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WHO SEEKS NIRVANA?
ŚRi RĀMAKRISHNA: “That is Her will. She wants to continue playing with Her created beings. In a game of hide-and-seek the running about soon stops if in the beginning all the players touch the 'granny.' If all touch her, then how can the game go on? That displeases her. Her pleasure is in continuing the game.
"It is as if the Divine Mother said to the human mind in confidence, with a sign from Her eye, 'Go and enjoy the world.' How can one blame the mind? The mind can disentangle itself from worldliness if, through her grace, She makes it turn toward Herself.”
Singing again the songs of Rāmprasād, Śrī Rāmakrishna interrupted his discourse, but then continued. "Bondage is of the mind, and frcedom is also of the mind. A man is free if he constantly thinks: 'I am a free soul. How can I be bound, whether I live in the world or in the forest? I am a child of God, the King of Kings. Who can bind me?' If bitten by a snake, a man may get rid of its venom hy saying emphatically, “There is no poison in me.' In the same way, by repeating with grit and determination, 'I am not bound, I am free,' one really becomes so-one really becomes free.
"Once someone gave me a book of the Christians. I asked him to read it to me. It talked about nothing but sin. (To Keshab Chandra Sen:) Sin is the only thing one hears of at your Brāhmo Samāi. too. The wretch who constantly says, 'I am bound, I am bound,' only succeeds in being bound. He who says day and night, 'I am a sinner, I am a sinner,' really becomes a sinner.
"One should have such burning faith in God that one can say: 'What? I have repeated the name of God, and can sin still cling to me? How can I be a sinner any more? How can I be in bondage any more?"
"If a man repeats the name of God, his body, mind, and everything become pure. Why should one talk about sin and hell, and such things? Say but once, 'O Lord, I have undoubt
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