Learning his mathematics lessons on addition was acceptable
to the boy Gadadhar, the given name of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.
But the problem came in the case of subtraction. His
question was: how could anything be taken away from another? Isn’t everything
pervaded by God? So if you reduce something from another, where can the
remainder be kept?
The scholarly
teachers found such questions too much to answer; it was beyond the pale of
their knowledge. So Gadadhar’s learning ended up in merely enjoying the company
of friends.
In his eyes all those complicated problems of accounts were
meant to enrich material prosperity, which he disliked since childhood. Hence his
education could not cross the threshold of the village school because of his
refusal to seek money from scholarship.
Again, with the same analytical eyes he could conclude that
God had a laugh when two brothers quarreled over the possession of a land and
divided it into two with a rope, claiming one side for each. Probably both of
them could die the very next day of unknown causes. Little Gadadhar could see
the terrible joke of God.
He could also see God laughing when a doctor falsely assures
the relatives of a dying person of being able to bring that person back to
life, knowing fully well that the latter’s lifespan was over. God again gave a
hearty but silent laugh from behind the curtain but within Gadadhar’s gaze.
Gadadhar realized the limitations of human capacity.
Source - Sri Ramakrishna: Scriptures Embodied by Swami
Kritarthananda – March 2016 Prabuddha Bharata