. That is to say, half goes to food and clothing; a quarter supports my children’s schooling; and the last quarter I send to my parents.
Let me say this plainly—do not harbor hopes in this age that children will ever repay that “debt”! Yet assuming all responsibility for one’s parents’ sustenance is an inescapable duty of every human being.
**2.** In our lives, some people are like the chaat. No matter what else we eat, we find ourselves drawn back to that one beloved snack. There is always one such person in our lives. Mix with a thousand others as you will, yet when evening comes and you seek peace, you return to that one soul alone. Loving people are easy to find, but people who bring peace—they are rare; for while many know how to love, few know how to cherish.
**3.** At the Battle of Königgrätz, the Prussians shattered Austria’s military might. Throughout that exhausting day of endless rushing about, Prussian Minister Prince Bismarck kept a cigar in his pocket, thinking that when the battle ended, he would stretch out somewhere and smoke it slowly to ease his fatigue.
A German soldier lay gravely wounded on the battlefield, his limbs broken. Seeing the soldier’s parched gaze, Bismarck dismounted from his horse, yet found himself unable to decide what to give one so close to death. He had money and gold pieces in his pocket—but what use were they to a man whose death was imminent?
The cigar came to mind. He placed it in the soldier’s mouth. As the young man began to draw on it, a line of joy appeared on his pain-wracked face, and tears of sudden, grateful recognition welled in his eyes. It was this moment that prompted the founder of modern Germany’s greatness, Prince Bismarck himself, to later say: “The cigar whose smoke I never tasted brought me that day a joy which no cigar I have smoked since has ever given me.”
**4.** A school in Chennai. In nearly every examination, one friend comes first, while the other comes second—and so it went, year after year.
# The Plaster of Thought-Walls
Before his Class Nine final exams, one boy’s mother fell gravely ill. Caring for her consumed nearly two months—his studies abandoned entirely. Yet in the end, even devotion could not save her.
The exams began almost immediately after her death. Everyone assumed he would not finish first; surely his friend would take that place.
The results came out. To everyone’s surprise, the boy who had lost his mother ranked first. His friend came second.
Their class teacher grew curious. What was this? He carefully compared the two answer sheets and was astonished. The boy who had placed second had not answered many questions well at all. He had left several easy questions entirely blank, even though he had written answers to the difficult ones—and written them well. It seemed he had deliberately skipped those simple questions.
When the teacher called him aside and asked about it, the boy said: “He’s a much better student than I am. If his mother hadn’t fallen ill and died, I would likely have placed first this time. But is that fair? More than that—he needed this result now. I thought, if I came first this time, it might give him some comfort. My mother is still alive. His mother is gone. But sir, please don’t tell anyone about this. Why did you have to investigate? What has happened is as it should be.”
The teacher replied: “You have passed the greatest exam—the test of greatness—and you will always remain first in it. The school examination is utterly trivial beside it.”
**5.** This happened in Germany. During the war, a commander set out with a handful of cavalry soldiers to gather grass, fodder, and grain for the horses. Food was nowhere to be found; the land stretched empty in all directions.
Finally, the commander stopped a farmer and said, “Show me where the crops are.” Helpless, the farmer led the way.
Near a grove, in low-lying land, there were crops. The commander wanted to harvest them. But the farmer said, “Come a little further.” After walking some distance, the farmer showed them another field. The soldiers uprooted all the chickpea plants, bundled them, loaded them onto the horses, and headed back to camp.
The commander, irritated by the needless walking, said angrily, “The first field’s crops were good enough too. Why make us walk all this way for nothing?” The farmer replied, “Sir! This field is mine. The first one belonged to someone else. When there’s no payment for the grain, how can I show you another man’s field?”
**6.** What comes easily to hand brings people little joy. Whatever is even slightly rare—whether or not it has the capacity to truly delight—people seek their happiness from that instead. Happiness in the easily obtainable would be too simple.
**7.** Open wide the doors of the heart, and chastity remains—does it?
The death of virtue passes unnoticed by all.
**8.** The other day in Barisal, rickshaw fares suddenly dropped.
Why?
Because the city emptied; everyone went to Cox’s Bazar to watch the cyclone.
**9.** Who are Bengalis?
They who:
Eat napa when the body ails,
Arrange marriages when the heart fails.
**10.** Don’t ask what makes me well or what makes me ill. Ask instead: what can we do to stay together? I don’t wish to be well. I wish only to be with you. What good is my wellness without you?
**11.** Successful people learn from the people they admire.
Unsuccessful people try to teach the people they don’t admire.
This is what time means to these two groups.
12. It is better to end a love that is still shallow. A shallow love ends cleanly with a breakup; a deep love not even death can cure.
13. When a boy sits on his father’s shoulders and says, “Father, look, I am taller than you!”, he cannot grasp—lacking the maturity of understanding—that by riding on his father’s shoulders, his head has risen above his father’s head, yet in truth he remains the smaller one.
Once he has tasted this joy, he will climb onto his father’s shoulders again and again, by force if necessary, and believe himself taller than his father. The father, bowing to the demands of time, accepts the boy’s claim. This brings him happiness. The father’s silent assent is what time demands here.
When the boy finally becomes truly greater than his father—in wisdom, intellect, learning, and social standing—he no longer mistakes himself for the bigger one, nor does he say so. For by then he has matured in mind. Greatness makes itself visible to the eye; only the small demand greatness through force.
**Thoughts: Nine Hundred Fifty-Seven**
**………………………………………………………**
1. When I speak of love to people, they think it is the story of my life.
When I speak of love to my beloved, she thinks it is all words I have invented.
Everyone knows how to love, but only a few know how to express it. The ability to give voice to love is exceedingly rare. This simple truth neither people nor the beloved seem to understand.
2. When the mosquito comes to drink blood and begins its song,
who can bear its sweet refrain?
3. There is nothing more painful than living on your own money yet under another’s terms.
4. Can you cover a burning fire by draping cloth over it?
Can you silence true blood with a muzzle—real blood?
You who give what is seen,
why waste effort hiding it?
Truth stirs in the wind,
whatever anyone may say!
Parade yourself before the people with your chest puffed out,
strut about however you like,
in just two days you’ll find yourself
in the leech’s mouth, turned to dust!
5. Let us look at an advertisement published in the newspaper exactly fifty years ago today. The Eastern Railway region of Indian Railways had circulated this notice:
“Did you know?
To travel in a seat not reserved in your name is an offense.
You may have gotten away with traveling in a seat reserved under another’s name, time and time again. But surely you would not wish to recall this nameless journey, thorny with dread and anxiety. At any moment you could have been caught! The trouble would have been endless!
Paying the fare and a fine, or being forced to get off midway; or up to 250 rupees in penalty or three months in jail—if fortune turns, perhaps both together!
Why jump into the well needlessly? There is also the matter of dignity and respect!
In 1973, countless people were caught traveling in the Eastern Railway in seats reserved for others.
Do not buy trouble with your money. Buy your ticket only from authorized agents.
Help us to serve you better.”
Let us circulate the advertisement in a somewhat different manner:
“Did you know?
To attempt to claim a religion the Creator has reserved in no one’s name as your own is an offense.
You may have gotten away with dragging others into the religion reserved in your name, time and time again. But surely you would not wish to recall this unlawful trespass, thorny with dread and anxiety. At any moment you could have been caught by causing offense! The trouble would have been endless!
To be insulted and humiliated, or to flee in shame; or to suffer punishment for presuming upon the Creator’s will (for playing God with God), or to languish in prison on charges of wronging another—and if fortune turns especially cruel, perhaps both at once!
Why, then, leap into these waters without reason? There is also the matter of honor and dignity!
In times past, countless people have been caught red-handed for overstepping in matters of religion.
If you have any sense in your head, don’t court trouble. Let each person tend their own faith, and tend yours yourself.
Illuminate yourself further to better please the Creator.”
6. The faithful—tend their own faith with care,
The fanatic—cultivate hatred for another’s prayer.
7. Time. This time has no loyalty. There is no act that does not occur in time’s turning. This very time has once cast countless people into countless circumstances, and this very time, when its moment comes, has lifted them out again. Wealth, honor, status, dignity, kingdoms, splendor, property, calamity—all bow to time. The origin, growth, and decay of human condition and station—all happen in time. Time itself is God made manifest.
Time makes us laugh once, then weep; then laugh again, then weep again. No one can laugh forever, nor weep forever. This ultimate truth has no end, no respite. We live out our lives holding time as our faith. Those ignorant of time’s majesty are fools; those unwilling to know are negligent. When time itself becomes faith, then there is neither sorrow nor joy—only truth shining forth.
Human circumstances change with time. Thus, to be intoxicated by wealth or tormented by heart is nothing but emptiness. I came alone, and alone I shall depart—so why this endless grasping? If I must answer for everything before death, why accumulate such questions whose reckoning will make me sweat? Time does its work through time alone, and only when its moment arrives—not before, not after.
Birth, growth, death—
These are time’s three forms.
8. Who is God?
The one whom mind cannot know,
yet because He is,
mind can know all things—
That is God.
9. The crown you could wear makes you an enemy of the people who couldn’t.
10. Most men are, in truth, masters of desire’s schoolhouse, though they teach lessons of love.
Most women are, in truth, pupils of love’s schoolhouse, though they receive lessons of desire.
But that is not the point. The point is: what if the roles were reversed? What is now the rose of love would then be the thorn of deception. And happiness would no longer masquerade so widely.
Romance, love, affection—these are merely words, often conditional. What does not occur in a sound mind—is that not disorder? Where self-gratification and selfishness dwell, is that a bond of love, or commerce in deceit?
11. Hope bound together with despair,
Comfort bound together with grief—
If they are joined by the same thread,
Then why must my fate
Mingle food with stone?
12. Beware the man who, without drinking, wishes to make everyone around him his own. Beware him!
13. Body with body, mind with mind… how easily they unite,
But soul with soul… that union dwells far off, it is no simple thing!
The man of body works with body,
The man of mind dwells in mind’s study,
The man of soul vibrates in soul’s mystery.
14. Please do not take it upon yourself to bring me to your heaven. Living is treating me well enough.
Thought: Nine Hundred Fifty-Eight
………………………………………………………
1. Whom you love, their household dog too grows lovable to you.
And whom you despise, their household god too becomes hateful to you.
2. A friend of mine jokes and says, I drink alcohol only two days a week: the days it rains, and the days it doesn’t rain.
In his manner, I say: never take the praise of two kinds of people seriously—those who are your junior colleagues, and those who are not your junior colleagues.
A clever way to live well is this: remain indifferent to both praise and blame. It takes no time for people’s feelings about others to shift. Therefore, regard people’s emotions not as emotions but as conscience, and judge them accordingly.
3. Some are marked by wrinkles of age upon the brow,
Some bear instead the furrows carved by poverty’s plow.
4. Some love; some merely endure being loved. The rest watch the cinema without a ticket.
5. It is far easier to sustain a relationship with an ordinary person than with a creative one. A creative person is, by definition, an unhappy person, and this unhappiness of theirs is contagious.
If you wish to remain entangled in a relationship with a creative person until death, you must embed this understanding deep within yourself: I am going to continue a relationship with a child, and the effort required here will fall entirely upon me for the rest of my life. As long as I can pour effort in one direction alone, the relationship will endure; otherwise it will not. But if you can delete everything else from your mind and hold only this truth firm, then even in one-sided love you may find peace.
If you cannot do this, there is no point in entangling yourself with a creative person. If you do, you will suffer. Creativity is not a natural trait, so the characteristics of a creative person do not align with those of ordinary people.
6. For a Bengali to live in happiness, it is not enough that he himself be happy—he must also spoil another’s happiness. A Bengali cannot tolerate happiness; neither his own nor anyone else’s.
7. Speak little,
Be deceived little.
8. Happy Donkey Day.
(My wishes arrived a bit late; please don’t mind.)
9. What is poison becomes nectar,
According to the drinker’s hunger and splatter.
10. Some keep dogs,
Some are kept by dogs.
11. If you bear the burden of devotion with a single heart,
Hope’s fruit will surely ripen in the branches of your labor’s art.
12. To one in whose eyes you loom large, never diminish yourself. Even at some temporary loss to yourself, remain large in their sight. If you once allow one who bows their head before you to speak with head held high, you will find yourself mentally imperiled in your own eyes.
13. Weak people feel jealous,
Strong people feel inspired.
Period.
14. Wine unites,
Water divides.
15. You removed my craving for worldly pleasures,
But taught me not the glory of renunciation;
You shattered the pride of my knowledge,
Yet never gave me the nectar of devotion.
Though you erased all that was false,
You revealed nothing of what is true;
Every desire of life you fulfilled,
Yet the thirst of my soul remained unquenched.
16. To find simple solutions to life’s many problems, I must return again and again to the book *Kathamrita*. On every page of this book lies profound philosophy, set forth here in language of remarkable simplicity. Among the best accessible philosophical texts I have read, *Kathamrita* stands as one of the finest. If you wish, alongside *Kathamrita* you might also leaf through *Shrim-Darshan*, a diary-work published in sixteen volumes.
All readers know that *Kathamrita* contains repetition—Sri Ramakrishna spoke the same things to five people in five different places. It appears he told others what he told Narendra.
“Uncle, why don’t you set aside a few select teachings; if you speak everything, if you repeat the same thing over and over, fewer people will come.”
Ramakrishna’s nephew, Hriday Mukhopadhyay, had warned his uncle about this matter several times over.
One day Ramakrishna answered his nephew in a somewhat indignant tone: “Then why, you rascal, shouldn’t I say what I have to say fifty times over? What’s it to you?”
The remarkable popularity of this nectar of words proves that even if one speaks a good thing fifty times, people will accept it; but speak an ill word even once, and no one will receive it.
Many have said to me, “Why do you repeat the same thing over and over? In every career gathering, you circle back to the same point. What’s the need?”
I have lived but one life; the events and experiences within it are of one kind—so why should my words not be of the same kind?
But yes, there is something you can do about it. No one is forcing you to look at me, listen to what I say, or read what I write. (Though if the heart compels you, that’s another matter; no one has dominion over the heart.) If it doesn’t please you, avoid it. Turn your eyes elsewhere. There is much worth looking at scattered all around you. Search for it. Make a habit of searching.
He who knows not how to seek,
His very name is seeker.
Like my guru Ramakrishna, I say: I shall speak as many times as I wish. What is it to anyone? If your heart desires, listen. If not, measure the road.
**17.** I met this evening at the lighthouse in Chattogram with someone I greatly admire and respect. He is a poet and translator; his learning is quite remarkable. I have bought his books, had others buy them, and encouraged people to purchase them. He does not know this. There is no need for him to know.
I was absorbed in a few books, my face bent downward. This is how I am. When I go to a bookshop, I never want a stranger to notice me, or if they do, to come and strike up a conversation. It wastes time needlessly. Personally, I am someone who avoids people. I find more joy in being with myself.
He came near and spoke with a smile. After asking how I was, he immediately inquired where my posting was now, and curiously, he answered his own question at once: “You’re still in Bandarban, aren’t you?” I too replied with a smile, “I was in Bandarban many days ago; how much longer will the government keep me there? Will I retire from there? We have transferable jobs. Ha ha ha…”
I once worked in Bandarban through my posting. That was long ago. Of course, even now the vulgar masses take pleasure in fabricating all manner of distasteful gossip and tall tales about this. If people are itching to talk about Sushant Paul, one can apparently reach heaven easily enough! It’s hard to fathom what brings joy to different people. Some have endless idle time on their hands.
After I mentioned where my posting was, he eagerly set about trying to be helpful, saying in a sincere tone, “You must know the Vice-Principal of Gurudayal College?” When I said I didn’t, he seemed surprised and informed me that he knew the gentleman well. He would introduce me to him. He added further, “Since you do these career gatherings and all, having connections will be of great use to you.”
I do not enjoy people with a pushy nature as it is. On top of that, from what he said, I felt I’d stumbled into the position of offering career counseling uninvited! I turn away hundreds of people—not for lack of time, but simply because their approach doesn’t sit right with me. I take no money for work I do undertake, so why bear the burden of it? When my mind pulls even slightly backward, I don’t move forward unless absolutely compelled by duty. Peace of mind comes first.
The way he made that “tempting proposal” to introduce me around—from his tone and manner of speaking, it seemed to me he hadn’t shown much respect for it at all. After all these years, to run into someone whose very first exchange is a sharp, crooked question—from such a person, one can hardly expect to receive respect shown to others.
I should note: I have never met or spoken with him directly. I admire him from a distance. This means we are strangers to each other.
I said humbly, “Brother, I am a solitary person. I don’t keep in much touch with anyone. I don’t care to, unless truly necessary.”
With an almost protesting air, disbelief written across his face, he objected sharply: “No, no, you are not solitary at all. Whatever else you may be, you cannot be called solitary. You mix with people!”
I lost patience then. With a dismissive laugh, I replied, “Brother, we’ve hardly met or spoken; we’ve only exchanged messages on Facebook now and then. Is that enough basis for you to judge me? We are strangers to each other—you don’t know me, and I don’t know you. We’ve never felt the need or desire to know each other. So how are you judging me? Merely from a distance? We can barely know the person next to us our whole lives through, so how could we ever know someone far away? We cannot even truly know our own wives, husbands, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters—isn’t that so? How can you be so confident in your judgment of a stranger like me?”
“Very well then, brother. Take care of yourself.”
Without another word, he hurried away from where I stood.
“You take care too, brother.” I managed to get these words to his ears, though with some difficulty and a smile.
I shall continue to respect him as before, but I no longer wish—not even in forgetfulness—for him to spend time engaging with me when we meet. There are two kinds of people I consciously avoid: the judgmental and the conservative. Those who have no objection to mixing with them may do so; I ask forgiveness for myself here.
It grieves me to damage relationships. But disconnection seems the wiser course.
**Reflection: Nine Hundred Fifty-Nine**
**…………………………………………………**
**1.** Why think more, friend? Do not exhaust yourself with thought.
What comes of thinking, tell me—does he think of you?
You think so much of one
who thinks only of another—
what good in thinking, save to pile thought upon thought?
You think of him so long,
if only he thought of you as much,
what would he have to ponder, what torment would remain?
**2.** Once, because a mother existed, the boy could dream of going far in life—and he went.
Now, because a wife exists, the boy can dream no longer of going much farther in life—nor does he try.
Man lives in dreams; he dies in marriage. Marriage brings about the premature death of all possibility. Home and hearth are the grave of every happiness—unless we refuse to build them. Bondage is nothing but weeping.
Those people who say, “Everything will be fine once we marry”—their lives went wrong precisely because they married. Ask around if you doubt it.
Marriage is a social contract wherein both boy and girl sign an invisible deed; and written upon it is this: Come, let us together destroy each other’s lives.
(In the background, everyone twirls and claps, dancing away—those who had the power to bind and marry them off.)
3. When sorrow settles upon a man’s destiny, happiness escapes just to survive. And when sorrow departs, what remains is only memory… old joy never returns.
4. I have come, friend, to take nothing at all,
Only to banish your fear, to still your thrall.
Of all gifts, know which stands supreme?
To grant fearlessness to the heart seized by doubt’s extreme.
5. Vaishnava literature says: Krishna within, Gauranga without.
The Hindus say: God within, gods without.
And those who, without such philosophical inquiry, simply immerse themselves in prayer, in practice and devotion, in the observance of faith—those who surrender themselves at God’s feet—they too find peace. The Bhagavad Gita says: As one worships me, so I worship them in return. From this vantage point, we might say: The scientist holds God in his heart in one manner, the farmer in another. Though the fundamental note is one, its expression varies; thus their pathos of divine vision may be the same, but its manifestation is not. The outward nature of what is contained depends upon the capacity of the vessel to hold it.
In the middle section of the tenth chapter of the *Chaitanya Charitamrita*, we find:
“The Lord speaks: God is supremely independent.
God’s grace is not dependent upon the Vedas.”
Ah, how these two lines provide so simple a solution to so many difficult questions! Even the uneducated, the ignorant, the one bereft of scriptural knowledge—if only he can awaken what lies within him through ceaseless practice, he too can receive God’s grace. By God’s grace, I mean the awakening of the soul, the quickening of consciousness.
Through the ages, Lalon, Kabir, Tulsidas, Dadu, Ramdas, Chandidas—though they dwelt far from the light of formal learning—illumined themselves and the whole world with the light of the inner self. Before the feet of their many truth-bound utterances, all the world’s pride of knowledge and grandeur of learning sits silent and still. This very supreme truth the Vaishnava literature has proclaimed through countless verses. The path that awakens is never, in any way, the wrong path.
That immortal utterance of the great Ramakrishna—as many beliefs, so many paths—will remain equally relevant to the world as long as humans walk upon it. The death of tolerance toward the diversity of belief and path means the death of civilization itself. “I alone am right, you are wrong”—the nurturing of this conviction defeats man as man.
The person who reads all the world’s scriptures yet finds no trace of his own soul, who cannot awaken consciousness, has in truth never drawn near to God. Those men and women who, having cast aside the “I” within themselves, go about searching for the “I” in everyone else in the world—they are truly irreligious. If the foundation itself is flawed, what use is the garment?
(I have kept alive the wish, should time allow, to write on this at greater length. Ah, life! Ah, livelihood!)
6. Men forestall the breakup;
women sustain the relation.
If men do not use reason to forestall the breakup, and women do not use emotion to sustain the relation, no partnership ever reaches a beautiful end.
7. Once the struggle ends, peace will come—it is not so. Without the strength of the soul, peace never comes, struggle or no struggle. The one whose soul is not weak, whose consciousness remains awake, can live in peace even in the midst of battle itself.
# The Plaster of Thought-Walls
There are many people who need not struggle to survive, whose lives overflow with the abundance of joy, and yet they find no peace—simply for want of the soul’s strength. Peace itself is the name of the soul’s strength.
**8.** One said: What marvel her form is—I have beheld it.
Another said: What marvel her words are—I have heard them.
Yet another said: How she tells stories in silence—I have felt it.
But none could say: I have known her.
**9.** Work is only that which binds us not in ever-new chains,
Knowledge is only that which shows the way to freedom, teaches how to swim;
And whatever else is work is mere waste and indulgence,
And whatever else is knowledge is merely the false spread of books.
**10.** I am that man whom you would not wish to introduce to your beloved.
**11.** Those who do not love have no stammering in their tongue.
**12.** A river of deep separation,
Two shores exchanging glances;
The night is darkest still,
Yet they remain companions.
**13.** It is not true that if you commit sin you need not do good.
It is not true that if you do good you cannot commit sin.
Sin may not fully cancel virtue, but virtue does cancel sin.
Just as the sin-bound seek liberation through virtue, so too does the weary virtuous seek peace in transgression.
**14.** The day a man ceases to feel drawn toward the world is the day his spiritual death occurs. Slowly, gradually, all his strength becomes exhausted.
**15.** “All the milkmaids shall I ferry across with payment and pay,
But you, dear friend, I’ll take across for the gold from your ear that day.”
This immensely popular song from the film *Sujan Sakhi* was written by Khan Ataur Rahman, drawing its concept from a boatman’s song in the Boat-section of Vaishnavite literature.
“Ferry me across, O boatman, gazing toward the far shore.
Curds and milk are spilled, the cargo lost to the waters’ store.
(Krishna) All the milkmaids shall I ferry across with payment and pay.
Srimati Radha shall I take across for the gold from her ear that day.”
A vast portion of Bengali language and literature stands upon the foundation of Vaishnavite literature.
**16.** You were distant, distant still you remain,
Yet why do you draw near?
If life could be measured out
And lived by calculation,
Would I have kept you
Close within this breast?
Does anyone love, I wonder,
While hiding profit away in secret?
I have been utterly defeated—
All my capital lost in the game!
The days drag on and on,
Yet life itself never ends…
**17.** In fate all things meet,
Save happiness alone.