Many think that knowledge of god cannot be attained without
the study of books. But higher than reading is hearing, higher than hearing is
seeing or realization. Hearing of wisdom from the lips of the preceptor makes a
great impression than the mere reading of books; but seeing makes the greatest
impression. Better than reading about Benares is hearing about the place from
the lips of one who has visited it; better even than such hearing is seeing
Benares with one’s own eyes.
Vairagyam (dispassion) is of many kinds. One kind of
Vairagyam springs from the acute pain due to worldly misery. But the better kind
arises from the consciousness that all worldly blessings though within one’s
reach are transitory and are not worth enjoying. Thus, having all, he has not
anything.
Dive deep into the ocean of the
absolute-existence-knowledge-bliss. Fear not those deep-sea monsters like avarice
and anger. Coat thyself with the turmeric of discrimination and dispassion
(viveka and vairagya) and such deep-sea monsters will not approach thee, for
the scent of this turmeric is too much for them.
A holy man used to look often at a glass prism and smile.
The reason was that he could see various colors – red, yellow, violet, and so
on – through the prism, and as all these colors were false, so he knew the
world to be.
Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa