NATURE OF TRUE YEARNING

Let your heart pant for Him as a miser longs for gold.

As the drowning man pants hard for breath, so must ones heart yearn for the Lord before one can find Him.

Do you know what kind of Love is required for gaining the Lord ? just as a dog with a bruised head runs restlesssly, so must one become distressed for His sake.

O heart, call on to your almighty Mother sincerely and you will see how She quickly comes running to you. When one calls on God with heart and soul, He cannot remain unmoved.

Do you know how intense our love of God should be ? The love that a devoted wife possesses for her beloved husband, the attachment that a miser feels for his hoarded -wealth, and the clinging desire that the worldly-minded foster for the things of the world—when the intensity of your heart s longing for the Lord is equal to the sum of these three, then you will attain Him.

Jesus Christ was one day walking along the seashore when a devotee approached him and asked him, Lord, how can one attain God ?" Jesus directly walked into the sea with the enquirer and immersed him in the water. After a short time he released him, and raising him by the arm, asked him, ' How did you feel ?" The devotee replied, " I felt as though my last moment had come—the condition was desperate." Upon this Jesus said, " You shall see the Father when your heart wants for Him as it has wanted for a breath of air just now.¹ "

1 This story is not in the Bible and there is nothing in the Bible coming near it. It might be in an apocrypha', and Sri Ramakrishna might have heard it from somebody acquainted with it.

' I must attain God in this very life ; yea, in three days I must find Him; nay, with a single utterance of His name I will draw Him to me'—with such violent Love the devotee can attract the Lord and realise Him quickly. But devotees who are lukewarm in their Love take ages to find Him, indeed, if they find Him at all.

Why this attitude of an idler, that if realisation is not possible in this birth, it will come in the next? There should not be such sluggishness in devotion. The goal can never be reached unless a man makes his mind strong, and firmly resolves that he must realise God in this very birth, nay, this very moment. In the countryside, when cultivators go to purchase bullocks, they first touch the tails of the animals. Some of the bullocks do not make any response to this. Rather, they relax all their limbs and lie down on the ground. At once the cultivators understand them to be worthless. There are some others that jump about and behave violently the moment their tails are touched ; and the peasants can immediately know that they will be very useful. Their choice is then made from among this active type. Slothfulness is not at all desirable. Gather strength, firm faith, and say that you must realise God this very moment. Then only can you succeed.